Come again?

If something is worth hearing once it's worth hearing again, explains Rebecca Franks, who charts a history of the use of echoes in music

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Let's begin with a story. You may well already know it, as it's over 2,000 years old. We're talking about the legend of Echo and Narcissus, a tale of love, longing and obsession from Ovid's Metamorphoses in which - spoiler alert - neither the loquacious nymph Echo nor the self obsessed youth Narcissus find happiness. Blame the goddess Juno, perhaps, who curses Echo as punishment for covering up her husband Jupiter's affairs by chatting endlessly to Juno and distracting her. Echo is doomed only to repeat the last words said to her, never to say anything new. When she falls desperately in love with Narcissus, she can only mimic his words - and, long story short, he rejects her. Narcissus ends up falling in love with his own reflection in a pond, while, consumed by infatuation, Echo wastes away into the woods until just her voice is left.

Yet Echo's memory and character linger on, not only in the legend but, via Greek and Latin, in the English word we use to describe one of the most common and well-known acoustical effects. And it's been suggested that musicians began to use the echo in music thanks to a resurgence in interest in classical mythology in the 15th century, including the Echo and Narcissus myth, rather than from observing and replicating this naturally occurring phenomenon. The echo might seem like the simplest of musical devices but, rather like Ovid's story, once you start to look, it's threaded throughout western music in fascinating ways. Echoes have created everything from musical jokes to haunting laments, intricate counterpoint to entire styles and genres, while the idea of an echo has become a powerful metaphor for influences, memories and the past. Whether it’s a familiar harmonic progression, or a quote of another piece of music, we hear echoes everywhere.