Musical Fact and the Semiology of Music

Molino, Jean; Underwood, J. A.; Ayrey, Craig

doi:10.2307/854225

Cited by 42 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…An ethnographically rich volume, it proceeds from the premise that 'music is a social fact', a premise that echoes positions promulgated by Alan Merriam (1964), John Blacking (1973), Jean Molino (1990) and others. Noteworthy is the emphasis throughout on Igbo language and conceptual categories, be they names of musical instruments (which the Igbo classify according to mode of sound production), terms to value and energise a performance, or folk terminology for classifying genres.…”

Section: Kofi Agawumentioning

confidence: 99%

Meki Nzewi and the discourse of African musicology: a 70th birthday appreciation

Agawu¹

2008

Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa

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This article offers a critical appreciation of the contributions of Nigerian ethnomusicologist, composer and scholar, Meki Nzewi, to the scholarly discourse on African music. It identifies a number of recurring themes in Nzewi's work (notably the human-centredness of African music making), comments on Nzewi's language, method and manner (including the Africa-centredness of his overall stance), and points to the resonance of Nzewi's ideas and formulations within the context of postcolonial writing on Africa.Meki Nzewi's turning 70 -being granted his 'three score years and ten' even though rumour has it that he has not seen the inside of a church in decades -is an occasion for celebration for anyone interested in the theory and practice of what he likes to call the 'musical arts' of Africa. Nzewi's gifts are many: choreographer, writer, musical dramatist, performer, composer, teacher and scholar. For me he is the most energetic and original thinker of his generation, one of the strongest voices to have come out of the African continent in the field of musicology. His voice is unique and uniquely textured, his manner direct and combative, and his thinking fuelled by an unshakeable ethical commitment to what might be called an African humanism. Nzewi inspires extreme reactions from those who come into contact with him and his work, ranging from those who think his ideas are overstated and unnecessarily provocative, to others who are moved by the subtlety, novelty and boldness of his interpretations and by the depth of his commitment to an authentic African viewpoint.How does Nzewi compare to other senior scholars of African music? This is a rhetorical question, of course. Any such comparison is bound to seem subjective. No standard or objective criteria exist for valuing scholarly work; indeed, the academic study of music worldwide has in recent decades developed a startlingly diversified profile. Moreover, questions of value, be they about kinds of repertoire, analytical and critical methodologies, 1 Editorial note: This article is a reflection on selected articles from Meki Nzewi's oevre. As part of celebrating his birthday, the editor has published at the end of this article a complete list of Meki Nzewi's book, chapter and journal publications, thus providing the reader with an indication of the scope of this scholar's output.01_Agawu.indd 1 01_Agawu.indd 1

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Section: Kofi Agawumentioning

confidence: 99%

Meki Nzewi and the discourse of African musicology: a 70th birthday appreciation

Agawu¹

2008

Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa

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“…Because it is the pigment that colors most musicians' picture of musical semiotics, surveys of analytic techniques (e.g., Bent 1980;Cook 1987) invariably depict the taxonomic-empiricist methodology as the semiotic approach to music -a perspective that has only been enhanced by recent translations of the seminal writings on the taxonomic-empiricist program (Molino 1990;Ruwet 1987). As a consequence, justly or unjustly, new designs for a semiotics of music are compared to and measured against the taxonomic-empiricist view.…”

Section: The Taxonomic-empiricistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The three poles of the tripartition, as described by Molino (1975), are intended to depict the process whereby music becomes a symbolic form, to use Nattiez's terminology (echoing Cassirer). The poietique pole is equated with the analysis of production strategies; that is, with 'the conditions that make possible, and that underpin the creation of an artist's (or a producer's or an artisan's) work -thanks to which something now exists which would not have existed, except for them' (Nattiez 1990: 13).…”

Section: The Taxonomic-empiricistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review article

1994

Semiotica

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PreambleFabulist Jorge Luis Borges (1969: 173-177) gives account of the King of Babylon, who, taking pride in the subtlety and complexity of a labyrinth he had constructed, invited his guest, the King of Arabia, to explore its secrets. Having become lost in its confusion of blind alleys, the Arabian monarch, upon petitioning divine counsel, finally found his way out. He complimented his host on his elaborate monument, but added that he knew of a superior labyrinth in Arabia that he would someday allow his counterpart to experience. A few years later, after successfully waging war on the Babylonians, the Arabian warrior transported the vanquished King to Arabia and took him on a three-day journey by camel-back into the desert. This, the Arabian King exclaimed, was his labyrinth, infinitely more simple, yet exceedingly more capable of defying any and all solutions. The hapless prisoner was then abandoned on the burning sands, where he soon perished.The first labyrinth is of bifurcating paths; the second is of an infinity of points from any one of which an infinity of paths is possible. The first is properly Boolean, logical; the second is spatial, topological. After an indefinite but finite number of choices within the first, the goal can be reached. The second, in contrast, lends itself to an infinity of steps. If one wanders about it in search of salvation, one will eventually describe an indefinite number of circular paths (much like a strange attractor of 'chaos theory'), and if one strikes out in a straight line -a Euclidean feasibility, though impossible when considering the desert sands in terms of Reimannian geometry -one will cover half the distance between a given point and the end of the journey, then half of the remaining half,

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“…It is on these three dimensions that the specificity of the symbolic largely rests. [9,10] Equally helpful for our investigation is Christopher Small's concept of musicking, where music (the sonic phenomenon) "is not a thing but an activity" ( [11], p. 2). As an activity, musicking speaks of an encounter-based relationship that gives rise to community meaning-making and a community's definition of itself.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Forming Christians through Musicking in China

Lim

2017

Religions

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Abstract:In recent years, authorities in mainland China have renewed their call for the sinicization of Christianity through theological discourse. Given that Christianity is largely expressed in visible, worship-based ways, such as music (songs), rhetoric (sermons), rituals (sacraments), symbols (crosses, garments, banners, etc.), posture and gesture (genuflecting, lifting hands, etc.), one wonders at the implication of this development. Might there be an alternative approach to sinicization? This essay seeks to investigate the feasibility of sinicized Christianity from the ontology of musicking as purveyed through the practice of congregational song.

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Musical Fact and the Semiology of Music

Cited by 42 publications

References 11 publications

Meki Nzewi and the discourse of African musicology: a 70th birthday appreciation

Meki Nzewi and the discourse of African musicology: a 70th birthday appreciation

Review article

Forming Christians through Musicking in China

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