# Why do these musicology textbooks use 'differential' as adjectives, not 'different'?



## vertciel

Are these textbooks using 'differential' correctly? Why not just write 'different'?



> The structure of *differential *identity is such that in order for there to
> be a limit at all, one difference along the set of equivalent differences must
> break the series. This single, decisive difference becomes the threshold
> after which other equivalent differences belong in some other series of
> equivalent differences. Laclau terms these series a "chain of equivalences.
> For him, this process for delimiting difference that might signify how a
> bounded entity is formed from within a system that logically allows for no
> closure means that the limit is internal to the system-internal to the sys-tem but not its negation, as we find in the dialectic model. The system of
> differential identity makes the limit impossible: to break the chain of equiv-
> alences is to interrupt the structure of *differential* identity. But because of
> this, the limit becomes in fact necessary.34 Otherwise, there will be nothing
> but an endless dispersion disallowing not just systems of signification (in a
> way what concerns us when thinking about the music-and-language and/
> or music-and-speech divide) but also the construction of actual social for-
> mations where *differential* relations are all there might be.


Keith Chapin, _Speaking of Music Addressing the Sonorous_ (2013), p 222.



> The second obstacle, of a more aesthetic order, lay in the very nature of the
> phenomena described by Helmholtz. Thus, for *differential *sounds, for example, he
> comes to the conclusion that: 'The series [of *differential *sounds] are interrupted as
> soon as the last order fails to produce any new notes. As a general rule, this leads to
> the generation of the complete harmonic series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. right down to the
> generating fundamentals.'[SUP]22[/SUP] If one attempts to make these phenomena _audible_ by
> means of instrumental writing, nothing but an increase in the density of the same
> chord in the bass register would be obtained. Varése, a composer fascinated by older
> composers such as Debussy, Busoni and Richard Strauss, and at a time when the
> latter was considered, even more than Schoenberg, to be the modern composer _par
> excellence_, probably saw no gain in such a thickening of triadic structures. It must
> therefore be asked whether Varése's knowledge of Helmholtz served to provide a
> screen on to which he projected a somewhat negative image. Would he not rather,
> in pursuing his aim of writing resolutely modern, and therefore atonal, music, have
> attempted to apply certain fundamental ideas of Helmholtz to a foreign context?
> The absence of the indispensable means of production led him to imagine a form of
> concrete metaphoric composition; namely, an instrumental transcription of acoustic
> phenomena, considered in a rigorous, stylistic light. The principles of distortion
> which follow open up a network of stylistic conditions and compositional choices.


Max Paddison, Irène Deliège, _Contemporary Music Theoretical and Philosophical Perspectives_ (2013), p 126.



> _Move 3:_ consider the shifting between alternately subdivided melodic spans in "domi-nant" or "subdominant"/plagal coloring, each with a qualitatively *different* experiential feel (for example, in contrasting implications between melodic divisions (A: A-E-A)
> or (A: E-A-E, etc.). These *differential* presentations of vocal and instrumental melodic
> spans, for example, alternate between melodic spans bounded by the tonic scale degree
> (e.g., A: A-E-A) and those that figure "plagal" or "whole-tone" ambiguities or substi-
> tutes, for example, as bounded by scale degree A5 (e.g., A: E-A-E). This shifting also
> involves morphing orientations in relation to scale degrees ^l, ^5, and ^4 (e.g., A: D-A-
> E), refiguring scale degree ^1 in relation to its relational potential equidistant as lower
> or upper fifth relation to scale degrees ^5 and ^4 (e.g., A: D-A-E), in plagal orientation
> (A: A-D-A), or in a whole-tone environment (A: F-Eb-C#-B-A-G-F).


_The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies _(2015), p 385.



> Although I will draw on the dominant paradigms in psychology and psychiatry throughout this book, I do so with caution because of the inherent limitations in their
> methods and theorizing about our subjective experiences and psychological states. For
> example, the prevailing emphasis on diagnostic categories for psychological condi-
> tions has both advantages and disadvantages, and these will be covered in more detail
> in our discussion of the diagnostic classification systems currently in use, and
> how music performance anxiety may usefully be classified within this system. Most
> people would agree that it is essential to correctly differentiate psychoses from
> other psychological disorders. Since the major form of treatment for the various
> psychotic illnesses is pharmacotherapy and since *different* drugs produce *differential*
> effects on *different* conditions, few would argue that careful diagnosis should precede
> prescription of medication. However, for other psychological ills, the argument with
> respect to the use of a classificatory system is not so clear, and this is reflected in recent
> developments to achieve a synthesis in psychological therapies for a range of emo-tional disorders (Barlow, 2008a). Before we embark on a detailed discussion of
> this issue, we will review some of the philosophies and methods underpinning
> psychology that have influenced theory and therapy, in order to explicate the concepts
> and models on which I rely in this book to further our understanding of music
> performance anxiety.


Dianna Kenny, _The Psychology of Music Performance Anxiety_ (2011), p 2.



> Performance anxiety had not been classified in any DSM up to and including
> DSM-IV (1994). In the DSM-IV-TR (2000), performance anxiety is briefly discussed
> in a section on *differential* diagnosis in social phobia:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Performance anxiety, stage fright, and shyness in social situations that involve unfamiliar
> people are common and should not be diagnosed as Social Phobia unless the anxiety or
> avoidance leads to clinically significant impairment or marked distress (2000, 300.323).
> 
> 
> 
> It is somewhat disturbing that even the DSM does not attempt to differentiate between
> performance anxiety, stage fright, and shyness in social situations. The statement
> above, however, implies that social phobia is the more debilitating condition; as such,
> a definition is only warranted if the anxiety or avoidance that is characteristic of the
> diagnosis of all four conditions results in impairment or distress.
Click to expand...

Ibid, p 49.



> Panel-B indicates that when all values for deficiency severity were summated into an overall total score, the trips that were significantly more efficient - and hence safer - were when drivers listened to ExpMus. Finally, Panel-C shows that the* differential *effects of music on event severity were statistically significant. Namely, the alternative experimental background significantly decreased the severity of driving deficiencies as rated by highly experienced expert observers.


Warren Brodsky, _Driving with Music Cognitive-behavioural Implications_ (2015), p 291.


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## Kjetil Heggelund

I'm glad I don't have to read those books. Translate.google said "of, showing, or depending on a difference; differing or varying according to circumstances or relevant factors."


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## Kreisler jr

"differential" is used as a term of art in psychology and medicine here, I think. Cf. the phrases like "differential diagnosis" etc. in the quotes. Maybe the authors occasionally got carried away and used it with a more general meaning but it does have a specific meaning (I cannot tell you, but look it up in some psychology handbook) in such contexts. (Like it does have a different very specific meaning in "differential calculus")


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