Signification in the minimal units of musical discourse
Rossana Dalmonte · Contemporary Music Review · 1998
Signification processes are focused by analyzing the minimal units of musical discourse, i.e. the note and the interval. After discussing the theoretical difference between verbal semantics and musical signification, a table is drawn in which “note” and “interval” are related to corresponding units of signification. The theoretical presupposition underlying the process is that the musical parameters (pitch, duration, intensity, timbre) and the position covered by the note in the metrical, tonal, and chordal systems activate in the mind of the listener not only emotive impressions, but also aspects of extramusical experience. Since the latter are associated with cognitive categories (time, space, dynamics) and with sensorial common experiences, such as brightness, roughness, sweetness etc., it is possible to bring out a stable and non-ambiguous relation between units of the signifier and units of the signified.