Semiotics of Music 1

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Subject guarantor:

Roman DYKAST

Name of lecturer(s):

Roman DYKAST

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

Introduction to issues of music importance and purpose.

Mode of study:

Lectures supplemented by topic examples.

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

Completion of Aesthetics.

Recommended optional programme components:

No elective requirements.

Course contents:

Art as a system of signs. Researching the mechanisms by which man gives sense to the world, which surrounds him and at the same time that sense communicates not only through language but also through artistic expression. How does music communicate, communicate feelings and emotions? To what measure can extra-musical content express itself.

The central concept of general and music semiotics is the sign. In the introductory lesson students are introduced to the history and present of sign theory. An emphasis is placed on today's generally accepted Pierce classification of signs from the perspective of contemporary sign theory, which can largely be applied to the concepts of individual arts as sign systems. The presentation is combined with readings and interpretations of writings on general and music semiotics which are listed in the course literature. Basic questions such as „what music expresses“ are presented through the considerations of Leonard Bernstein (screening of a TV recorded program for youth from 1959). Bernstein's critical thoughts on some historical and contemporary aspects of the alleged ability of music to express extra-musical content of a literary or fine arts work, etc, are compared with the critical development of opinions of those issues in representatives of so called formalistic aesthetics (in particular E. Hanslick) and the new-Kantian school of „symbolic forms“ (in particular S. Langer). The current devleopment of the discipline is demonstrated, particularly, in the handling of the issue of emotion and music - one of the most current topics of contemporary music asethetics. The influence of classical rhetoric on one of the basic models for the rise of modern arts is demonstrated on the joining of music, verbal, gestural, mimic and movement expression tools in artistic works of the last approximately 500 years. The shift in aesthetic effects is presented in artistic material of various style periods, which have occured in relation to the artistic work as a sign system and the range of its importance communicated by the author through it to the receiver. Lectures with this reference to period „idea“ connection of various arts demonstrates the current issue in the implementation of an artistic works which are a collection of several types of art (particularly Opera, ballet and pantomime) and always belong to a particular historical thought framework in which the expression means were generated and had a defined (meaning, expression, affect or ethos) intention. The enduring topics of discussion in course classes: How much does today's student understand of the meaning which the period creator connected in the used of expression tools? Where is the border between conventional and natural expression tools? How quickly should the development of art, in the changes of expression tools, be so that arts and the receive understand each other?, etc...

Recommended or required reading:

Bernstein, Leonard: Co vyjadřuje hudba? In: O hudbě. Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, Praha 1996, s. 13?35.

Dykast, Roman: Symbolická forma v hudbě. In: Sborník ?K aktuálním otázkám hudební teorie?. HAMU, Praha 2000, s. 124-130.

Dykast, Roman: Hudba věku melancholie. Togga, Praha 2005.

Eco, Umberto: Sémiotika divadelního představení. In: Dramatické umění 1988, č. 2, s.44-53.

Eco, Umberto: Teorie sémiotiky. JAMU, Brno 2004.

Eggebrecht, Hans H.: Hudba a krásno. Lidové noviny, Praha 2001.

Godár, Vladimír: Kacírske quodlibety. Music Forum, Bratislava 2000.

Hanslick, Eduard: O hudebním krásnu. Praha 1973.

Chailley, Jacques: 40000 let hudby. SNKLHU, Praha 1965.

Jiránek, Jaroslav: Hudební sémantika a sémiotika. Olomouc 1996.

Kaden, Christian: Prolegomena k jedné sémiotice hudby. In: Hudební věda 18, 1981, č. 3, s. 238?257.

Karbusický, Vladimír: Tvar a význam v hudbě. In: Hudební věda XXX, 1993, č. 4, s.299-330.

Kneif, Tibor: Hudba a znaky. Aspekty neexistující hudební sémiotiky. In: Hudební rozhledy 25, 1972, s. 230?232.

Kresánek, Jozef: Základy hudobného myslenia. Bratislava 1977.

Langerová, Susanne K.: O významovosti v hudbe. Genéza umeleckého zmyslu. Bratislava 1998.

Meyer, Leonard B.: Emotion and Meaning. Chicago 1956.

Nattiez, Jean-Jacques: Fondements d?une sémiologie de la musique. Paris 1975.

Osolsobě, Ivo: Jméno Eco a sémiotické záhady divadla. In: Dramatické umění 1988, č. 3, s.37-45.

Sychra, Antonín: Impresionismus a exprese v hudbě. Praha 1990.

Vičar, Jan: ?Zápisník zmizelého? Leoše Janáčka. In: Hudební věda 33, 1996, č. 3, s. 203?232.

Vičar, Jan?Dykast, Roman: Hudební estetika. HAMU, Praha 1998, 20012.

Volek, Jaroslav: Hudební struktura jako znak a hudba jako znakový systém. In: Opus musicum 1981, č.5, 6 a 10.

Základy hudební sémiotiky (Fukač-Jiránek-Poledňák-Volek). Sv. I?III. Brno 1992.

Zich Jaroslav: Kapitoly a studie z hudební estetiky (Sdělovací schopnost hudby). Supraphon, Praha 1987.

Planned learning activities and teaching methods:

Lecture

Assessment methods and criteria:

Credit exam over the lecture material and a selection of the recommended literature.

Course web page:

Note:

none

Schedule for winter semester 2014/2015:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2014/2015:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Pantomime (Mg) (compulsory optional subject)