Theory, Analysis and Meaning in Music

Theory, Analysis and Meaning in Music PDF Author: Anthony Pople
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521028301
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
There have been far-reaching changes in the way music theorists and analysts view the nature of their disciplines. Encounters with structuralist and post-structuralist critical theory, and with linguistics and cognitive sciences, have brought the theory and analysis of music into the orbit of important developments in intellectual history. This book presents the work of a group of scholars who, without seeking to impose an explicit redefinition of either theory or analysis, explore the limits of both in this context. Essays on the languages of analysis and theory, and on practical issues such as decidability, ambiguity and metaphor, combine with studies of works by Debussy, Schoenberg, Birtwistle and Boulez, together making a major contribution to an important debate in the growth of musicology.

Theory, Analysis and Meaning in Music

Theory, Analysis and Meaning in Music PDF Author: Anthony Pople
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521028301
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 248

Get Book Here

Book Description
There have been far-reaching changes in the way music theorists and analysts view the nature of their disciplines. Encounters with structuralist and post-structuralist critical theory, and with linguistics and cognitive sciences, have brought the theory and analysis of music into the orbit of important developments in intellectual history. This book presents the work of a group of scholars who, without seeking to impose an explicit redefinition of either theory or analysis, explore the limits of both in this context. Essays on the languages of analysis and theory, and on practical issues such as decidability, ambiguity and metaphor, combine with studies of works by Debussy, Schoenberg, Birtwistle and Boulez, together making a major contribution to an important debate in the growth of musicology.

Conceptualizing Music

Conceptualizing Music PDF Author: Lawrence M. Zbikowski
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 019803217X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
This book shows how recent work in cognitive science, especially that developed by cognitive linguists and cognitive psychologists, can be used to explain how we understand music. The book focuses on three cognitive processes--categorization, cross-domain mapping, and the use of conceptual models--and explores the part these play in theories of musical organization. The first part of the book provides a detailed overview of the relevant work in cognitive science, framed around specific musical examples. The second part brings this perspective to bear on a number of issues with which music scholarship has often been occupied, including the emergence of musical syntax and its relationship to musical semiosis, the problem of musical ontology, the relationship between words and music in songs, and conceptions of musical form and musical hierarchy. The book will be of interest to music theorists, musicologists, and ethnomusicologists, as well as those with a professional or avocational interest in the application of work in cognitive science to humanistic principles.

Everything in Its Right Place

Everything in Its Right Place PDF Author: Brad Osborn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190629231
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Everything in its Right Place identifies the secret to Radiohead's immense commercial and critical success in the band's ability to navigate a sweet spot between expectation and surprise. The author uses tools from musical perception, semiotics, and music theory to demonstrate this reconciliation of extremes, and analyzes musical meaning with lyrics, biographical details, and intertextual relationships.

Musical Meaning in Beethoven

Musical Meaning in Beethoven PDF Author: Robert S. Hatten
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253217110
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
Award-winning examination of Beethoven's music.

Emotion and Meaning in Music

Emotion and Meaning in Music PDF Author: Leonard B. Meyer
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
"Altogether it is a book that should be required reading for any student of music, be he composer, performer, or theorist. It clears the air of many confused notions . . . and lays the groundwork for exhaustive study of the basic problem of music theory and aesthetics, the relationship between pattern and meaning."—David Kraehenbuehl, Journal of Music Theory "This is the best study of its kind to have come to the attention of this reviewer."—Jules Wolffers, The Christian Science Monitor "It is not too much to say that his approach provides a basis for the meaningful discussion of emotion and meaning in all art."—David P. McAllester, American Anthropologist "A book which should be read by all who want deeper insights into music listening, performing, and composing."—Marcus G. Raskin, Chicago Review

A Theory of Musical Narrative

A Theory of Musical Narrative PDF Author: Byron Almén
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253030285
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Byron Almén proposes an original synthesis of approaches to musical narrative from literary criticism, semiotics, historiography, musicology, and music theory, resulting in a significant critical reorientation of the field. This volume includes an extensive survey of traditional approaches to musical narrative illustrated by a wide variety of musical examples that highlight the range and applicability of the theoretical apparatus. Almén provides a careful delineation of the essential elements and preconditions of musical narrative organization, an eclectic analytical model applicable to a wide range of musical styles and repertoires, a classification scheme of narrative types and subtypes reflecting conceptually distinct narrative strategies, a wide array of interpretive categories, and a sensitivity to the dependence of narrative interpretation on the cultural milieu of the work, its various audiences, and the analyst. A Theory of Musical Narrative provides both an excellent introduction to an increasingly important conceptual domain and a complex reassessment of its possibilities and characteristics.

Performative Analysis

Performative Analysis PDF Author: Jeffrey Swinkin
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1580465269
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
A theory of musical interpretation. Analysis in the musical work ; Two interpretive roles -- Analytical essays. Schenkerian analysis as metaphor : Chopin, Nocturne in C minor, op. 48, no. 1 ; An analytical dialogue : Beethoven, String quartet in C minor, op. 18, no. 4, First movement ; Musical structure(s) as subtext : resisting Schumann's "Ring

Focal Impulse Theory

Focal Impulse Theory PDF Author: John Paul Ito
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253049946
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
Music is surrounded by movement, from the arching back of the guitarist to the violinist swaying with each bow stroke. To John Paul Ito, these actions are not just a visual display; rather, they reveal what it really means for musicians to move with the beat, organizing the flow of notes from beat to beat and shaping the sound produced. By developing "focal impulse theory," Ito shows how a performer's choices of how to move with the meter can transform the music's expressive contours. Change the dance of the performer's body, and you change the dance of the notes. As Focal Impulse Theory deftly illustrates, bodily movements carry musical meaning and, in a very real sense, are meaning.

Music as Discourse

Music as Discourse PDF Author: Victor Kofi Agawu
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190206403
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
The question of whether music has meaning has been the subject of sustained debate ever since music became a subject of academic inquiry. This book presents a synthetic and innovative approach to musical meaning which argues deftly for the thinking of music as a discourse in itself.

Musical Motives

Musical Motives PDF Author: Brent Auerbach
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0197526047
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
All music fans harbor in their memories vivid fragments of their favorite works. The starting guitar solo of "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones, the da-da-da-DUM gesture that opens Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the lush swelling chords of a beloved movie soundtrack: hearing the briefest snippet of any of these is enough to transport listeners into the piece's sonic and emotional world. But what makes musical motives so powerful? In Musical Motives, author Brent Auerbach looks at the ways that motives — the small-scale pitch and rhythm shapes that are ever-present in music — unify musical compositions and shape our experiences of them. Motives serve both to communicate basic musical meaning and to tie together sound space like the motifs in visual art. They present in all genres from classical and popular to jazz and world music, making them ideally suited for analysis. Musical Motives opens with a general introduction to these fundamental building blocks, then lays out a comprehensive theory and method to account for music's structure and drama in motivic terms. Aimed at both amateur and expert audiences, the book offers a tiered approach that progresses from Basic to Complex Motivic Analysis. The methods are illustrated by small- and large-scale analyses of pieces by Mozart, Beethoven, Handel, Chaminade, Verdi, Radiohead, and many more.