Musical notation in the aspect of the semiotics theory by Charles Morris
Authors: Startsev D.А. 
Published: August 2020

Background. According semiotics, the text by which the fixation and preservation of information is carried out is the result of sign activity of man. The study of the patterns and nature of the notation and its elements is impossible without consideration of semiosis – the process of functioning of signs. The peculiarity of the musical activity is the fact that the graphic musical text finds a different form – the note signs are read by the interpreter and transform into sound. In other side, it is important to note that in the mind of the composer in the process of recording the work sound images are primary. On this basis, it can be assumed that musical activity combines the functioning of several sign systems. Therefore, it seems appropriate to investigate musical notation – the carrier of musical information – as an abstract written sign system and to illuminate its components using semiotic theory. Since the latter, according to Ch. Morris (2001), creates a “common language” that can be applied to any particular sign system. The object of the research is the traditional music notation as a written sign system. The main goal is the analysis of a special musical sign system and its elements from the standpoint of semiotics. The semiotic research method is used in the aspect of the theory of Charles Morris, one of the founders of semiotics as a scientific discipline about signs. Research results. “The human mind is inseparable from the functioning of signs – perhaps, in general, intelligence should be equated with the functioning of signs,” – this thought by Ch. Morris (2001: 45) immediately removes the question of the legitimacy of seeing in the art a sign system or a kind of language. Unlike the so-called natural language, music is a special language that, for its scientific description, needs to be studied from a semiotic point of view to study its formal structure, to refer to objects that are denoted and to interpreters using the sign system. In the definition of Ch. Morris (2001: 76), language is a set of symbolic means, the use of which is conditioned by syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic rules. The scientist uses the definitions “designatum” and “denotatum” describing the sign correlation in the process of “semiosis”. The “designatum” may be considered as an “image” or “concept” of the “denotatum”, which refers to real-world objects. In the written music notation (text) system, signs are presented in complex form. Given the absence of “denotatum” as a real object in the musical activity, the only physical result of the sign’s functioning is sound itself. However, this physical phenomenon is not within the scope of the sign system under consideration as a denotation or other component. That is, the material sound result is part of another musical process and, accordingly, another sign system – the performing process of a piece of music. Signs can be jointed into different combinations. As Ch. Morris (2001) writes, this does not preclude the existence of an isolated sign. In the case of musical texts, significant situations may occur in which individual graphic elements in combination find new content. For example, the league, along with the emphasis, can demonstrate the motive structure. In this situation, the emphasis indicates the location of the reference tone, and the league – framed the boundaries of the motive. Being a semantic unit, the structure of the motive is due to the logical accent, which has a major impact on the ratio of other tones of the sequence: the notes located before and after the accent have a different degree of gravity, which directly determines the musical pronunciation. The absence of a league in this combination makes it possible to read this motif as having a different length, especially if it bordered on others. In the absence of an accent, the location of the reference tone is not indicated and obeys the metric grid of the tact, namely, the main note of the motif will be placed on a downbeat. The consideration of musical notes in the semiotic aspect also led to the assumption that there are independent signs that, being isolated, carry information (for example, the “note” sign, which indicates the pitch and duration); as well as special signs that add new qualities to other musical notes (for example, alteration symbols), which, taken separately, do not have practical value. For example, the “#” (“sharp”) symbol functions only in combination with another, independent, “note” sign. At the same time, reading the alteration sign together with the pause symbol is not possible due to the lack of appropriate syntactic and semantic rules. These special characters play the role of qualifiers and add their “designates” to other meanings, acting at the syntactic and semantic levels of the semiosis process. The concept of the interaction of signs in the process of semiosis provides for the formation of new complex characters from independent and special characters. New iconic situations form a new value field. During the use of characters in various combinations, the interpreter may take into account other designations, which is further regulated by pragmatic rules. Conclusions. Many studies of musical language as a system related to natural lead to negative results and incline their authors to statements about the metaphorical nature of this concept. However, its study from a semiotic perspective, that is, the study of musical notation as a system of signs or a special language, opens up a different perspective. The identification of conditions and rules for the functioning of signs at different semiotic levels makes it possible to provide a complete description of the sign musical notation system and its elements. The groups of “designatums” and “denotatums” need to be precisely defined, namely, their belonging to a certain sign system, since the same sequence of tones in one system acts as a unit of language, and in another, for example, as a leitmotif. It is noted that the musical system has more “designatums” than actually existing objects of reference (“denotatums”). The analysis of relations arising at the syntactic level made it possible to identify a number of special musical graphic signs that function only in combination with other signs and supplement or change their reference (for example, alteration signs). The process of functioning of signs and the formal structure of the sign system of a musical language require a comprehensive and deeper study, which is the perspective of this study.