Considering Network Recursion and Bartók’s “Fourths”

Abstract

Notions of network recursion, as they have been designated in music analyses, may be organized into five categories that range from exact self-similarity to self-dissimilarity. This perspective reveals that Michael Buchler’s critique of network recursion does not necessarily fully apply to analyses in all categories of network recursion. An analysis of Bartók’s “Fourths” serves as an example of how network recursion analysis can achieve significant results and avoid most of, if not all of, Buchler’s critique.