De las artes plásticas a la música: Pierre Boulez, a la escultura de Paul Klee

Se plantea aquí la cuestión de cómo plantear el análisis de las relaciones entre artes diversas (en particular, entre música y pintura) en términos que hagan justicia a la complejidad de dichas relaciones. En primer lugar, se enumeran y examinan tres grandes propuestas metodológicas al respecto, ya clásicas: la que sitúa las obras en un Zeitgeist común de referencia; la que atiende a una temática u objeto común, que se determina teniendo en cuenta el universo poético de los artistas; y la que atiende exclusivamente a los elementos de afinidad estructural inmanente entre las propias artes objeto de comparación. A estas tres se añade una cuarta, que se apoya en las estrategias creadoras y perceptivas manifiestas en las obras. Tras ello, se hará objeto de examen un texto de Pierre Boulez sobre Paul Klee, que no se compromete exclusivamente con ninguna de las propuestas enumeradas, sino que las ensaya todas, pero en particular la cuarta. Mostraremos cómo la mirada que Boulez lanza sobre Klee, de creador a creador, ilustra y revela que es ese cuarto enfoque el que resulta especialmente fecundo por sus potenciales consecuencias para propia la actividad poiética, a condición de conceder al pensamiento la posibilidad de hacer aparecer el proceso poiético, quizás no evidente a los ojos de cualquier observador.Palabras clave: Analogías música-pintura, metodologías de estética comparativa, nivel inmanente, estrategia poiética, poiética inductiva. AbstractWe discuss the issue of how to analyze relations between the different arts (particularly between music and painting) in terms which do justice to the complex nature of such relations. First we enumerate and briefly examine three main classical methodological approaches to the issue: one which considers artworks as inserted in a Zeitgeist, common and characteristic of their respective epochs; another one that tries to elucidate a certain common theme or subject by taking into account the personal poetic universes of the individual artists; and a third one, which focuses exclusively on the immanent elements of structural affinity between the arts which are being compared. An additional, fourth approach is considered, one that leans on the creative, perceptual strategies manifesting themselves in artworks. Then, we discuss a text by Pierre Boulez on Paul Klee, which does not exclusively espouse any of these four approaches, but rather explores all of them. We will show how the gaze Boulez casts on Klee, from creator to creator, illustrates and reveals that, among all four methods, it is the fourth one which turns out to be the most fecund, particularly in terms of its consequences for poietic activity itself – on the condition that our thought be granted the possibility to reveal the poietic process, which may not necessarily be evident to all and every observer.Keywords: Music-painting analogies, methods of comparative aesthetics, immanent level, poietic strategy, inductive poietics.</p

A Memetic Analysis of a Phrase by Beethoven: Calvinian Perspectives on Similarity and Lexicon-Abstraction

This article discusses some general issues arising from the study of similarity in music, both human-conducted and computer-aided, and then progresses to a consideration of similarity relationships between patterns in a phrase by Beethoven, from the first movement of the Piano Sonata in A flat major op. 110 (1821), and various potential memetic precursors. This analysis is followed by a consideration of how the kinds of similarity identified in the Beethoven phrase might be understood in psychological/conceptual and then neurobiological terms, the latter by means of William Calvin’s Hexagonal Cloning Theory. This theory offers a mechanism for the operation of David Cope’s concept of the lexicon, conceived here as a museme allele-class. I conclude by attempting to correlate and map the various spaces within which memetic replication occurs

Perception of isolated chords: Examining frequency of occurrence, instrumental timbre, acoustic descriptors and musical training

This study investigated the perception of isolated chords using a combination of experimental manipulation and exploratory analysis. Twelve types of chord (five triads and seven tetrads) were presented in two instrumental timbres (piano and organ) to listeners who rated the chords for consonance, pleasantness, stability and relaxation. Listener ratings varied by chord, by timbre, and according to musical expertise, and revealed that musicians distinguished consonance from the other variables in a way that other listeners did not. To further explain the data, a principal component analysis and linear regression examined three potential predictors of the listener ratings. First, each chord’s frequency of occurrence was obtained by counting its appearances in selected works of music. Second, listeners rated their familiarity with the instrumental timbre in which the chord was played. Third, chords were described using a set of acoustic features derived using the Timbre Toolbox and MIR Toolbox. Results of the study indicated that listeners’ ratings of both consonance and stability were influenced by the degree of musical training and knowledge of tonal hierarchy. Listeners’ ratings of pleasantness and relaxation, on the other hand, depended more on the instrumental timbre and other acoustic descriptions of the chord

Understood at Last?: A Memetic Analysis of Beethoven’s ‘Bloody Fist’

As a singular moment in the western canon, the opening of the recapitulation in the first movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has prompted a variety of structural and expressive readings. This paper explores its intertextual connections with Mozart’s Don Giovanni from a memetic perspective, outlining certain extra musical interpretations, including some related to Susan McClary’s controversial reading of the passage, one might infer from the strong musical connections

Theoretical Approaches to Quotation in Hip-Hop Recordings

Intertextuality is pervasive in multiple forms of popular music, but is arguably most overtly presented in hip-hop music and culture. While much academic work has focused on linking practices of quotation, reference, allusion and Signifyin(g) in hip-hop to earlier forms of African-American music, the main purpose of this article is to outline and illustrate the variety of ways that one can borrow from a source text or trope and ways that audiences identify and respond to them. Distinctions between allosonic and autosonic quotations (Lacasse), ‘intention’ versus sociohistorically situated interpretations (Nattiez), as well as ‘textually signalled’ and ‘textually unsignalled’ intertextuality (Dyer), help create a more detailed taxonomy within the genre. These and other distinctions, which transcend narrow discourses that only focus on ‘sampling’ (digital sampling), provide a toolkit that sets a context for more nuanced discussions of borrowing practices and offers broader implications for intertextuality within and outside of hip-hop culture. By drawing from a range of examples (e.g. The Pharcyde, Dr Dre, Xzibit), this article demonstrates that a thorough investigation of musical borrowing in hip-hop requires attention to the texts (hip-hop recordings), their reception and wider cultural contexts. Theoretical Approaches to Quotation in Hip-Hop Recordings - ResearchGate. Available from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/267929949_Theoretical_Approaches_to_Quotation_in_Hip-Hop_Recordings [accessed Mar 26, 2015]

Music(s), Musicology and Science: Towards an Interscience Network.

International audienc