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1

Culture and transcendence

100%

Tarasti E.

Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology

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2015

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issue 14

221-248

PL

Culture can be approached from an existential semiotic point of view in many ways. The following results can be then obtained: The new notion which the Existential semiotic theory of culture (ESC) tries to launch is transcendence. The ESC theory is an attempt to see and analyse issues from the inside, using a model called Zemic which refers to four modes of Being. It deals with agency like any cultural theory, but now behind the theory is the idea of a subject as a transcendental ego, who is capable of pursuing acts, making choices and enjoying freedom. The theory of ESC can be tested by empirical cases of cultural life and history such as studies in cultural heritage. The theory is non deterministic. There is “linguistic turn” in the sense that a new metalanguage is elaborated to deal with transcultural, supra-rational and metacultural issues. Formal language is used to some extent, stemming from the semiotic square, deontic logic and the grammar of modalities. The proper philosophical style is that of the continental and speculative theory, yet the ESC theory is not any regress in the history of philosophy. ESC theory is non-reductionist, i.e. it emphasizes the phenomena as such.

2

Levels of modalization in existential and transcendental analysis: The matter of being-in-self

86%

Rosato P.

Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology

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2015

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issue 14

206-220

PL

This essay reflects on some applications of Eero Tarasti’s existential semiotics to music analysis, starting from the asymmetry that marks the categories of “myself’ and “itself’. If it seems evident that we can know the musical being-in-itself, that is topics, norms, forms, and so on, we can wonder if and how we can know the being-in-myself, that is the pure kinetic energy before that it has token any kind of forms. As it is for Schopenhauer’s “Wille”, that firstly becomes objective as Platonic ideas, and secondly as spatio-temporal-causal natural realm; musical energy or “being-in myself’ takes shape firstly as virtual deep-level-figures, and secondly as spatio-temporal-actorial situations, within which being-for-myself struggles with the being-for-itself. Modalities (will, must, can, know) operate in both these two levels of taking shape, but at the first level we have to look for a transcendental musical subject, not characterized by specific historical and cultural features. Then, I introduce the notion of homeostasis, that is the principle that “regulates the global process of breaking away from an original state of rest or balance, and of the subsequent restoration of that balance”. Homeostasis allows us to analyze musical modalization at a deep level, where the transcendental subject takes the form of the being-in-itself. But the research of a transcendental subject is slightly different to that of the Moi, within which the being-in-myself is situated. To analyze the being-in-myself of an individual musical subject, we adopt a less universal homeostasis, that is a specific way to convey musical energy (melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, agogic, and so on) proper of Western music. So doing, I claim that one cannot recognize the first four measures of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata op. 7 as “the moment of Being-in-myself in all of its immediacy” as Tarasti does. Being-in-myself has to be examined in a different light.

3

Existential semiotic analysis of the temporal and subjective dimensions of art music performance

86%

Macdonel G.

Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology

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2015

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issue 14

151-161

PL

For the philosophers, aesthetics and musicologists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the topic of subjectivity in art music was a controversial issue. According to them the musical art work had to be objective. However since the subjectivity of the performer has an important influence on aspects such as sound, rhythm, tempo and emotional input, her presence was considered an obstacle for achieving objective musical works. Most of the theoretic approaches to art music supported such an idea and showed a negative perspective on performance and, even though few scholars argued about the value of performance, the main trend pointed at the performer’s subjectivity as an endangerment of music as an objective art. This article conceives art music as a sonic and temporal phenomenon and, from this perspective considers that the performer’s subjectivity is an important and active element that plays a key role in the creation of musical art works. From an existential semiotic perspective this article analyses distinct aspects of the performer’s subjectivity and develops an adaptation of this theory created by Eero Tarasti to the study of subjectivity in performance and its relation with temporality. The existential semiotic theory claims that signs are created by subjects in their act of existing. In this manner subjectivity is located as a central element deeply involved in semiosis processes that creates a rich universe of signs and meaning. This article attempts to show that the sonic dimension of art music can be enriched by the presence of the performer’s subjectivity rather than being an endangerment for it.

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3 Interdisciplinary Studies in Musicology

1 Macdonel G.

1 Rosato P.

1 Tarasti E.

3 2015

Culture and transcendence

Levels of modalization in existential and transcendental analysis: The matter of being-in-self

Existential semiotic analysis of the temporal and subjective dimensions of art music performance