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Basic Terminology of Musical Meaning |
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6 levels of text-music relations |
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Simple Model for Associative Musical Meaning |
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Narrative curve; 2 types of metaphoric transference |
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Expressive Genre; Temporal Tropes |
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Model of Musical Meaning (car commercial) |
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Musical Narrative; levels, types, apotheosis |
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“musical meaning lies exclusively within the context of the work itself.” |
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“musical meanings refer to the extramusical world of concepts, actions, emotional states, and character.” |
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“the meaning of music lies in the perception and understanding of the musical relationships set forth in the work of art and that meaning in music is primarily intellectual” |
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they “would argue that these same relationships are in some sense capable of exciting feelings and emotions in the listener” |
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there is only one answer _ only absolutist or referentialist, not both |
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Three common error is psychology of music |
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Hedonism, Atomism, Universalism |
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the confusion of aesthetic experience with the sensuously pleasing — that is, the idea that musical beauty simply comes down to “liking”. “[A] Beethoven symphony,” says Meyer, “is not a kind of musical banana split, a matter of purely sensuous enjoyment.” |
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the tendency to try to explain music by reducing it to “a succession of separable, discrete sounds and sound complexes.” |
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the error of regarding music organization as “good for all times and all places”. “Western music is not universal, natural, or God-given.” (p.6) but a product of learning and experience. |
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Meyer’s three stages of meaning |
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Hypothetical, Evident, Determinant |
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“are those which arise during the act of expectation. … a given stimulus invariably gives rise to several alternative hypothetical meanings.” (p.37) |
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“are those which are attributed to the antecedent gesture [once the consequent is perceived] and when the relationship between the antecedent and consequent is perceived.” (p.37) |
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“are those meanings which arise out of the relationships existing between hypothetical meanings, evident meanings, and the later stages of musical development. In other words, determine meaning arises only after the experience of the work is timeless in memory … [when] these relationships to one another [are] comprehended as fully as possible.” (p.38) |
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Six levels of text-music relations |
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Declamatory, Formal, Syntactical, Rhetorical, Mimetic, Affective |
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text, syllabic vs. melismatic, rhythmic placement |
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how the poetic form connects to the musical form (ex. Couplets in parallel periods) |
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ordered structure, arrangement of phrases |
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emphasis of specific words (important words, text painting) |
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imitation; includes sonorous and cognitive |
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suggesting the sound meaning |
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connection to emotions (often used in contrasts) |
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Two types of metaphoric transference |
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Comparative and Ascriptive |
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directly perceivable (arch form), more straight forward and technical |
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elements working for a single effect; like urgency, is more evocative, less clearly limited. (210); not the perceivable features themselves but what they allude to that is transferred; less clearly limited |
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broad topical feel that organizes the expressive states of the work; overarching goal achieved through dramatic effect; broad; tragic to triumph (ex. apotheosis) |
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the complex syntheses created when composers explore unexpected relationships between the expected location of musical events and the actual location where they appear, relative to one another and to their plausible dramatic sequence. |
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Five types of temporal tropes |
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Function contradicting location, evolving theme, idea broken off or goal evaded, interruption, temporal shifting |
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Function contradicting location |
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Music placed in a location not usually expected |
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original theme is presented at the end after presentation of development; culminating form |
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Idea broken off or goal evaded |
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past to present; retrogression |
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Cook’s Model of musical meaning |
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How meaning is filtered through the interpreter |
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timbre, dynamics, instrumentation, the music itself |
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verbal descriptions or understandings |
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secondary associations gained from |
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the goal or final product of musical understanding |
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A simple model for associative musical meaning |
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Recognizing familiar elements, Recalling other music with those elements, Perceiving secondary associations, Noticing what is new and how familiar changed, Interpreting |
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Three levels of musical narrative meaning |
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Poietic, immanent, esthesic |
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composer intends a story or narrator |
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a story is told whether the composer intended it or not |
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listener applies the story themselves |
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Extramusical and expressive |
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a musical allusion to any other cultural artifact; any crossing of texts |
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time it takes to tell the story (10 sec. of music) |
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time of the story, time that has lapsed (a year of story) |
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a recap with unexpected alterations through which a narrative is implied |
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musical meaning/ interpretation |
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showing through imitation |
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actual picture, direct representation |
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points to something else, logical connection from presented to indicated |
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in place of an abstract object, dove means peace |
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any distinctive musical element |
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story; linear moments in time |
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borrowed from other sources; exact |
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material from different sources to achieve a specific effect |
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(paradigm is a generic viewpoint) generic idea, stock plot idea (knight kills dragon and gets girl) |
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use of specific to give off specific emotional feelings; certain modes used for certain emotional connotations |
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insertion of something; gesture inserted for meaning |
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a style which implies specific meaning used in a different context |
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an emphasized unresolved chord or note resolved later in the music to imply meaning (Syphilis, Cone) delayed gratification |
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paraphrase; a literary representation of a pictorial representation; its aim is the ancient one of making the mind’s eye see, though what is seen is not reality but a picture; Kramer (Hermeneutics in Musical History) |
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A harmonic progression that contains a V-I motion but lacks an opening tonic |
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The deepest structural level, showing the fundamental structure of a composition. |
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Bass arpeggiation (Bassbrechung) |
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The lower voice of the Ursatz motion I-III-V-I, I-II-V-I or I-IV-V-I in the bass that spans many pieces in the background. |
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Composing-out (Auskomponierung) |
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The general term for creating musical content from a given basic progression by way of diminution and prolongation. |
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Chords formed through either passing motion or through neighboring motion (including incomplete neighbors) |
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The name given to the process of linear units prolonging harmonic ones |
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A note that divides a large interval into two roughly equal portions, usually in a bass progression. |
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Prolongation of a previous motive |
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internal progression that appears to lead to a cadence and then backs off |
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The surface layer of the music |
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Fundamental line (Urlinie) |
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Descending linear progression that descends from 8, 5, or 3 that appears in the background as a part of the Ursatz. |
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Fundamental structure (Ursatz) |
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The background tonal structure of a composition, comprising an Urlinie (fundamental line) and a bass arpeggiation (Bass-brechung). |
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Modulatory key in relationship to fundamental structure |
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Implied tone (cf. substitution) |
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Suggested tone that does not appear directly in the music, indicated by parentheses |
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Intermediate (pre-dominant) harmony |
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Chords that connect the initial tonic with the structural dominant |
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Interruption (Unterbrechung) |
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A form of the fundamental structure in which there is a break after followed by a return to the primary tone |
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Linear intervallic pattern |
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Repeated interval pattern between two voices |
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Diminution in which two consonant tones are connected by one or more stepwise passing notes |
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The variable number of layers between the background and the foreground of a piece |
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The melodic continuity created through stepwise motion |
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Recurring pattern of tones in identical or similar form |
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Motivic parallelism/repetition |
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Repeated motions portrayed through brackets |
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Articulates two or more distinct voices |
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Prolongation (melodic and harmonic) |
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When a tone or chord remains active in its context though other tones or chords intervene |
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The time in which a tone or chord remains active |
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Bass notes, particularly between I and V of the bass arpeggiation, that are tonicised so as to give the impression of a temporary modulation |
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An approach to Strict counterpoint that proceeds methodically from note-against-note settings of the cantus firmus to more complex combinations of parts |
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Structural level (Schicht) |
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The layers of music successively further from the surface as revealed by Schenkerian analysis |
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Substitution (cf. implied tone) |
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The replacement of one note for another that would normally be expected in a given context, e.g. 7 replacing 2 |
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Lower-level replications of fundamental structures |
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A technique of prolongation in which tones in a given arrangement of voices are later replicated in a different arrangement (inversion). |
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Voice-leading graph (Urlinie-Tafel) |
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The detailed foreground graph of an entire movement or composition. |
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