The Musical Topic: Hunt, Military and Pastoral

The Musical Topic discusses three tropes prominently featured in Western European music: the hunt, the military, and the pastoral. Raymond Monelle provides an in-depth cultural and historical study of musical topics--short melodic figures, harmonic or rhythmic formulae carrying literal or lexical meaning--through consideration of their origin, thematization, manifestation, and meaning. The Musical Topic shows the connections of musical meaning to literature, social history, and the fine arts.

Author: Raymond Monelle
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 09/21/2006
Pages: 304
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.45lbs
Size: 9.60h x 6.36w x 1.14d
ISBN: 9780253347664

About the Author

Raymond Monelle was formerly Reader in Music at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is now an Honorary Fellow. His work on music theory and semiotics is internationally known. His books include Linguistics and Semiotics in Music and The Sense of Music. He has been a composer, pianist, and conductor, and writes music criticism for The Independent, Opera magazine, and other publications.