The title of this topic comes from Paul Simon’s song “Train in the Distance,” wherein Simon writes “negotiations and love songs are often mistaken for one and the same.” The idealized version of marriage is continual bliss but the truth, in a relationship between sincere parties, is an ongoing series of negotiations and a search for harmony.
The best human interactions are based on equality and mutual respect. In a relationship of people of unequal power, the more powerful party must accord the less powerful party equality if the interaction is to be ethical. In other words, our commitment is first, not to take advantage of others and second, to support each other and together create a better life than any of the parties could have alone.
Real
Technical and Analytical Readings
Most studies of negotiations emphasize ways to achieve or leverage power and obtain more power.
- Roger Dawson, Secrets of PowerNegotiating (Career Press, 2010).
- Roy Lewicki, Bruce Barry and David Sanders, Negotiation (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2009).
- I. William Zartman and Guy Olivier Faure, eds., Escalation and Negotiation in International Conflicts (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
- I. William Zartman, Negotiation and Conflict Management: Essays on Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2008).
Others describe methods for mutually satisfying negotiations in business and diplomacy.
- Carrie Menkel-Meadow, Andrea K. Schneider and Lela P. Love, Negotiation: Processes for Problem Solving (Aspen Publishers, 2006).
- Andrea Kupfer Schneider and Christopher Honeyman, The Negotiator's Fieldbook: The Desk Reference for the Experienced Negotiator (American Bar Association, 2006).
- Francisco Aguilar and Mauro Galluccio, Psychological and Political Strategies for Peace Negotiations: A Cognitive Approach (Springer, 2010).
- Raymond Cohen, Negotiating Across Cultures: International Communication In an Interdependent World (United States Institute of Peace, 1997).
- The Journal of Conflict Resolution
Some people are experts in mediating other people's conflicts.
- Joseph P. Stulberg and Lela P. Love, The Middle Voice: Mediating Conflict Successfully (Carolina Academic Press, 2008).
- Carrie J. Menkel-Meadow, Lela Porter Love and Andrea Kupfer Schneider, Mediation: Practice, Policy, and Ethics (Aspen Publishers, 2006).
- Carrie J. Menkel-Meadow, Lela Porter Love, Andrea Kupfer Schneider and Jean R. Sternlight, Dispute Resolution: Beyond the Adversarial Model (Aspen Publishers, 2004).
We have in mind the negotiations in which people look beyond power to more mutually satisfying and sustainable solutions.
- Betty Carter and Joan K. Peters, Love, Honor & Negotiate: Building Partnerships That Last a Lifetime (Pocket Books, 1996).
- Harriet Lerner, The Dance of Connection: How to Talk to Someone When You're Mad, Hurt, Scared, Frustrated, Insulted, Betrayed, or Desperate (HarperCollins, 2001).
True Narratives
- Jeffrey Krivis, Improvisational Negotiation: A Mediator's Stories of Conflict About Love, Money, Anger - and the Strategies That Resolved Them (Jossey-Bass, 2006).
- Fredrik Stanton, Great Negotiations: Agreements That Changed the Modern World (Westholme Publishing, 2010).
Imaginary
Visual Arts
- Konstantin Makovsky, Difficult Negotiations (1883)
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Paul Simon, Train in the Distance
Film and Stage
- Sunday, Bloody Sunday: a “love-triangle” film that “examines the choices individuals must make when confronted with a romantic relationship which is rewarding but does not offer them everything they want”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
The lyrics to Paul Simon’s song, “Train in the Distance”, include the observation: “Negotiations and love songs / Are often mistaken for one and the same”. Or, as they say, can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em. With its close interplay between two disparate voices, the violin-piano sonata form naturally conveys a sense of intimacy and interchange. Of necessity, the two voices engage in a back-and-forth musical dialogue, each player in turn taking and ceding the foreground. While this occurs in other chamber forms as well, it is most easily heard here.
Beethoven’s sonatas for violin and piano:
- No. 1 in D major, Op. 12, No. 1 (1798)
- No. 2 in A major, Op. 12, No. 2 (1798)
- No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 12, No. 3 (1798)
- No. 4 in A minor, Op. 23 (1801)
- No. 5 in F major, Op. 24 (“Spring”) (1801)
- No. 6 in A major, Op. 30, No. 1 (1802)
- No. 7 in C minor, Op. 30, No. 2, “Eroica” (1802)
- No. 8 in G major, Op. 30, No. 3 (1802)
- No. 9 in A major, Op. 47, “Kreutzer” (1803)
- No. 10 in G major, Op. 96 (1812)
Brahms’ sonatas for violin and piano:
- Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78 (“Rain”)
- Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
- Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Robert Schumann’s three violin sonatas:
- Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105 (1851)
- Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121 (1851)
- Sonata No. 3 in A minor, WoO 27 (1853)
Other violin sonatas:
- Poulenc, Violin Sonata, FP 119 (1943)
- Ravel, Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, M 12 (1897)
- Saint-Saëns, Violin Sonatas
- Stojowski, Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 13 (1893)
- Stojowski, Violin Sonata No. 2 in E Minor, op. 37 (1911)
- Villa-Lobos, Violin Sonata No. 3, W171 (1920)
Many chamber works by Bohuslav Martinů display a character of interaction that evokes this subject of human interaction as negotiation:
- 5 Madrigal Stanzas for Violin & Piano, H 297 (1943)
- 5 Short Pieces for Violin and Piano, H 184
- 7 Arabesques, H 201 (1931) (arr. for violin & piano)
- Concerto for Violin & Piano, H 13 (1910)
- Czech Rhapsody for Violin and Piano, H 307
- Elegy for Violin and Piano
- Impromptu for Violin and Piano, H 166
- Intermezzo, H 261 (1937)
- Sonatina in G Major, H 262 (1937)
- Duo for Violin and Cello No. 1, H 157 (1927)
- Duo for Violin and Cello No. 2, H 371 (1958)
- Violin Sonata No. 1, H 182 (1929)
- Violin Sonata No. 2, H 208 (1931)
- Violin Sonata No. 3, H 303 (1944)
- Violin Sonata in C Major, H 120 (1919)
Paul Hindemith composed eight pieces, which he denoted as being for chamber ensembles (Kammermusik) but they are better characterized pieces for small orchestra.
- Kammermusik No. 1, Op. 24, No. 1, for chamber orchestra (1921)
- Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2, for wind quintet (1922)
- Kammermusik No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 36, No. 1 (1924)
- Kammermusik No. 3 for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 36, No. 2 (1925)
- Kammermusik No. 4 for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 36, No. 3 (1925)
- Kammermusik No. 5 for Viola and Orchestra, Op. 36, No. 4 (1927)
- Kammermusik No. 6 for Viola d'Amore and Orchestra, Op. 46, No. 1 (1927)
- Kammermusik No. 7 for Organ and Orchestra, Op. 46, No. 2 (1927)
Kagel’s piano trios are dark, often brooding works, evoking troubled interactions between and among the players.
Other compositions:
- Lutosławski, Symphony No. 1 (1947)
- Raga Pahadi Jhinjoti (Pahari Jhinjoti) a Hindustani classical raag (performances by Ali Akbar Khan, Banerjee and Mukherjee)
- Bliss, Conversations for Wind & Strings, F16 (1920)
- Similarly, though it is written for a single instrument, Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14, No. 2 (1799), suggests an interaction between two lovers.
- Holst, Double Concerto for two violins & small orchestra, Op. 49 (1930)
- Herzogenberg, String Quartet No. 1, Op. 42, No. 1; String Quartet No. 2, Op. 42, No. 2
- Bowen, Piano Trio in E Minor, Op. 118 (1990); Phantasy Quintet, Op. 93 (1933)
- Gouvy: String Quartet No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 68 (1874)
- Górecki, Old Polish Music (Muzyka Staropolska), Op. 24 (1969): trumpets and strings, with widely divergent perspectives
- Glazunov, String Quartet No. 2 in F Major, Op. 10 (1884)
- Glazunov, String Quartet No. 4 in A Minor, Op. 64 (1894)
- Furtwängler, Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor (1935)
- Furtwängler, Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major (1939)
- Baley, Partita No. 1 for 3 trombones and 3 pianos (1970; rev. 1976)
Albums:
- Alvin Ayler, “Live on the Riviera”
- Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, “Arch Duo”
- Arthur Gottschalk, “Art for Two”