The Musical Topic Hunt, Military and Pastoral [Hardcover]

The Musical Topic discusses three tropes prominently featured in Western European music: the hunt, the military, and the pastoral. Raymond Monelle provides an in-depth cultural and historical study of musical topicsshort melodic figures, harmonic or rhythmic formulae carrying literal or lexical meaningthrough consideration of their origin, thematization, manifestation, and meaning. The Musical Topic shows the connections of musical meaning to literature, social history, and the fine arts.

In this persuasive, well-organized study, Monelle (Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland) makes a significant contribution to understanding hunt, military, and pastoral music. . . . This clearly reasoned, charmingly written volume has the potential to change the way one hears, performs, and teaches significant portions of the musical canon from Haydn and Mozart through Debussy and Mahler. . . . Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers.

Raymond Monelle was formerly Reader in Music at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is now an Honorary Fellow. His work on music theory and semiotics is internationally known. His books include Linguistics and Semiotics in Music and The Sense of Music. He has been a composer, pianist, and conductor, and writes music criticism for The Independent, Opera magazine, and other publications.

The Musical Topic marks the culmination of Monelle's developing thought on the book's titular subject. . . . Monelle has drawn upon an impressive array of sources in a variety of fields, producing an interdisciplinary study of unusual scope. No. 89, Spring 2010

Contents<\>
List of Plates
Preface
Note on Titles of Musical Works
Part One: Topic Theory
1. Topic and Expression
2. The Literary Source of Topic Theory
3. Signifier and Signified in Music
Part Two: Huntsmen
4. Signifier: The Hunting Horn
5. Signified: Hunts Noble and Ignoble
6. Musical Hunts