Approaches to Meaning in Music

"Approaches to Meaning in Music" presents a survey of the problems and issues inherent in pursuing meaning and signification in music, and attempts to rectify the conundrums that have plagued philosophers, artists, and theorists since the time of Pythagoras.

This collection brings together essays that reflect a variety of diverse perspectives on approaches to musical meaning.

Established music theorists and musicologists cover topics including musical aspect and temporality, collage, borrowing and association, musical symbols and creative mythopoesis, the articulation of silence, the mutual interaction of cultural and music-artistic phenomena, and the analysis of gesture.

Contributors are Byron Almen, J. Peter Burkholder, Nicholas Cook, Robert S. Hatten, Patrick McCreless, Jann Pasler, and Edward Pearsall.

Dr. Almen is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Theory at The University of Texas at Austin.

He is the author of several articles on narrative theory, the music of Gustav Mahler, music and psychology, early 20th century Germanic culture, and music pedagogy.

He is also an accomplished pianist and organist. Dr. Pearsall is currently Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.

He is known internationally as a performer, composer, and scholar and has published numerous articles on subjects ranging from prolongation in tonal and post-tonal music to theories of rhythm, interpretation and performance, and biological approaches to the study of music and the mind.