scholarly journals From Concrete Poetry to Musical Composition: Narrativity, Intertextuality and Musical Meaning in Motet em Ré Menor, by Gilberto Mendes

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
André Lopes Martins ◽  
Rogério Costa
Keyword(s):  
Musical Composition ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Concrete Poetry ◽  
Poetic Text ◽  
Brazilian Composer

This paper intends to construct some reflections on how the use of the poetic text as process of creation of a musical composition can be developed through the rhythmic, sonorous and melodic use of the words, verses and their (possible) musical meaning. Specifically, we use the example of the choral piece Motet em Ré Menor (1966), by the Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes (1922-2017), a composition based on the concrete poem Beba Coca-Cola (1958) by Décio Pignatari (1927-2012). Some of the problems and issues related to the processes of narrativity and intertextuality, topical meaning and tropification – from the idea of musicking this poem – will be listed and approached in a reflection based on a musical analysis that seeks to depart from the form to the musical meaning relevance.

scholarly journals Izotopie w praktyce analizy dzieła muzycznego – na przykładzie "Arabesque" Zygmunta Krauzego

2020 ◽  
pp. 108-117
Author(s):  
Renata Skupin
Keyword(s):  
Musical Composition ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Semiotic Analysis ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Instrumental Ensemble ◽  
Alfred Jarry ◽  
Prepared Piano ◽  
Construct Meaning

The aim of the paper is to reconsider the question of usefulness of the category of isotopy in semiotic analysis of a musical composition, on the example of Zygmunt Krauze’s Arabesque (1983) for prepared piano and instrumental ensemble. Adopting a suggestion by Nicolas Meeùs, the author undertakes an attempt to transpose Rastier’s differentiation between semantic isotopy and isotopy of the plane of expression (isotopie de l’expression) into analysis of music. Following Michel Arrivé, she presents a model example of isotopic relations in the plane of expression (signifiant) from the novel Les jours et les nuits (Days and Nights) by Alfred Jarry, and finds that isotopy of the plane of expression is for linguistic semioticians an alternative to semantic isotopy in providing cohesiveness in the layer of signs that construct meaning. She then discusses the extent of application of isotopy in music semiotics and draws attention to the semantic capacity of this category in Eero Tarasti’s theory and interpretive practice, where it undergoes metaphorisation and a kind of universalisation. She also refers to the proposal of Jean-Pierre Bartoli to use isotopy in analysing Orientalistic exoticism, which constitutes an example of a return to the level of the simplest constitutive units and the condition of their iteration, i.e., to the structuralistic-semiotic conceptions of isotopy in the approach of Greimas. Moving on to an analysis of Krauze’s composition, the author puts forward the view that Rastier’s categories of isotopy of the plane of expression as „conditions of grammaticality” (conditions de grammaticalité) of an utterance can only apply to specific cases of compositional techniques which are utterances in systemic „musical languages”, and this condition is not met in the case of the work analysed. The argumentation presented in the article is based on an analysis of particular features of the organisation of the sound material, the texture and syntax of Arabesque, as well as references to the composer’s claim to have been inspired by the mystical paintings of Władysław Strzemiński and the oriental connotations of arabesqueness in music. In seeking the musical meaning of Krauze’s Arabesque the author focuses on identifying its intentio operis.

scholarly journals Guerra-Peixe’s Symphony No. 2 Brasília (Part 2)

Per Musi ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcelo Ramos de Souza
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Performance Edition ◽  
Previous Article ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Style Analysis ◽  
Historical Aspects ◽  
The Us ◽  
Brazilian Composer ◽  
A Performance

The present article presents a broad musical analysis of the Symphony No. 2 Brasília by Brazilian composer César Guerra-Peixe, covering formal, melodic, motivic and harmonic aspects. The terminology of the analytical terms was the same used by Peter Brown in his five volume series of all representative symphonies of the symphonic literature. These terms came from Guidelines to Style Analysis by Jan LaRue. The Symphony Brasília was subject of my doctoral project in three principal fronts: production of a performance edition of the full score and parts; performance of the work in the US and Brazil, aiming to correct eventual mistakes and spread the music; and a production of historical and analytical texts. The present article will cover the musical analysis. A previous article covered historical aspects of the work.

scholarly journals CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES IN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC: THE CASE OF THE COMPOSITION MOVEMENT IN BAHIA-BRAZIL

Orfeu ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulo Costa Lima
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Musical Form ◽  
Concert Music ◽  
Cultural Perspectives ◽  
Brazilian Composer

The focus of interest for this article is the musical composition movement in Bahia, in so far as it enables a reflection on the interweaving of composition and cultural perspectives, not as isolated and autonomous domains, but as something inherent to composition. We will identify and reflect upon strategies to represent distance between distinct cultural poles, showing how they organize the musical form and fabric, in other words, the production of meaning. We start with an exemplary case provided by the piece Uma possível resposta op. 169 (1988) by the Brazilian composer (born in Switzerland), Ernst Widmer (1927-1990), and analyze similar strategies in other pieces, showing how the idea of establishing a distance which functions as a matrix of meaning responds to our interest in the connection between composition and culture, and permits a discussion of decolonization strategies present in the concert music produced in Bahia in recent decades.

scholarly journals Features of the drama and the concept of the Four Seas Interludes from the opera "Peter Grimes" by B. Britten

2021 ◽  
pp. 195-201
Author(s):  
Ольга Олеговна Ляхова ◽  
Аминат Алиевна Кубанова
Keyword(s):  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Composition Analysis ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Single Cycle ◽  
Music Drama ◽  
Peter Grimes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Psychological Conflict

Рассматриваются оркестровые интерлюдии из оперы «Питер Граймс» Б. Бриттена. Цель - на основе анализа интерлюдий выявить композиционные и драматургические принципы цикла. Методология работы определяется традициями музыкознания в области исследования, главным из которых является метод музыкального анализа. В результате сделан вывод о том, что Четыре морские интерлюдии можно рассматривать как единый цикл, близкий по форме программной симфонии, отражающей внутренний психологический конфликт главного героя оперы. Практическая ценность работы заключается в возможности использования результатов исследования в курсах учебных дисциплин: зарубежная история музыки, драматургия музыкального произведения, анализ музыкальных форм. This work examines the orchestral interludes from the opera "Peter Grimes" by B. Britten. The purpose of this article is to identify the compositional and dramatic principles of the cycle based on the analysis of interludes. The methodology of the work is determined by the traditions of musicology in the field of research, the main of which is the method of musical analysis. As a result, it is concluded that the Four Seas Interludes can be considered as a single cycle, similar in form to the program symphony, reflecting the internal psychological conflict of the main character of the opera. The practical value of the work lies in the possibility of using the results of the research in the courses of academic disciplines: foreign history of music, drama of a musical composition, analysis of musical forms.

scholarly journals Author’s Comments in the Conceptual Space of Musical Text: to the Methodology of Research of Musician Teacher

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-29
Author(s):  
Augusta V. Malinkowskaya
Keyword(s):  
Musical Composition ◽  
Minor Importance ◽  
Theoretical Problem ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Conceptual Space ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Dialectical Principle ◽  
Musical Styles

This article presents the problem of the relationship between two landmark subsystems in the conceptual space of the musical composition text: notation and author’s instructions, comments of various types and functions. The author contrasts the text formal division (it is used in performing and pedagogical practice, non-binding “notes” and instructions by the composer of minor importance) and views of musicians who see in the traditional dichotomy “musical text – comments on it” a theoretical problem. The differences in approaches to it are analyzed in the works by S. E. Feinberg, E. Ya. Liberman; it is proposed to consider the position of the author of the article, treating the first of these subsystems as a base, the second as a superstructure in a united conceptual space of a musical text. The author develops the theme and carries out historical-style excursions and reveals the evolution of the composer’s comments in the music in 17th – early 20th centuries due to aesthetic, artistic, technological and other factors. In the historical-style sections of the article, the author relies on the concept by S. S. Skrebkov, that is in the book “The Artistic Principles of Musical Styles”. In particular, the author uses the principle of centralizing unity postulated by the scientist as a methodological guide, and interpreted broadly in the article as a general dialectical principle of musical logic. This allows to differ stylistically and at the same time to study dialectically the practice of composer commentary in musical works of the Baroque, classical and romantic eras. The main conclusion of the article is the reference to the need for performers and teachers to deepen into essential, substantial relations in a united conceptual space of a musical text of two main plans: notated, reflecting introverted, immanently musical meaning, and composer comments, where denotation is carried out, symbolization of the deep structures of music.

scholarly journals Analysis of sonority in piano pieces

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-248
Author(s):  
Bibiana Bragagnolo ◽  
Didier Guigue
Keyword(s):  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Musical Work ◽  
Artistic Process ◽  
Audio Files ◽  
Brazilian Composer

This paper presents an analysis of sonority in selected parts of two performances of a piano piece by the Brazilian composer Almeida Prado, extracted from the first volume of his cycle Cartas Celestes I (1974), and of this piece as a whole. The main goal of this analysis is to present a methodology where the performative decisions are understood as main sources of information, with specific attention to the sonic aspects of the piece. In this context, the musical work is understood as a process, since the score is only one of the elements that will influence the final result (Costa, 2016). The methodology consists of three main steps, and was based on the methodology of analysis of the sonority by Guigue (2009): (1) the first step is the artistic process, which gets up to the construction of two performances of the piece by the same pianist (the first author of this paper), with different and contrasting performative decisions, and their recordings; (2) then, the piece is divided into homogeneous sonic units, always having the performative decisions as guides; and (3) at last, these units are analyzed using the software Spear and Sonic Visualiser for audio files and Open Music for MIDI files. The methodology intends to include the performance in the scope of musical analysis, as performative decisions may lead to dramatic differences in the final perceived sonic layout of a musical work.

From Cautionary Chart-Topper to Friendly Beverage Anthem: Michael Jackson's “Billie Jean” and Pepsi's “Choice of a New Generation” Television Campaign

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOANNA LOVE
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
Musical Analysis ◽  
Cautionary Tale ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Musical Structures ◽  
New Meanings ◽  
New Generation

AbstractIn 1984 Pepsi-Cola released two groundbreaking commercials for its “Choice of a New Generation” campaign. Marketers reimagined Pepsi's product alongside superstar Michael Jackson's most iconic visual “symbols” and composed a slogan to be sung over fragments of the backing-track to his then-hit song, “Billie Jean.” Although merely replacing Jackson's original lyrics about lust and revenge with a family-oriented slogan had the potential to change meaning potentials the song held in other contexts, it was the re-working of Jackson's celebrity image and omission of key musical structures present within the original that allowed “Billie Jean” to acquire new meanings in the commercials. On the album, careful voice leading practices that pivot precariously between the natural and flat-VI underpin the score's complex harmonic structures to reinforce Jackson's cautionary tale. Pepsi's commercials, on the other hand, skillfully pick “Billie Jean” apart, extract its most memorable themes, and stitch the fragments back together. Consequently, when paired with Pepsi's overtly positive images, the reworked track noticeably diffuses the tension expressed in the original. By incorporating formal musical analysis, musicological inquiry, and formative cultural theory on advertising, MTV, and musical meaning in multimedia, this article contributes to growing discussions about pre-existing popular music's roles in advertising.

Boys' and girls' constructions of gender through musical composition in the primary school

2004 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Charles
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Primary School ◽  
Musical Composition ◽  
Musical Meaning ◽  
School Teachers ◽  
Primary School Teachers ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Musical Practices ◽  
Composition I ◽  
Ideological Assumptions

The purpose of the study is to examine, through interviews and observations, the extent to which 8–10 year old children in a London primary school replicate gendered musical practices and experience gendered musical meanings, and how these may affect their expectations and the specific practices and products of their composition. I also consider how primary school teachers participate in the overarching discourse on gender and music education, by examining their expectations about the nature of girls' and boys' compositions. I analyse my findings in relation to Lucy Green's model of gendered musical meaning and experience. One outcome of the analysis is the development of a concept of ‘female musical subculture’ to interpret girls' and women's participation in the compositional world. Secondly, the findings strongly suggest that in their musical practice, the children in the research are not reproducing ideological assumptions about gendered musical practices, which contradicts how they operate discursively, for their discourse lies within the bounds of gendered musical ideology. Thirdly, the findings also indicate that the teachers are strongly affected by gendered musical ideologies, and have concomitant expectations about the music girls and boys produce.

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