9-2-08 - Musics Meaning In Everyday Life Announcements :45classes ,and ReadChapter3(MusicandMeaning)and An

Music’s Meaning In Everyday Life

Announcements • Next Tuesday is ACT In Asheville Day – You will be back in time to attend 1:45 classes • We’re getting the MMPI results back then, and afterwards we’ll be finished! • Read Chapter 3 (Music and Meaning) and listen to accompanying CDs

Announcements • Listening Guide #1 – Choose a piece of music around 3 to 7 minutes long – Include title, artist/composer, date of recording and/or composition, instrumentation, meter, form – Using the format in the text as a guide, chart out musical descriptions (should take 1-2 pages, typed) • Break up by sections in the form and/or phrases • Describe musical elements for each (you can include lyrics, but don’t focus on them) • Include the time of the track – Due Thursday, September 11

Music’s Meaning In Everyday Life

Music can convey meaning ✧ Imitate or refer to other sounds ✧ Khoomii singer mimics sound of goat ✧ Don Quixote by Richard Strauss imitates sheep ✧ Association of sound with a specific idea ✧ Leneen Bakk rhythm used by a specific musical family in Senegal ✧ The M.T.A. Song about a political campaign ✧ Cultural association with specific music ✧ Talking drums mimic tonal Akan language

Music as Speech ✧ Makes for a powerful analogy ✧ Allows for musical “dialects” ✧ Good evidence that music evolved as an important stage in the development of language ✧ Actual linkage of music to language is pretty rare, though ✧ Still, it does manage to express something that is hard to convey in words

Pinning down musical meaning ✧ Sometimes meaning can change over time ✧ Church hymns ✧ Jesus is All this World to Me inspires Ray Charles ✧ National anthems ✧ The Anaceontic Song