Musical Rhetoric

Patrick Saint-Dizier, Senior researcher at CNRS, Toulouse, France.

• PREFACE xiCHAPTER 1. AN INTRODUCTION TO CLASSICAL RHETORIC 1               1.1. A few basic definitions 21.2. The structure of rhetoric 4        1.2.1. Rhetoric and communication 5      1.2.2. The structure of classical rhetoric 61.2.3. The invention step 71.2.4. The arrangement 91.2.5. The style or elocution step 121.2.6. The delivery or action 141.2.7. The facets of rhetoric 151.3. Some figures of speech 171.3.1. Introduction 171.3.2. The major figures of speech of interest in music rhetoric 181.4. Argumentation and explanation 211.5. Conclusion: a few historical milestones of traditional rhetoric 251.6. A few historical references for classical rhetoric 28CHAPTER 2. LANGUAGE, MUSIC AND THE RHETORIC DISCOURSE 312.1. Music and language 312.1.1. On the relations between language and music 322.1.2. Going into the details of music parameters, music for rhetoric 362.1.3. Music and rhetoric 422.2. A few historical milestones of music rhetoric emergence and evolution 432.2.1. The Middle Ages and the Renaissance 442.2.2. The transition between the Renaissance and the Baroque period 482.2.3. The Baroque period 512.2.4. The Classical period 542.2.5. The Romantic period 562.3. Main contemporary trends in music rhetoric 58CHAPTER 3. THE SYMBOLISM OF MUSICAL ELEMENTS 613.1. Symbolic and perceptual properties of modes and tonalities 623.2. Perceptual and symbolic properties of intervals 653.3. Musical figures and their role in rhetoric 673.4. Figures of rhythm and their roles in rhetoric 743.5. Motive alternations 793.6. Figures of counterpoint 803.7. The symbolism of numbers and proportions 833.8. The rhetoric contents of classical forms 873.8.1. The perception of large forms 873.8.2. The simple bi- and tripartite forms 883.8.3. The sonata forms 953.9. Conclusion 98CHAPTER 4. FEATURE STRUCTURES FOR REPRESENTING MUSICAL CONSTRUCTIONS  1014.1. Feature structures in language 1024.2. Representation of a melody by a feature structure 1044.3. From musical motives to polyphony 1094.4. Dealing with harmony 1104.5. A few generic operations of feature structures 1124.5.1. Transformations by augmentation or diminution 1124.5.2. Mirror forms 1144.5.3. Reverse forms 1164.5.4. A few other transformations 1174.5.5. Expressive power of this formalism 1174.6. Elements of annotation of musical structures in XML 1184.6.1. Basic feature structures 1184.6.2. Advanced XML annotations for two-dimension structures 1204.6.3. Figures of sound in XML 1214.7. Perspectives 125CHAPTER 5. A RHETORIC ANALYSIS OF MUSICAL WORKS 1275.1. Discourse theories in linguistics 1285.1.1. The rhetorical structure theory 1295.1.2. The pragma-dialectic movement 1315.2. The rhetoric of the stylus phantasticus 1325.3. The rhetoric and argumentation dimensions of J.S. Bach’s C. minor Passacaglia 1405.3.1. The global structure and the symbolic of numbers 1405.3.2. The structure of the argumentation in the Passacaglia 1425.4. The dialectics of the personality split 1475.5. Beethoven’s Muss es sein? Question and debate 1495.5.1. The personal context 1495.5.2. The questions and their formulations 1505.5.3. The response formulations 1555.6. A high-level notation for the structure of musical works 1615.7. Conclusion 166BIBLIOGRAPHY 167INDEX 177