Noema (music)

The noema ( Greek νόημα, noêma the thought, decision, disposition, knowledge or thought content; from nous ) is a musical-rhetorical figure that denotes a homophonic section in a polyphonic composition.

In the literal sense, the noema is the content of thinking, thinking and fantasizing; H. the noema is differentiated from the actually existing object and is therefore an ideal component of the stream of consciousness, whereas the noesis is a real component.

In rhetoric , the noema arises when a certain utterance reveals more than is expressed literally. This is achieved by using a language that differs from the surrounding style of speech and is thus different.

Similar to the rhetorical Noema the musical lifts Noema a specific section of text produced by a deviation from the surrounding of composition (homophonous part in polyphonic piece). The music thus functions as a means of interpreting the text. The homophonic part, which consists of an accumulation of consonances, sounds in a polyphonic context "lovely stimulating and extraordinarily caressing on the ears and mind, ...". (Burmeister) Burmeister also emphasizes that "this ornament, depending on how it designs the sections of the composition, [...] is not recognizable through isolated examples, but from the context of the entire composition ...". He also shows that "the noema always coincides with the textual highlights of the composition". Thuringus also describes the musical noema as "an accumulation of pure concordantiae in one place and is most lovingly attached in motets." However, the resulting emphasis on the text passage is not constituted here. With Susenbrotus a noema happens "when we reveal something cautiously or covertly, which the listener can guess on his own." Susenbrotus' definition of the musical noema is thus very close to the rhetorical definition.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians defines the noema analogously to Burmeister, but also distinguishes 4 types: - Analpsis: two immediately adjacent noemas - Mimesis: two consecutive noemas , the second in a different pitch - Anadiplosis: two consecutive mimesis - anaploce : A repetition of the noema , first in choir A, then in choir B while A pauses

literature

• Dietrich Bartel: Handbook of musical figures . 6th edition. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2010, ISBN 978-3-89007-340-8 (plus dissertation, University of Freiburg / B. 1982).
• Blake Wilson et al. A .: Rhetoric and music . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . London 2001.