Do It Again: Repetition, Reproduction, Reenactment in Performance and Music

Any human action can be repeated; none can be repeated exactly. In fact, most human actions will be repeated—in its most basic sense, culture is the establishment of forms and standards of repeatability. The performing arts are based on this fact, they make it explicit and explore it, albeit in very different ways. In light of these differences, it becomes obvious that ontological questions in music and the performing arts have a cultural index—rather than asking about the nature of identity and repetition, we should ask what counts as identical under what circumstances. These circumstances differ widely across cultures as well as across disciplines, and they are subject to change. Drawing on examples from performance art and music, this paper will explore the different constellations of repeatability we find in these fields. This comparative perspective promises to reshape some gridlocked debates in music as well as in the theory of performance. In particular, Christopher Bedford’s idea of a “viral ontology” of performance and the displacement of the concept of the work by Bruno Nettl’s notion of the model prove fruitful.