The Approaches to Reading Music

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Definition of a Narrative
Narratives and Story-Telling in Music
Particular Features of Music Narratives
Analysis of Music Works as Narratives
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The tendency toward analyzing music from the perspective of narratology began to develop actively in the 1970s, when musicologists started to interpret musical works as narratives. Therefore, it is important to define a literary narrative in order to understand what features of this form were considered by theorists as important to be applied to music (Maus 2005: 466). The question is how a music work can be treated as a narrative and how it can reflect its characteristics (Maus, 2005; Sternberg, 2010). Furthermore, the problem is that there is no single opinion among researchers and musicologists regarding music forms as narratives because not all elements of narratives can be found in musical pieces.

On the one hand, instrumental music works represent the majority of attributes typical of literary narratives. On the other hand, music pieces lack some important characteristics of narratives, which does not allow for speaking about their relationship. Thus, “some treatments suggested that non-programmatic instrumental music can be a form of narrative representation. Other treatments explored analogies between instrumental music and discourses normally understood as narrative” (Maus, 2005: 466). The purpose of this paper is to present the analysis of music pieces as a kind of narrative discourse and focus on a variety of views regarding the relationship between music and a narrative with reference to the interpretation of researchers’ key ideas.

Definition of a Narrative

The concept of a narrative is usually defined with reference to verbal practices, but definitions are different depending on the theory and views in the field of narratology. It is possible to distinguish between the positions of such theorists as Gérard Genette, Roland Barthes, and Seymour Chatman among others. According to Nattiez (1990) and Kovač and Kovač (2018), the definition proposed by Chatman is most often discussed and analyzed when the narrative approach is applied to understanding musical pieces. Thus, according to Seymour, “stories only exist where both events and existents occur” (qtd. in Nattiez, 1990: 241). From this viewpoint, narratives can be defined as texts where there are a linear dimension to represent events from a time perspective, as well as the cause-and-effect relationship between specific events (Nattiez, 1990: 242). In addition, following Chatman, this causation “may be explicit or implicit” (qtd. in Nattiez 1990: 242). This definition and vision became viewed by other theorists as the grounds for understanding the concept of a narrative in its literary form, which later influenced the application of the concept to music.

When referring to this definition, it is also important to discuss the difference between the story and discourse components of a narrative because music theorists examined these aspects when proposing their views on narrativity in music forms. Chatman offered a widely applied model of considering a narrative with reference to its level of content (which is its story) and an important level of expression (which uses its discourse) (Kovač and Kovač ,2018: 568). In this model, a story is the description of events, actions, and existents, as well as discourse, is associated with the act of communicating or expressing a story (Kovač and Kovač, 2018). What is important is the fact that a narrative is present only with a focus on the aspect of time because a story should be provided as a temporal series of events (Nattiez, 1990: 243). The emphasis put on the temporal aspect allowed music theorists to develop different approaches to regarding and interpreting music pieces as narratives. The reason is that some of them could find different tenses in a musical piece, and others could not apply this concept.

Narratives and Story-Telling in Music

One of the main arguments for theorists and researchers to discuss music works as narratives is the fact that composers and performers speak to listeners with the help of musical tools and means. This idea was developed by Nattiez (1990: 241), who noted that the system of coding used in music includes not words but sounds, and these sounds are helpful to present or tell a certain story with a specific meaning. As a result, it is possible to state that musical structures can be compared to or viewed as similar to music structures and components used to present a music work as a piece with its logical beginning and conclusion. Thus, music has specific semantic instruments in order to create musical narratives that are similar in their form to literary narratives (Nattiez, 1990: 243). Additionally, Nattiez (1990: 245) also claimed that “since music suggests narrative, it could itself be narrative.” From this perspective, the ideas that music works are narratives were actively supported by theorists, and they were developed in order to accentuate the possibility of applying the narratological interpretation to musical pieces.

This understanding of music works as narratives provoked the development of several stages of research in narratology in order to examine narrativity in music pieces. According to Maus (2005: 480), it is possible to distinguish between three particular stages of musicological research on the problem of music narratives. At the first stage, which is labeled as an optimistic stage, researchers were interested in studying music pieces as narratives in order to explain the meaning of these works and provide detailed interpretation (Maus, 2005). At the second stage, researchers were inclined to demonstrate skepticism because of the focus on certain weaknesses in finding the relationship between music works and narratives.

Currently, it is possible to observe the third stage, at which both perspectives exist and develop without demonstrating particular extremes in supporting or opposing this or that point of view. One should also note that the focus on these stages is rather helpful in order to explain the evolution of perspectives in narratology regarding the perception of music works as narratives (Maus, 2005: 480). Such remarkable interest in studying music in the field of narratology can be explained with reference to the position of Edward Cone, who viewed music as a language (Nattiez, 1990: 245). In this context, it is possible to regard music with reference to instrumental utterances and symbols that allow for creating a certain pattern or a framework to accentuate the development of a story having a meaning and a theme.

It is also necessary to accentuate that fact that, at the current stage of the narratological interpretation of music pieces, there are no strict divisions between different approaches, and no direct connections between the examination of a narrative and music works are revealed. According to Millard (2018: 6), “one may broadly conceive of these various narratological approaches to music as existing somewhere on a spectrum from pure structuralism to more expansive cultural hermeneutics.” Referring to these details, researchers can view musical pieces as narrative structures and determine a plot, themes, meanings accentuated with the help of tonal areas and repetitions (Millard, 2018; Sternberg, 2010). From this perspective, narrative theory can help researchers to apply both unique humanistic and structural approaches to interpreting musical works with reference to their reading through the context of narratives.

Particular Features of Music Narratives

Theorists paid much attention to determining clear features or attributes of music narratives in order to be able to analyze and discuss them in detail. Because of its unique possibilities, music, according to Nattiez (1990: 243), “is capable of three major types of extrinsic referral, the spatio-temporal, the kinetic and the affective.” Thus, “musical ‘discourse’ is placed in time,” and music works have repetitions, expectations, resolutions and semantic and syntactical features that allow for speaking about music as a unique variant of a narrative (Nattiez, 1990: 245). It is important to note that this emphasis on the temporal aspect in music pieces is also stressed in the work by Maus (2005: 467), who accentuated the “literal and near-literal repetition” in music. This feature allows sonatas and other music forms to resemble narratives with a focus on the aspect of a story, which has the beginning, the development, and the conclusion.

In different parts of music pieces, it is possible to observe repetitions and accents on certain parts in order to catch a listener’s attention. However, it is also important to assert that the views of Nattiez (1990) and Maus (2005) regarding the roles of a discourse and a story in narratives are different. Thus, in contrast to Maus’s (2005) views, Nattiez (1990: 244) promoted the idea that “in music, connections are situated at the level of discourse, rather than the level of the story.” One more viewpoint was declared by Klein (2004: 26) with reference to the analysis of several studies on the problem: music has not past tense. As a result, it is rather problematic to speak about the temporal feature of a music narrative, a narrator, and the presence of a story. Thus, “lacking a narrator, the mark of diegesis, music can only present actions as they unfold in the present” (Klein, 2004: 26). From this perspective, the appearing question is whether music can be a narrative without a narrator and a past tense for representing events.

Some researchers agreed that music is narrative in spite of this aspect with a past tense, and others disagreed with the idea. As it was stated earlier, many researchers were influenced by the position of Edward Cone, who treated music as a language. In addition, he also developed the concept of apotheosis as “a special kind of recapitulation that reveals unexpected harmonic richness and textual excitement in a theme previously presented with a deliberately restricted harmonization and a relatively drab accompaniment” (gtd. in Klein, 2004: 31). Analyzing music works, theorists also tried to apply this concept to their understanding of music narratives. From this perspective, apotheosis as “both a structural and expressive transformation of a theme” can be observed not only literary works but also in music pieces (Klein, 2004: 32). This aspect indicates that there are many similarities in structural and semantic components of music and literary pieces that allow for regarding both as narratives.

It is also important to note that the narrative elements of music can be discussed as most remarkable in situations when instrumental musical pieces support some stories. This phenomenon can be observed when analyzing the use of music in films and theatrical performances (Sbravatti 2016). Focusing on the plot of a depicted story, a listener can also identify the elements of this sequence of events represented with the help of music and sounds. In this case, it is possible to speak about the creation of a unique narrative world that is generated with the help of a performance and music (Friedman, 2018). The narrative element becomes supported by actors’ performance, and the role of music in this case is to accentuate the expressive component. In this case, it is possible to identify a past tense in the examined narrative because of referring to the story in a film, for example. Musical performances are also illustrative in this case, and a listener receives the visual support for the ideas that can be interpreted with the help of music means.

Analysis of Music Works as Narratives

Having adopted the idea that music pieces can be regarded as narratives, musical theorists paid much attention to analyzing different types of instrumental music from this particular perspective. For example, Anthony Newcomb was interested in applying the narrative approach to the analysis of music works by Schumann, Second Symphony in particular. Thus, according to Newcomb, “the conception of music as a composed novel, as a psychologically true course of ideas, was and is an important avenue to the understanding of much nineteenth-century music” (qtd. in Nattiez, 1990: 248). Newcomb applied the elements typical of structuralist narratology in order to discuss the specifics of music works (Millard 2018). However, Nattiez (1990) tends to critique this interpretation accentuating the fact that music works usually lack a plot in spite of presenting a series of functional events for a listener with the help of music elements. Maus (2005) also questioned the possibility of music to describe certain events typical of a plot in literary narratives. Thus, in spite of the fact that some researchers were able to easily identify the elements of narratives in music pieces, others indicated some weaknesses of this approach.

The analysis of Newcomb’s approach to discussing Schumann’s Second Symphony is a subject for interpretation by many musicologists. Thus, the researcher regarded the music work as a novel with connected parts (movements) where melodies help to lead a listener to the past (previous movements) in order to understand the mood. As a result, according to Newcomb, there is “an internal conflict within an encompassing protagonist, whose shifting response to past sadness creates a fourth movement with an unusual sequence of events” (Maus, 2005: 473). Therefore, a music piece was analyzed and discussed by Newcomb similarly to a literary narrative, and this fact emphasizes the perception of this music as a narrative. It was important for Newcomb to develop the idea of the plot archetype in order to accentuate the narrative nature of music works (Maus, 2005: 476). A plot archetype is “a standard series of mental states,” and Schumann’s Second Symphony is one of the examples to illustrate this concept (Maus, 2005: 472). Referring to this concept, the researcher pointed at the important component of a narrative in music in spite of further critique of other musicologists.

Other pieces of instrumental music were also carefully examined by researchers in order to identify the examples of narrative structures in them. In this context, there are also many essays and research papers in the field of narratology on Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Thus, referring to the perception of many listeners, musicologists stated that this music work seems to tell a story throughout its four movements. Furthermore, Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony can be discussed as another example of Newcomb’s plot archetype because of presenting the “psychological evolution” in this music work, as it was noted by the researcher (Maus, 2005: 472). It is possible to observe the signs of the conflict in this symphony, some accentuated dramatism, and the development of the story to the triumph or its climax. These aspects are discussed as being extremely important for narratives, where movements in music pieces are perceived as introductory, central, and ending parts of a certain story.

The aspect of a plot and the concept of emplotment were also applied for the analysis of some other musical pieces as narratives. Chopin’s Fourth Ballade is among these music works that was interpreted in detail by Klein (2004). Thus, in this analysis, Fourth Ballade is viewed as “an emplotment of expressive states rather than a sequence of actors and their actions” (Klein, 2004: 23). In this ballade, it is possible to notice and focus on an expressive or formal logic, which is discussed by Klein (2004) as a critical component of a narrative. For Chopin, it was typical to accentuate the role of narrators in its ballades with reference to the past tense in the told story, as it was noted by Klein (2004: 37). In this context, the researcher refers to the idea of the lyric time, which is significant for understanding musical works as narratives, and this aspect needs to be explained in detail.

One should note that, according to the researcher, Chopin’s approach to creating his story is rather complex because he tends to refer to both the lyric and narrative time in his pieces. Thus, in Fourth Ballade, Chopin “maintains control of lyric time, even driving the music further into the past with those emphases on the subdominant, before the transformation to narrative time begins around m. 68” (Klein, 2004: 43). This emphasis on time is typical for the analysis of narratives, and this aspect accentuates the similarity between literary and music narratives. From this perspective, the researcher applied the conventions characteristic for story-telling and narrative analysis in order to discuss how actions, past and present time, and narrators are revealed in the musical piece. It is possible to conclude that Klein (2004) found particular temporal elements of a narrative in Chopin’s Fourth Ballade in order to assert that it is a narrative with a plot. When referring to this analysis of a musical work as a narrative, it is necessary to accentuate the role of emplotment in creating a story in music.

Conclusion

The reviewed research on the topic indicates that the principles of the narratological analysis can be applied not only to literary narratives but also to music works that are often perceived as narratives. This idea is shared by a range of theorists and musicologists who are interested in finding and identifying the features of narratives in different pieces of instrumental music in spite of contradictions in this approach. On the one hand, it is rather problematic to perceive and interpret musical works as narratives, as it was declared by a group of researchers who critiqued this approach. They stated that music pieces lack the time component (a past tense). On the other hand, the closer analysis of some musical pieces indicates that they have some clear elements of narratives, and theorists are able to provide convincing arguments to support and explain their positions.

Despite the fact that the application of the narratological interpretation to musical works can have some weaknesses, it is still important to note that instrumental music has many features and attributes that are similar to literary narratives. The problem is that temporal aspects of the plot cannot be clearly represented with the help of the means of music, but many researchers accentuate the presence of a past tense and a present tense in certain music works depending on their interpretation. Therefore, it is possible to conclude that, despite the fact the adaptation of literary narrative theory to analyzing music narratives can be problematic and associated with many weaknesses, this approach is working. In order to be able to prove their ideas and controversial positions, researchers provided the analysis of certain musical works that have been used as examples in this paper. Furthermore, it is also important to state that the narratological analysis of music pieces allows for focusing on the semantic and structural components of a music piece to convey a certain meaning with the help of telling a story. This aspect also helps to consider music pieces as narratives.

Works Cited

Friedman, J. Tyler. 2018. “On Narrativity and Narrative Flavor in Jazz Improvisation.” Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 74 (4): 1399-1424.
Klein, Michael. 2004. “Chopin’s Fourth Ballade as Musical Narrative.” Music Theory Spectrum 26/i: 23–55.
Kovač, Smiljana Narančić, and Iva Kovač. 2018. “Narrative as a Term in Narratology and Music Theory.” Rasprave: Časopis Instituta Za Hrvatski Jezik I Jezikoslovlje 44 (2): 567-579.
Maus, Fred Everett. 2005. “Classical Instrumental Music and Narrative.” In A Companion to Narrative Theory, edited by James Phelan and Peter J. Rabinowitz, 466–483. Malden: Blackwell.
Millard, Russell. 2018. “Telling Tales: A Survey of Narratological Approaches to Music.” Current Musicology 103: 5-44.
Nattiez, Jean-Jacques. 1990. “Can One Speak of Narrativity in Music?”, translated by Katharine Ellis, Journal of the Royal Musical Association 115/ii: 240–257.
Sbravatti, Valerio. 2016. “Story-Music/Discourse-Music: Analyzing the Relationship between Placement and Function of Music in Films.” Music and the Moving Image 9 (3): 19-37.
Sternberg, Meir. 2010. “Narrativity: From Objectivist to Functional Paradigm.” Poetics Today 31 (3): 507-659.

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