A Language of Its Own: Sense and Meaning in the Making of Western Art Music

380 Pages·2010·1.644 MB·

by  Ruth Katz

A Language of Its Own
Sense and Meaning in the Making of
Western Art Music

A Language of Its Own
Sense and Meaning
in the Making of Western Art Music
RUTH KATZ
The University of Chicago Press | Chicago and London
RUTH KATZ is the Emanuel Alexandre Professor Emerita of musicology at Hebrew
University, Jerusalem, where she taught from 1966 to 1995 and founded, with Dalia
Cohen, the Electronic Laboratory for Musicological Research. This is her eleventh
book.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2009 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2009
Printed in the United States of America
18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 1 2 3 4 5
isbn-13: 978-0-226-42596-2 (cloth)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-42597-9 (paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-42596-7 (cloth)
isbn-10: 0-226-42597-5 (paper)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Katz, Ruth, 1927–
A language of its own : sense and meaning in the making of Western art music /
Ruth Katz.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn-13: 978-0-226-42596-2 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-13: 978-0-226-42597-9 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-42596-7 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn-10: 0-226-42597-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Music. 2. Music—History and criticism. 3. Music—Social aspects. 4. Music—
Philosophy and aesthetics. I. Title.
ml60.k18 2009
781.6'8117—dc22
2008055137
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48–1992.
In memory of Carl Dahlhaus
And for
Ruth HaCohen and Elisheva Rigbi

]]
CONTENTS
Preface xiii
Introduction: The Guiding Conception of Western Art Music 1
part i
The Structuring of a Self-Referential World
1 THE MAKING OF MUSICAL BUILDING BLOCKS 11
Preliminary Clarifi cations 11
The Development of Western Notation and Its Signifi cance 13
Gregorian Chant Revisited 15
The Rise of Notation as an Autonomous System 21
Pitch 23
Duration 28
Concerning Notation: Concluding Remarks 36
Musical Frameworks as Referential Systems 41
The Greek Heritage: Music as an Organized Auditory
Phenomenon 42
viii Contents
The Musical Heritage of the World That Gave Rise
to Christianity 44
The Formal Organization of the Chant Repertoire 53
2 SYSTEMATIZING MUSICAL LAWS 59
The Self-Chosen Confi nes of Art 59
Horizontal and Vertical Elements: A Generating and
Controlling Force, Respectively 60
Cementing the Relationships among Successively
Composed Voices 65
“The Function of Closure” 66
From Imperfect to Perfect Consonance—Relating Voices
and Sonorities by Interval Progressions 67
Bestowing a Semblance of “Oneness” on Particles 73
External Designs 76
The Development of Inner Cohesion 79
The Rise of Harmonic Tonality 87
The Move from Desired Coincidences among Voices to
a “System of Chords” 88
The Systematization of Harmonic Tonality 94
Shifting Concerns—From Musical “Rules” to Music’s
Communicative “Powers” 98
part ii
The Crafting of a “Shared Understanding”
3 SEPARATING ‘SENSE’ FROM ‘MEANING’ 109
Natural Languages: Some Relevant Points 109
The Power to Occasion an Atmosphere 113
Drama Aspiring toward the “Condition of Music” 114
The Legacy of the Humanists 117
Empirical Observation and Aesthetic Theory 121
Contents ix
Demystifying an Elusive Agenda 126
The Camerata: Custodian of a Paradigm 127
Leading Conceptual Turning Points 133
A Fundamental Change in the Conception of Art 134
Signs as Cognitive Tools 134
Moral Philosophy and Its “Affair” with ‘Beauty’ 136
Modes of Communication and Cognitive Expansions 140
Social Interaction as a Regulating Force 142
The Sagacity of Sensate Discourse 143
Human Consciousness as a Creator of “Truths” 144
The Sign and the Signifi ed in Western Music 146
4 PROBING THE LIMITS OF
MUSICAL COHERENCE 157
The Referential Function of Learned Schemata:
External versus Internal References 157
Perception Replacing Conception 165
The Return of an Enigma 166
Music’s Spiritual Peculiarity as Distinct from
Its Mundane Technical Aspects 169
The Changed Status of the Artist 171
The Merger of the Arts 174
Tantalizing the Ear and Luring the Mind 177
The Reformulation of Musical Structure 177
From General “Language” to Particularized “Speech” 181
A General Theory concerning the Function of
Symbol Systems in the Arts 187
The Flaunting of Identities: Individual and Collective 192
Intimacy Made Public 192
The Particularization of Publics 194
Music as a Cultural Subsystem 201
The Blend between Past and Future in Romantic Thought 202
Internal References Challenged 208
The Variable Functions of Theory 212