TY - GEN T1 - The sense of music : semiotic essays A1 - Monelle, Raymond, 1937-2010 LA - English PP - Princeton, N.J. PB - Princeton University Press YR - 2000 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_eba_ocm52256483 AB - The fictional Dr. Strabismus sets out to write a new comprehensive theory of music. But music's tendency to deconstruct itself combined with the complexities of postmodernism doom him to failure. This is the parable that frames The Sense of Music, a novel treatment of music theory that reinterprets the modern history of Western music in the terms of semiotics. Based on the assumption that music cannot be described without reference to its meaning, Raymond Monelle proposes that works of the Western classical tradition be analyzed in terms of temporality, subjectivity, and topic theory. Critical of the abstract analysis of musical scores, Monelle argues that the score does not reveal music's sense. That sense--what a piece of music says and signifies--can be understood only with reference to history, culture, and the other arts. Thus, music is meaningful in that it signifies cultural temporalities and themes, from the traditional manly heroism of the hunt to military power to postmodern "polyvocality."This theoretical innovation allows Monelle to describe how the Classical style of the eighteenth century--which he reads as a balance of lyric and progressive time--gave way to the Romantic need for emotional realism. He argues that irony and ambiguity subsequently eroded the domination of personal emotion in Western music as well as literature, killing the composer's subjectivity with that of the author. This leaves Dr. Strabismus suffering from the postmodern condition, and Raymond Monelle with an exciting, controversial new approach to understanding music and its history OP - 248 CN - ML3838 .M692 2000eb SN - 1400814472 SN - 9781400814473 SN - 1282790021 SN - 9781282790025 SN - 9781400824038 SN - 1400824036 SN - 9780691057156 SN - 9780691057163 SN - 069105715X SN - 0691057168 KW - Music : Semiotics. KW - Sémiotique et musique. KW - MUSIC : Reference. KW - MUSIC : Genres & Styles : Classical. KW - Music : Semiotics ER -