UGS 303 PDF - Protest, Social Movements, and Music

AUG 28 - MPSM Protest: An action or behavior that expresses discontent - Organized or unorganized - Against political injustice or small matters - EX: sit-in, petition, demonstration, boycott, occupation, letter-writing campaign, self immolation, strike, walk out - Limits of...

AUG 28 - MPSM Protest: An action or behavior that expresses discontent - Organized or unorganized - Against political injustice or small matters - EX: sit-in, petition, demonstration, boycott, occupation, letter-writing campaign, self immolation, strike, walk out - Limits of this definition: - Does buying a product whose proceeds support a cause count? Or signing a digital petition? Or liking a tweet?: Less risk involved - What about complaints to a store’s customer service line?: The line is there to express discontent, so does using it mean you are protesting? - Or lobbying undertaken by energy companies? Or satire? - What about terrorism? Political violence? Social Movement: “Social” implies group or collective entity; “movement” implies directed action (ORGANIZED COLLECTIVE ACTION) - What kind of collective? What kind of action? To what end? - EX: civil rights movement, pro-life movement, BLM, Kurdish independence movement, alter-globalization movement, Thai red shirt movement, tea party movement - What about political parties? Clubs? Subcultures? Neighborhood associations? Music: - Can silence itself become music? - 4:33 - No such thing as silence - Whether or not it is conceived as music is based on perception Music, Protest, and Social Movements: Fuzzy Categories - Protest exists along a continuum - One extreme is inaction; another excessive or illegitimate action (terrorism, political violence) - January 6th: Connotation of how the event is described can give it legitimacy - Social Movements exist along a continuum - One extreme is informal and/or non-political groups (clubs, subcultures, neighborhood association); at other, formal or institutionalized groups (parties, corporations) - Ludwig dnsujgnr: family resemblance - Music exists along a continuum - At its boundaries it shades off into noise, silence, speech, other artforms, etc. - Silent protests - Pots and pans Accounting for fluidity of music, protest, and SMs reveals a broad range of interaction. Avoids narrow understanding of relation between music, protest, and SMs. Avoids reducing this complex relationship to the single kind of music “Protest song”. Protest Song: Song which voices feelings of protest about some social or political injustice, real or imagined, or about some event which arouses strong emotions - Emphasis on communication: music as medium of registering dissent - Lyrics as main channel through which message is conveyed - Woody Guthrey (Folk) - Victor Hara (Chile) - Da Baby (BLM) Rethinking “protest music” - Terms like “protest music” and “protest song” treat “protest” as a modifier - “Bare Necessities”: How can this song be a protest song? - In France, a labor law was tried to be passed. The idea was that if the law was passed, the people would only have their “bare necessities” - How the song is used within a certain context Social Movements – Music - Various functions music can serve to support/sustain movement Social Movements – Music – Protest - Music as part of movement’s claim-making performance Music – Protest - Music as vehicle of protest beyond context of movement (“protest music”) Music in Social Movements - SMs involve a range of activities beyond the act of protest - Include recruitment, “spirit maintenance”, forging collective identity, political communication and framing, procurement of resources, disrupting everyday conduct, occupying public space - Music can be enlisted to help accomplish these tasks: - Attract participants - Affect mood - Raise money Music as Multiple Object - Music = Multimodal - Something that is performed - It propagates in space - It is bought and sold - Listeners identify with it - It makes people physically move - Any of these features can be mobilized and put to work for movements SEP 3 - Sound: “Touching from a Distance” - Sound as - Material phenomenon and/or force - Sign and/or symbol Sound/Acoustics: Vibration that propagates through some medium (e.g. air, but also liquid or solid) - Muffled sound in water - Spring Reverb: Record sound and route the sound to a speaker and through a spring. This gives reverb Psychoacoustics: Perception of such vibrations Mechanical Vibration: Excitation of object causes molecules to vibrate - Once excited, molecules excite surrounding molecules in turn, and so forth What happens when vibrations reach a person (or animal)? - Auditory system converts vibrations into electrical signal that brain interprets as sound - Vibrations also collide with other parts of body beyond ear Sound as action over distance - Excitation of object in one place touches listener in another, traversing medium - Hitting a drum touches listener in another place, traversing air - We do not hear by ears alone - EX: Singing to others in jail, surpassing the physical boundary Frequency: Rate of vibration (measured in oscillations per second, or Hz) - Fewer vibrations = Lower frequency - More vibrations = Higher frequency - Within certain range, these vibrations are perceived as pitches - At slower vibrations, pitch is perceived as rhythm - Audible range for humans: 20-20000 Hz - Low/High, Heavy/Light notes - Audible range varies by age: older people generally do not perceive higher frequencies Infrasounds and Ultrasounds - Over the age of 25, “mosquito youth deterrent” is ultrasonic - Above threshold of hearing - Infrasonic: Sounds below threshold of hearing - Even is ultrasonic and infrasonic sounds are not heard, they can still affect listeners - Ultrasonic: May cause body organs to vibrate - Infrasonic: Reported to increase “goosebumps, rapid heartbeat, sadness, excitement” - Infra and ultra sound’s extra-auditive effect -> research Fundamentals, Overtones, and Notes  - Objects when excited seldom vibrate at only one frequency, but usually at several frequencies at once - These generally aren't heard as different notes but rather fuse into single pitch - Lowest frequency, the fundamental, is usually the strongest, perceived pitch - Higher frequency, overtones, usually not perceived directly (gives quality of color of sound: timbre) - VCO - Yinghis blue TImbre: Quality that allows to distinguish same pitch played by different sources - Bell vs Flute playing the same pitch - Factors affecting timbre include: - # of overtones (EX: clarinet) - Relation of overtones - Relative intensity (tpt and tbone timbre becoming warmer as note continues) - Noise produced by excitation (When a bow hits the violin to start a note) - Harmonic: Overtones are whole number multiples of fundamental frequency - Inharmonic: Relation between fundamental and overtones do not stand in whole number relation (EX chimes) - Noise (Acoustically): Sound with a random distribution of energy across the spectrum Amplitude: The amount of change atmospheric pressure undergoes as result of sound wave - By how much molecules are being pushed - Corresponds to our experiences of loudness (measured in dB) - At lower threshold (0 dB) sounds are inaudible - At higher thresholds one experiences discomfort (120 dB), pain (140 dB), and physical injury (170 dB and above) - Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD): Can permanently damage hearing - Was first used by military - Used to disperse protests Spaces, surfaces, reflection, and absorption - Under ideal conditions, sound waves will propagate spherically from source - In real spaces, topographical features interfere with sound’s diffusion - Sound waves tend to reflect off surfaces, reinforcing sound coming from source - If interval between sound and reflection is small, result in reverberation - EX: Cathedral: only certain intervals were allowed and certain tempos or else tones would clash - If there is sufficient lag, reflection produces echo Sound and Specification - Sound not just physical force; it is also a sign - Ecological theory of perception: Stimulus like sound provinces info about environment and conditions of its production  - Sounds specify sources and actions - Sounds inform hearer about (at least) three aspects of their production and diffusion: 1) Source of excitation (action) 2) Object excited 3) Space in which sound waves are diffused, reflected, and absorbed SEP 5 - Feeling the Beat: Rhythm, Meter, and Time Rhythm: Articulation of time’s passage (provisional definition) - Not just a matter of music: - Speech (prosody) - Social action and interaction (Labor, conversation, traffic flow) - Theory that music comes from the need to organize labor (e.g. sea shanties) - Physiology (respiration, circadian rhythms) - Natural processes (Day/night cycles) Periodicity: A feature strongly associated with rhythm is regular repetition - It is exhibited in regularity of ticking clocks, dripping faucets, etc - Musical rhythm lies somewhere between poles of periodicity and aperiodicity (RITE OF SPRING) - For this reason one can infer a steady beat or pulse even where it’s not immediately evident Tempo: Rate at which pulses recur provides sense of speed - Crucial to meaning and affected communicated through music - ECOLOGICAL THEORY OF PERCEPTION - Same goes for tempo: specifies among other things the energy involved in maintaining a certain beat - Tempo can convey a range of qualities - Examples: - Christine Salem: Gouloum - ¾ to 6/8 tempo change -> increased subdivision in percussion - Clementi: Sonata in G Minor -> turns and ornaments over suuuuper slow music Rhythmic Patterns: - Combining events with different durations enables identifiable rhythmic patterns to be formed - Walz - Reggaeton - Afro-Cuban - Disco and EDM - Aksak rhythms of Turkey  - Patterns common to a shared repertoire or genre often function as stylistic marker that helps to define genre - A pattern common in Western and Central African music cultures is the “standard pattern” or “bell pattern” - 2+2+1+2+2+2+1 - Serves as a frame in polyrhythmic music - Patterns may also be specific to a song, one of its identifying features - Example: - Amen, Brother sample shaped 1,500 songs - Blast Beat of Metal Nested Hierarchy - Rhythmic periodicity occurs at a number of levels - A steady pulse may be subdivided into regular sub-pulses - Example: - Balinese gamelan music, music is organized into series of cycles - Cycles articulated by gongs, lowest instruments in the ensemble - Core melody is in middle register played at a medium pace - And in higher registers are rapid, highly ornamented figures - Different rhythmic layers fit together by subdividing gong cycles - Middle parts 4x-8x faster than gong, upper parts 4x-8x faster than middle parts Meter: Refers to a relatively stable, hierarchical arrangement of beats into larger cycles (measures) - Provides a basic framework guiding expectations regarding timing of events in a song or piece - In Western music, this involves distinction between strong and weak beats - These generally form groups of two (duple meter) or three (triple meter), though these may be combined in a complex manner (2x3, 3x2) Local and Large-Scale - Usually when we talk about rhythm, we’re talking about short range events - Beats, measures - At a larger level the overall form of a song or piece may be understood as a rhythmic process - Alternation of verse and chorus - Especially in popular music, songs made up of recurrent cycles Freedom Now Suite - Suite by Max Roach  - Grew out of a piece by Roach and Brown to mark 100th anniversary of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation - Narrative ranges from slavery through emancipation, Jim Crow laws - Driva Man - First part of suite is song “Driva’ Man”; depicts brutality of slavery, personified in figure of slavedriver - Modified blues form - Each line of song consists of two measures, each five beats long, marked ny percussion - Each new line marked by change of harmony - After three lines (6 measures) the verse and harmonic cycle are completed, and begin again Sound and Signification - Semiotics: Study of signs - How different sign systems work - Signs everywhere; Organization of a room, how we dress, language, etc - C.S. Pierce: 3 kinds of signs 1. Index: sign that co-occurs with or points to object (smoke = fire) 2. Icon: sign that physically resembles what it refers to (onomatopoeic sounds, like “meow” or “woof”) 3. Symbol: Arbitrary/conventional association between sign and referent (words in language; The word “tree” does not sound like a tree) - Sound can also function “iconically” and “symbolically” - Relate to “Driva’ Man”: In what way is crash cymbal indexical? Iconic? Symbolic? - 5/4 meter plays on conventional 4/4 meter - Index: Less flashy solo, monotonous and goes on and on and on, purposely crude - Represents the monotony and brutality of slave labor Expectation and Entrainment - Periodicity in music, whether at low or high level, provides framework or expectations for orientating musicians, listeners - If pattern or cycle is repeated sufficiently, we can predict when future events are likely to occur - Not consciously calculated, but intuitively felt - Playing fast music during lunch rush to make customers eat faster - This is because rhythm, beats, meter, are entrained Entrainment Process - For entrainment to occur, participants must be independent - Entrainment takes place when otherwise independent organisms synch with each other - Numerous examples in animal and natural world - Fireflies lighting up at the same time  - Crickets chirping in sync Entrainment and Power - Entrainment may be symmetrical or asymmetrical - Symmetrical Entrainment: Different individuals reciprocally synch with one another - Asymmetrical Entrainment: One individual induces another to synch with its rhythm - Entrainment depends on power relation SEP 10 - Interval, Harmonies, and Tonalities Interval: Distance between pitched sounds Harmonies: Combination of pitched sounds Tonalities: Systems for organizing the relation between sounds, intervals, and harmonies Octave: - Perceived sounds are made up of many frequencies - Lowest is fundamental, corresponding to perceived pitch - Above, are overtones, which define timbre - Simplest overtone relation is fundamental x 2^n for 440 Hz, 2x = 880 Hz, 4x = 1760 Hz - These frequencies share the same basic tonal quality as fundamental. They sound the “same”, albeit some are higher and others lower. - Notes exhibiting this relation stand in relation of the octave to each other - Because octaves sound alike, in Western music they are assigned same name - 440 Hz = A; therefore so is 880 Hz - Periodic recurrence of notes makes pitch space cyclic Scales: Spans delimited by octaves are subdivided in a consistent manner to form scales - Elements forming a scale akin to points subdividing a line: - Notes: Resemble points along the line - Intervals: Resemble spaces between - Different music traditions often distinguished by scales the use - Diatonic Scale: Seven note scale, typical in Western music - Chromatic Scale: Division of octave into twelve equal intervals has become increasingly prominent in Western music - Mozart, Piano Concerto in D Minor - Chromatic scale against diatonic scales intensifies music - Pentatonic Scale: Five note scales - Chinese culture - Major and Minor Scales: Two types of scales in Western music - Scales are defined by intervals between notes - Both types of scales have seven notes, but divide the octave differently - Major Scale: 2-2-1-2-2-2-1  - Minor Scale: 2-1-2-2-1-2-2 - Pentatonic Scales has intervallic structure: 2-2-3-2-3 - Scales convey sense of what is “in” or “out” of tune - Any pitch that doesn’t correspond to one of those five scale members will sound “out of tune” - Out of tune notes above the target pitch are sharp; those that are below are flat - Being out of tune is regarded as displeasing, hence to be avoided - However, it can be used for (positive) aesthetic - Otis Redding, I’ve Been Loving You Too Long - The hook of the song is the slide that occurs with the line “You were tired” - What does the action of this slide specify? - How does its initial out of tuneness affect the gesture and its expressive impact? Scales, Expression, and Meaning - In musics of the Indian subcontinent, different scales or modes (ragas) associated with different moods - In Western music, distinction made between major and minor scales likewise tied to expression, mood, and affect - Major: positive - Minor: negative - The correlation of major/minor with different emotional states is symbolic Harmony: Combination of tones at the same time Melody: Combination of tones in succession - What notes go “well” together depends on what scale is being employed - Most harmonies comprised of notes related by the interval of a third - Root, Third, Fifth - Harmonies can possess a wide range of expressive qualities. A few parameters to consider: a) Presentation of chord tones: simultaneous vs. successive b) Rate of change: fast vs slow c) Distribution of chord tones: spread out vs tightly spaces d) Number of chord tones “openness” vs “fullness” of sound i) Power chord vs jazz chords - Early experiments in harmonizing melody in Middle ages (organum) involved adding a fifth above line; resulting sound often described as “open” or “austere” - The more thirds are stacked as part of the chord (seventh, ninth, eleventh, etc), the fuller/lusher the sound–typical of Jazz and R&B - Bill Evans e) Quality of chords: major vs minor f) Consonance vs Dissonance Consonance: Refers to combinations of notes that sound stable, pleasing Dissonance: Refers to combinations that sound unstable, discordant - EX: Bill Evans, “Peace Piece” - While there is acoustic basis for the consonance/dissonance distinction, what gets counted as consonant or dissonant varies by period, genre, etc - Thus: chords that prove sense of repose or closure vary according to style Tonality: The hierarchical system which governs scale and harmonies built on it - Some tones heard as more stable, others less so - Tonality helps shape the syntax of harmonic succession: what chords are likely to go where - There are many kinds of tonality: - “Common practice” tonality (Europe 1700-): - Center is tonic note/chord; second most important note/chord is a fifth above (the dominant) - Closure signaled by moving from dominant to tonic - EX: Beethoven Symphony no. 9, Finale - Blues: - Use many of the same chords (including tonic and dominant), but according to different syntax - Closure signaled by moving from dominant to tonic, but also by moving from note/chord a fourth above (subdominant) to tonic - EX: Guitar Frank, “90 Going North”, Janelle Monae, “Make Me Feel” - Metal: - Emphasized chords deemed dissonant in western tonality. Thus after the tonic, other important chords are tritone (flattened fifth, sharpened fourth) and flat second - EX: Black Sabbath, “Black Sabbath” Harmony, scales, tonality, and musical meaning - One way of thinking about musical meaning involves distinguishing syntactic vs associative meaning - Associative meaning: Involves symbols, i.e. conventional association between sound (harmony, tonality, etc) and referent - Syntactic meaning: Involves indexes; Common progressions create expectations about what notes and chords likely to follow - Difference between what music evokes and the expectations placed on it - Three sections: Verse, pre-chorus, chorus - Notable is how chorus acts as response to challenge raised by pre-chorus - Pre-chorus: “Would I be that monster, scare them all away, if I let them hear what I have to say?” - Minor chords - Darker, unsure, repetitive  - Ends unresolved; ends on non-tonic chord - Chorus: “I can’t keep quiet” - Major chords - Breaks away from repetitive chords SEP 12 - Voices and Words Melody, Contour, and Vocal Inflection - Not just harmonies in pre-chorus that presents challenge to which the chorus responds - Same true of melody: ascending vocal line at end of pre-chorus - Rising contour suits lyrics: questions usually accompanied by upward vocal inflection - Coordination of harmonic syntax, verbal syntax, melodic contour The Semantic Complexity of Song - Message: Communicated via lyrics, depends on interaction with other elements (sound, rhythm, harmony, melodic contour, vocal delivery, etc) - In some cases, different variables work together to minimize ambiguity - However, it is frequently the case that different elements don’t work in tandem - Polysemic: Message via lyrics is unclear L≠ARM - There is a tendency to assume that: - Lyrics = Meaning and content of a song - Intended message = Audience’s interpretation - However, lyrics ≠ “audience’s received message” - Musician/Sender-> Song/Message-> Audience/Receiver - Message (intended) (interpreted)-> Content-> Meaning - EX: Aretha Franklin, “Respect” - Often interpreted as feminist statement - Close reading of lyrics point to a different intended meaning - Lyrics explicitly describe interpersonal domestic relations (“Oooh your kisses are sweeter than honey”) - A demand, perhaps, for romantic attention and sexual satisfaction, not necessarily gender equality - Are listeners mistaken? Or does the song mean more than it says? Performance and Interpretation - Lyrics aren’t just words; they are words that are sung, usually to a musical accompaniment - Hence importance of performance and musical setting - In “Respect” harmonic arrival (on the tonic) at end of every verse foregrounds lines demanding respect  - Break at 1’55” also projects the word (R-E-S-P-E-C-T) Meaning and Attention - Meaning depends not just on what’s intended or in the lyrics - Also depends how listeners attend to song - Attention is variable: We tend to focus more on refrains and choruses than versus (the “Born in the USA” effect) - Song critiques how the US treated Vietnam War vets - Repetition of words in refrains/choruses How much do words matter anyway? - Studies suggest words are less salient to many listeners than one might think - In 1960s, sociological studies of reception of protest songs revealed that most listeners - Don’t really notice the lyrics - Misconstrue their message - Subsequent studies support these findings, with a key qualification - Paratext Five Ways to Think About the Voice - How words are sung–vocal delivery–matters as much as what words are sung a. Medium for communicative action b. Index of human body, specifying info about singer, both physical and social c. A form of artifice, that can be manipulated, played with, performed d. Site of imaginative co-participation for listeners e. A Metaphor Voice as Medium of Communicative Action - Words in a song do not simply convey some denotative meaning but take park in a communicative action - THey take place in and enact a situation of address - From what position is the song being enunciated? To whom is it addressed? - Importance of shifters: words like “I”, “we”, “me”, “you” - Who is singing the song? - First person singular or plural - What is relation of the “I”/”we” to identify the performer and audience - To whom is the song directed? - Second person singular or plural? - What is relation between this “you” to identity of audience - Does this relationship afford or inhibit listener’s identification with the subject of address - In “Respect” - Who is singing? To whom? What is the relation of the song’s “I” to Aretha Franklin? How do answers change if we listen to Otis Redding’s version of the song Voice as Index - Voice indexes actions and instruments by which it is produced - Vocal timbre specifies the body of singer Voice as a psychological index - Vocal timbre also tells us about singer’s psychology and identity - Voice long seen as vehicle by which selfhood is expressed - Voice understood to provide insight into inner emotional/psychological states - Hence when a singer momentarily loses control over an instrument, what might that express? - J Cole, “Be Free” Voice as social index - Vocal timbre as marker of social identity (class, race, place of origin, gender identity, etc) - Accent as marker; may be a token of authenticity, or an attribute singer wishes to disguise or alter - British punk rock - Indexical signs are not always reliable… - These things can be manipulated Voice as artifice - Traits associated with different kinds of identity can be staged, imitated, or dissimulated - Like many other markers of identity, voice is performative Imaginative Co-participation - Voice attracts attention because we all can grasp physical actions involved in singing - Neuroscientific studies suggest that music perception involves imaginative imitation of music making - Subaudible vocalization - Muscles tensing and relaxing in sympathy with perceived actions - Neurons governing motor activities triggered but activities inhibited - Phenomenon can be cross modal, as when motor response in one physical apparatus is elected by another (a “wailing” note on a guitar) SEP 17 - Music and Intertextuality - Music on its own communicates meaning, apart from its lyrics - What is the basis for this “strictly” musical meaning? How can it be grasped for instrumental music, i.e. music lacking lyrics - EX: Ahmad Jamal Trio, “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” - Active, happy, frantic - EX: Ryoji Ikeda, “Supercodex 14” - Different kind of enjoyment……. - Learn to appreciate…… How do we talk about music? - While discourse on music varies by culture, genre, and audience, there are common themes  - Jamal: bouncy left-hand voicings and tinkly, tantalizing right; but at times flirt with cocktail music - Ikeda: bleeping, pulsating, cacophonous, jarring, elements of techno - Language addresses expression; physical qualities of sounds and actions involved in performance; references to other styles - What’s missing? There are few clear referents and few propositional statements - This is what music without words is bad at communicating in our culture Problem of meaning in western musical aesthetics - Music lacks clear referential content dates from mid 1700s in Europe - Before 1800, art that imitated nature was prized - Emmanual Kant: instrumental music is “more pleasant than culture” - During 19th century, relation of vocal and instrumental music reversed: the ineffability of instrumental music is valued - Coupled with rise of artistic autonomy: music and other arts on longer defined by utilitarian social function (e.g. role in court in church) but by its own criteria - Music is freed from words and social function Theories of Musical Meaning 1. Resemblance theories 2. Expectancy theories 3. Semiotic theories 4. Ecological theories 5. Metaphor theories Resemblance Theories: Argue that musical behavior and expressive human behavior are related via similarity (or iconicity) - Most commonly used to theorize music’s expressive character Expectancy Theory: Music generates meaning via the implications it creates and whether these are fulfilled/denied - Expectations may be generated across a number of different domains, tonality melodic confirm rhythmic regularity - Formations of expectations heightens arousal, realization lowers it - Frustration of realization further heightens arousal, creating emotional response - EX: Kendrick XXX - Disruption, what does it mean? Semiotic Theory: Approaches understand music as a system of signs, like language - Different kinds of signs: - Icon: resemblance between sign and what it signifies (drum and thunder) - Index: Co-occurrence of sign with what it signifies (marches w ceremonies like weddings, funerals, marches, military  - Symbol: Involves arbitrary, socially agreed upon association of sign and what it signifies (major=happy, minor=happy) - EX: Moses Wreck and file Ecological Theory: sounds provide information not just about physical, but also socio-cultural environment - Musical sounds inform us of - The people who produce them - The social contexts in which they are produced - The activities in conjunction with which they are produced - Music as means of gleaning information about social setting, identity, social function of music - A single music may specify variety of possible socio-cultural settings Metaphor Theory: Cognition is metaphorical; everyday language filled with statements like “I’m feeling up” or “I’m feeling blue” - Cross-domain mapping: maps attributes from one domain (familiar and concrete) onto another (unfamiliar and abstract) - Same applies to music; saying that pitches are “high” or “low” maps embodied experience of up/down orientation onto bodily source of sung notes (chest vs head) - Another example: mapping of temperature onto jazz styles SEP 19 - Hypertexts, Intertexts, Paratexts Texts made of Texts - One additional source of music’s meaning derives from connections made to other musics - Musical meaning from this perspective is: - Accumulative: As meaning of each new text (Song, recording, performance) depends on prior texts - Relational: as meaning of each new text depends on how it connects or deviates from other texts Transtextuality: All that sets a text in a relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts - Hypertextuality: describes text that are based on, imitate, or transform some earlier texts as a whole - New text modeled on existing text - EX: Blondie remix in trailer - Intertextuality: describes texts that incorporate elements/parts of previous texts into themselves - Paratextuality: describes texts that accompany and/or frame a text, guiding interpretation thereof Transtextuality vs Topics - Transtextuality is similar to notion of topic in semiotic theories of music - Topic: allusion to some musical style or genre, usually within a piece or sog belonging to different style or genre - Sumney “Rank and File” incorporates topic of military marching cadence - Transtextuality: different ways that (individual) text can be connected to other (individual) texts, e.g. derivation, quotation, dependency, etc. - Woods, “Very BLK”: incorporates allusions to “Hello Operator”, “Miss Mary Mack” Paratexts: various texts that surround and accompany a (musical) text - Album art, song titles, stage patter of performers, clothes worn by performers on stage, program notes, etc. - Beyonce’s 2015 NFL halftime show Hypertexts: derive from/transform existing song (hypotext) - Widely used in protest - Hypertexts exploit familiarity with existing song and its accumulated meanings - One of longest-standing forms of political musicking are contrafacts - Contrafacts replace words of a song with new, more topical words Contrafacts, parodies, and cultural knowledge - Contrafacts exploit listeners’ knowledge of original lyrics - Ex of WWI songs from early 20th century, which parody hymn tunes (and their promise of heavenly–rather than earthly–salvation - One reason for contracts’ longstanding popularity is they are cheap to produce and disseminate - All that’s needed in lyric sheet, with title of tune - Advent of sound recordings in late 1800s allow for different sorts of hypertexts - This is America parodies - This is France, Zef Intertexts: the actual presence of a text within another - Includes quotations, allusions, and samples - Intertextual references can perform a number of different functions - EX: The Beatles “All You Need is Love” - Intetexts can also be layered - EX: Luck of Lucien Allosonic vs Autosonic - Allosonic: Cases where intertext takes the form of melody, lyric, etc. that is represented in piece via its performance (EX: All You Need is Love) - Autosonic: Refers to cases where intertext takes the form of a recorded excerpt directly inserted into piece (EX: Luck of Lucien)  - Jay Z, Minority Report + Luciano Pavarotti, Non ti scordar di me What kinds of text? - Intertexts in a song or piece do not need to be musical but can exploit other media social media, TV news, games, etc) - EX: Solastalgia, El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido - SEP 25 - Participation and Performance Music is a medium: - There is a clear distinction between musician (sender) and audience (receiver) - Music has an existence independent of a musicians’ activities, its meaning is transmitted through this medium Presentation vs. Participation - Presentational Performance: Can be effect of storage media - Requires autonomization and division of labor - Participatory Performance: primary focus is on the activity, not some end product - Value determined not by aesthetic criteria (how it sounds) but social and affective criteria - Expectation that anybody can participate - Hence need to accommodate varying skill levels