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Musical semiology

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lightbulbAbout this topic
Musical semiology is the study of signs and symbols in music, focusing on how meaning is constructed and communicated through musical elements. It examines the relationships between musical notation, performance, and interpretation, drawing on theories from linguistics, semiotics, and cultural studies to analyze the significance of musical practices.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Musical semiology is the study of signs and symbols in music, focusing on how meaning is constructed and communicated through musical elements. It examines the relationships between musical notation, performance, and interpretation, drawing on theories from linguistics, semiotics, and cultural studies to analyze the significance of musical practices.

Key research themes

1. How does pluralism inform the conceptualization of music and its semiotic interpretation in scientific inquiry?

This research area investigates the diverse and sometimes conflicting conceptions of music arising from multiple scientific disciplines. It emphasizes pluralism as a framework that acknowledges complementary and antagonistic definitions of music, suggesting that no single definition is universally applicable. Within musical semiology, this plurality impacts how music is studied, modeled, and interpreted across contexts, highlighting the need to integrate distinct semiotic approaches tied to diverse research agendas.

Key finding: The authors argue for a pluralistic conception of music, demonstrating that scientific inquiries reveal multiple legitimate, context-dependent definitions of music. This pluralism is essential to properly account for semiotic... Read more
Key finding: Tagg highlights the limitations of conventional musicology that narrowly focuses on classical music and neglects the semiotic complexities of popular music. The paper underscores the necessity of a semiotic framework adapted... Read more
Key finding: This work develops a semiotic theory based on Peirce’s triadic sign model, proposing that musical signs exist within a network of potential intersemic relationships activated during performance and reception. The study... Read more

2. What are the roles of structure, context, and listener interaction in the generation of musical meaning within semiotic frameworks?

This theme explores the interaction between musical structures (such as melody, harmony, and notation), the cultural and historical contexts of music, and the active interpretative role of listeners or performers in meaning-making processes. It challenges structuralist views that locate meaning solely within musical objects, emphasizing instead the dynamic, relational, and subjective dimensions of musical semiosis that arise through listener engagement, cognitive framing, and socio-cultural factors.

Key finding: The author critiques the modernist assumption that musical meaning resides purely in structural elements, arguing instead that meaning emerges from the relationship between the musical work and its subjective human listeners.... Read more
Key finding: This analysis applies a semiological model combining text and context to a popular music case, showing that meaning arises not only from structural musical elements but also through cultural codes, stylistic conventions, and... Read more
Key finding: Focusing on medieval musical notation, this paper reveals how specific semiotic signs—such as semitonic neumes—encode pitch information that mediates both structure and interpretation of chant melody. The study shows how... Read more

3. How do philosophical and interdisciplinary approaches advance the understanding of music semiotics and its cognitive, cultural, and ethical dimensions?

This research theme investigates how philosophical frameworks, cognitive science findings, historical perspectives, and interdisciplinary methods contribute to the theory and practice of musical semiology. It includes examining music’s ethical implications, its evolutionary and human-specific cognitive adaptations, semiotic relations beyond language, and reflexivity in semiotic and analytical frameworks. Such diverse approaches enrich the interpretative and theoretical scope of musical semiotics.

Key finding: The work provides an extensive philosophical foundation for semiotics as the scientific study of signs across human and nonhuman domains, emphasizing triadic relations that enable semiosis and communication. It distinguishes... Read more
Key finding: This collection synthesizes semiotic inquiry with cognitive science, philosophy, and cultural studies to demonstrate music’s embodied, experiential, and intermedial nature. It articulates how tonality recognition is a... Read more
Key finding: By examining C.S. Peirce’s graphical logic and attempts to develop propositive logics using sound, this paper critiques and extends the scope of logic beyond visual notation, stimulating analogies to musical semiosis. It... Read more
Key finding: This essay situates noise as a culturally constructed semiotic strategy that challenges dominant musical and social norms, particularly in relation to hegemonic gender and sexuality. Through analysis of works by John Cage and... Read more

All papers in Musical semiology

We, the editors, thought it would be interesting for readers to hear from the dedicatee of this volume himself. We posed several questions to Kevin Korsyn and asked him to respond. Our correspondence unfolded as follows. In Decentering... more
Las manifestaciones músico-danzarias de tradición oral tienen una importante participación en la investigación musical en Colombia. No obstante, los actuales desencuentros entre “informantes” e “investigadores” demuestran que la disputa... more
This research aims to seek clarity from a historical perspective to trace back the transmission and the remains of Gregorian chants in eastern Indonesia. This study also seeks clarity from a historical perspective to trace back the... more
Étude de quelques procédés utiles à restituer une interprétation rythmique du répertoire des antiennes Romaines et Ambrosiennes.
Conférence tenue lors du colloque organisé à Montréal par l'Institut Grégorien du Canada, le 22 juin 2024
El lector tiene en sus manos 15 estudios para instrumentos de cuerdas pulsadas: nueve para guitarra, tres para cuatro y tres para bandola llanera. El propósito de estas piezas es brindar material para el estudio de algunos elementos... more
In`The Concept of Unity and Musical Analysis', Robert Morgan examines doctrines expressed by five writers on music: Kofi Agawu, Daniel Chua, Joseph Dubiel, Jonathan Kramer and me. We all stand accused of the same heresy, a lapse in... more
Cet article propose une approche grammaticale générative musicale du répons de l’Alleluia Ave Maria qui relève de la tradition du chant grégorien, et ce, en implé-mentant la procédure de modélisation propre à la sémiotique modale. Or, si... more
Investigar a través de las artes populares. Guía Introductoria
70 This is Chailley"s conclusion; see Table 3-1. 71 The case for Martial's apostolicity was favorably resolved after the Cluny takeover of St. Martial in 1063.
Sobre, para o desde la música: reflexiones acerca de la producción intelectual de los músicos en la universidad bogotana Research about Music, for Music or from the Practice of Music: A Reflection on the Intellectual Production of... more
Solange Corbin et les débuts de la musicologie médiévale Christelle Cazaux-Kowalsk, Jean Gribenski et Isabelle His (dir.) 2015 Presses universitaires de Rennes www.pur-editions.fr
Johannes de Afflighem (Ici sur TML) fait une liste des « erreurs » commis, selon lui, par divers chantres de son temps. Cette liste est en réalité très utile pour retrouver les versions primitives d'un grand nombre de chants ayant subi... more
Sobre, para o desde la música: reflexiones acerca de la producción intelectual de los músicos en la universidad bogotana Research about Music, for Music or from the Practice of Music: A Reflection on the Intellectual Production of... more
In this article we outline the theoretical background for some of the empirical studies performed within the frame of our respective artistic PhD projects at the Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University. The purpose of the studies... more
The article carries out an approach to some theoretical positions that draw near cultural studies, cultural history and its relationship with plastic and visual arts, in the historiographical analysis of contemporary thinkers that... more
Este artículo se centra en las peculiaridades de las principales muestras de notación musical hispana y aquitana conservadas en los manuscritos litúrgicos peninsulares de los siglos X a mediados del XVI, proponiendo reconsiderar el estado... more
Le chanoine limousin Étienne Maleu († 1322) s’est employé, dans son Liber chronicarum ecclesiae S. Juniani, à retracer l’histoire de son église, la collégiale séculière de Saint-Junien du diocèse de Limoges, de l’an 500 jusqu’en 1316,... more
El artículo realiza una aproximación a algunos planteamientos teóricos que tratan los estudios culturales, la historia cultural y su relación con las artes plásticas y visuales, en el análisis historiográfico de pensadores contemporáneos... more
Throughout the history, musical variants have been mainly considered from two point of view: as an instrument which, in the logic of a critical edition, allows it to restore a hypothetic “authentic” melody; as the concrete mark of a local... more
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 20 avril 2019. Les contenus du Bulletin du centre d'études médiévales d'Auxerre (BUCEMA) sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation... more
Ce document a été généré automatiquement le 2 mai 2019. Les contenus du Bulletin du centre d'études médiévales d'Auxerre (BUCEMA) sont mis à disposition selon les termes de la Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation... more
REMIER NÉ DE LA NOUVELLE COLLECTION DE MUSICAE CULTU dirigée par James Grier chez Brepols, l'ouvrage de Clyde W. Brockett est consacré à l'édition musicale des antiennes de procession. Chaque chant fait donc l'objet d'une transcription à... more
Reflexiones en torno a la improvisación: un análisis comparativo
Bruno Nettl

Sobre la improvisación musical
Philip Alperson

Improvisación
Barry J. Kenny, Martin Gellrich

Cuatro conversaciones sobre improvisación
Pedro Sarmiento
The article is open access. It can be downloaded at http://estudiosmedievales.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosmedievales/article/view/1225/1219 Abstract: This article focuses on the peculiarities of the Old Hispanic and Aquitanian... more
Introdução O presente artigo possui como objetivo precípuo situar a Semiologia no âmbito das relações interpessoais existentes na Indústria Fonográfica, entre criadores e produtores de obras musicais ao longo de todo o processo no qual as... more
Saint-Martial de Limoges. Millénaire de l’abbatiale romane (1018-2018)
sous la direction d’Éliane Vergnolle
Actes du colloque international de Limoges, 29-30 novembre 2018
Jean François Boyer : Canonicalis habitus in monachalem habitum et sanctae religionis vitam mutatur… Bouleversements institutionnels à Saint-Martial de Limoges au printemps 848. D’après les annales contemporaines, au printemps 848, les... more
In view of the popularity it gained by winning last year's Eurosong festival and by the controversial reactions it provoked in the media, the pop ballad Molitva (Prayer) -written by composer Vladimir Graić and lyricist Saša Milošević... more
This essay examines the cultural phenomena of noise in its perceived social constructions and demonstrates its emergence as a form of resistance against prevailing dominant hegemonic codes of culture. In particular, the paper explores the... more
Le Concile de Constance (1414–1418) avait mis fin au Grand Schisme en dépo-sant les trois papes concurrents (deux avaient démissionné spontanément) et en élisant Martin V, un pape enfin reconnu par presque tous les partis. Ce pape avait... more
est bien connu des spécialistes de chant grégorien. Son Introducció a la paleografía musical gregoriana (ci-après : Paleografia musical), parue à Montserrat en 1925, traduite en français en 1935 1 , est le premier « manuel d'érudition »... more
L'écrit et le livre peint en Lorraine, de Saint-Mihiel à Verdun (IXe-XVIe siècles), Actes du colloque de Saint-Mihiel (25-26 octobre 2010), éd. Anne-Orange Poilpré et Marianne Besseyre, Turnhout, Brepols, 2014, p. 253-266.
mis fin au Grand Schisme en déposant les trois papes concurrents (deux avaient démissionné spontanément) et en élisant Martin V, un pape enfin reconnu par presque tous les partis. Ce pape avait toutefois évité d'approuver les décisions... more
El trabajo investigativo “Las Músicas Tradicionales-Urbanas”, se desarrolla como consecuencia del interés por indagar y aportar al conocimiento de la música y su contexto social y cultural en la ciudad de Bogotá. En concreto, este trabajo... more
Este artículo pretende avanzar en la discusión respecto de las condiciones conceptuales e institucionales en que aparece la investigación en artes en el ámbito universitario, específicamente en el campo de la música. Examina la incursión... more
Semiotics (sometimes spelled “semeiotic”) is the name first given by John Locke, and later reprised by Charles S. Peirce, for the “doctrine of signs,” or the study of how some things can stand for other things to still other things. This... more
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