A theory of musical semiotics / Eero Tarasti. [electronic resource]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tarasti, Eero.

Series:

Advances in semiotics

Advances in semiotics A theory of musical semiotics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music--Semiotics.

Music.

Music theory.

Musical analysis.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 328 p. ) ill., music ;

Other Title:

Theory of Musical Semiotics

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c1994.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Eero Tarasti advances a semiotic theory of music based on information provided by the history of Western music and by various sign theories. A Theory of Musical Semiotics is at the same time a study of music as a narrative art. It analyzes musical works through the theoretical frameworks of narratology and French structural semiotics, especially that of A.J. Greimas. Tarasti views other theories from the "classical" semiotic tradition, from Saussure to Peirce to Lotman, as possible foundations of musical semiotics. A Theory of Musical Semiotics provides a model for the semiotic analysis of both musical structure and semantics. It introduces the English-language reader to musical narratology, a field of inquiry that until recently has remained largely the province of European researchers.

Contents:

Foreword / Thomas A. Sebeok

pt. 1. Theoretical Background. I. In Search of a Theory. II. Musical Time. III. Musical Space. IV. Musical Actors

pt. 2. Analyses. V. Semiosis of the Classical Style: Beethoven's "Waldstein" VI. Narrativity in Chopin. VII. Music and Literature. VIII. Music and Visual Arts: Pictures and Promenades

A Peircean Excursion into the Semiosis of Musorgsky. IX. The Semiotics of Symphonism: A Deconstruction of National Meanings in Sibelius's Fourth Symphony. X. Toward the Modern Scene.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-585-23425-6