In a non-musical context for example, the sound of a knock at the door would constitute a sign, its signification being that a caller is outside, and the adjustive response of the hearer being that the door is opened. These terms refer to the concept of predictive meaning whereby a gesture may lead to expectancy of future gestures having similar or related characteristics, or the recognition of repetition or the elaboration of the features and structure of gestures occurring earlier in the composer's narrative-music referring to itself.Īlthough this is an important element of communication in music, the meaning of music is not entirely contained in its organization of sounds it is also dependent on the contribution the perceiver brings to the event. 6), i.e., meaning that is contained within the music itself. In the case of music the sounds of the composer's musical gestures are the signifiers, they are symbolic representations of his or her experiences, and the listener must recognize the symbols in order to recover the same experiences-the music's message-from the sounds, a process that requires that composer and listener share a common vocabulary.Ī first level of meaning is that of the compositional structures themselves, what has been termed “structural meaning” ( Christensen, 1995) “embodied” or “intra-musical meaning” ( Meyer, 1956) and “inherent meaning” ( Green, 1997a, p. Semiosis is a process by which a signal becomes a signifier for something else: that which is signified. The problem of meaning in music has been the subject of extended discussion in the literature, and lies within the province of semiotics, the theory of signs and their significations. 4) that the relation of musical signifier to signified may be imprecise but is not arbitrary: “music is permeated through with intentionality, similar to language, but is not a sign-system” ( Adorno, 1998, p. This confirms the view of Monelle (2000, p. (2014) Thompson and Robitaille (1992), and others reassure us of at least a reasonable correspondence between the intentions of purposely composed passages and the meanings attributed to them by listeners. Studies by Behrens and Green (1993) Gabrielsson and Juslin (1996) Gabrielsson and Lindstrom (2010) Juslin and Laukka (2003) Juslin and Timmers (2010) Kaminska and Woolf (2000) Quinto et al. 5).īut what is the nature of the meaning conveyed are there limitations to the ideas and emotions that music can express? Are the meanings intended by the composer the same as those experienced by the listener? If they were not broadly similar, could music be regarded as a language? The sounds are therefore intentional, and their intention is to convey meaning “music is therefore a denotive language” ( Monelle, 2000, p. Composers assemble sound events-pitches, durations, timbres, and silences-to create musical gestures that enact aspects of their inner musical and emotional experiences the gestures are ordered in sequence to form musical narratives whose purpose is to express and communicate the composer's experiences and ideas to listeners ( Ballantine, 1983, p.
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