Le 30 juin 2017
de 11h30 à 12h00
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
salle 3206
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Costas Tsougras
Conceptual blending is a cognitive theory proposing the combination of diverse, but structurally related, conceptual spaces for the creation of novel blended spaces. Musical conceptual blending can be intra-musical, pertaining to the combination of diverse structural elements for the creation of new melodies, harmonies or textures, or cross-domain, involving the integration of musical and non-musical (linguistic, pictorial or emotional) spaces for the creation of novel analogies or metaphors. This paper presents an analysis of « Samuel Goldenberg und Schmuÿle » from Modest Mussorgsky’s « Pictures from an exhibition » in an attempt to disclose both the intra-musical (modal or tonal harmonic spaces, musical texture types, rhythmic patterns, cadence formulae) and the extra-musical (symbolic and programmatic aspects) blending that the work incorporates. The analysis reveals that the piece comprises three distinct parts based on contrasting modal/tonal spaces, textures and rhythmic patterns that, despite their differences at the musical surface level, share key structural elements enabling them to converge in the piece’s closure. The reductional/prolongational analysis provides input for the creation of two Conceptual Integration Networks, the first describing the intra-musical blending of harmonic and rhythmic concepts and the second proposing the cross-domain blending of the musical and pictorial input spaces into a « hermeneutical » space that projects the work’s narrative potential. The approach shows how the three operations of conceptual blending (composition, completion, elaboration) can be employed in combination with structural analysis to promote meaning construction, suggesting that CB can be creatively used as an analytical tool contributing to a deeper comprehension of the musical experience.
