Introversive semiosis

As a sequel to extroversive semiosis, we have introversive semiosis (if you have not read the previous post, I invite you to do so). This was Kofi Agawu’s definition: “[i]ntroversive semiosis denotes internal, intramusical reference, both backward and forward, retrospective and prospective” (Agawu 1991, 132). If extroversive semiosis inhabits the space dimension – where meaning is brought about by referring to objects outside the realms of the piece – then introversive semiosis is a linear method that inhabits the time dimension for its reliance on material that has been or will be heard. For example, the ‘Christ’ theme in my composition (which is a musical cryptogram, a topic for another day) is first heard as a melody in the brass at the word ‘Christe’ in the Kyrie movement:

However, it is heard harmonically in the strings at the first bar of the Kyrie:

The strings’ prospective reference to the ‘Christ’ theme was bound by the time dimension of the piece; it was an intramusical reflection and distortion. The reason for this introversive technique was to convey the theological belief that Christ was at the beginning of the creation of the universe.

Introversive semiosis could be used in many other ways, and it has. Any point in a piece that involves the development of any thematic material (melodic, harmonic, structural, etc.) signifies the original theme. However, this is also where the definitions of extroversive and introversive semiosis converge. If a theme is being developed (introversive) so to signify an object outside the piece (extroversive), then the distinctions blur. An example would again be the strings’ prospective implication of the ‘Christ’ theme: the intramusical signified object is the ‘Christ’ theme – later used – in the brass, the extramusical signified object is the doctrine of Christ’s pre-existence (John 1:1-18). Therefore, the strings use both extroversive and introversive semiosis in the same instance.

While this ambiguity might seem to be a reason not to need such binary terms as ‘introversive’ and ‘extroversive’, they still signify the relationship between perceived objectivity/ autonomy and subjectivity in music. When one says a semiotic element is referring to outside the piece, they mean that they interpret there to be a certain reference outside the piece. Evidently, subjectivity is a strong influence in extramusical signification. On the other hand, it is easier to find a reference that stays within the limits of the piece because of our brains’ abilities to recognise patterns. Of course, this does not mean that this process is truly objective or autonomous, though it is also not as dependent on our interpretation of the semiosis than extramusical reference itself. Therefore, the terms are helpful to understand the concepts, though they must be used with caution; this is so one does not inadvertently polarise the distinctions more than they already are polarised.

As was said earlier, I will soon be discussing musical cryptograms, musico-semantic association, and their connections with introversive and extroversive semiosis in my composition and research.

Bibliography

Agawu, Kofi. 1991. Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Extroversive semiosis

Music has often been described with linguistic terms – some would even go as far as to call it a language. Despite its apparent differences between verbal language, it still uses a syntax, a (melodic) vocabulary, phrasing structure, phonology, and many other shared systems. In this blog post, I will show one way that my piece will convey and represent: extroversive semiosis.

Kofi Agawu, using Roman Jakobson’s linguistic approach to semiotics, described extroversive semiosis as anything in music that “denotes external, extramusical, referential connection” (Agawu 1991, 132). An example he gave was that if there was a reference to a style or aesthetic, the music would be referring to a reconetextualised historical style where the style is outside the domain of the piece; my own macro (rather than specific) example is my composition’s reference to Jazz and sacred aesthetics, as well as their historical relationship with each other. Also, the above tapestry refers to an Ancient Egyptian event in time, a reference outside of the materials, colours, and textures of the tapestry itself.

A micro example would be the use of fugal technique in the Kyrie part of my mass. I begin with a reharmonised and paraphrased tune of For the Beauty of the Earth by Conrad Kocher (1967), sung by the first sopranos:

The first sopranos carry on in counterpoint to the second sopranos, where the harmony modulates briefly to the dominant – the theme is again paraphrased:

There are four more introductions of voices with harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic alterations to the original theme, after which the brass section also plays an altered version of the theme. The stimulus for this process was the six days of creation – six introductions of voices – and a seventh rest day – brass soli.

By combining sacred (mass text and hymn material), art music (fugue), and jazz techniques (concerted voicing [potentially a combination of close 4 and drop-2 voicing], reharmonisation, and paraphrasing), the music is not only intended to signify the first part of Genesis. Once an audience-member recognizes a relationship between the styles within the music, they are given an opportunity to connect/ correlate this with the historical relationship between the different styles – in this case, when the styles have interacted cohesively.

Now, how the audience interprets the actual sounds is another matter; it is possible that they do not interpret two signified elements (Genesis and the historical relationship between sacred music/ art music/ jazz) as they were used in the compositional process. The point is that the combination of different signified elements is what developed the compositional process, not to affirm the autonomy of the semiotic elements in this piece.

Previously I wrote about the polydoxy of musical purpose, which is also what I plan to convey and critique in this composition. The intention is to display multiple ‘ideas’ within a realm, where the ‘ideas’ are the signified elements in the music and the realm is the compositional material. Jazz, sacred music, and art music aesthetics are chosen for this piece because a microcosm of musical polydoxy is presented for listeners to review musical polydoxy. Therefore, the use of polysemiotic representationalism is a musical application of the polydox.

In my next post, I will discuss the use of Kofi Agawu’s ‘introversive semiosis’ in my composition, as well as the malleability and convergence of Agawu’s semiotic terms.

Bibliography

Agawu, Kofi. 1991. Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Kocher, Conrad. 1967. “For the Beauty of the Earth.” In Favorite Hymns of Praise, 457. Wheaton: Hope Publishing Company.

The polydoxy of musical purpose

Recently, I found two videos recommended to me on YouTube; one was called ‘Haydn killed by cell phone’ and the other was ‘Brushy One String – Chicken in The Corn (Official Video)’ (Göteborgs Symfoniker 2013, Brushy One String 2013). I had seen the videos before, and it was their juxtaposition and relevance to my research caught my eye. The main similarity was that they both involved performances, though the disparities were more pronounced.

The first video involved a segment of a performance of Haydn’s piano concerto in D major, where a mobile rang and interrupted the piece. The pianist, Christian Zacharias, then explained in an interview why he stopped the performance, saying that “if you see [the audience not concentrating on the music] it kills everything that [the music] is about […] the least you can do [is stay] there in silence” (Göteborgs Symfoniker 2013). The tradition of silence in audience etiquette for art music is a relatively recent one (Snowman 2009, 159, Wagener 2012, 1f); this tradition follows from the idea that the sounds in a performance are expected to take precedence over the context of the music. So, the increased likelihood of the audience’s appreciation of the sounds more than the music’s context, and the familiarity of working with such a common aesthetic, is what contextualises – not produces – the enjoyment of the music for Zacharias and others. However, this is not a historically or societally universal aesthetic.

This can be seen in Brushy’s video. For Brushy and his friends, the freedom of the relationship between the performer and listener created a relaxed setting, which in turn allowed them to join in when they pleased; this broke down the performer-audience distinction. The context to the music in the performance was more prominent than art music etiquette because improvisation and performer-audience interaction were focussed on more than the specifics of sounds (e.g. precise articulations, etc.) and the location of musical concentration (i.e. the ‘music element’ comes mostly from Brushy whilst his friends occasionally join in). This other aesthetic approach to performance is popular with many people, including those in the comment section that expressed opinions like “This is what music is about. [L]etting loose, [g]rooving, and having fun” (Brushy One String 2013).

Even though both videos endorse two different aesthetic approaches to the relationship between the audience and the art, they don’t invalidate each other. The listener’s understanding of context – be it performative, historical, and/or compositional – to the particular music is part of appreciating it. The spectator and audience will always have a mindset before any performance, no matter if it’s Ferneyhough or funk.

So, this is where my creative research project comes in. If I were to take the previous paragraph and expand it, it would be thus: the multiplicity of opinion on the purpose and ontology of music does not devaluate the views themselves. Rather, the multiplicity shows that music is important to many and the variety of opinion shows how evident the matter is to people. It is the existence of these views that promotes that musical performance has purpose and definition, which is then furthered by the standardisations of certain performer-audience mindsets and relationships. Therefore, the current polydoxical nature of musical purpose is very much part of the definition of what music “is about” because of the variety of music styles, contexts, and performer-audience relationships.

My next post will cover some of the compositional techniques used in ‘Jazz Bible-Mass’, as well as the relevance of polydoxical musical purpose in these techniques.

Bibliography

Brushy One String. 2013. Brushy One String – Chicken in The Corn (Official Video). March 20. Accessed December 28, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8H-67ILaqc.

Göteborgs Symfoniker. 2013. Haydn killed by cell phone. October 24. Accessed December 28, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAaU8yPXA1A.

Snowman, Daniel. 2009. The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera. London: Atlantic Books.

Wagener, Andreas. 2012. Why Do People (Not) Cough in Concerts? The Economics of Concert Etiquette . Hannover: University of Hannover.

Jazz?

In my previous post I talked about the use of sacred music in my current project; I also said that I would be using jazz techniques. On the face of it it would seem a random choice, though I will define its existence and purpose in the context of my piece.

Art music, jazz, and ‘holy’ music have had conversation with each other in the 20th and 21st centuries. Besides the art-sacred composers previously mentioned (look to ‘Jazz-Bible Mass’), Jazz composers have also made their own contributions to sacred music, such as Mary Lou Williams’ Mary Lou’s Mass, Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, or John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme.

Jazz also had an influence in art music. The popularity of the art-jazz crossover has been increasing in contemporary music, where composers like John Taylor – who, among other things, used extended piano techniques and jazz syncopation/ harmony – and Eberhard Weber – who, among other things, combined minimalism and jazz phrasing/ complex modes – have set up new sensibilities in the tradition of chamber music.

However, it could be argued that the influence has also worked vice versa. Bill Evans’ classical training continued to impact his style (Reilly 1993). The avant-guarde and virtuosic style of Chick Corea showed off his classical interests, with his compositional complexity similar to that of Bach’s (Cal Vid 2013).

Having seen how these musics have influenced each other, I am now trying to convey the fluctuating relationship between these musical styles in my project. Language and semiotics are the basis of this blog, hence – for this project – I am:

• Using this mass to allude to and quote previous composers’ pieces that resulted from the combination of these compositional styles
• Finding out how conveyance can used in a combination of the three musics
• Looking into how else the compositional techniques of the three musics can work together and ‘speak’ with each other within the piece

Now, the definition of ‘swing’. Most definitions of jazz include references to syncopation, improvisation, swung rhythm, and extended harmony, normally with some sense of a ‘moving’ rhythm. However, as Gunther Schuller pointed out, if one were to follow the common definition of jazz one could end up at its derivatives rather than itself (1989, 198). Jazz, as a genre, is very difficult to define because of how vast it is. However, jazz can be defined by its historical, social, and performance contexts, even if this definition doesn’t seem so objective. So, I am borrowing techniques and phrases from swing composers to make clearer the existence of jazz in my piece.

It is possible to argue that my resultant piece is not ‘jazz’. My type of approach to this composition seems more academic than soulful. In researching about how different people define jazz, sacred music, or art music, I am also trying to work out the aesthetics of the interstylistic regions. The reason I call this a ‘Jazz Bible-Mass’ rather than ‘Bible-Mass with influences from jazz’ is because I want the impulsiveness – not necessarily improvisation, though this will also have a key role – of jazz to evoke the extralinguistic and spontaneous imagery that is normally associated with the praising of God.

Currently, I’m working on the themes and skeleton score of the piece, though I will show what I have soon.

Bibliography

Cal Vid. 2013. Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Gilmore – Bach Live 2013. August 14. Accessed December 28, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1JIU4BRE94.

Schuller, Gunther. 1989. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Reilly, Jack. The Harmony of Bill Evans. Brooklyn: Unichrom, 1993.

Jazz Bible-Mass

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.

Polysemiotic representationism

Whilst the title of this post might seem like gratuitous word-mangling, it is in fact an apt topic with regards to this blog. Simply put, polysemiotic representationalism is the idea of representing multiple signs, symbols, or meanings, normally via one signifier.

The above image is from a previous composition of mine called ‘Childhood’s End’; it was based on a book of the same name by Arthur C. Clarke. The premise for the compositional process was for the music to represent both the general story line of the book and the evolution of humanity as written in the book. This was made into a structure thus (spoilers):

Section A. In the storyline there is the Cold War, humanity, violence, poverty, and imperfection. In evolution there is basic matter, the big bang explosion, and chemical reactions.

Section B. In the storyline there is the arrival of the overlords, there are large spaceships, a large alien race, and the gradual development of a better political system for humanity. In evolution there are simple organisms and the primordial soup.

Section C. In the storyline there are the “evil-looking” overlords, downfall of the last generation of homosapien humanity, suicide, and inevitable deaths. In evolution there are humans and mammals, there is self-awareness, complex cognitive behaviour, and entropy.

Section D. In the storyline the children synchronise with the Overmind, there is togetherness, they no longer look ‘human’, fulfilment. In the evolutionary storyline there is the newly-evolved humanity or Overmind, it is beyond comprehension and unrecognisable.

The four sections of the composition were based on a combination of timelines; this meant having to console certain aspects of the two timelines so that the music could cogently represent the attributes of both timelines.

This led me to query how the listener would respond to the music, regardless of the compositional process. It is very possible to have a disparity between the (programmatic) composer’s intended meaning(s) and the resultant interpretation from the listener, but I wanted this semantic interpretation to be integral to the composition. Therefore, the interpretation is intended to be free for the listener to interpret the composition as they wish – including the title.

It was this composition that inspired me to start this blog and line of inquiry, which in turn started my idea for my next composition, ‘Jazz Bible-Mass’; the details of this will unfold soon.