1.1. Knowing Texture through Sociality

Social relationships constitute a favourite metaphor for analysts of musical texture (De Souza 2020). But do we bear in mind that there are many versions of sociality, each ringing true to a particular milieu? This paper illustrates the role of epistemology in global music theory and analysis through a case study on an ensemble practice known as 合奏 hezou. Translated as “together playing,” this Tai...wanese 歌仔戲 kua-a opera texture is bound up in indigenous knowledge of what “togetherness” signifies and its sonic implications.
In hezou, a single melody blooms into a constellation of simultaneously sounding temporal and tonal variations. Each ensemble member is inspired by the same archetypal melody, but outputs a unique, florid melodic line that is idiomatic to their instrument. This intricate layering of melodic similitudes and differences frequently yields to unprepared and unresolved harmonic seconds between instrument parts, thwarting mainstream analytical paradigms of ensembleship. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and local written discourse, I analyze how hezou underwrites a model of social cohesion in which discordance represents not undesirable chaos, but a hallmark of diverse, independent agents agreeing to share their space. In particular, hezou is said to express a 熱鬧 renao “hot and noisy” dynamic — an idealized social state in which the line between self and other becomes blurred. I examine what music theoretical, aesthetic, and philosophical insights are to be gained when texture is analyzed through this particular mode of knowing of sociality. The talk concludes with a brief consideration of how sameness and difference, beyond supplying textural richness in kua-a opera, might be a productive methodological anchor for music theory and analysis in a global context.
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