Prolongation is a notoriously vague but crucial concept in the analysis of music. This article is an attempt to come to terms with the precise meaning of prolongation.

2. Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 1
INITIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PROLONGATION ............................................................................................ 1
A. PROLONGATION AS THE ‘REMAINING AT WORK’ OF A MUSICAL ELEMENT ......................................................................... 1
B. PROLONGED MUSICAL ELEMENTS AND THEIR PROLONGATION ....................................................................................... 2
C. THE CONTINUITY OF PROLONGATION........................................................................................................................ 2
D. THE RELATION OF PROLONGATION TO THE MUSICAL SURFACE ....................................................................................... 3
E. PROLONGATION AND THE IDENTITY CONDITION .......................................................................................................... 3
F. CONSEQUENT AND ANTICIPATORY PROLONGATION ..................................................................................................... 4
G. PROLONGATION AND TONAL VERSUS POST-TONAL MUSIC ............................................................................................ 4
H. LEVELS OF PROLONGATION .................................................................................................................................... 5
DEFINITIONS OF PROLONGATION .................................................................................................................... 6
THE FIRST DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS MUSICAL WEIGHT............................................................................................ 6
a. The meaning and structure of musical weight .......................................................................................... 6
b. Musical weight, musical structure and musical direction .......................................................................... 7
c. The predecessors of musical weight: consonance, stability and salience .................................................. 7
c.1. Consonance and dissonance ................................................................................................................... 7
c.2. Stability and instability ............................................................................................................................ 8
c.3. Prolongation in post-tonal music and the notion of salience .................................................................. 9
c.4. Finally: musical weight .......................................................................................................................... 10
d. Two main objections to the definition of prolongation in terms of musical weight ................................ 10
Objection 1: the identity condition ............................................................................................................. 10
Objection 2: musical weight is too local ...................................................................................................... 11
THE SECOND DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS RETURN TO THE PROLONGED MUSICAL ELEMENT ............................................. 11
a. Version 1 .................................................................................................................................................. 11
b. Version 2 and 3 ........................................................................................................................................ 13
THE THIRD DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS EXPECTATION .............................................................................................. 13
THE FOURTH DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS COMPATIBILITY ......................................................................................... 15
THE FIFTH DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS FEELING ...................................................................................................... 17
a. The need for openness in the definition of prolongation ......................................................................... 17
b. The need for a mental state of the listener ............................................................................................. 19
c. Feeling as the right kind of mental state ................................................................................................. 19
d. Feeling and musical analysis ................................................................................................................... 20
WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................................................... 22

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