When Linda Ronstadt is played on our CD, she says "You're no good" and she repeatedly says "I'm gonna say it agin" and she does, several times over. When Prof. Elizabeth Helmuth Margulis does her investigations into repetition in music, she deals with a type of repeated sequence, the same notes again. Her book is called "On Repeat". Many machines that can play music have the ability to play the same thing over and over. I got such a lift from the 4th movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony that I have been listening to that symphony repeatedly for about two years. When I drive, I usually listen to that but sometimes I switch to songs by MaMuse, a pair of women singers who are excellent at harmonizing and singing together. I have many alternative possibilities. I used to listen to Audible.com audiobooks, especially lectures from Great Courses and that company has wondered what happened to a former good customer.
Some repetition in my posts is probably inevitable. There are some themes that fascinate me and I naturally tend to focus on them repeatedly. I realize the physical truth: when I play my new favorite, the 3rd movement from the 9th symphony, the disk is a little more worn than the last time. The ears that hear that movement are a little older than the last time they listened. The moving car is in a slightly different place so the scenes I see and the vibrations I feel are a bit different. For convenience, I say it was a repeat but truthfully, everything happens in its own instant and that instant never fully repeats.
However, I have been reading "The Scientist in the Crib" by Allison Gopnik, a professor focused on babies and their abilities. One of those abilities is skill at determining what is important, what sounds, what experiences, and concentrating on them. Similarly, when I listen to the same music or speech or watch a movie again, I know what aspects are important to me and I focus on them. I decide if the event is a "repetition" and it is if I so consider it.
