Scores and Listening

Tim Koozin
University of Houston
MUSI 6308: Semiotic Approaches to Musical Analysis syllabus UH Blackboard

I. Leonard Ratner. Classical Music: Expression, Form, and Style, Chapters 1-2 (available on UH Blackboard )

Be ready to discuss Ratner's examples in ch 1 and the concept of musical affect, as it was understood in the early 18th century. Explain distinctions between ecclesiastical, chamber, and theatre styles, and between high, middle, and low styles. Consider how these distinctions would continue to be important in later music.

What is a musical topic, as Ratner explains it?

Short assignments: Write one page on a Classic/Romantic piece you find that utilizes a dance topic (or several in combination). Explain essential traits of the dance and explain how it is employed in the composition. Include one photocopied page from the score. Do the same with a piece that employs one (or several) of the style topics covered in Ratner's chapter 2.

II. Listening for Robert Hatten's Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes, part I (scores available on UH Blackboard )

Introduction. Be ready to discuss the following issues and terms. Study the score and listen to the Schubert sonata movement.

Critical and ideological reorientations in musicology
Oppositions, Markedness, Topics, Tropes

(Hatten's example is actually D 568 in E flat. D. 567 is an earlier D flat major version.)
8.553099 Naxos Music Library. https://uh-naxosmusiclibrary-com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=12696%2Fuhnmlpaid14%2F29765

Chapter 1, Beethoven "Ghost" Trio, Op. 70, No. 1. 8.557723 Naxos Music Library. http://library.uh.edu/record=b3915383~S4

Chapter 2, Beethoven String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130. 8.554593 Naxos Music Library. http://library.uh.edu/record=b3912857~S4

III. Almén. A Theory of Musical Narrative.

Chapter 1

What are the essential features of Almén's approach in studying Chopin's Op. 28, No. 3? What other analytical approaches might you apply in your own analysis?

The PDF in Blackboard includes Preludes Nos 3 and 4. Study Prelude 4 in detail and be ready to discuss it. Does this piece project any narrative qualities?
Naxos: http://uh.naxosmusiclibrary.com.ezproxy.lib.uh.edu/streamw.asp?ver=2.0&s=12696%2Fuhnmlpaid08%2F167206

Chapter 2. Be ready to discuss the following concepts and terms:

Musical narrative distinguished from literary narrative
Actions enacted vs. actions described, and related to this, scene vs. summary; mimesis vs. diegesis
Isotopies; Modalities
The role of conflict, and of hierarchy, in narrative
Some key issues in narrative analysis raised in the three examples cited by Momigny, Tarasti, and McCleary. (Eero Tarasti's analysis of Chopin's G minor Ballade is from his A Theory of Musical Semiotics. The chapter is available on E-reserve.

Chapter 3.

Myth and transvaluation
Markedness and rank

Chapter 4

Almén returns to discussion of Tarasti's analysis of Chopin's G minor ballad. What are the most important key points?
Discuss the modalities discussed, including beng, doing, will, know, must, believe.
Very important: Know the four narrative archtypes of Northrop Frye, Romance, Tragety, Irony, Comedy.

Chapter 5.

Be ready to discuss Almén's integration of Narrative and Topic in this chapter, and his use of musical examples to illustrate his approach.

IV. Monelle, The Musical Topic. Hunt, Military, and Pastoral and Hatten Ch 3: Hunting and Pastoral Topics

1. Provide several examples of troping with pastoral and hunting topics. Try to find examples on your own that resonate with examples from Hatten and Monelle.

2. Explain Hatten’s idea of plenitude as a musical topic.

3. The Brahms Horn Trio, Op. 40:
Get the study score and listen to all movements. Naxos: http://library.uh.edu/record=b3915294~S4
Be ready to discuss the piece in terms of expressive doubling, topics, and other concepts from our reading. Some detail work on motives, harmony, and form will be necessary.

V. Study questions for Robert Hatten’s Part II on Musical Gesture:

1. What does Hatten mean in his use of these terms:
          gesture
          intermodality
          embodiment
          the slur and its gestural meaning
          rhetorical gesture

2. In Ch 8, summarize Hatten’s approach in studying the Beethoven Op. 90 and two Schubert sonatas.

3. In the musical passages Hatten discusses, how do gestures and their embodiments in musical action help define topics? Have some clear examples in mind. Are issues of embodiment useful in the paper you are writing?

For Tuesday, October 23: Prepare a brief presentation on a musical passage building upon notions of embodiment and gesture to inform your musical analysis.

Not yet updated for 2019:

VI. Eero Tarasti. A Theory of Musical Semiotics

Study chs. 2, 3, and 4 (musical time, musical space, musical actors). What are isotopies? What are Tarasti's aims in the analysis of modality? How does his approach compare and contrast with that of Almén and Hatten?

Here is Catrina Kim's chart on isotopies in Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 127, mvt 1 (By permission. Thanks, Catrina!)

VII. Guest lecture by Andrew Davis

1. Please read the pages from Gerard Genette's Narrative Discourse. (Dr Davis has annotated the pages to show where to stop and start.)

2. Read the excerpted pages from his unpublished article (on Chopin, but part of it dealing with a musical application of Genette). Read the entire attachment.

3. Listen to the Brahms movement and study the score. Dr Davis has provided audio files.

Genette excerpt Davis excerpt Brahms Op. 1, mvt. 2 score listening links

VIII. Semiotic approaches to Popular Music (as time allows; not required reading)

1. I invite you to look at my MTO article on guitar voicing in rock: http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.11.17.3/mto.11.17.3.koozin.html

A couple of the more semiotic-methodological sections would be the paragraphs numbered 5-8 and 12-17.

You might also enjoy going through the musical examples, listening for what sort of musical topics each song references.

If you are interested in doing work on popular music repertoires, there are some valuable sources in the Bibliography.

2. Some new work on Bob Dylan: I invite you to look at my recent paper abstract and musical examples:Dylan-abstract

Additional topics (not required)

XIII. Image Schemas

Janna Saslaw. Journal of Music Theory, Vol. 40, No. 2 (Autumn, 1996), pp. 217-243 (e-Reserve)
Lawrence Zbikowski, Conceptualizing Music, Introduction, Chs 1, 2, & 4

Terms:
     Image schema
     Domain
     Metaphor
     Categorization
     Cross-domain mapping
     Schoenberg's concept of motive
     Prototype
     Conceptual model
     Conceptual blending
     Conceptual integration network

People:
     George Lakoff (linguistics)
     Mark Johnson (philosophy)
     Mark Turner (cognitive science)
     Giles Fauconnier (linguistics)

IX. More on image schema theory: See pdf file on e-reserve for Candace Brower article, study questions, and pieces for analysis (Schumann piano pieces and songs), plus a short list of pop songs for listening analysis.

X. Alexandra Pierce. Deepening Musical Performance through Movement. (Book on reserve in the music library. Recommended reading but not required.)

The Final Paper, about eight pages in length, should include:

- An opening section on methodology, in which you clearly explain the analytical and interpretive tools you will use in exploring a musical work. This should clearly build upon assigned readings and may draw from other source readings as well. (Include citations and bibliography.)

- An interpretive analysis of a piece of music that explores issues of gesture and embodiment, analysis of musical topics, or other ways of conceptualizing musical experience in the work.

- A syntactical analysis that addresses important aspects harmony, form, linear structure, or other compositional techniques in the work.

- A conclusion that summarizes and comments thoughtfully on the main ideas you have developed in the paper.

Be prepared to discuss your work in progress during class.

Due Thursday, December 13, 11:00 am