Approaches to Meaning in Music

by Byron Almen (Editor), Edward Pearsall (Editor)

Overview

Approaches to Meaning in Music presents a survey of the problems and
issues inherent in pursuing meaning and signification in music, and attempts to
rectify the conundrums that have plagued philosophers, artists, and theorists since
the time of Pythagoras. This collection brings together essays that reflect a
variety of diverse perspectives on approaches to musical meaning. Established music
theorists and musicologists cover topics including musical aspect and temporality,
collage, borrowing and association, musical symbols and creative mythopoesis, the
articulation of silence, the mutual interaction of cultural and music-artistic
phenomena, and the analysis of gesture.

Contributors are Byron
Almén, J. Peter Burkholder, Nicholas Cook, Robert S. Hatten, Patrick McCreless,
Jann Pasler, and Edward Pearsall.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253112194
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	11/01/2006
Series:	Musical Meaning and Interpretation
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Byron Almén is Assistant Professor of Music Theory at The University of
Texas at Austin and an accomplished pianist and organist.

Edward
Pearsall is Assistant Professor of Music at The University of Texas at Austin and is
known internationally as a performer, composer, and scholar.

Table of Contents

<FMO>Contents<\>
1. The Divining
Rod: On Imagination, Interpretation, and Analysis Edward Pearsall and Byron
Almén
2. Anatomy of a Gesture: From Davidovsky to Chopin and Back Patrick
McCreless
3. Anti-Teleological Art: Articulating Meaning through Silence
Edward Pearsall
4. The Troping of Temporality in Music Robert S.
Hatten
5. A Simple Model for Associative Musical Meaning J. Peter
Burkholder
6. Uncanny Moments: Juxtaposition and the Collage Principle in
Music Nicholas Cook
7. The Sacrificed Hero: Creative Mythopoesis in
Mahler's Wunderhorn Symphonies Byron Almén
8. Contingencies of Meaning in
Transcriptions and Excerpts: Popularizing Samson et Dalila Jann
Pasler
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

These seven essays consider musical meaning, and problems attendant in any examination of musical meaning, from diverse perspectives. . . . Given the participants' credentials, one would expect a provocative, challenging effort. The book does not disappoint, and several contributions seem destined to shift the scholarly discourse in new directions. . . . Summing Up: Highly recommended. Large collections supporting work at the upper-division undergraduate level and above.

Choice