Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar III.1The Axis of Semiotics III.1.2 (F Oct 29) Sign Systems

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar Consider music as a sign system = a semiotic (= second axis of our topography) Semiotics = theory of sign systems (sign: expression/signification/content) Three dominant scholars: Charles Sanders Peirce, US philosopher: „Grammatica speculativa“ 1865 (sign/interpretant/object)Charles Sanders Peirce, US philosopher: „Grammatica speculativa“ 1865 (sign/interpretant/object) Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist: „Cours de linguistique générale“ 1916 (signifiant/signification/signifié)Ferdinand de Saussure, Swiss linguist: „Cours de linguistique générale“ 1916 (signifiant/signification/signifié) Louis Hjelmslev Danish linguist: „La stratification du langage“ 1954 (expression/relation/content)Louis Hjelmslev Danish linguist: „La stratification du langage“ 1954 (expression/relation/content) Roland Barthes: „Elements of Semiology“ 1964 Ch.S. Peirce F. de Saussure

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar Anatomy of a Semiotic CT (contents) SG (signification) EX (expressions) syntactics semantics pragmatics synonym homonym

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar ExpressionSignificationContent LP analogical CD digital ?

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar 1Bit 0 or 1 4 Bit 0000, 0001, = 16 values 0,1,2, CD has 16 Bit amplitude quantization: 16 entries: = 1     2 0 0,1,..., 65‘535 = 2 16 values CD has 16 Bit amplitude quantization: 16 entries: = 1     2 0 0,1,..., 65‘535 = 2 16 values 2. time quantization reading amplitude quantization binary representation of numbers: 1011 means (sign!!) 1     2 0 = = 11 CD has 44‘100 samples per second CD of one hour and stereo has total of 2 channels  60 minutes  60 seconds  44‘100 samples  16 amplitude Bits = 635 MByte (1 Byte = 8 Bits) CD of one hour and stereo has total of 2 channels  60 minutes  60 seconds  44‘100 samples  16 amplitude Bits = 635 MByte (1 Byte = 8 Bits) Polycarbonate track width ~1μm landpit

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar harmonic analysis Sign Sign Content Signification Expression tonal modulation G maj  E-flat maj „score surface“

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar ExpressionSignificationContent Harmonic Analysis Following Hugo Riemann (Function Theory) three possible contents per tonality: T (tonic) D (dominant) S (subdominant) RiemFun E y -major syntactical expression: RiemFun E y -major (Ch) evaluate! Ch T = content of RiemFun E y -major (Ch) RiemFun E y -major (Ch) = T RiemFun A y -major (Ch) = D RiemFun B y -major (Ch) = S Riemann theory reduces sequence of chords to sequence of values T, D, S (for specific but variable tonalities)

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar There Is Software, e.g. Rubato/HarmoRubette for Such Analyses! (see one chord Ch function values tonalities

Guerino Mazzola (Fall 2015 © ): Honors Seminar The Harmonic Path