Semiotics of Song

Extracted text from IST-Ethnomusicology_-_Fitzgerald.ppt:

Semiotics of Song

Model for (the constructive) Criticism of Song

I.

Understand the song as a complex sign

1 Identify the signs at work in a song. 2 Determine how these signs work. 3 Assess the effects of these signs. II. Criticize the song in relationship to its purposes

4 Identify the purposes of the song. 5 Determine how the song's signs effect its purposes. 6 Determine the virtues of a song's purposes and their relative effect on each other.

Not all signs are equal in

their (effective) potential

nor

in their (effective) limitations

Understanding Song as a Complex Sign Three Questions:

1. What are the signs in a song? 2. How do they work? 3. What are their effects? (Turino 1999)

Step One: Identify the signs at work in a song.

Textual Signs

Musical Signs

Contextual Signs

Song as a Complex Sign

Sign

Peirce defined the concept of sign in the widest, most flexible way as something that stands for something else to someone in some way, thus allowing for many different types of signs outside language (Turino 222, citing Peirce 1955:99).

Step Two: Determine how these song signs work. 1. Symbolically through language, I.e., words, propositions, lexico-semantic phenomena

2. Iconically through resemblance

3. Indexically through association, i.e., co-occurrence in actual experience

My purpose is not simply to present a system that allows us to categorize signs more precisely, although this is a necessary step, but to elaborate the distinct workings and potentials of different sign types in human life (Turino 1999:222).

Step Three: Assess the effects of these signs.

Three basic kinds of interpretants three general classes of effects created by sign-object relations.

1. an emotional interpretant, a direct, unreflected- upon feeling caused by a sign.

2. an energetic interpretant, a physical reaction caused by a sign,.

3. a sign-interpretant, that is, a linguistic-based concept

The first step in semiotic analysis is to determine what is the sign, what is the object, what is the effect, and to whom, in any instance.

1. What are the signs in a song? 2. How do they work? 3. What are their effects? (Turino 1999:224)

Criticize a song in relationship to its purposes. Steps 4, 5, & 6 4. Identify the purposes of the song.

5. Determine how the song's signs effect their purposes. 6. Determine the virtues of a song's purposes and their relative effect on each other.

Inventory of Baka song text poetic devices

Narrative Discourse Features

Example: Baka

Cohesion Climactic development Contextual development