Lecture 4 Semiotics: Music as a system of signs

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Lecture 4Semiotics Music as a system of signs

• MUSI 3911Music, Emotion and Meaning

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Overview

• What is a sign?
• Saussure referent, signifier and signified
• Peirce object, sign and interpretant
• Icon, index and symbol
• Nattiez the trace or neutral level
• Poiesis and esthesis
• Summary

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What is a sign?

• An entity
• Physical
• An event
• An object
• Mental
• A thought?
• Which signifies
• Stands for
• Conveys
• Another entity

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Saussure referent, signifier and signified

• Signifier
• An event or object
• the sound /sheep/
• A picture of a sheep
• Signified
• A listeners understanding of what that sound
  signifies
• ltA fluffy white animal which tends to live in the
  hillsgt
• ltNot a goatgt
• Referent
• That sheep over there...

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Saussure referent, signifier and signified

• Signifier
• The sound /Eb/
• The notational symbol for Eb
• Signified
• ltThe third degree of a C-minor scalegt
• ltThe tonic of Eb-majorgt
• Referent
• The first note of the Eroica Symphony

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Signifier and Signified Arbitrary or Motivated

• Some signs are arbitrary
• Goat vs. chevre (different signifiers, same
  signified)
• A3 vs. 440 hz.
• Most linguistic signs
• Agreed within a system of conventions
• Some are motivated
• Onomatopoeia
• Icons and indexes (see later)

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Peirce object, sign and interpretant

• Three-way relationship (third)

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Peirce object, sign and interpretant

• Three-way relationship (third)

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Peirce object, sign and interpretant

• Three-way relationship (third)

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Icon, index and symbol

• Icon
• Resembles the object of the sign
• Drawing of my face
• Musical tension, emotional tension
• Index
• Causally related to the object of the sign
• /match/ ltflamegt
• /piano/ ltmusicgt
• Symbol
• Related by position of signifier within system

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Icon, index and symbol

• Symbol
• Related by arbitrary position of signifier within
  convened system
• Hence, differences between languages
• /goat/ /ziege/ /chevre/
• /Bb/ /H/
• In music
• /diminished seventh/ ltvery unstablegt (Haydn)
• /diminished seventh/ ltfairly stablegt (Wagner)
• See Culler (1976) for a fuller explanation

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Nattiez the trace or neutral level

• Trace
• Score
• Recording?
• Analysis of basic units
• Repetition
• Segmentation (discretization)
• Paradigmatic relationships
• One segment could replace another
• Shown vertically
• Syntagmatic analysis
• One segment could follow another
• Shown horizontally

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Poiesis and esthesis

• Poiesis (Poietic)
• Analysis of factors which create the trace
• Composition
• Performance?
• Documentary evidence?
• Induction?
• Esthesis (Esthesic)
• Analysis of response to the trace
• Perception
• Reception history

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Summary

• Semiotics
• Study of signs
• Implies that meaning is in interpretation, not
  reception
• Types of sign
• Motivated (icon, index)
• Arbitrary (symbol)
• Music may use both arbitrary and motivated signs
• We may analyse signs at three levels
• Poietic
• Neutral
• Esthesic