The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that accounting for the communicative role of paratexts—specifically their capacity to shape modes of reception—is an indispensable element of the musical analysis of relational works. The proposed research has a strong textological dimension, and its primary methodology involves the analysis of selected Polish relational and program compositions created after 2005. The study examines both the musical score itself and its accompanying paratexts, which, in some cases, can span up to several dozen initial pages of the score. The theoretical foundation of these considerations lies in the integration of two perspectives: Harry Lehmann's theory of the content-aesthetic turn and Gérard Genette's theory of paratextuality. While traditional musicological discourse has for decades polarized the debate between absolute and program music, contemporary shifts in the aesthetics of New Music have introduced a third category: relational music. In the context of its meaning-making potential, the concept of modes of reception (mode de lecture) becomes crucial. Authorial paratexts, such as heteroreferential titles or programs, guide the listener into a mode characteristic of program music, whereas their absence suggests the realization of the absolute music model. In this paper, I argue that relational music also provokes a specific mode of reception. Its key assumptions are based on the conviction that: (1) the work addresses extra-musical meanings, and (2) non-musical elements—linguistic, visual, or performative—hold a constitutive status for the interpretation of the work. Adopting this mode is made possible by the specific structure of paratexts, which I have categorized into two main groups: anticipatory (which also apply to absolute and program music models) and performative (specific to relational music). 

Bibliography:

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Genette, G., Paratexts. Thresholds of interpretation, trans. J.E. Lewin, Cambridge 1997.

Lehmann, H., Die digitale Revolution der Musik. Eine Musikphilosophie. Schott Music, Mainz 2013.

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de Castro, P.F., Transtextuality according to Gérard Genette – and beyond, [in:] Intertextuality in Music. Dialogic Composition, ed. V. Kostka, P.F. de Castro, W.A. Everett, Routledge 2021.