Semiotics of Music

Semiotic Composition: Shared Transcendent Principles of Nattiez and Lachenmann

by Otto Muller

Presented at the College Music Society Northeast Chapter Conference
University of Vermont, March 2010

Current trends in both composition and in the analysis of existing music demonstrate a sustained interest in the... more Current trends in both composition and in the analysis of existing music demonstrate a sustained interest in the ability of musical materials to carry socially encoded meanings.  The potential of this analytic work to support more informed and effective treatments of referential material in new music, however, remains in a large part unexplored.  This paper proposes a prescriptive compositional application of Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s semiology of music by identifying the affinities that exist between the underlying principles of Nattiez’s analysis and Helmut Lachenmann’s compositional practice.

Ut musica poiesis. Une redéfinition du principe d’imitation dans la théorie des « arts énergiques » de Johann Jacob Engel

by Charlotte Morel

Conférence prononcée au Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte lors du colloque "La musique face au système des Beaux-Arts", INHA/ Deutsches Forum für Kunstgeschichte, Paris, 17-19 février 2010, org. Marie-Pauline Martin et Chiara Savettieri.

Mutações do I-Ching: intersemiose música-física em raízes milenares orientais

by Eufrasio Prates

Published in III MusiMid website: http://www.musimid.mus.br/3encontro/files/pdf/Eufrasio%20Prates.pdf

O presente texto põe em destaque os mecanismos de “transdução” intersemiótica
subjacentes a um experimento de... more O presente texto põe em destaque os mecanismos de “transdução” intersemiótica
subjacentes a um experimento de composição musical multimedial, “Mutações para voz,
hexagramas-sonoros, incenso e praticante de Tai-Chi”, criado com base em noções
paradigmáticas da física contemporânea e da sabedoria milenar do oriente. O conceito de
transdução, usualmente empregado em áreas da ciência como a biologia celular, a eletrônica
ou a genética, é aqui tomado como noção Semiótica que se distingue da simples tradução na
medida em que indica processos mais complexos de trânsito de sentido entre campos diversos
do saber, demandando uma necessidade de adaptação ou transformação dos signos.

Palavras-chave: música contemporânea, transdução intersemiótica, filosofia oriental, fractal,
acausalidade, imprevisibilidade, atemporalidade, multidimentionalidade, relatividade,
paradoxalidade, omnijectividade, I-Ching.

'The Singing Vice: Music and Mischief in Early English Drama'

by Maura Giles-Watson

Early Theatre 12.2 (2009), 57-90.

The musical code between nature and nurture: ecosemiotic and neurobiological claims

by Mark Reybrouck

The analysis of a song as a syncretic object

by Willem Marie Speelman

The Song of the Returned: A two-way analysis in musical semiotics

by Willem Marie Speelman

The analysis of a holy song

by Willem Marie Speelman

The listener as an adaptive device: an ecological and biosemiotical approach to musical semantics

by Mark Reybrouck

Full reference:
Mark Reybrouck. (2006). The listener as an adaptive device: An ecological and biosemiotical approach to musical semantics. In: E.Tarasti (Ed.). Music and the Arts. Proceedings from ICMS7. Acta Semiotica Fennica XXIII - Approaches to Musical Semiotics 10. (pp. 92-102). Imatra: International Semiotics Institute - Helsinki: Semiotic Society of Finland.

Music can be considered as an ontological category - as something “out there” - but also as something that calls forth... more Music can be considered as an ontological category - as something “out there” - but also as something that calls forth epistemological assumptions and listening strategies. Listening, in fact, relies on music knowledge that must be generated as a tool for adaptation to the sonic world. It is the listener who makes sense of music, somewhat analogous to an organism that makes sense of its environment. Listening strategies, on this view, can be defined as interactions between the listener as an organism and the music as environment. This interactional approach calls forth the biological roots of musical epistemology and the key concept of adaptation.

Musical semantics between epistemological assumptions and operational claims

by Mark Reybrouck

Full reference:
Mark Reybrouck. (2003), Musical semantics between epistemological assumptions and operational claims. In: E.Tarasti (Ed.)., Musical Semiotics Revisited (p. 272-287). Acta Semiotica Fennica XV. Imatra: International Semiotics Institute.

The analysis of music can proceed in two distinct ways. One is starting from an existing code in order to apply it to... more The analysis of music can proceed in two distinct ways. One is starting from an existing code in order to apply it to the music. The other is starting from the music in order to extract the code. The latter is likely to be more interesting, since music is not reducible to a fixed set of rules. The history of music illustrates dramatically the provisional character of existing codes. Rather than proceeding in a normative way, we take as a starting point the listener and his listening strategies in order to find out the way he constructs his own code and sign repertoire.

The Musical Code between Nature and Nurture

by Mark Reybrouck

Full reference:
Mark Reybrouck (2008b). The Musical Code between Nature and Nurture. In: M.Barbieri (Ed.), The Codes of Life: The Rules of Macroevolution (pp. 395-434). Springer: Dordrecht.

This contribution is about sense-making in music. In an attempt to bring together such diverging fields as semiotics... more This contribution is about sense-making in music. In an attempt to bring together such diverging fields as semiotics and neurobiology, it argues for a processual approach to music, which conceives of 'music users' as organisms that 'cope' with their environment. It is a position which calls forth ecological and epistemological assumptions and which stresses the importance of a conception of music as dealt with rather than a static conception of music as structure or artefact. As such, it considers music as a sounding and temporal art which appeals to lower-level mechanisms of reactivity, as well as to the acquired mechanisms of sense-making which are the outcome of a learning history. It is argued, further, that there is a continuum between lower level sensory processing and higher-order cognitive elaboration. The musical code, accordingly, holds a hybrid position between innate and wired-in dispositions and higher-level cognitive processing mechanisms. The very concept of code, further, is given some theoretical grounding as well as empirical evidence from the domains of psychophysics, psychobiology, and neurobiology.

The musical sign between sound and meaning.

by Mark Reybrouck

Full reference:
Mark Reybrouck  (1999b), The musical sign between sound and meaning. In I.Zannos (Ed.), Music and Signs, Semiotic and Cognitive Studies in Music (pp. 39-58). Bratislava: ASCO Art & Science.

Dealing with music is a mediated process that uses signs as tools for making sense of it. The musical signs, however,... more Dealing with music is a mediated process that uses signs as tools for making sense of it. The musical signs, however, are rather ambiguous in their representational qualities. An operational approach is suggested for defining musical signs, leaning heavily on the conceptual work of semiotics. Central in this paper is the concept of musical denotation and the allocation of signs from the sonorous universe, the significance of these signs for the music user and the possible effect the signs could produce upon the listerer.

Biological Roots of Musical Epistemology: Functional Cycles, Umwelt, and Enactive Listening

by Mark Reybrouck

The full reference of this article is:
Mark Reybrouck. (2001), Biological roots of musical epistemology: Functional Cycles, Umwelt, and enactive listening. Semiotica, 134, 1-4, 599-633.

In this article I argue for an epistemology of music, stating that
dealing with music can be considered as a... more In this article I argue for an epistemology of music, stating that
dealing with music can be considered as a process of knowledge acquisition. What really matters is not the representation of an ontological musical reality, but the generation of music knowledge as a tool for adaptation to the sonic world. In order to do this, I have brough ttogether the epistemological claims of Jean Piaget, the biological methodology of Jakob von Uexküll, and the constructivistic conceptions of Ernst von Glasersfeld, stressing the role of the music user rather than the music. Dealing with music, in fact, is not a representational a€air, but is a process of semiotization of the sonorous environment that is the outcome of interactions with the sound. Hence the role of enactive cognition and perceptual-motor interaction with the sonic environment.
What I consider to be a central issue is the way how listeners as
subjects experience their own phenomenal world or Umwelt, and how they can make sense out of their sonic environment. Umwelt-research therefore is highly relevant for music education in stressing the role of the listener and his listening strategies.

Music cognition, semiotics and the experience of time: Ontosemantical and epistemological claims

by Mark Reybrouck

Full reference:
Mark Reybrouck (2004). Music Cognition, Semiotics and the Experience of Time. Ontosemantical and Epistemological Claims. Journal of New Music Research, 33, 4, pp. 411-428.

This paper is about musical epistemology. It stresses the role of how a listener can have a unified coherent... more This paper is about musical epistemology. It stresses the role of how a listener can have a unified coherent experience over time. Central questions involve the conceptual construction of time, the role of non-objectivist as against objectivist cognition, and the role of cognitive mediation and imagery in music cognition. In order to discuss these claims a conceptual framework is introduced that does justice to the dynamic ongoing characteristics of the sonorous unfolding in time, leaning on the theoretical work of Kant, Husserl, and Schütz. An attempt is finally made to provide a formal description of dealing with music that objectifies the temporal unfolding of sound under the guise of presentational immediacy and as a kind of synthetic activity of the mind, stressing both the sequential experience and the construction of relational continuity.

MUSICAL SIGNIFICATION AND THE DEFINITION OF CINEMATIC “SPACES”: GUS VAN SANT’S “DEATH TRILOGY”

by Helder Filipe Gonçalves

The three films commented on this paper were directed by Gus Van Sant and are
known as “Death Trilogy”. They... more The three films commented on this paper were directed by Gus Van Sant and are
known as “Death Trilogy”. They share the “semantic essence” of the American
youth/adolescence, as well as some peculiar features sound wise. These go from
the total absence of original music to the somehow bizarre characteristic of
presenting complete musical oeuvres. With great poetic invention the director
manages to use music as dissimilar as Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata”,
revolutionary music from the sixties, “musique concrète”, electronic music and
“soundscapes”. By doing so he confirms something that has became one of
Cinema’s vocation: that of accepting music, all music, without establishing a
hierarchy between the sublime and the ordinary.
From this wealth of sound environments the role of music will be shown to be the
means of constructing the movie, pointing out cognitive objectives when
associating sound and image. Music analysis tools such as the “Unitées
Sémiotiques Temporelles” (UST, Semiotic Temporal Units) and the “musical
modalities” will serve to find the signification elements within the enlarged context
of “soundtrack”. Through these tools it is intended to decipher the specific ways
one associates the music to specific locations/spaces of what we see (or not) in
the screen. The discovery of the: mythical, inner (soul, thoughts), outer (situation,
place), transcendental and surface “Spaces”, will therefore be set forth.

Música para Cinema: Porosidade e Identidade

by Helder Filipe Gonçalves

Filmes comentados
Coppola, F. F. (Real.). (2009). Tetro [Filme]. E.U.A.: Clap filmes
Coppola, F. F. (Real.). (2007). Youth without Youth [Filme]. E.U.A.: LNK Filmes
Corbijn, A. (Real.). (2010). The American [Filme]. E.U.A.: Castello Lopes
Haggis, P. (Real.). (2004). Crash [Filme]. E.U.A.: Castello Lopes
Jacquet. L. (Real.). (2005). A Marcha dos Pinguins [Filme]. França: Prisvideo: S.A.
Robbe-Grillet, A. (Real.). (1968). L’homme qui ment [Filme]. França : RHV
Sant, G.V. (Real.). (2003). Elephant [Filme]. E.U.A: Atalanta Filmes
Sant, G.V. (Real.). (2002). Gerry [Filme]. E.U.A.: Lusomundo Audiovisuais
Sant, G.V. (Real.). (2005). Last Days [Filme]. E.U.A: Atalanta Filmes
Sant, G. V. (Real.). (2008). Milk [Filme]. E.U.A.: Castello Lopes
Sant, G. V. (Real.). (2007). Paranoid Park [Filme]. E.U.A.: Atalanta Filmes

Música para Cinema: Porosidade e Identidade
Helder Filipe Marques Pereira Gonçalves
Universidade da Beira... more Música para Cinema: Porosidade e Identidade
Helder Filipe Marques Pereira Gonçalves
Universidade da Beira Interior

Resumo:
Baseado na análise de excertos de filmes de Gus Van Sant e Francis Ford Coppola, entre outros, o presente artigo pretende abordar a questão de como os elementos sonoros diegéticos e não diegéticos (essencialmente musicais) se relacionam. Nesta análise propomos critérios de alguns autores do campo da teoria do cinema, da semiótica e da filosofia, como Chion, Barthes, Deleuze ou Redner, úteis para a descrição do papel da música na construção de significados associados aos personagens, aos filmes em questão e à linguagem cinematográfica.
Tentamos pensar a banda sonora ora como uma soma de sensações musicais, ora como conjunto de diferentes objectos que se podem perscrutar através de diferentes atitudes de escuta. Estas variáveis abordagens marcam a lógica de uma comunicação entre realizador e espectador, para a qual a música tem um papel importantíssimo. As identidades mais desenvolvidas ao longo do texto serão as da relação imagem-música, dos personagens e da música em si mesma.

Il karaoke: musica e performance in un contesto ludico

by Agata Meneghelli

Karaoke: Music and Performance in a Ludic Context
Published in M.P. Pozzato & L. Spaziante (eds.) "Parole nell’aria. Sincretismi fra musica e altri linguaggi", 2010

A perceptual study on dynamical form in music

by Frederik Laigaard Nielbo

Hjortkjær, j. [main author] & Nielbo, F. Published in "7th Sound and Music Computing Conference Proceedings," 2010

The concept of dynamical form is presented as a dimension of music perception. Dynamical form refers to the subjective... more The concept of dynamical form is presented as a dimension of music perception. Dynamical form refers to the subjective perception of temporal events in music (explosive, fading out, rising etc.). In a behavioral experiment listeners were asked to categorize musical excerpts varying in musical period, tonality, instrumentation, and acoustic features while attending to their dynamical form. Data indicates that subjects are sensitive to dynamical forms, but were particularly sensitive to a specific one (suspense). We also discuss a method of categorizing dynamical forms in terms of force dynamics.