A Language of Its Own: Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music PDF
Preview A Language of Its Own: Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music
A Language of Its Own Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music A Language of Its Own Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music RUTH KATZ The University of Chicago Press | Chicago and London RUTH KATZ is the Emanuel Alexandre Professor Emerita of musicology at Hebrew University, Jerusalem, where she taught from 1966 to 1995 and founded, with Dalia Cohen, the Electronic Laboratory for Musicological Research. This is her eleventh book. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637 The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London © 2009 by The University of Chicago All rights reserved. Published 2009 Printed in the United States of America 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5 isbn-13: 978-0-226-42596-2 (cloth) isbn-13: 978-0-226-42597-9 (paper) isbn-10: 0-226-42596-7 (cloth) isbn-10: 0-226-42597-5 (paper) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Katz, Ruth, 1927– A language of its own : sense and meaning in the making of Western art music / Ruth Katz. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13: 978-0-226-42596-2 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-13: 978-0-226-42597-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-226-42596-7 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn-10: 0-226-42597-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Music. 2. Music—History and criticism. 3. Music—Social aspects. 4. Music— Philosophy and aesthetics. I. Title. ml60.k18 2009 781.6'8117—dc22 2008055137 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1992. In memory of Carl Dahlhaus And for Ruth HaCohen and Elisheva Rigbi ]] CONTENTS Preface xiii Introduction: The Guiding Conception of Western Art Music 1 part i The Structuring of a Self-Referential World 1 THE MAKING OF MUSICAL BUILDING BLOCKS 11 Preliminary Clarifi cations 11 The Development of Western Notation and Its Signifi cance 13 Gregorian Chant Revisited 15 The Rise of Notation as an Autonomous System 21 Pitch 23 Duration 28 Concerning Notation: Concluding Remarks 36 Musical Frameworks as Referential Systems 41 The Greek Heritage: Music as an Organized Auditory Phenomenon 42 viii Contents The Musical Heritage of the World That Gave Rise to Christianity 44 The Formal Organization of the Chant Repertoire 53 2 SYSTEMATIZING MUSICAL LAWS 59 The Self-Chosen Confi nes of Art 59 Horizontal and Vertical Elements: A Generating and Controlling Force, Respectively 60 Cementing the Relationships among Successively Composed Voices 65 “The Function of Closure” 66 From Imperfect to Perfect Consonance—Relating Voices and Sonorities by Interval Progressions 67 Bestowing a Semblance of “Oneness” on Particles 73 External Designs 76 The Development of Inner Cohesion 79 The Rise of Harmonic Tonality 87 The Move from Desired Coincidences among Voices to a “System of Chords” 88 The Systematization of Harmonic Tonality 94 Shifting Concerns—From Musical “Rules” to Music’s Communicative “Powers” 98 part ii The Crafting of a “Shared Understanding” 3 SEPARATING ‘SENSE’ FROM ‘MEANING’ 109 Natural Languages: Some Relevant Points 109 The Power to Occasion an Atmosphere 113 Drama Aspiring toward the “Condition of Music” 114 The Legacy of the Humanists 117 Empirical Observation and Aesthetic Theory 121 Contents ix Demystifying an Elusive Agenda 126 The Camerata: Custodian of a Paradigm 127 Leading Conceptual Turning Points 133 A Fundamental Change in the Conception of Art 134 Signs as Cognitive Tools 134 Moral Philosophy and Its “Affair” with ‘Beauty’ 136 Modes of Communication and Cognitive Expansions 140 Social Interaction as a Regulating Force 142 The Sagacity of Sensate Discourse 143 Human Consciousness as a Creator of “Truths” 144 The Sign and the Signifi ed in Western Music 146 4 PROBING THE LIMITS OF MUSICAL COHERENCE 157 The Referential Function of Learned Schemata: External versus Internal References 157 Perception Replacing Conception 165 The Return of an Enigma 166 Music’s Spiritual Peculiarity as Distinct from Its Mundane Technical Aspects 169 The Changed Status of the Artist 171 The Merger of the Arts 174 Tantalizing the Ear and Luring the Mind 177 The Reformulation of Musical Structure 177 From General “Language” to Particularized “Speech” 181 A General Theory concerning the Function of Symbol Systems in the Arts 187 The Flaunting of Identities: Individual and Collective 192 Intimacy Made Public 192 The Particularization of Publics 194 Music as a Cultural Subsystem 201 The Blend between Past and Future in Romantic Thought 202 Internal References Challenged 208 The Variable Functions of Theory 212
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