Reflections on Music and Meaning
Reflections on Music and Meaning
Metaphor, Signification, and Control in the Bulgarian Case
This chapter considers the question of whether and how music references ideas and emotions and the way those references differ from the referential properties of language. In dialogue with the work of Martin Clayton, it distinguishes between significance (i.e. musical meaning in a broad sense) and signification (i.e. musical meaning in a narrow sense). As for significance, the chapter argues that music’s significance is best expressed in metaphors connecting music to other domains, as in music is an art, a social behavior, a text, or a commodity. When it comes to signification, the chapter uses the semiotic theories of Charles S. Peirce as outlined for music by Thomas Turino. Finally, the chapter concludes with a consideration, inspired by the ideas of Michel Foucault, of the way the signification of music can be controlled or escape control. These theoretical concerns are illustrated with examples from the author’s fieldwork on Bulgarian music.
Keywords: emotions, musical meaning, Martin Clayton, metaphors, Charles S. Peirce, Thomas Turino, Michel Foucault, Bulgarian music
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