engleski

Classical Musical Topoi in Contemporary Art Music: An Exploratory Study

In spite of increasing interest in extrinsic meanings of music since the 1980s, relevant empirical studies remain too scarce to allow for a systematic comparison (Huovinen & Kaila, 2015). This exploratory study deals with a rarely investigated aspect of contemporary art music. The main aims were to investigate whether it is possible to recognize common-practice musical topoi in excerpts of contemporary art music, outside their primary historical context, and whether the aural recognition of topoi in these excerpts corresponds with their similarity to the original historical concept, obtained by written analysis. The participants tried to guess which topos was represented (SCQ), and answered five open-ended questions about their experiences during the testing. The results corresponded with the similarity of a particular musical setting to its historical model: the share of recognized stronger representatives of topoi was considerably higher than the share of their weaker counterparts. The open-ended questions revealed that general mood, rhythm, and instrumentation were among the most significant bearers of musical meanings. The results of the comparison of socio-demographic data, AP-possession, study orientation and Aural Training grades with successful topos recognition were not statistically significant. The study proved the expressive potential of contemporary music, as well as its relationship with analytically obtained data ; however, its relevance is limited due to a small, relatively homogenous sample. To obtain more relevant results, future research could include a larger sample, different social groups and a comparison with aural recognition of older historical topical models.

musical topoi, contemporary art music, music analysis, music perception, music theory.

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