The orchestra by Joan Peyser

Author:Joan Peyser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hal Leonard

CHANGING PERCEPTIONS OF MUSICAL MEANING

Fortunately, even though it is impossible to discuss the nature of musical meaning without tying oneself and the subject into knots, it is possible to distinguish changes in attitudes toward the issue of musical meaning. Of course, we must realize at the outset the simple fact that all music has always been considered "meaningful" in some way. From Plato, through the medieval theorists, to the Renaissance and beyond, philosophers and musicians have speculated on the significance of music and on the manner in which it communicates. The idea of the program is hardly unique to the nineteenth century. One may cite such effects as Janequin's evocation of the battle of Marignano; the dissonant drunken revels in Biber's Battalia; the Gall-Stone Operation of Marin Marais; and the thunder, lightning, birds, and brooks in Vivaldi's Four Seasons as evidence. Furthermore, there has always been an obvious programmatic aspect to opera and oratorio. One could certainly argue that the overture to Mozart's Don Giovanni is a piece of program music and that Haydn's depiction of chaos in The Creation is closely related to the later development of the tone poem.

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