THE STUDY OF THE LATVIAN CONCEPT MUSIC OF THE EARLY 21ST CENTURY. TERMINOLOGICAL ISSUE
Keywords:
programmatism, conceptual art, semiotics of music, Latvian new musicAbstract
Concept is a new term applied to the Latvian music of the early 21st century. The idea of concept is borrowed from visual arts. It refers to the conceptual art that emerged in the late 1960s in the USA and in Europe. It focuses on verbal ideas and treats an artwork as a medium for transmission of these ideas. The conceptual art suggests a new form of art perception: these artworks should be regarded not only as visual ones, but mostly as ideas that can be expressed linguistically. Likewise, some of the new Latvian composers, Andris Dzenītis, Mārtiņš Viļums, Santa Bušs, etc., suggest that verbally explicated ideas are crucial in some of their instrumental works. It is recommended to the listener to learn about its content in linguistic terms. Although the idea is expressed musically, it might not be perceived adequately if the listener ignores the concept stated by the author in words. The main link of conceptual art with the concept music would be a meaning that demands a verbal explanation. The term concept can be transmitted from the theory of art to music without changing its main theoretical aspects. Borrowing of the term would mean that there is a shift of media from visual to acoustic without essential changes of the term itself as it is formed in a wide range of art theory sources. The large supply of texts dedicated to the conceptual art and its developed definitions would serve as a firm basis for this research.
Downloads
References
Books:
Coker, W. (1972). Music & Meaning: A Theoretical Introduction to Musical Aesthetics. New York: The Free Press.
Corris, M. (ed., 2004). Conceptual Art: Theory, Myth, and Practice. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cumming, N. (2000). The Sonic Self: Musical Subjectivity and Signification. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Francés, R. (1958). La perception de la musique. Paris: J. Vrin.
Godfrey, T. (1998). Conceptual Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited.
Goldie, P., & E. Schellekens (2010). Who’s Afraid of Conceptual Art? New York: Routledge.
Kivy, P. (2007). Music, Language, and Cognition: And Other Essays in the Aesthetics of Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press; New York: Oxford University Press.
Krauklis, G. (1999). Romantichesky programmny simfonizm: problemy, dostizheniya, vliyanie na muzyku XX veka [Romantic Descriptive Symphonism: Problems, Achievements, Impacts on Music in the 20th Century]. Moskva: Moskovskaya konservatoriya.
Lippard, L. R. (1973). Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972. Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Monelle, R. (1992). Linguistics and Semiotics in Music. Chur: Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH.
Monelle, R. (2000). The Sense of Music: Semiotics Essays. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Morgan, R. C. (1996). Art Into Ideas: Essays on Conceptual Art. London: Cambridge University Press.
Orrey, L. (1975). Programme Music: A Brief Survey from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day. London: Davis-Poynter.
Tarasti, E. (2002). Signs of Music: A Guide to Musical Semiotics. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Tarasti, E. (1994). A Theory of Musical Semiotics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Zbikowski, L.M. (2002). Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis. New York: Oxford University Press.
Articles:
Karbusicky, V. (1995). On the genesis of the musical sign. In: E. Tarasti (ed.). Musical Signification: Essays in the Semiotic Theory and Analysis of Music. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 229–266.
Scruton, R. (2001). Programme music. In.: S. Sadie, J. Tyrrell (eds). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Second Edition, Vol. 20. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, pp. 396–400.
Tarasti, E. (1987). Some Peircean and Greimasian concepts as applied to music. In: T. A. Sebeok, J. Umiker-Sebeok (eds). The Semiotic Web 1986. Berlin/New York/Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 445–459.
