<div dir="ltr"><div>
Dear Nicolas and the List,</div><div><br></div><div>yes, indeed, without proper definition of narrative this discussion will lead nowhere. I know of two contrasting interpretations of this term.</div><div><br></div><div>
1) The simplest is narrative as a story. A sequence of events that reminds the listener or the viewer of normal sequence of event in his or her life and reproduced on film (or in a novel). This simple definition is the object of desire for Hollywood production and its way to the box office success.</div>
<div><br></div><div>2) Narrative function in terms of Algirdas Greimas. This is the opposite of that simple one. Fonction narratif occurs as the play of nuances and non-verbal modalities that accompany a verbal statement. More precisely, it is the aspect of narration that exceeds the semantic structure of a sentence. Something that can be called, roughly, non-discoursive premises of writing. Applied to music (in terms of Robert Hatten) the narrative function occurs when the normal musical syntax (tonal-functional, formal-function, etc.) is violated. An example of such violation is modal shift in Mozart's Subsidiary area. Hatten suggests six degrees of markedness of such violations (licenses) that related to constitution of musical subjectivity, i.e. of actant. </div>
<div><br></div><div>In this sense there are two types of narrative analysis of music. One ascribes a story (analogous to everyday-life events) to music before analysis (E.g. Lawrence Kramer's interpretation of Moonlight sonata). This is a trivial approach by default. Another type observes anomalies in syntax that trigger secondary meaning. These anomalies may be left without interpretation or interpreted semantically. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The secondary narrative in music is similar to artistic montage in the film that has been introduced and theorized by Eisenstein at the time when filmmaking was in its diapers.</div><div><br></div><div>
In my analysis of Rachmaninoff's Etude-Tableau Little Red Riding Hood I first go over its harmony and form. The framing sections of this etude follow not so much the postulates of classical forms as the morphology of a fairy tale (villain--princess intermittent exposition, three statements of expository material, etc.). The middle section is very unusual; it contains one extended harmonic progression with very ambiguous tonal goals; it sound more like a film montage in the style of Dziga Vertov (with the steam engine running through the landscape, accelerated shots sequence, etc). The recapitulation returns the fairy tale syntax, but the whole Etude ends in a way uncharacteristic for a fairy tale (in terms of Propp). The princess dies and the villain remains alive. Here, I have freedom to suggest that the hidden narrative in this Etude is the anticipation of Russian revolution. Take it or leave it, but this is the interpretation of secondary narrative.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Best wishes,</div><div><br></div><div>Ildar Khannanov</div><div>Peabody Institute</div><div><a href="mailto:etudetableau@gmail.com">etudetableau@gmail.com</a></div></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2014-07-08 8:57 GMT-04:00 Nicolas Meeùs <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nicolas.meeus@scarlet.be" target="_blank">nicolas.meeus@scarlet.be</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<font face="Calibri">We probably need to better define what should
be understood by "narrative analysis". <br>
<br>
On the one hand it is true that music has its own 'narrative', one
that should be rediscovered. On the other hand people claiming to
perform "narrative analysis", in Europe at least, understand by
that evidencing what the music narrates, the tale that can be
deduced and reproduced in ordinary language – say, the turning to
D major at the end of Mozart's Fantasy in D minor as expressing
the final victory of the hero, as Eero Tarasti once claimed in a
paper read in Paris (unaware, apparently, that this ending is not
by Mozart).<br>
<br>
There are works that do tell stories. For instance, the fact that
Liszt reproduces Victor Hugo's poem before his Symphonic poem
Mazeppa may allow one to deduce that the music somehow tells the
same tale; and one may even consider that the change from D minor
in the beginning to D major at the end probably relates to the
tale told.<br>
<br>
On the other hand, one may consider that the fact that Mozart's
KV397 ends on a dominant (rather than on a tonic in major) has to
do with its musical 'narrative', but this one is of an entirely
different nature, one that needs not be translated into words.<br>
<br>
Even in the case or Liszt, accounting in words with what the music
narrates is, in my opinion, only a very restricted part of what a
musical analysis should be – and perhaps should not be considered
"music analysis" properly speaking.<br>
<br>
Nicolas Meeùs<br>
Professeur émérite<br>
Université Paris-Sorbonne<br>
<br>
<br>
</font>
<div>Le 8/07/2014 11:18, Nicholas Reyland a
écrit :<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5">
<div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">Interesting how the idea of
narrative and music continues to ignite the passions, leading
to some notably strong statements. </div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br>
</div>
<div><font face="Calibri,sans-serif">On the one hand, Prof. </font><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri;font-size:15px">Meeùs write that '</span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri;font-size:medium;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">narrative analysis,
or music criticism, or anything of the like, as interesting
as they may be, are </span><u style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri;font-size:medium;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">not</u><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> part of music analysis properly
speaking’, and adds '</span>I see no reason why
narratologists should claim [to be] performing music analysis
properly speaking, nor why music analysts properly speaking
should feel in any way dependent on narratology’. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>On the other hand, I recently read Anahid Kassabian
claiming, in the introduction to <i>Ubiquitous Listening</i>,
that most forms of music analysis are narratological.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Weirdly, scholars who might justifiably consider at least
some of their work to be ‘music narratology’ almost never make
such sweeping claims. As Fred Maus has put it, in my
experience quite typically of lots of work in this area by
music theorists, ’The notion of narrative… is something to
try, one way or another’ (quoted in Fred's chapter in <i>Music
and Narrative since 1900</i>) . </div>
<div><span style="font-family:AJensonPro;font-size:11pt"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span style="font-family:AJensonPro;font-size:11pt">A
narrative approach is not the only, nor the best, way to
interpret </span><span style="font-family:AJensonPro;font-size:11pt">lots and lots of music</span><span style="font-family:AJensonPro;font-size:11pt;font-style:italic">: </span><span style="font-family:AJensonPro;font-size:11pt">it is never the <i>only</i>
productive way to engage </span><span style="font-family:AJensonPro;font-size:11pt;font-style:italic">any
</span><font face="AJensonPro" size="3">piece of music, and
music’s otherness always exceeds its grasp on the occasions
when pieces <i>do</i> invoke the possibility of reading
through a narrative frame. Nonetheless, by examining some
music through
narrative-informed approaches, one can access ideas that
cannot be revealed in other ways and that therefore have the
potential to make
a unique contribution to criticism and scholarship,
productive for creators,
critics, performers, and audiences alike. I am very happy
for this to be part of my work as a music analyst and
theorist. And t</font>he internal evidence of the music,
like Frank Kermode’s notion of the classic, has nothing to
fear of such work, even when such work is intimately concerned
with that very evidence: music ‘subsists in change’, remaining
infinitely ‘patient of interpretation’. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div><font face="AJensonPro">With best wishes to all </font></div>
<div><font face="AJensonPro"><br>
</font></div>
<div><font face="AJensonPro">Nick Reyland</font></div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px">
<div>
<div>____________________________________________</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>
<div> </div>
<div><span>Dr Nicholas
Reyland</span></div>
</div>
Senior Lecturer</div>
<div>Music & Film Studies
<div>Keele University
<div>
<div><span></span></div>
<div><span></span> </div>
<div><a href="mailto:n.w.reyland@keele.ac.uk" target="_blank">n.w.reyland@keele.ac.uk</a></div>
<div><a href="http://www.keele.ac.uk/music/people/nicholasreyland" target="_blank">www.keele.ac.uk/music/people/nicholasreyland</a></div>
<div><span>T: +44 (0)1782
733297</span></div>
</div>
</div>
Music, The Clock House, Keele University, ST5 5BG, UK</div>
</div>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br>
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