Cognitive theories of musical meaning
Roger A. Kendall, Edward C. Carterette · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 1999
In this age of computer-based multimedia, it is useful to have a theoretical basis for combining audio and visual elements. Leonard Meyer (1956) discussed three primary types of musical meaning: referentialism, the arbitrary association of a musical event with a meaning outside of the music itself; formalism, the meanings in music arising from explicit knowledge about the formal structure of music; expressionism, meanings that arise from the tensions and releases embodied within the music itself. A similar model is suggested by Charles Peirce: index, parallel to Meyer’s ‘‘referentialism;’’ icon, in which musical patterns suggest connections to nonmusical frames of reference; symbol, similar to Meyer’s ‘‘expressionism.’’ It is clear that for either iconic or indexical meaning to be communicated, one must first apprehend the syntactical, ‘‘embodied meaning.’’ Therefore, the tripartite taxonomical categories outlined above are not discrete and orthogonal. It is best to conceive of musical meaning as existing along a continuum from areferential (syntactical) to referential. Since the visual frame of reference can also be mapped onto this continuum, a useful model for the interaction of audio and visual elements in film, dance, and animation arises. Audio-visual examples will illustrate the dynamic unfolding of meanings suggested by the model.