Music and Semantics

Excellent article on music and semantics.

http://www.sibetrans.com/trans/trans9/reybrouck.htm

I especially like the musical plots expressed as graphics where he "metaphorizes;"

music as an expression of being in a container, expansion of a container, a container in motion, as moving from one container to another, depart and return to a path, taking an alternate path, of reaching a boundary, of breaking through a boundary, of breaking into another container, etc...

Hmmm... Music in a container would be in a certain form such as a passacaglia and perhaps stay in the same mode.

Moving from one container to another would be like changing in the middle of a passacaglia to a Red Hot Chilli Peppers type of tune.

Any other ideas?

Reaching a boundary might be like music developing but stopping short of the next expected development, but still one which might be considered outside of that particular form.

Such as music "progressing" from tonal to rapid changes of tonality, to atonal, to serial, perhaps not finally progressing to microtonal.

Any further suggestions?

I also just read another article about how in language parts of a sentence agree and in music the next motif or phrase will be in the same mode aka in agreement.

In language words can be plural and in music there are repetitions. That is the strategy for making words plural in Bahasa Indonesian. The word for child is anak and the word for children is anak-anak.

In language there are cases and in music there are prefixes, infixes and suffixes which may be similar to expanding or agglutinative transformations.

Another similarity is "dative": object toward which an activity moves. I think of goal tones in jazz.

Conjuctions are formed by transformational similitude.

In my notes I copied that verbs are represented in music by horizontal activity and that in music a noun can be seen as vertical activity.

But upon reflection that seems backwards. A chord has function the way a verb does and has an intrinsic action. That would be vertical not horizontal although chords eventually move horizontally.

I can’t think of a way horizontal activity could represent the "verbs" of music except for perhaps voice leading where in major the P4 wants to go to the M3 etc...

Music That Accelerates From 0-60 p.7

Where do we expect to find symmetry in music. Actually, it seems that the primary place it is located is in the scale and often its tuning. There really aren't that many examples of reversible rhythms except at large levels of the rhythmic structure or melodies except with Bach and such, whose music is definitely for the mathematically inclined and not really the general fare even among Classical or Baroque composers.

Arabic scales known as Maqams and the gamalen's colotomic structure produce very symmetrical scales and rhythms. Two very beautiful musical traditions.

It becomes very obvious that every scale you can play also has a rhythm associated with it when you look at it constructed on a circle with the unison and the octave at the top in the same location. It’s manifestly apparent that some of the Arabic scales have notes which are half-flat or quarter tones for reasons of visual symmetry. It seemed to me unusual that the starting note for many maqams was not the one on the axis of symmetry.

Usually, it places the 1/4 flat on the 6th and/or 7th. That was interesting to me because the seventh degree is the one played microtonally flat or “blue” in Blues, Jazz, Rock and African as well, since that’s where Blues and Jazz comes from primarily. The seventh is often microtonally inflected in the Classical music of India also.


The form of a piece of music is another place where we often find a little symmetry. Beethoven and others were of the opinion that if you are writing a long piece then the beginning goes nowhere fast so you are alerted to the fact it's going to be a longer composition and likewise the ending needed to match the beginning in size somewhat and also relate to the scope of the entire piece.


Jazz tunes play the head, improvise and then return to the head. If the head is short, they play the head twice and the ending twice. This is a kind of symmetry without going to the extent of playing the theme backwards at the end which we don't expect in our tradition.

Symmetry is actually rare in nature except in the faces and bodies of animals. Trees, lakes, rivers, mountains etc. are not symmetrical. Music which does not have the symmetrical elements previously presented has the aesthetic of the nomad not seeing many faces or symmetrical buildings who often lives alone closer to nature and derives his aesthetic from that.

Contemporary composers could write more inter locking rhythms because it creates a smooth rhythmic surface without leaving any holes, just like a beautiful face

Some aestheticians say the reason we are all so concerned with beauty in art and music is because we don't live close enough to nature. We yearn for it and try to create it. I tentatively add that we may be trying to create it in our own image.

Perhaps a reason to use self retrograding rhythmic structures similar to palinromes in literature such as "A man, a plan, a canal. Panama." is not because of a need for symmetry. It's because the retrograde implies a desire to go backwad in time perhaps to a golden age. This is a little regressive however.

Another interpretation is that its a bit revolutionary. Anagrams/permutations imply an even more revolutionary philosophical standpoint.

Then there are philosophical considerations. In the Heterotopia where we actually live, we have to honor the interests and aptitudes of the composer, the performer and the audience. We cannot mirror a utopia in which we do not believe.

One based on elitism, ageism, classism, sexism and all. In my case, I'm a composer whose interests and aptitudes cluster around symbols. As such, when made aware of the fact the very notes themselves have symbollic meaning, these symbols are of interest to me.

Music ThatAccelerates From 0-60 p. 4

Postmodern music has a lot going for it. Its fresh because it avoids functional harmony without making that an unbreakable rule. People like Chick Corea, Allan Holdsworth and Frank Gambale among others expanded the palette of chord voicings thank you very much. One thing contemporary composers could do more of is cleanse the music of goal oriented progressions because in western musical practice the idea that one had to return to the tonic rose out of the unconscious philosophical orientation of the merchant classes who had become more wealthy even than the church and aristocracy.

They were unconsciously perpetuating the idea that one kind of person was more important than all the others. This created the necessity of the leading tone. Its necessity changed all the diverse modes into major and (harmonic) minor.

In my opinion and the opinion of knowledgeable others this represents big government with a lot of power in one person or group (capitalists/corporations) out of tune with the rest of humanity. Previously, in Gregorian chant, you could start in one mode and end in another on a different step of the scale. This implies local governance and control.

Postmodern music is unfortunately too improvisatory for mass consumption containing almost no examples of outstandingly composed melody whatever. The chords and key often hop around so fast (a skill in itself and not without its beauty) there's no time to state or develop a good melody. That's O.K. as far as it goes but I think even Methany is bored with it now.

Anyway, the microtonalists have alienated the audience completely but it is a direction with a lot of potential if used sparingly in the right hands.

Techno has shown its viability in the rave scene which is an effective use of ritual (usually in the wrong hands however) but it relies too much on technology. Its better if someone can be a musician first and a knob tweaker second.

One of the problems with new age and some world music is it's occasional rejection of everything western. Don't limit me please. And its placing on a pedestal everything foreign, seeing it all somehow as being more spiritual than our own.

Most people can't successfully graft themselves onto an alien religion plagued with all the same problems as our own after cutting themselves off from their own root. This is why the new agers hop around from tradition to tradition at the supermarket of religion known as the new age book store while they starve at the banquet. I like the new age book stores for the comparative religious smorgasbord they offer but, similar to commercials, we need to be media savvy about them. The same goes for the music store.

If a composer desires to illustrate thier philosophical orientation concerning a leader's correct relationship to the people he/she serves, the call and response between leader and chorus often used in African music is effective. To avoid a slavish brainwashed implication, the choruses response should be independent and overlap with the leaders. This reveals the peoples ability to interrupt the leader and speak while he/she is speaking.

To show the group's and leader's complete agreement, the last verse can be sung together. To give a strong expression to individual voices choir members can take turns responding after the leader.

Another trend in post-postmodern music is to use additive techniques. For starters, more extensive use of additive techniques is a fresh approach from what has been done in the past. However, We don't have to start with a tape loop or a melody and only play the first note, then play the first and second, next play the first second and third etc... Its already been done, isn't that effective and fractures the melody.

That method is mostly useful in recreating madness something to which I do not aspire.