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"But together their movements are staggered and interleaved; they don’t reduce to a simple sequence." -Ben Ratliff

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"But together their movements are staggered and interleaved; they don’t reduce to a simple sequence." -Ben Ratliff

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This, in a few words, sums up how Ratliff views musical linking. In the quote, he references a group of musicians ability to exist as both individual makers of music as well as a whole collaboration of creation. Similarly, linking music might seem like a collection or bits and pieces of a song put together; however, when analyzed more closely, these free-spirited movements of music represent an intangible and incredibly difficult musical element to execute.

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"They seem to contain so much of life that is contradictory and that does not necessarily add up: beauty and terror, low tide and high tide, systole and diastole. And they repeat, though not in a simple way."                        -Ben Ratliff

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"They seem to contain so much of life that is contradictory and that does not necessarily add up: beauty and terror, low tide and high tide, systole and diastole. And they repeat, though not in a simple way."                        -Ben Ratliff

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By juxtaposing linking music with human emotion experienced over the course of a lifetime, it's fascinating to see how the two concepts breathe simultaneously, and it also goes to show how musical linking LITERALLY links together multiple aspects of... well, existing... between music and life itself. PRETty, prettty good. Ratliff does an excellent job of elaborating upon the effects that "linking music" can have upon the overall feeling taken away from a composition.

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"O Mar," a more conventional example of the unconventional concept of linking, is a song that throws repeated twists and unexpected turns at the listener. A haunting acoustic ballad, Caymmi's writing style exemplifies linking by providing no standard rhythm nor any kind of refrain that is repeated.

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"Spiritual" is an example of a very specific type of musical linking. While the actual instrumental music remains somewhat constant throughout the song, the progress the song goes through is only something I could describe as "predictably spontaneous." The "vibe" of the song is steady, but the direction is never stagnant.

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                                                  INTRODUCTION

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                                                  INTRODUCTION

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In Chapter 18, Ratliff elaborates upon the musical definition of linking as music that, "rather than settling within its prescribed parameters, seems to move inexorably forward and outward, unfolding and enfolding, according to the logic that suits it best" (Ratliff, p. 209). I agree completely with Ratliff's ideas about linking, mostly because songwriting for most typical bands nowadays are not very experimental and fail to highlight this difficult-to-articulate element of musicality, and because songs that don't "stick to the status quo" of organization are usually some of my favorites. Ratliff also explains how Donald Lawrence's "comments form a through-line that doesn’t return to a refrain, a narrative of linking" (p. 211). This was probably the most crucial thought included in the book that helped me to understand what Ratliff's concept of linking really was: music that stems in its own direction naturally and free of restraint from a specific rhythm or pre-meditated song structure (similar to the feeling that improvised music evokes, in my opinion).

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O Mar Dorival Caymmi O mar quando quebra na praia É bonito, é bonito O mar...