This dissertation engages with scholarship in musical semiotics and hermeneutics to offer insight into the aesthetics of hard bop (c. 1954–65), a jazz genre often characterized as a return to jazz’s roots. By synthesizing the semiotic perspectives of Raymond Monelle, Danuta Mirka, and Stephen Rumph on the notion of musical topics (style references), I posit a generalized model of topical signification that is sound regardless of stylistic context. From this theoretical stance, I infer three categories of topics in hard bop: vernacular topics, nostalgic topics, and exotic topics. This study culminates with a reading of the 1963 Jazz Messengers recording of Wayne Shorter’s “One by One” (Ugetsu: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at Birdland) that questions the narrative temptations that topics may elicit. This reading draws on Lawrence Kramer’s notion of “narrativity”—a meaningful teleological impulse (e.g., a power struggle)—but does not espouse any master narrative or plot. Instead, my eclectic interpretation draws on the philosophical and psychoanalytic writings of Gilles Deleuze, Félix Guattari, and Slavoj Žižek to establish a network of associative meanings. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / May 3, 2017. / jazz, narrative, semiotics, topic theory / Includes bibliographical references. / Evan A. Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Denise Von Glahn, University Representative; Joseph Kraus, Committee Member; Jane Piper Clendinning, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_552140 |
| Contributors | Thompson, Daniel J. (authoraut), Jones, Evan Allan (professor directing dissertation), Von Glahn, Denise, 1950- (university representative), Kraus, Joseph Charles, 1955- (committee member), Clendinning, Jane Piper (committee member), Florida State University (degree granting institution), College of Music (degree granting college) |
| Publisher | Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text, doctoral thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (155 pages), computer, application/pdf |
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