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Dysphoric states: Stravinsky's topics - huntsmen, soldiers and shepherds

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posted on 2023-06-08, 11:22 authored by Nicholas McKay
An essay written in honour and memory of Raymond Monelle and his influential work on music semiotics, in particular the work of his final monograph, The Musical Topic: Hunt, Military and Pastoral. The chapter explores Stravinsky's use of the hunt, military and pastoral topics respectively in case studies of the Jeu du rapt of The Rite of Spring, the Soldier's and Royal Marches of L'Histoire du soldat and the Shepherd's aria of Oedipus Rex. Two of Monelle's fundamental assertions about the semiotic functioning of musical topics (that topics are prototypically deployed in euphoric states and that topics display a characteristic and important serperation of signifier and signifieds) are challenged by these cases studies which highlight instead Stravinsky's tendency to deploy topics in dysphotic states and without a seperation of signifiers from signifieds

History

Publication status

  • Published

Publisher

Ashgate

Page range

249-261

Book title

Music semiotics : a network of significations in honour and memory of Raymond Monelle

ISBN

9781409411024

Department affiliated with

  • Music Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

Esti Sheinberg

Legacy Posted Date

2012-11-20

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