Repetition and Variation in Literature and Music

The creation of meaningful and beautiful similarities as part of a pattern or structure is among the most important means humankind has developed in order to create, or respond to, order in various contexts and for various purposes. In the arts, similarity is among the most general aesthetic features which have informed all levels of works of art across cultures and times. It may range from all but zero difference between individual occurrences of a phenomenon (‘repetition’) to recognizable...