THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE

Is it possible to communicate through music? Does the music communicate something in particular? Is music like the message in a bottle – the meaning wrapped in the envelope of a form? Who would be the recipient of the „musical message” in this case – one, many, all of humanity, as in the IV parts of...

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Main Author: Oleg GARAZ
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Babeș-Bolyai University 2023-07-01
Series:Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Musica
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.studia.ubbcluj.ro/download/pdf/musica/2023_SpIss1/05.pdf
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author Oleg GARAZ
author_facet Oleg GARAZ
author_sort Oleg GARAZ
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description Is it possible to communicate through music? Does the music communicate something in particular? Is music like the message in a bottle – the meaning wrapped in the envelope of a form? Who would be the recipient of the „musical message” in this case – one, many, all of humanity, as in the IV parts of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? Or maybe just Captain Grant’s children? And how pertinent is the extrapolation of notional-discursive schema and logic to music as Mattheson did in Der Vollkommene Kapellmeister? Because this phrase – the message of music – immediately refers to both the „suggestive” neutrality of musical sounds and the „emotional” irrelevance of the relationships between them. Sounds are just sounds. Is a chord the analogy of the word, the melody the analogy of the phrase, and a whole articulation the substitute of a speech? Is music a language? Or, indeed, being both sonorous, but also processual and symbolic, just like spoken language, music does not connote in the same way. And if the language has prescribed references, then music does not. A chord, a melody, let alone a counterpoint, have no predetermined meaning, not even one resembling a notional one, even after the performance is over. Should the composer first be a very good connoisseur of human emotional behavior rather than a very good musician? Or, perhaps, a simple postman, as in the famous song of the Beatles?
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spelling doaj.art-0010564053e7475081a6ecb34dc9f3162023-11-02T10:00:52ZengBabeș-Bolyai UniversityStudia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Musica1844-43692065-96282023-07-0168Special Issue 16984https://doi.org/10.24193/subbmusica.2023.spiss1.056190THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTUREOleg GARAZ0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3285-3396"Gheorghe Dima" National Academy of Music, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Email: oleg.garaz@gmail.comIs it possible to communicate through music? Does the music communicate something in particular? Is music like the message in a bottle – the meaning wrapped in the envelope of a form? Who would be the recipient of the „musical message” in this case – one, many, all of humanity, as in the IV parts of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? Or maybe just Captain Grant’s children? And how pertinent is the extrapolation of notional-discursive schema and logic to music as Mattheson did in Der Vollkommene Kapellmeister? Because this phrase – the message of music – immediately refers to both the „suggestive” neutrality of musical sounds and the „emotional” irrelevance of the relationships between them. Sounds are just sounds. Is a chord the analogy of the word, the melody the analogy of the phrase, and a whole articulation the substitute of a speech? Is music a language? Or, indeed, being both sonorous, but also processual and symbolic, just like spoken language, music does not connote in the same way. And if the language has prescribed references, then music does not. A chord, a melody, let alone a counterpoint, have no predetermined meaning, not even one resembling a notional one, even after the performance is over. Should the composer first be a very good connoisseur of human emotional behavior rather than a very good musician? Or, perhaps, a simple postman, as in the famous song of the Beatles?http://www.studia.ubbcluj.ro/download/pdf/musica/2023_SpIss1/05.pdfmessagecommunicationlanguageconnotationsymbolprocessmusic
spellingShingle Oleg GARAZ
THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE
Studia Universitatis Babeş-Bolyai. Musica
message
communication
language
connotation
symbol
process
music
title THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE
title_full THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE
title_fullStr THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE
title_full_unstemmed THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE
title_short THE QUESTION OF THE MUSICAL MESSAGE. THE SEMANTIC CAPACITY OF THE EXPRESSIVE STRUCTURE
title_sort question of the musical message the semantic capacity of the expressive structure
topic message
communication
language
connotation
symbol
process
music
url http://www.studia.ubbcluj.ro/download/pdf/musica/2023_SpIss1/05.pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT oleggaraz thequestionofthemusicalmessagethesemanticcapacityoftheexpressivestructure
AT oleggaraz questionofthemusicalmessagethesemanticcapacityoftheexpressivestructure