Music semiology
Encyclopedia
Music semiology the semiology
of music
, is the study of signs as they pertain to music
on a variety of levels. Following Roman Jakobson
, V. Kofi Agawu adopts the idea of musical semiosis being introversive or extroversive--that is, musical signs within a text and without. "Topics," or various musical conventions (such as horn calls, dance forms, and styles), have been treated suggestively by Agawu, among others. The notion of gesture
is beginning to play a large role in musico-semiotic enquiry.
Writers on music semiology include Kofi Agawu
(on topical theory, Schenkerian analysis
), Robert Hatten (on topic, gesture), Raymond Monelle
(on topic, musical meaning), Jean-Jacques Nattiez
(on introversive taxonomic analysis and ethnomusicological applications), Anthony Newcomb
(on narrativity), and Eero Tarasti
(generally considered the founder of musical semiotics).
Roland Barthes
, himself a semiotician and skilled amateur
pianist, wrote about music in Image-Music-Text, The Responsibilities of Form, and Eiffel Tower, though he did not consider music to be a semiotic system.
Signs, meanings in music, happen essentially through the connotations of sounds, and through the social construction, appropriation and amplification of certain meanings associated with these connotations. The work of Philip Tagg (Ten Little Tunes, Fernando the Flute) provides one of the most complete and systematic analysis of the relation between musical structures and connotations in western and especially popular, television and film music. The work of Leonard Meyer in Style and Music theorizes the relationship between ideologies and musical structures and the phenomenons of style change, and focuses on romanticism as a case study.
Semiotics
Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of signs and sign processes , indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signification, and communication...
of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, is the study of signs as they pertain to music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
on a variety of levels. Following Roman Jakobson
Roman Jakobson
Roman Osipovich Jakobson was a Russian linguist and literary theorist.As a pioneer of the structural analysis of language, which became the dominant trend of twentieth-century linguistics, Jakobson was among the most influential linguists of the century...
, V. Kofi Agawu adopts the idea of musical semiosis being introversive or extroversive--that is, musical signs within a text and without. "Topics," or various musical conventions (such as horn calls, dance forms, and styles), have been treated suggestively by Agawu, among others. The notion of gesture
Musical gestures
In music, gesture is any movement, either physical or mental . As such "gesture" includes both categories of movements required to produce sound and categories of perceptual moves associated with those gestures. The concept of musical gestures has received much attention in various musicological...
is beginning to play a large role in musico-semiotic enquiry.
- "There are strong arguments that music inhabits a semiological realm which, on both ontogenetic and phylogenetic levels, has developmental priority over verbal language." (Middleton 1990, p.172) See Nattiez (1976, 1987, 1989), Stefani (1973, 1986), Baroni (1983), and Semiotica (66: 1–3 (1987)).
Writers on music semiology include Kofi Agawu
Dr. Victor Kofi Agawu
Victor Kofi Agawu is a music scholar from the Volta Region of Ghana.Agawu attended Presbyterian Boys' Secondary School at Legon where he obtained his GCE Ordinary Level Certificate and went on to do this Advanced Level at Achimota School...
(on topical theory, Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis
Schenkerian analysis is a method of musical analysis of tonal music based on the theories of Heinrich Schenker. The goal of a Schenkerian analysis is to interpret the underlying structure of a tonal work. The theory's basic tenets can be viewed as a way of defining tonality in music...
), Robert Hatten (on topic, gesture), Raymond Monelle
Raymond Monelle
Raymond Monelle . was a music theorist, teacher, music critic, composer and jazz pianist...
(on topic, musical meaning), Jean-Jacques Nattiez
Jean-Jacques Nattiez
Jean-Jacques Nattiez, CM, CQ, FRSC is a musical semiologist or semiotician and professor of Musicology at the Université de Montréal...
(on introversive taxonomic analysis and ethnomusicological applications), Anthony Newcomb
Anthony Newcomb
Anthony Newcomb is an American musicologist. He was born in New York and studied at the University of California, Berkeley where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1962. He then studied with Gustav Leonhardt in Holland while on a Fulbright Scholarship...
(on narrativity), and Eero Tarasti
Eero Tarasti
Eero Tarasti is a Finnish musicologist and semiotician, currently serving as Professor of Musicology at the University of Helsinki....
(generally considered the founder of musical semiotics).
Roland Barthes
Roland Barthes
Roland Gérard Barthes was a French literary theorist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. Barthes' ideas explored a diverse range of fields and he influenced the development of schools of theory including structuralism, semiotics, existentialism, social theory, Marxism, anthropology and...
, himself a semiotician and skilled amateur
Amateur
An amateur is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training....
pianist, wrote about music in Image-Music-Text, The Responsibilities of Form, and Eiffel Tower, though he did not consider music to be a semiotic system.
Signs, meanings in music, happen essentially through the connotations of sounds, and through the social construction, appropriation and amplification of certain meanings associated with these connotations. The work of Philip Tagg (Ten Little Tunes, Fernando the Flute) provides one of the most complete and systematic analysis of the relation between musical structures and connotations in western and especially popular, television and film music. The work of Leonard Meyer in Style and Music theorizes the relationship between ideologies and musical structures and the phenomenons of style change, and focuses on romanticism as a case study.
Source
- Ashby, Arved, ed. (2004). "Intention and Meaning in Modernist Music", The Pleasure of Modernist Music. ISBN 1-58046-143-3.
Further reading
- Molino, JeanJean MolinoJean Molino is professeur ordinaire at the University of Lausanne and a semiologist. His students include Jean-Jacques Nattiez.-Bibliography:*Musical Fact and the Semiology of Music, trans. J. A. Underwood, Music Analysis 9/2 : 113-156....
(1975). "Fait musical et sémiologue de la musique", Musique en Jeu, no. 17:37-62. - Nattiez, Jean-JacquesJean-Jacques NattiezJean-Jacques Nattiez, CM, CQ, FRSC is a musical semiologist or semiotician and professor of Musicology at the Université de Montréal...
(1987). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1979). ISBN 0-691-02714-5.