xv, 198 p. : music / Music has meaning. But what is the nature and source of meaning, what tools can we use to illuminate meaning in musical analysis, and how can we relate aspects of musical structure to our embodied experience? This dissertation provides some possible answers to these questions by examining the role that metaphors and models play in creating musical meaning. By applying Mark Johnson and Steve Larson's conceptual metaphors for musical motion, Larson's theory of musical forces, perspectives on musical gesture, and a wide variety of models in music analysis, I show how meaning is constructed in selected works by Bach and Schubert. My approach focuses on our experience of musical motion as a source of expressive meaning. The analysis of two gigue subjects by Bach shows how we create expressive meaning by mapping musical gestures onto physical gestures, and five detailed case studies from Schubert's Winterreise show how the same basic underlying pulse leads to different expressive meanings based on how that pulse maps onto walking motion. One thread that runs through this dissertation is that models play a significant role in creating meaning; this idea is central to my analysis of the prelude from Bach's fourth cello suite. Questions of meaning are not new to musical discourse; however, claims about meaning often lurk below the surface in many musical analyses. I aim to make the discussion of meaning explicit by laying bare the mechanisms by which meaning is enacted when we engage with music. The view of musical meaning adopted in this study is based on several complementary ideas about meaning in general: meaning is something our minds create, meaning is not fixed, meaning is synonymous with understanding, and meaning emerges from our embodied experience. Other scholars who address musical meaning (for example, Hatten and Larson) typically adopt a singular approach. Although I do not create a new theory of meaning, I employ numerous converging viewpoints. By using a multi-faceted approach, we are able to choose the best available tools to discuss aspects of our musical experience and relate the expressive meaning of that experience to details of musical structure. / Committee in charge: Stephen Rodgers, Chairperson; Jack Boss, Member; Lori Kruckenberg, Member; Steven Larson, Member; Mark Johnson, Outside Member

Composing or arranging for orchestra is a skill which is hard to learn and hard to teach. Literature on orchestration is comprehensive in terms of rules of thumb and these heuristic tools are sometimes called principles of orchestration. However, a study of the literature on orchestration revealed that these 'principles' are not theories about the outcomes and effects of specific decisions made by composers. An exception is the work of George McKay who does indeed establish principles of orchestration to some extent. Granting a few exceptions, literature on orchestration takes as point of departure recommendations about techniques of orchestration and illustrates these techniques with analyses of existing compositions for orchestra. In this study I invert the approach followed in the literature and take music analysis as a point of departure for my study. I used an existing and conventional analysis of Claude Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute from the book Sonic Design: The Nature of Sound and Music by Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot (1976) as context for my own analysis of Syrinx in which the less familiar type of analysis – the analysis of musical gestures and musical forces – can be understood. This analysis formed the basis for my orchestral composition titled Ananke which is based upon musical gestures from Syrinx. A reinterpretation of Cogan and Escot's analysis of Debussy's Syrinx enabled me to identify the musical gestures I used as a basis for my orchestral composition. Musical gestures are understood in this dissertation in terms of the theory of musical forces by Steve Larson. The objective in composing Ananke, based upon material from Syrinx by Debussy, is to explore different ways in which the musical gestures can be orchestrated in order to amplify the three musical forces namely musical gravity, musical magnetism and musical inertia. This process of composing the orchestral composition enabled me to construe principles of orchestration concerning musical forces and the different ways in which musical forces can be amplified. I found that the approach I followed in this study can indeed be employed in order to investigate and construe principles of orchestration, taking music analysis as a point of departure. This new approach to the study of orchestration opens up new possibilities in teaching and learning orchestration, as well as in composing or arranging for orchestra. / Thesis (MMus (Composition))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Composing or arranging for orchestra is a skill which is hard to learn and hard to teach. Literature on orchestration is comprehensive in terms of rules of thumb and these heuristic tools are sometimes called principles of orchestration. However, a study of the literature on orchestration revealed that these 'principles' are not theories about the outcomes and effects of specific decisions made by composers. An exception is the work of George McKay who does indeed establish principles of orchestration to some extent. Granting a few exceptions, literature on orchestration takes as point of departure recommendations about techniques of orchestration and illustrates these techniques with analyses of existing compositions for orchestra. In this study I invert the approach followed in the literature and take music analysis as a point of departure for my study. I used an existing and conventional analysis of Claude Debussy's Syrinx for solo flute from the book Sonic Design: The Nature of Sound and Music by Robert Cogan and Pozzi Escot (1976) as context for my own analysis of Syrinx in which the less familiar type of analysis – the analysis of musical gestures and musical forces – can be understood. This analysis formed the basis for my orchestral composition titled Ananke which is based upon musical gestures from Syrinx. A reinterpretation of Cogan and Escot's analysis of Debussy's Syrinx enabled me to identify the musical gestures I used as a basis for my orchestral composition. Musical gestures are understood in this dissertation in terms of the theory of musical forces by Steve Larson. The objective in composing Ananke, based upon material from Syrinx by Debussy, is to explore different ways in which the musical gestures can be orchestrated in order to amplify the three musical forces namely musical gravity, musical magnetism and musical inertia. This process of composing the orchestral composition enabled me to construe principles of orchestration concerning musical forces and the different ways in which musical forces can be amplified. I found that the approach I followed in this study can indeed be employed in order to investigate and construe principles of orchestration, taking music analysis as a point of departure. This new approach to the study of orchestration opens up new possibilities in teaching and learning orchestration, as well as in composing or arranging for orchestra. / Thesis (MMus (Composition))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

In this thesis, I demonstrate the dynamic way in which musical processes can be described as metaphors. Using Steve Larson’s three main metaphors (gravity, inertia, and magnetism) as a starting point, I propose additional metaphors (friction, repulsion, momentum, wave, orbit, and oscillation) to analyze the first movements of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K 466 and Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor, op. 54. These metaphors provide a means to discuss points of convergence and divergence between the Classical style and the early-Romantic style. Additionally, most theorists of the energeticist tradition only discuss motion through prose; I introduce a way to represent these metaphors as musical examples. By focusing on the listener’s experience through musical motion, the model proposed in this thesis is useful, not only for the theorist, but for all who wish to communicate ideas about music in a dynamic way.