Proposals for themes in this section :

I. Simultaneous analysis of two levels in a musical work : the syntactic, grammatical level (musical structure in a traditional sense) ; and the level of expressive content (" psychological ", semantic oru thymic structure, etc.)

II. Definition and use of topics (respectively : intonation, indexicalities, semes, classemes, isotopies)

III. Describing the organisation, the " strategies " of topics within a musical structure (the use of linguistic, literary, rhetorical or other models, etc., or that of new invention)

IV The use of the above mentioned analytical means tools for a better knowledge understanding of different musical (historical) styles, of a whole " œuvre " or of whole entire creative periods of creation of a specific composer;

V. Contribution of these new methods to a better knowledge in different musicological fields : 1/ comparative analysis between works belonging to different artistic domaines ; 2/ comprehension of exceptional, " deviating " musical forms ; 3/ possibility to give a more " scientifical " explanation of some " cathartic ", " dramatic " musical structures ; 4/ help to evaluate an instrumental interpretation on the bases of a better knowledge of the given musical style.

Since about fifteen yearsOver the past fifiteen years we have witnessed a " change of paradigm " in the field of musicology : the first books of Ch. Rosen (1971), J.-J. Nattiez (1975), G. Stefani (1976), E. Tarasti (1978), J. Kerman (1985), marked a decisive step toward the renewal of musical analysis through the study of signification and , of meaning, through semotics and narration. A second wave of musicological works – appeared published since 1986 – (by Karbusicky, Tarasti, Agawu, Monelle, Mâche, Grabócz, Hatten, Nattiez, Abbate, Miereanu, Lidov, and the proceedings of ICMS 1-5, since 1995) – clearly show well that theoreticians, analysts of music are now searching for new models suitable to describe the complex dynamic process constituted by a musical form.

The novelties discoveries and issues of this these processes or trend s can be resumed summarised in five points.

I./ We know are familiar with the books and , articles having that have treataed the opposing views of ed since 1852, Liszt and Hanslick, and their successors  since 1852, and of course, theirs successors   ; the first camp: the representatives of programme music (a tendancy toward poetic, hermeneutic methods) on the one hand, and those the other of " pure " or " absolute " music (a tendancy to " aesthetic nihilisme ") on the other.

The above mentioned contemporary musicologists have pointed out that traditional musicology developed all its means to describe the " signifier ", but ignored the " signified ". In our days, new methods have cropped up in order to analyse simultaneously two layers of a musical work : 1/ the syntactic, grammatical level (Schleiermacher), the " form of expression " (Hjelmslev), the interplay of forms (Nattiez), i.e. the musical structure analysed by traditional means, and 2/ the plane of the expressive meaning, the " psychological " substance (Schleiermacher), the " form of the content " (Hjelmslev), the semantic, thymic level (Greimas), etc.

II./ By what means do these new methods intend these new methods to seize this second layer, that of the signified ?

At present, the terminology is still diversified and plural highly varied. In the 1960s-70s, the musicologists of in the East-and Central-European countries used the term " intonation " to define the signifying units (Assafiev, Jiránek, Ujfalussy, Karbusicky). In order to speak about " the irreductible character of music’s symbolic negotiations with the world’s cultural units " (see : R. Hatten, 1996-[1998], after U.Eco ), American, Anglo-Saxon musicologists went back to the categories of the 18^th-19^th centuries, formulated by Koch, Marpurg, Mattheson, A.B. Marx, calling them " topics " (see : Ratner, Hatten, Tarsti, Agawu, etc.)

At present, R. Monelle endeavours to extend this field over other periods. In his article on " Texual semiotics in music " (1998), he defines the signified, following Peirce, as " indexicalities " of style, of temporality and subjectivity, and as " symbols " (=topics, references to the extra-musical world) ; V. Karbusicky too, in his latest books, utilises Peirce’s three categories (icons, index, symbols), in view to analyse the signified in music.

K. Agawu speaks about " topic signs " and " structural signs " (about " exteroceptive " semiosis and " interoceptive " semiosis) ; he thinks that the complex description and interpretation of a musical form is assured by the interplay, the interaction of these two types of topics and analyses. The musicology inspired by Greimas utilizes such categories as " semes ", " classemes ", " isotopies " to decribe signifieds (Tarasti, Monelle, Grabocz, Hauer, Esclapez, etc.) ; these termes distinguish different dimensions, lengths of the singifying units (the smallest=seme, the longest=isotopy), - while the classemes would  correspond to the level of the musical phrase, that of the musical period in the classic era.

RThe reference, the recurrence  ? return to the ancient genres, to the past musical styles constitutes the common element connecting all these terms. Rooted by their function in the ancient life of the collectivities, these genres and styles are able to recreate the links – thanks to their means of stilization – with the " cultural units " of every historic epoch. It is this historic, affective, stilistic, gestic, motoric or visual reference, " recurrence ", which can bring about the signification in music.(See the chapters of the aesthetics of J. Ujfalussy [1968] and that of the recent book of R. Monelle [2001] on these historical processes.)

III. How can these signifying units getting be organized within a musical structure ? The linguistic, literary and other models that are used to discribe the organization of the signified, are diversified too. J.-J. Nattiez exploited Molino’s " tripartition " (although he had always been cautious with regard to the " signified "). E. Tarasti referred to Greimas’s models (the generative course withe its three levels ; the narrative programmes ; the system of modalitites, etc.). R. Monelle was inspired by Greimas and Peirce. R. Hatten applied M. Shapiro’s markedness theory and the system of " expressive genres " elaborated by him, and that of troping. V. karbusicky created the evolutional theory of historic musical forms, and made use of Peirce theories for the signified. N. Meeùs and J.-P. Bartoli exploited Hjelmslev’s system in their analyses and theories ; B. Vecchione and other colleagues of Aix-en Provence were inspired by the theoretical systems (in sociology and rhetorics) as well as by Greimas. In my work I have used the elements of Greimas’s structural semantics and narrative grammar, e.Etc.

It is not the will  ?It is not our intention to findof finding " a history related in music " that connects all these theories – as presupposed by J.-J. Nattiez (1990, 2001) – but that of finding the rules, the organizational strategies of the signified which vary from one historic period to another, from one style to another, from one integral œuvre of a composer to that of an other, etc.

There is a musical reality presiding,that predominatesing  ? in almost all of the above cited models : that of regarding the signified according to binary oppositions : opposition by asymetric markedness (R. Hatten) ; rhetoric rules and oppositions (K. Agawu) ; opposition of structural elements throughout history (V. Karbusicky) ; " relation of coupled contradictory terms " (Greimas’s successors = a semantic universe articulated in four different elements, i.e. in four signified) ; diverse oppositions derived from /within Hjelmslev’s scheme (N. Meeùs) ; J. Ujfalussy used the distinction of " inner programme " and " external programme " as speaking about 19^th century musical works.

As for myself, I have tried to describe in an article (" Composer avec des affects ", 1999 [" Composing with affects "] ) the " archetypical " organisations of the expressive content from the baroque epoch until the early 20^th century. It emerges from this general idea and from the analytic works of the formerly mentioned colleagues that the " strategy of expression ", the utilization of " expressive types " (R. Hatten, 1996-98), or the form of the content vary from one period to another, according to the type of organization of the units (the signified) presented in binary oppositions.

IV / In view of acquiring a better knowledge of the historic musical styles, we may use the " expressive strategies ", the analysis of the " forms of content " in the different periods of history, in order to recreate, in our hermeneutic interpretations, the lost competencye  ? of in past musical styles. The analyses having already greatly contributed very much to the distinction distinguishing amongwithin the classical, romantic, modern and contemporary styles can be found in the cited works of E ; Tarasti, R. Hatten, R. Monelle, V. Karbusicky, K. Agawu as well as in the proceedings of the ICMS congresses on the more recent and contemporary periods.

V. The utility and the issues of this new approach based on the use of topics and their organization in musical analysis may be summarizd as follows :

1/ the possibility of finding an analytic frame for comparative work with other fields of art of the same period, of the same style (e.g. Liszt and Goethe ; Mussorgsky and the visual work utilized as model ; Schumann and the literature, the aesthetics of Witz in Germany, etc.) ;

2/ the possibility of understanding the exceptional or deviating musical structures (within the frame of a style), thanks to an analysis of the influence and importance of the " form of the content " ;

3/ the possibility of acquiring a better knowledge of the " affective, psychological curve ", of the " thymic structure " in some works called " dramatic ", " cathartic " - thanks to a model-aided description ;

4/ through the reconstruction of a better stylistic, historic competence  ? we may easily venture when evaluating an instrumental interpretation of historic works. The publication of John Rink (and his colleagues) in England, and the analyses by E. Tarasti, R. Hatten -going so far as to deal with the instrumental interpretations of works of Fauré’s, Schubert’s, Chopin’s, Liszt’s works – prove that the comparison of interpretations by great artists, with regard to a work analysed from this angle, may constitute one of the important examples of how the analysis of " expressive strategy " may be exploited..

Marta Grabocz, Budapest, 29 january 2001.