Author: Roeder, John
Publication details: Music Theory Online 0.5: 1-22.
Weblink: www.mtosmt.org
Abstract:
Eco’s theory of codes provides the basis for analyzing the structure of meaning in three contrasting types of music- analytical representation.An evaluation of the pitch-class- integer code highlights the essential arbitrariness of the links between music and mathematics.Graphical representations of music are also evaluated with reference to a computer program designed to represent musical data in any conceivable graphical form.Lastly the paper postulates conditions under which the literary musical criticism of the Romantic era may have specific musical denotation; accordingly, Schumann’s imagistic review of Schubert’s German Dances, Op. 33, receives exegesis.