Musical Semiology
Code: 100667 ECTS Credits: 6| Degree | Type | Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2500240 Musicology | OT | 3 |
| 2500240 Musicology | OT | 4 |
Contact
- Name:
- Aurèlia Pessarrodona Pérez
- Email:
- aurelia.pessarrodona@uab.cat
Teaching groups languages
You can view this information at the end of this document.
Prerequisites
The 1st year courses "Llenguatge musical I", "Llenguatge musical II" as well as the 2nd year course "Anàlisi musical" should have been succesfully completed.
Objectives and Contextualisation
Since the 1960s to the present, there are several practices and knowledge that are identified under the terms semiology or semiotics of music. Despite the absence of a unified theoretical framework, what is shared is the fact of putting in the first place concepts like sign or meaning and the reflection on musical meaning, as well as the capacity of communication of music, always from an interdisciplinary perspective.
The course presents the main currents of musical semiology, relating them to the different sign theories that are taken as a starting point, proposing guidelines and strategies for the practice of musical analysis and its interpretation.
Competences
- Musicology
- Critically analyse musical works from any of the points of view of the discipline of musicology.
- Relate concepts and information from different humanistic, scientific and social disciplines, especially the interactions which are established between music and philosophy, history, art, literature and anthropology.
- Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
- Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
- Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
Learning Outcomes
- "Correctly apply the concept of the musical ""gesture""."
- Apply the conceptualisation of philosophy, history, literature and anthropology to musical research.
- Correctly apply the analytical method of tripartition.
- Correctly apply the concept of the process of communication and signification.
- Correctly relate procedures of semiology with theories of musical rhetoric.
- Define the concept of narratology in music and its different modes of application to music.
- Define the foundations of semiotic analysis using the models of Peirce and Greimas.
- Discern and apply theories of inferencegeneration in its application to musical language.
- Draw hermaneutic conclusions from the analysis of scores, applying different analytical methods.
- Identify the social pracitces of music and its interpretation from a semiological standpoint.
- Integrate knowledge acquired in the production of clear and concise appropriate to the academic and specialist communication.
- Make correct application of the methodology of semiotic analysis to interrelate music with other artistic languages (painting, sculpture and others).
- Make correct use of the concept of the musical symbol and sign.
- Produce correct, precise and clear argumental and terminological writing of knowledge acquired, both in the area of musical specialisation and dissemination.
- Solving problems autonomously.
- Summarising acquired knowledge about the origin and transformations experienced in its several fields of study.
- Understand the propedeutic use of musical analysis, especially in its semiological appraoch.
- Use analytical methodology setting out from the establishment of the musical topos.
- Use the appropriate terminology in the construction of an academic text.
Content
1. Basic concepts of musical meaning:
- Music and meaning?
- Rhetoric, hermeneutics and semiotics: conceptual and historical approach
- Basis of musical meaning and communication
2. An approach to baroque rhetoric
3. The theory of topics (or topoi)
- Topics and Classicism
- Topics beyond Classicism?
4. Musical discourse: music and narratology
- music agents
- The musical narrative
5. Music, gesture and body.
- Music and metaphor
- Performance, communication and meaning
6. Music and intertextuality
6. Musical intersemiosis: dialogues between artistic disciplines
- Translation and adaptation
- Music and visual arts
- music and drama
- The musivision
Activities and Methodology
| Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type: Directed | |||
| Master class | 30 | 1.2 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 |
| Supervision | 7 | 0.28 | 11, 14, 15, 16, 19 |
| Type: Supervised | |||
| Debate Seminars on work analysis and reading | 13 | 0.52 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 |
| Type: Autonomous | |||
| Completion of projects | 40 | 1.6 | 2, 4, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 |
| Content reading and study | 39 | 1.56 | 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 |
| Information search | 15 | 0.6 | 11, 14, 15, 16 |
Theoretical classes will be combined with several practical activities that can be individual or collective.
Various musical works will be analyzed in class and text comments related to the contents of the subject will be carried out.
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Assessment
Continous Assessment Activities
| Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group assignment | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 2, 4, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 |
| Moodle exercises and participation in class | 10 % | 0 | 0 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 |
| Written test 1 | 30 % | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 |
| Written test 2 | 30 % | 2 | 0.08 | 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 |
There will be two written tests, one half-way through the course and the other at the end of the semester, the result of each of which will represent 30% of the overall grade.
A compulsory group assignment will be carried out on a topic that will have to be agreed on with the teacher. The group assignment grade will represent 30% of the overall grade.
Tasks carried out on Moodle in relation to various activities (seminars by guest professors, attendance or online viewing of congresses and conferences on musical semiology) will also be included, representing 10% of the overall grade.
To pass the course, it will be necessary to approve the group assignment and each of the two written tests with a minimum grade of 5.
The qualifications of the written tests and of the assignment will be published in the Virtual Campus. At the time the results are published, the revision dates will also be published.
To qualify for the re-evaluation test will be necessary to have passed the mandatory assignment, and have passed one of the two written tests with a minimum grade of 5. Tests that have not been done within the deadline will not be re-evaluated.
It will not be possible to opt for the consideration "not assessed" if the student has participated in one of the written tests or has submitted the mandatory assignment.
SINGLE ASSESSMENT
- Exam of theoretical content and semiotic analysis of a musical work: 40%
- Written essay on an aspect of the syllabus according to the parameters of the group work (but individual and with recorded oral presentation): 30%
- Submission of four video reviews of the ESMUC "Jornades ab Sentits": 30%
The submission of the essay and the reviews and the completion of the exam will be carried out on a single date indicated in the subject program, accessible from the Virtual Campus.
Bibliography
Agawu, K. (2012). La música como discurso: Aventuras semióticas en la música romántica. Buenos Aires: Eterna Cadencia Editora.
Allanbrook, W. J. (1983): Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, Kindle: University of Chicago Press.
Allanbrook, W. J. (2014): The Secular Commedia: Comic Mimesis in Late Eighteenth-Century Music, Oakland: University of California Press.
Almén, B. (2008). A Theory of Musical Narrative. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Altman, R. (2008). A Theory of Narrative. New York: Columbia University Press.
Bal, M. (2019). Teoría de la narrativa. Madrid: Cátedra.
Barbieri, Daniele; Marconi, Luca; Spampinato, Francesco (2008): L’ascolto musicale: condotte, pratiche, grammatiche, Lucca: LIM.
Barthes, R. (1999). Mitologías. México, D.F.: Siglo XXI.
Barthes, R., et al. (1972). La Semiología. Buenos Aires: Tiempo Contemporáneo.
Barthes, R., et al. (2016). Análisis estructural del relato. México, D.F.: Coyoacán.
Cascudo, T. (ed.) (2015). Música y cuerpo. Estudios musicológicos. Logroño: Calanda.
Cook, N. (1998). Analysing Musical Multimedia. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cook, N. (2001). Theorizing Musical Meaning. Music Theory Spectrum, 23, No. 2, 170–195.
Eco, U. (1977). Tratado de semiótica general. Barcelona: Lumen.
Eco, U. (1992). Obra abierta. Barcelona: Planeta.
Eco, U. (2012). El superhombre de masas. Barcelona: Random House Mondadori.
Eco, U. (2013). Apocalípticos e integrados. Barcelona: Fábula
Foucault, M. (2015). El orden del discurso. Barcelona: Tusquets.
Godoy, Rolf Inge; Leman, Marc (2010). Musical Gestures: Sound, Movement and Meaning
González Martínez, J. M. (2008). Semiótica de la música vocal, Murcia: Universidad de Murcia, 2007.
Grabócz, Márta (dir.) (2007). Sens et signification en musique, Hermann. à DEMANAR.
Grabócz, Márta (2009). Musique, narrative, signification, París: L’Harmattan. à Demanar
Grabócz, Márta (dir.) (2021). Narratologie musicale. Topiques, théories, et stratégies analytiques, Hermann-
Greimas, A. J., & Courtès, J. (1982). Semiótica. Diccionario razonado de la teoría del lenguaje. Madrid: Gredos.
Grimalt, J. (2014). Música i sentits. Introducció a la significació musical. Barcelona: Dux.
Grimalt, J. (2020). Mapping Musical Signification. Cham: Springer.
Grupo de Entrevernes (1982). Análisis semiótico de los textos. Introducción – Teoría – Práctica. Madrid: Ediciones Cristiandad.
Kramer, Lawrence (2002), Musical Meaning Toward a Critical History, Berkeley, London: University of California Press.
Kramer, Lawrence (2010), Interpreting Music, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hatten, R. S. (2004). Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics and Tropes. Indiana University Press.
López Cano, R. (2012). Música y retórica en el barroco. Barcelona: Amalgama.
López Cano, R. (2020): La música cuenta. Retórica, narratividad, dramatúrgia, cuerpo y afectos, Barcelona: ESMUC.
Martinez, J. L. (2001). "Semiótica de la música: una teoría basada en Peirce". Signa. Revista de la Asociación Española de Semiótica 10.
McClelland, Clive (2012). Ombra: Supernatural Music in the Eighteenth Century, Lanham: Lexington.
McClelland, Clive (2017). Tempesta: Stormy Music in the Eighteenth Century, Lanham: Lexington.
Meyer, Leonard B. (2001). Emoción y significado en la música. Madrid: Alianza.
Mirka, Danuta (ed.). Communication in Eighteenth-Century Music, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Mirka, Danuta; Agawu, V. Kofi (2014). The Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Nattiez, J. J (1990). Music and Discourse. Toward a Semiology of Music. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Neumeyer, D. (2015). Meaning and Interpretation of Music in Cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Peirce, C. S. (2007). La lógica considerada como semiótica. El índice del pensamiento peirceano. Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva.
Propp, V. (2014). Morfología del cuento. Madrid: Akal.
Saussure, F. de. (1991). Curso de lingüística general. Madrid: Akal.
Sebeok, T. (1996). Signos: Una introducción a la semiótica. Barcelona: Paidós.
Sheinberg, E.; Dougherty, W. P. (eds.) (2020): The Routledge Handbook of Music Signification, London, New York: Routledge.
Stam, R. (2001). Teorías del cine. Una introducción. Barcelona: Paidós.
Tagg, P. (2013). Music's Meanings. New York: The Mass Media Music Scholars' Press.
Tarasti, E. (1994). A Theory of Musical Semiotics. Indiana University Press.
Tarasti, E. (2012). Semiotics of Classical Music. How Mozart, Brahms and Wagner Talk To Us...
Tarasti, E. (2015). Sein und Shein: Explorations in Existential Semiotics. Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Tarasti, E. (dir.) (2023): Transcending Signs: Essays in Existential Semiotics, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Software
No specific software.
Language list
| Name | Group | Language | Semester | Turn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (TE) Theory | 87 | Catalan/Spanish | second semester | morning-mixed |