Abstract
Generally speaking, musical analysis does not sufficiently involve the temporal nature of music to facilitate making connections between music and language. In search of extrinsic musical meaning, this association could be enhanced by following the changing character of the music as it unfolds in time, its texture, musical shapes, contours, and patterns of inflection. As the music is considered in its unreduced rhythmical state, it facilitates immediate contact between listener and music. In an attempt to make sense of music, this essay focuses on its performative function by linking up with musical effects that are directly audible. My argument is based on the notion that the listener acts as the mediator of the musical sign, and that the musical trace could act as facilitator for constructing meaning.
In search of extrinsic meaning, this essay concentrates on the musical signification of psychological states. First, the manner in which psychological states are represented by musical topoi is discussed. Second, the essay traces the temporal unfolding of sound-images that signify changing psychological states in a composition as a whole. When the static musical sign is transformed into dynamic signification, additional information about signification by means of topoi is revealed, namely signification of an ambiguous nature. Two songs, two operas, and one ballet are used for the demonstration.
About the author
Bertha Spies (b. 1943). Her research interests include music theory, twentieth century music, language and music, and music and society. Her publications include ‘Representation and function of characters from Greek antiquity in Benjamin Britten's “Death in Venice” ’ (2002); ‘Alban Berg's “Wozzeck”: Revisiting a historically sedimented metaphor’ (2002); ‘Dualities in current musicology: More questions than answers’ (2005); and ‘Peter Klatzow's “Hamlet”: A drama in music and movement’ (in press).
© Walter de Gruyter
