On Musical Semiotics

1990 ◽  
pp. 3-10
Author(s):  
William P. Dougherty
Keyword(s):  
Musical Semiotics

GENDER AND THE POLITICS OF MUSIC IN THE EARLY ISLAMIC COURTS

2012 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 235-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Nielson
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Performance Expectations ◽  
Professional Musician ◽  
Legal Position ◽  
Musical Semiotics ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Islamic Courts

Until the ninth century, the role of the professional musician in pre-Islamic Arabia and Mesopotamia was primarily fulfilled by women. Men were socially prohibited from working as musicians, though some transgressed gender and social boundaries by adopting feminine dress and playing ‘women's’ instruments. With the advent of Islam, patronage of qiyān (singing girls), mukhannathūn (effeminates) and later, male musicians, did not substantially change. During the early Abbasid era (750–950 ce), however, their collective visibility in court entertainments was among several factors leading to debates regarding the legal position of music in Islam. The arguments for and against took place in the realm of politics and interpretation of religious law yet the influence of traditional expectations for gendered musical performance that had existed on the cultural landscape for millennia also contributed to the formation of a musical semiotics used by both sides.In this article, I examine the representation of musicians in the early Islamic court in Baghdad from the perspective of select ninth-century Arabic texts. First, I begin with a summary of the gender roles and performance expectations for pre-Islamic court musicians and point to their continuation into the early Islamic courts. Then, I suggest how the figure of the musician became a key referent in the development of a musical semiotics used in medieval Islamic music discourse.

BMA Narrative Archetypes

2021 ◽  
pp. 165-182
Author(s):  
Brent Auerbach
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Musical Narrative ◽  
Musical Semiotics

Chapter 5.5 serves as the first of two Interludes addressing musical narrative. Following from the original proposition that motives must move and move readers, narrative is established as a necessary mechanism for structuring complete, meaningful analyses. The chapter first rehearses the argument that untexted music implicitly possesses narrative qualities. Evidentiary support is taken from seminal works both from literary theory (Propp, Frye, Liszka) and from the fields of musical semiotics and narrative (Nattiez, Hatten, McClary, Guck, Newcomb, Maus, Schmalfeldt, Almén, and Klein). The interlude continues by presenting four “archetypes” for organizing and animating (ascribing motion to) motivic findings. The first archetype, called BMA-1, communicates the progress of a single motive. The other three archetypes, all forms of BMA-2, model multiple motives or motivic elements in dialogue. The possible interactions are “Non-Engagement,” “Synthesis,” and “Triumph.” The BMA archetypes are demonstrated through discussion of works by Beethoven and Chopin.

scholarly journals A typology of music information for studies on information seeking

2016 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 265-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Mikael Rousi ◽  
Reijo Savolainen ◽  
Pertti Vakkari
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Music Listening ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Symbolic Representations ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Modes Of Representation ◽  
Second Mode ◽  
Musical Semiotics ◽  
Music Information

Purpose – A need to renew music-related information notions arises from both information-seeking models and literature of musical semiotics. The purpose of this paper is to create a music information typology, which aims at facilitating the examination of music information types at varying levels of abstraction in the context of information seeking. Design/methodology/approach – Literature of musical semiotics and information seeking are juxtaposed to develop a novel approach to music-related information. The grounding concepts are Bruner’s enactive, iconic and symbolic modes of representation. The modes of representation offer a universal scheme of knowledge that is applied to the domain of music by defining their content through Tarasti’s Theory of Musical Semiotics. Findings – This conceptual paper results in a music information typology ranging from the enactive music information representations to the abstract ones as follows. Music making as the first mode of enactive representations; music listening as the second mode of enactive representations; iconic representations of music; technological models of music as the first mode of symbolic representations; and ideological models of music as the second mode of symbolic representations. Originality/value – The present paper develops a music information typology that encompasses broadly different music information facets by categorizing music information sources according to their level of abstraction. When applied into empirical research, the typology opens a new window into the perceived roles of music information types in the context of information seeking.

Review: Signs of Music: A Guide to Musical Semiotics

2004 ◽  
Vol 85 (1) ◽  
pp. 144-146
Author(s):  
Kofi Agawu
Keyword(s):  
Musical Semiotics
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