Transcript Presentation-song - Philosophy of Art Course Blog

LANGER AND SONG
By Sarah Zisser
Susanne Langer
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Lived 1895-1985
American philosopher of
mind and art
Influenced by Ernst
Cassirer
Langer Definition of Art
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“A work of art is an expressive form created for our
perception through sense or imagination, and what
it expresses is human feeling”(168).
“We are dealing with the principles that have
proven to be the same in all the arts”(168).
“Expressiveness, in the one definite and appropriate
sense, is the same in all art works of any kind”(168).
Definition of Music
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Organized Sound
Appeal to ‘tonality’ or essentially musical features
such as pitch and rhythm
Appeal to aesthetic properties or experience
“The art or science of combining vocal or
instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of
form, harmony, and expression of
emotion”(Merriam-Webster)
Langer and Form
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“Form in its most abstract sense means structure,
articulation, a whole resulting from the relation of
mutually dependent factors, or the more precisely,
the way that whole is put together”(169).
Formal components of a Song
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Harmony
Chord arrangements
Rhythm
Key-centric
Chord progression
Sequence
Melodic structure
Meter and construction
Discursive Form
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The use of language- “We can communicate, by
producing a serried array of audible or visible words
or sounds, in a pattern commonly known, and readily
understood to reflect our multifarious concepts and
percepts and their interconnections”(171).
Case for discursive form: “It is a highly versatile,
amazingly powerful pattern”(171)
Symbolic Form
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Goes where discursive form
cannot
Symbolic Form: “the principle of
saying one thing and meaning
another, and expecting to be
understood to mean the
other”(171).
 Even
when we can accurately say
what we want to express, we still
cannot express that feeling without
some sort of expressive form.
Discursive/Symbolic Form in a SongLyrics
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Vehicle for symbolic expression
 Clear
idea and language
 What
are we trying to say?
 Compatible
 Do
melody and lyrics
the words match the “tone” of the music behind them?
 Perfect
rhyme/imperfect rhyme
 Metaphor
Expressive Form
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Expressive form can express what discursive form
and symbolic form cannot.
 “An
expressive form can express any complex of
conceptions that, via some rule of projection, appears
congruent with it, that is, appears to be of that form.
Whatever there is in experience that will not take the
impress—directly or indirectly—of discursive form, is
not discursively communicable or, in the strictest sense,
logically thinkable. It is unspeakable, ineffable… It is
unknowable”(171).
Expressive Form Cont.
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“Expressive form is congruent with the dynamic
forms of our direct sensuous, mental, and emotional
life; works of art are projections or ‘felt life’”(172).
“A work of art expresses a conception of life,
emotion, inward reality. But it is neither a
confessional nor a frozen tantrum; it is a developed
metaphor, a non-discursive symbol that articulates
what is verbally ineffable—the logic of
consciousness itself”(173).
Expressiveness in Music
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“Music sounds as feelings
feel”(172)
“The central idea is that
music's expressiveness consists
in the resemblance of its
dynamic character to the
dynamic character of various
aspects of human beings
undergoing emotions”(Plato).
Expressive component of Music
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Melody
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Key quality
Major
 Minor
 Modulations?
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Tempo
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Melodic shape
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Is it fast or slow?
Does the melody have very few intervals or does it jump
frequently?
Dynamics
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How loud or soft it is
My Song
My Music Background:
-High School choir, voice lessons, piano lessons, Music
Theory AP, director of High School Women’s A
Cappella group.
-Current member of Aural Pleasure
With: Gabrielle Bloch (Roomate)
-Chai Tunes, voice lessons
Another Example
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Eric Whitacre (1970-)
 American
composer and
conductor
 Studied music at Julliard
 “Virtual Choir” Projects
 2,000
videos from 58 countries
 http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=6WhWDCw3Mng
Connection
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Music with lyrics encompasses both expressive
(melody) and discursive/symbolic (lyrics) form.
 What
is the communication power of a work of art that
has both forms?
 Is there another type of art that can do this?
Example-the breakdown
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How do the harmonic components of the song affect
the emotion being expressed?
 The
verses are in the key of C minor and modulate to E
flat major while transitioning into the chorus.
 Minor
pentatonic scale:
 Major pentatonic scale:
 How does this affect the mood? The emotion?
ExampleExpressive PLUS discursive/symbolic
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How do the discursive and symbolic components of
the song in addition to the harmonic components
affect the emotion being expressed?
 If
the verses in the key of C minor also have melancholy
lyrics and the chorus in E flat major have hopeful lyrics,
how clear is the emotion that is being expressed?
One more component?
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How would a live or visual
performance further enhance
the expression of emotion in
a song?
“the experience of the
emotion, the emotion's typical
facial expression, the
contour of vocal expression
typical of a person
experiencing the emotion,
and the contour of bodily
behavior typical of such a
person” (S. Davies 2006,
182).
Bibliography
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"Communication Nation." : Metaphor. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012.
<http://communicationnation.blogspot.com/2010/10/metaphor.html>.
"Empower Network." Jaered Besse Jaered Besse Empower Network Blog. N.p., n.d.
Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.empowernetwork.com/jaeredbesse/blog/
the-power-of-words/>.
"Feeling the Music." Paintings I Love. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://
www.paintingsilove.com/image/show/39259/feeling-the-music>.
"How To Write Lyrics For A Song That Will Blow Your Fans Away." How To Write
Lyrics For A Song That Will Blow Your Fans Away. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec.
2012. <http://www.songwriting-secrets.net/how-to-write-lyrics-for-asong.html>.
Langer, Susanne. "Expressiveness." Art and Interpretation: An Anthology of Readings
in Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art. By Eric Dayton. Orchard Park, NY:
Broadview, 1998. N. pag. Print.
"Music Club." Music Club. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.gltech.org/
studentportal/music_club.htm>.
Bibliography Cont.
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"Music Notes Background | Stock Photo © Ingrid Balabanova
#2229374." Music Notes Background. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012.
<http://depositphotos.com/2229374/stock-photo-Music-notesbackground.html>.
"The Philosophy of Music." (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). N.p., n.d.
Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/music/>.
"The Reintegration Puzzle: Putting the Pieces Back Together." Singing
through the Rain. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2012. <http://
www.singingthroughtherain.net/2012/04/the-reintegration-puzzleputting-the-pieces-back-together.html>.
"Susanne K. Langer." "Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy" N.p., n.d. Web.
02 Dec. 2012. <http://www.anthonyflood.com/
langerroutledge.htm>.
Whitacre, Eric. "Eric Whitacre." Eric Whitacre on Twitter. Twitter, n.d. Web. 1
Dec. 2012. <https://twitter.com/EricWhitacre>.