Before this project had begun to take form I had been wondering about the compositional and semiotic possibilities within sacred music. Pärt and Tavener used their own unique minimalist techniques to make their contemplative-sacred atmospheres more vivid; Messiaen applied his own complex musical language for a more celestial and ethereal setting; in Schnittke’s sacred music, a combination of stylistic features described unity from diversity, which is a notably Christian trait (Ephesians 4:1-16). From these influences, I decided to look into the extent of the role of sacred music. This is a brief explanation of the project.
My interest in semantics and semiotics in music has already greatly influenced my work. Regardless of whether one thinks that music is/ is better autonomous or programmatic, the compositional and listening processes are still affected by the way one approaches music in these ways. For example, a mathematical compositional process will result with different sounds and perceptions of sounds (when the listener is told of the process) than one that involves ‘describing the sea’. Music conveys something, even if that something is itself or elements within itself.
This project is more to do with the extra-musical, although rather than using one signified element there will be two (look to ‘Polysemiotic Representationism’); these will be the sacred text of a mass and a chronological series of events in the Bible. The aim is not necessarily that both elements are successfully portrayed in the music, but rather to find how the compositional process and perception of the music are affected. Of course, the words will not be the ‘servant to the music’, so I will do my best to keep their integrity regardless of the processes used.
The image supplied in today’s post is a part of the plan. What is shown is a collection of associations that I made between points of the Bible and (what I feel are) appropriate points in the text. These connections are the basis for how the music at each phrase and word will be treated, where I will use representationism to range from subtle to obvious.
Similar to the oratorios of Handel, this piece will take Biblical imagery as the theme for this sacred work. The addition of jazz to this project seems to be an obscure one, with questions of purpose and stylistic ontology seemingly muddying my proposed objective. Therefore, I will expand on this in the next post.
Polydoxical Music 