Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Philip Tagg
Facult de musique
Universit de Montral
www.tagg.org
P Tagg: Simple semiotics of music
Communication Model
emitter only
poetic /
constructional
Intended
message
o f
s y m b o l s
receiver only
codal incompetence
inadequate
encoding
Emitter
inadequate
response
Music
Receiver
(channel)
inadequate
encoding
emitter only
inadequate
response
codal interference
receiver only
s o c i o c u l t u r a l
n o r m s
esthesic /
receptional
s t o r e
adequate
response
1
Elementary semiotic
considerations
Semiotics or semiology ?
/ (sema/semeion) = sign
(semiotics, semiology, semantifs, semaphore, etc.)
Sign or symbol ?
(terminological problem)
SIGN
symbol (Peirce) = sign (Saussure)!
a thing representing another thing only by convention
ARBITRARY SIGN
Thirdness (reception)
Sign (secondness) interpreted
(aesthesic pole)
object
sign
interpretant
final interpretants
via connotation
Arbitrary sign
Sign linked only by convention to its object/interpretant
Syntax
Semantics
Links between signs and what they represent (emic) without
necessarily considering their use in concrete situations
Pragmatics
Use of signs in concrete sociocultural situations (economy,
ideology, society, psychology, etc.)
interpretant
interpretant
sign
interpretant
alarm
sound
smoke
DANGER!
GET OUT!
fire
DONT
DIE!
2
Specificity of
musical meaning
Live communication
spokenconcerted
language simultaneity
visual arts dance music
a single individual
himself/herself
individuals
an individual a group
a group
an individual
groups
several
motoric
social
(fine)
embodying
representation
(music)
linguistic
motoric
(gross)
physical
3
Musematic analysis
Museme
Good question.
Well have to
Musical
structure
see!
Whats that ?
Musicians assumptions
Changing a musical structure often produces a change in
effect on listeners.
If true, there must be links between musical structures
and what they communicate (their meanings, their
interpretants).
If true, there must be basic elements of structuration
allowing for the production of musical meaning.
AO
IOCM
Analysis
Object
Interobjective
Comparison
Material
PMFC
PMFC
Paramusical Fields
of Connotation
Paramusical Fields
of Connotation
(relevant to AO)
(relevant to IOCM)
Paramusical sound: chatter, chiming, clapping, rattling, applause, mains hum, vinyl
crackle, engine noise, birdsong, sound effects, crying, laughing, screaming, scraping,
hitting, water, wind, thunder, etc. ad. inf.
Oral language: monologue, dialogue, commentary, voice-over, lyrics,
accent/dialect, vocal type, prosody, type and speed of conversation/dialogue, &c...
Written language: programme or liner notes, promo copy, title credits, subtitles,
written devices on stage, expression marks and other performance instructions, &c...
Visuals font, graphic design, layout, painting, photo, sculpture, &c
scenario, props, lighting, clothing, &c...
dramatic action, facial expressions, gestures, &c...
camera positions, cutting speed, editing technique, fades, pans, zooms, &c
Movement: dance, dive, drive, fall, fly, glide, hit, hover, jump, kick, lie, ride, rise, run,
slide, sit, stand, stroke, stumble, sway, swerve, wait, walk, &c...
(Re-)performance venue + concurrent activity: home, concert, club, TV, cinema,
church, sports, dancing, riding, driving, restaurant, hotel, office, factory, circus, street,
town, country, &c...
number/type of voices/instruments
mechanical devices: mutes, pedals, stops, plectrum, string types, reed types,
mouthpieces, bows, sticks, brushes, &c...
electro-acoustic devices: microphone types & techniques, loudspeakers, echo,
reverb, delay, panning, filtering, mixers, amplifiers, equalisers, phasing, flanging,
chorus, compression, distortion, vocoding, dubs, &c...
performance techniques: vibrato, tremolo, tremolando, glissando, portamento,
pizzicato, sul ponte, picking, strum, &c...
timbral (timbre)
vocal: booming, breathy, clean, clear, cracked, crying, deep, gravelly, harsh, hoarse,
howling, growling, guttural, husky, light, melismatic, muffled, piercing, plaintive,
raucous, rich, screeching, shouting, shrill, sonorous, soothing, squeaky, squawking,
strident, syllabics, thin, warbling, warm, wheezing, whooping, &c...
instrumental: as for vocal + blaring, bubbling, buzzing, chiming, clanking,
clattering, crashing, grating, hissing, humming, jarring, muted, ringing, rumbling,
scraping, stuttering, throbbing, tinkling, whirring, whistling, &c...
dynamics
loud soft
sudden
gradual
constant variable
anaphone
genre
synecdoche
sonic:
sonic resemblance to paramusical sound
kinetic: resemblance to paramusical movement
tactile: resemblance to paramusical grain/touch
pars pro toto reference to foreign musical
style, thence to cultural context of that style
episodic
marker
style
indicator
stage
focal
point
auditorium