Symbol (music)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music, a symbol is a representation of extra-musical meaning made possible by certain composition techniques.

species

Original correspondence
From Monteverdi's vespers of Mary :
The text Et hi tres (And the three) is represented by the triad , the text passage unum sunt (are one) by the harmony of the voices.

Words of the text are represented by their immediate musical correspondence ("loud" - "softly", "fast" - "slowly", "rise" - "fall", "step" - "jump", "run" - "sneak" ). Example: Claudio Monteverdi : Marienvesper , VII. Concerto Duo Seraphim

Rhetorical figure

see figure theory

allegory

The allegory is a simile or a personification of concepts that cannot be made audible through musical means. They appear as sentence headings, work titles or as allegorical figures in dramatized works. Examples in the work of Johann Sebastian Bach : the title Musical Sacrifice (BWV 1079), the appearance of Pleiße , Danube , Elbe and Vistula as characters in the dramma per musica “Schleicht, playing waves” (BWV 206).

symbol

A symbol stands for a non-illustrative term. It becomes clear by the fact that it is replaced by an object that can also be represented musically. A symbol has general validity at least within a cultural area. Example: The symbol “cross” stands for “crucifixion” and “redemption”. The cross is symbolized in music by cross motifs or also by crossed voices , which, however, are only visible on paper and are not directly audible.

Both voices are also shown in one system to clarify the intersection of voices.
Here, too, only the sequence major third - fourth - minor seventh can be heard
Note: The two interlaced lines are highlighted in color.
Numerology / number symbolism

Musical designs based on number- symbolic aspects (number of bars, number of notes) are not immediately audible.

Examples :
Choral prelude These are the ten sacred commandments by Johann Sebastian Bach ( BWV 679). Here the fugue theme appears ten times.
The theme of the second Kyrie eleison from Bach's B minor Mass has 14 notes that correspond to the numerological value of BACH: B = 2, A = 1, C = 3, H = 8.

The number-symbolic interpretation of individual works is often controversial in musicology.

Soggetto cavato

Soggetto cavato = Italian soggeto , subject; ital. cavare , pull out, take out
A theme arises from extra -musical considerations. Example: The tone sequence BACH represents the name “Bach” in notes. Johann Sebastian Bach used this motif in the art of fugue (BWV 1080, unfinished triple fugue), among other things .

history

According to the Aristotelian categories of thinking, doing and producing, music theory has divided music into Musica theoretica ( music theory ), Musica practica (music practice, performance practice ) and Musica Poetica ( composition ) since the 16th century .

The Musica Poetica saw in the spoken language and music analogies that in the musical elements of language ( melody and rhythm are based) and therefore summed up the music as a musical language to.

In the 16th and 17th centuries the means of tonal language in the theory of figures and affect theory were used by music theorists such as Nikolaus Listenius ( Rudimenta musicae in gratiam studiosae iuventutis diligenter comportata , 1533), Heinrich Faber ( Musica poetica , 1548), Joachim Burmeister , ( Musica poetica , 1606), Johann Andreas Herbst ( Musica poetica , 1643), Johann Jakob Walther (1708), systematized.

In the theory of composition, the doctrine of musical symbols related to the (often formulaic) invention ( inventio ) of a motif, to the overall structure dispositio , the execution ( elaboratio ) and the decoration ( decoratio ) of the piece.

See also

literature

  • Lothar Hoffmann-inheritance law: From the original correspondence to the symbol - attempt to systematize musical symbols . In: Bachiana et alia musicologica - Festschrift Alfred Dürr for his 65th birthday . Bärenreiter, Kassel 1983, ISBN 3-7618-0683-3
  • Ulrich Michels: dtv atlas on music . Volume 2, Historical Part: From the Baroque to the Present . Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-423-03023-2

Remarks

  1. ↑ Born on June 9, 1588 in Nuremberg , died on January 26, 1666 in Frankfurt am Main . Kapellmeister in Butzbach , Darmstadt , Frankfurt / M. Nuremberg and again in Frankfurt / M. Music theory works: Musica practica 1642 (basic and singing theory), Musica poetica 1643 (composition theory, prohibition of hidden fifths and octaves), Arte prattica e poetica 1653 (counterpoint theory).