Translate this page:
Please select your language to translate the article


You can just close the window to don't translate
Library
Your profile

Back to contents

PHILHARMONICA. International Music Journal
Reference:

V.N. Kholopova The Three Sides of Musical Content

Abstract: The object of research in this article is musical content, examined in light of one of the new Russian theories of musical content and in light of analysis of the musical practice itself under the angle of this theory. The examined theory reveals the presence in music of three categories of content, named here as emotion, depiction and symbolism. The examined practice covers the main historical periods of the Early Modern and Contemporary Era – the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and 20th Century periods. The object of attention in them consists only of the so-called “serious” academic classical music – operas, symphonies, concertos, oratorios and chamber music – but not folk or popular songs. The methodology of research is connected with semiotics or, to be precise, with the triad of signs developed by Charles Peirce – the icon, index and symbol, – which are interpreted by the author of the article as emotion, depiction and symbol. The conclusions arrived at in the research are as follows: in each historical time period there exists a distinct, individual correlation of the three sides of musical content – in the Baroque period all three of them stand on an equally high level, in Classicism emotions prevail, whereas depiction and symbolism are of secondary importance, in Romanticism emotions reach an apogee, depiction is activated to a greater level in the second half of the 19th century, whereas symbolism is of minor importance, while in the 20th century symbolism takes a primary position, emotions are brought to their extreme stages, while depiction is of minor importance. The novelty of the research consists in laying out a sturdy semiotic foundation for the method of the “three sides (categories) of musical content” and in bringing out conclusions about the comparative correlation of the most important musical historical time periods according to their content.


Keywords:

musical content, Baroque, Classicism, Romanticism, 20th century, icon, index, symbol, emotion, depiction


This article can be downloaded freely in PDF format for reading. Download article


References
1. Berlioz, H. O podrazhanii v muzyke [On Imitation in Music] //Berlioz H. Izbrannye statyi [Selected Articles]. Moscow, 1956.
2. Glinka, M.I. Literaturnye proizvedeinya i perepiska [Literary Works and Correspondence]. Vol.1, Moscow,1973.
3. Diletsky, N. Ideya grammatiki musikiyskoy. [The Concept of Musical Grammar] Publication, research and commentaries by Vladimir Protopopov. Moscow, 1979.
4. Kirillina, L. Klassicheskiy stil v muzyke XVIII – nachala XIX vekov [The Classical Style in 18th and Early 19th Century Music]. Moscow,1996.
5. Couperin, F. Iskusstvo igry na klavesine [L’Art de Toucher le Clavecin]. Moscow,1973.
6. Metrin, E. “Smeshannye chuvstva” Roberta Shumana [“The Mixed Feelings” of Robert Schumann // Muzykal’noye soderzhaniye: nauka i pedagogika [Musical Content: Scholarship and Pedagogy]. Moscow – Ufa, 2002.
7. Muzykal’naya estetika Zapadnoy Yevropy XVII-XVIII vekov [The Musical Aesthetics of Western Europe in the 17th and 18th Centuries]. Moscow,1971.
8. Nosina V.B. Simvolika muzyki I.S. Baha [The Symbolism of J.S. Bach’s Music]. Moscow, 2004.
9. Odoyevsky V.F. Sochineniya v dvukh tomakh [Works in 2 Volumes]. Vol.1. Moscow,1981.
10. Samvelyan T.E. Polizhanrovost’ v fortepiannykh proizvedeniyakh Shopena [The Poly-Genre Features in Piano Compositions by Chopin]. Dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Arts. Moscow, 2000.
11. Tolstoy, L.N. Polnîye sobraniye sochineniy v 22 tomakh [Complete Works in 22 Volumes]. Vol. 22. Diaries from 1895-1910. Moscow,1985.
12. Kholopova, V. Kak nazvat’ 20 vek v muzyke? [How to Label the 20th Century in Music] // Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Ruchyevskaya. K 90-letiyu so dnya rozhdeniya [Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Ruchyevskaya. Towards the 90th Anniversary of Her Birth. St. Petersburg, 2013.
13. Kholopova, V.N. Muzykal’nye emotsii [Musical Emotions]. Moscow, 2010, 2012.
14. Kholopova, V.N. Formy muzykal’nykh proizvedeniy [Form of Musical Compositions]. St. Petersburg, 2013.
15. Kircher A. Musurgia universalis. Roma, 1650.
16. Peirce C.S. Collected Papers. Ed. by C.Hartshorne and P.Weiss, Arthur W.Burks. Vol.1-8. Cambridge –Mass, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1965-1967.
17. Walther J.G. Musicalisches Lexicon, oder musicalische Bibliothec. Leipzig, 1732.