Repetition in Ecclesiastes

People say variety is the spice of life, yet repetition has been a key ingredient in music and literature for thousands of years. Repetition is used in ancient texts, classical, jazz and pop music and modern advertising. One of the best ways to make a point—in literature, advertising or music—is to make it twice.

A recent presidential candidate couldn’t speak for five minutes without uttering “Flat Tax” a half dozen times. Politicians have been trained to advocate a few ideas and slogans, and repeat them over and over so people will identify him or her with the slogan. TV advertisements also repeat either a slogan or a company’s name again and again to help us to remember and purchase a product.

The ancient Hebrews were aware of the power of repetition. The Old Testament is full of examples of it. Ecclesiastes begins with: “Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” This message is echoed throughout the brief book to make sure it sinks in. The line “All is vanity and vexation of spirit” occurs six times in the book at the end of particular verses, like a refrain in a song. Sometimes portions of this statement are repeated, often with a variation, as in music:  “I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit,” (1:17); “Then I said in my heart, that this also is vanity (2:15); “This is also vanity” (2:19); and on and on throughout.

Ecclesiastes. (Read this book, noting the repetitions and variations.)

One of the most famous uses of repetition in the Bible also occurs in Ecclesiastes, 3:1—3:8

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh…[1]

These verses, which are by nature musical, were turned into a song called “Turn! Turn! Turn!” by Pete Seeger, which was popularized by the rock group The Byrds, Judy Collins and others in the sixties. 

Repetition in The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck also uses repetition, especially in the “inner”[1] chapters of The Grapes of Wrath, many of which are written in a biblical style. Chapter 14 begins with:

The western land, nervous under the beginning change. The Western States, nervous as horses before a thunder storm. The great owners, nervous, sensing a change, knowing nothing of the nature of the change. The great owners, striking at the immediate thing, the widening government, the growing labor unity; striking at new taxes, at plans; not knowing these things are results, not causes. Results, not causes; results, not causes. The causes lie deep and simply—the causes are a hunger in a stomach, multiplied a million times; a hunger in a single soul, hunger for joy and some security, multiplied a million times; muscles and mind aching to grow, to work, to create, multiplied a million times.

The first two sentences—“The western land, nervous…The Western States, nervous…”—are repeated two more times in this very short chapter, like a musical refrain or recapitulation. Paragraph 2 begins with:

The Western States nervous under the beginning change. Texas and Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas, New Mexico, Arizona, California.

The second last paragraph of the chapter reads:

The Western States are nervous under the beginning change. Need is the stimulus to concept, concept to action. A half-million people moving over the country; a million more restive, ready to move; ten million more feeling the first nervousness.

Steinbeck’s use of repetition in the inner chapters is symphonic; words and phrases echo each other like notes, and ideas are stated and rephrased like themes in a symphony. A few examples from classical music may help make this clearer. Two of the most popular pieces of classical music are Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus” from the Messiah and the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In the Handel piece, one word, “Hallelujah” is repeated over and over in three easy-to-remember rhythm patterns. In Beethoven’s Fifth, the opening four-note phrase is repeated and developed (varied) brilliantly for roughly nine minutes. Listen to Leonard Bernstein’s very-easy-to-understand examination of the famous first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth. These two classical pieces still speak to audiences today, even though they were written over 180 years ago, because the composers knew how to balance repetition and variation. A listener can take comfort in the familiarity of certain ideas (repetition) while reveling in their development (variation).

REPETITION IN MUSIC & LITERATURE—by Paul Ferguson, former trombonist for the Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, head of the Case Western Reserve Jazz Division, and contributing writer to Jazz Player.

[1]The inner chapters interrupt the story of the Joads to paint a broad picture of the Dust Bowl crisis.

QUESTIONS

1. IDENTIFY WORDS, PHRASES AND/OR IDEAS THAT ARE REPEATED IN THE TWO PASSAGES BELOW. HOW DOES THE REPETITION AFFECT THE TONE AND MEANING OF EACH PASSAGE?

“Farmers get four cents a cotton poun’ from the gov’ment—ain’t that relief?….Railroads an’ shippin’ companies draws subsidies—ain’t that relief?” p. 455, ch 24

“The man sitting in the iron seat did not look like a man; gloved, goggled, rubber dust mask over nose and mouth, he was a part of the monster, a robot in a seat…the driver’s hands could not twitch because the monster that built the tractor, the monster that sent the tractor out, had somehow got into the driver’s hands, into his brain and muscle, had goggled him and muzzled him…He could not see the land as it was, he could not smell the land as it smelled; his feet did not stamp the clods or feel the warmth and power of the earth. He sat in an iron seat and stepped on iron pedals…” p. 48, ch 5

2. WHAT ANALOGY IS MADE IN THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE? ARE ANY WORDS OR IDEAS REPEATED IN THIS ANALOGY? IF SO, HOW DOES THE REPETITION AFFECT CASY’S OVERALL POINT?

“Every kid got a turtle some time or other. Nobody can’t keep a turtle though. They work at it and work at it, and at las one day they get out and away the go—off somewheres. It’s like me. I wouldn’t take the good ol’ gospel that was just layin’ there to my hand. I got to be pickin’ at it an’ workin’ at it until I got it all tore down. Here I got the sperit sometimes an’ nothin’ to preach about. I got the call to lead the people, an’ no place to lead ‘em. ” pp. 28-29, ch. 4

3. COPY OUT THE PASSAGE BELOW. THEN, USING SEVERAL COLORED HIGHLIGHTERS, HIGHLIGHT EACH SET OF REPEATED WORDS OR PHRASES IN A UNIQUE COLOR. IN ADDITION, EXPLAIN HOW CASY USES CONTRAST IN HIS REPETITIONS.

“I ain’t gonna preach…I ain’t gonna baptize. I’m gonna work in the fiel’s, in the green fiel’s, an’ I’m gonna be near to folks. I ain’t gonna try to teach ‘em nothin’. I’m gonna try to learn. Gonna learn why the folks walks in the grass, gonna hear ‘em talk, gonna hear ‘em sing. Gonna listen to kids eatin’ mush…Gonna eat with ‘em an’ learn.” His eyes were wet and shining. “Gonna lay in the grass, open an’ honest with anybody that’ll have me. Gonna cuss an’ swear an’ hear the poetry of folks talkin’. All that’s holy, all that’s what I didn’t understan’. All them things is the good things.” pp. 127-28, ch. 10

4. DOES TOM JOAD’S USE OF REPETITION IN THE PASSAGE BELOW ECHO CASY’S USE OF REPETITION IN THE PASSAGE ABOVE? IN WHAT WAYS IS IT SIMILAR? WHAT DOES THIS SIMILARITY IMPLY? ARE THERE ANY DIFFERENCES? IF SO, WHAT DO THESE DIFFERENCES SUGGEST?

“Well, maybe like Casy says, a fella ain’t got a soul of his own, but on’y a piece of a big one—an’ then…Then it don’ matter. Then I’ll be all aroun’ in the dark. I’ll be ever’where—wherever you look. Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there. If Casy knowed, why, I’ll be in the way guys yell when they’re mad an’—I’ll be in the way kids laugh when they’re hungry an’ they know supper’s ready. An’ when our folks eat the stuff they raise an’ live in the houses they build – why, I’ll be there. See? God, I’m talkin’ like Casy. Comes of thinkin’ about him so much…” p. 572, ch. 28

5. IN MUSIC A THEME IS CALLED A “MOTIF.”  THE FIRST FOUR NOTES IN BEETHOVEN’S FIFTH SYMPHONY — G-G-G-E-flat (THE “G’S” PLAYED IN RAPID SUCCESSION, THE “E-flat” PROLONGED) — IS THE PRIMARY MOTIF (OR THEME) OF THE SYMPHONY’S FAMOUS FIRST MOVEMENT. THE MOTIF IS REPEATED AND VARIED (or as Leonard Bernstein says “developed”) MANY TIMES THROUGHOUT THE ROUGHLY 7-MINUTE FIRST MOVEMENT. THE FIRST SIX NOTES IN THE POPULAR SONG “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” COMPRISE THAT SONG’S MOTIF. IN THE KEY OF C-MAJOR, THE NOTES OF THE MOTIF ARE: C-C-D-C-F-E. THE NEXT MUSICAL PHRASE REPEATS THIS MOTIF WITH A SLIGHT VARIATION IN THE LAST TWO NOTES: C-C-D-C-G-F. NOTICE THAT THE “F” IS RAISED ONE SCALE STEP HIGHER TO A “G” IN THE VARIATION, AND SIMILARLY THE “E” IS RAISED ONE STEP TO AN “F.” ANALYZE THE BEGINNING OF CHAPTER 14 OF THE GRAPES OF WRATH QUOTED IN THE SUPPLEMENT/LESSON ABOVE, AS IF IT WERE A PIECE OF MUSIC. WHAT IS ITS “MOTIF”? HOW OFTEN IS THE MOTIF REPEATED IN THE PASSAGE? HOW MANY TIMES IS IT REPEATED IN CHAPTER 14 OF THE GRAPES OF WRATH. LIST THE VARIATIONS OF THE MOTIF. WHAT OTHER REPETITIONS ARE THERE IN THE PASSAGES? WHAT MUSICAL EFFECT(S) DOES THE PASSAGE HAVE? HOW DOES THE MUSICALITY EFFECT STEINBECK’S MEANING? IS THE PASSAGE MEANT TO TEACH A LESSON OR LESSONS? IF SO, DOES ITS MUSICALITY HELP TO DRIVE THE LESSON HOME? 

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