This book is a unique attempt to systematize the latest research on all that music connotes. Musicological reflections on musically expressive content have been pursued for some decades now, in spite of the formalist prejudices that can still hindermusicians and music lovers. The author organizes this body of research so that both professionals and everyday listeners can benefit from it - in plain English, but without giving up the level of depth required by the subject matter. Two criteria have guided his choice among the many ways to speak about musical meaning: its relevance to performance, and its suitability to the teaching context.

The legacy of the so-called art music, without an interpretive approach that links ancient traditions to our present, runs the risk of missing the link to the new generations of musicians and listeners. Complementing the theoretical, systematic content, each chapter includes a wealth of examples, including the so-called popular music.

Autorentext
Professor Joan Grimalt is a conductor, philologist and musicologist, whose main field of research is Musical Signification, especially those aspects at the frontier to literature and language: hermeneutic, topic theory, musical rhetoric and narrative. He teaches courses on analysis, music appreciation, and score reduction, and has presented and published much of his research at the ICMS international conferences.

Inhalt
Introduction.- Chapter 1: Musical signs. Chapter 2: Madrigalisms, rhetorical figures.- Chapter 3: References, topoi. The classic 'mixed' style. A semioticsquare.- Chapter 4: Sacred references.- Chapter 5: Martial references.- Chapter 6: Lyricism and pastoral.- Chapter 7: Dance references.- Chapter 8: Theatrical references.