- Title
- An interpretive model for conceptual music
- Creator
- Taimre, Ilmar
- Relation
- University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
- Description
- Conceptual music is defined as music which is primarily concerned with the presentation of ideas and concepts. This is a broad category. It encompasses a variety of approaches to musical composition and production including, for example, program music, mash-ups, ekphrasis, and graphic scores. There have been previous studies of some of these sub-categories of conceptual music. However, to date, no musicological research has adequately recognised or dealt with conceptual music as a single field, unified by the pivotal role of ideas and concepts. For this reason, there exists no generally accepted terminology or established methodology for the exegesis of works of conceptual music – as conceptual works, first and foremost – regardless of any other musical styles or genres into which they might also be classified. This is “the exegetical problem of conceptual music.” Until now, it has remained largely unrecognised. The aim of this thesis is to make a contribution towards addressing this problem, by developing an interpretive model suitable for the analysis and interpretation of conceptual music. The model developed here proposes a typology of five modes of conceptual music. Each mode is defined in terms of the different types of ideas or concepts which have been intentionally shifted into the interpretive spotlight by the artist or composer. Specifically, the five modes are labelled (1) identifying, (2) signifying, (3) crafting, (4) referring, and (5) worldmaking. This five-category model is developed and justified through a detailed and wide-ranging argument which draws on observations and insights from a number of fields, including musical psychology, semiotics, and philosophy. In particular, the model integrates key aspects of the writings of three thinkers on the topic of human discourse – Charles Sanders Peirce, Paul Ricoeur, and Juri Lotman. The philosophical and theoretical writings of these three figures are, in many fundamental respects, sympathetically aligned. This is a point which has not been previously noticed in the research literature. Thus, this thesis is the first in-depth study to bring together, into a single overall interpretive framework, the complementary approaches of Peirce, Ricoeur and Lotman. It is also the first time that Stanley Salthe’s basic principles for coherent heuristic representations of natural systems have been consciously applied to the challenge of building an interpretive model adequate to the hermeneutics of music and the arts. In order to prove the viability of the typology which has been proposed, each of the five modes is considered in turn, and used to enrich the detailed exegeses of selected genres and works of conceptual music (including some from the accompanying creative portfolio of original works by the author). From this, it is concluded that the proposed interpretive model – and the associated typology of five modes of conceptual music – represents a useful and novel contribution to musicological study of music in which ideas and concepts are paramount.
- Subject
- music; conceptual; art; hermeneutics; model; Paul Ricoeur; Juri Lotman; C. S. Peirce; Stanley Salthe
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1385390
- Identifier
- uon:32221
- Rights
- Copyright 2018 Ilmar Taimre
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 16 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 83 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |