An Ecosemiotic Approach To The Analysis Of Timbre

Perevedentseva, Maria

Abstract

Music analysts dealing with timbre are confronted by manifold paradoxes, chief among them being that timbre is ‘both material and immaterial’ (van Elferen 2020, 135)—a tangible, physically felt imprint of a sound event as well as an ineffable psychoacoustic attribute. Because of its slippery ontology, analyses of timbre in popular music have typically sought to pin down its identity via difference, whether from established genre norms or “mainstream” aesthetics (Blake 2012; Osborn 2017), or through structuralist binaries of markedness (Lavengood 2020). However, this chapter argues that a more fruitful approach to timbre would abandon notions of its being a fixed object whose essence can be uncovered through differential deduction, and instead embrace its relationality as an ‘interactive field of behaviour’ (Smalley 1994, 40). To this end, this chapter proposes an ecosemiotic approach to the analysis of timbre, combining James Gibson’s ecological theory of perception with the semiotic realism of Charles S. Peirce. Being premised on the matereal basis of thought and the mutuality of perceiver and environment, it is argued that the ecosemiotic approach can move beyond the definitional quagmire of timbral identity and instead provide insights into the embedded and embodied affective and cultural identifications that timbre affords listeners as they strive to make sense of their musical worlds. After outlining the theoretical rationale for the ecosemiotic method, the chapter closes with an analysis of a piece of electronic dance music—a genre in which timbre plays a key structuring role but which has received scant music-analytical attention to date.

Citation

Perevedentseva, M. (in press). An Ecosemiotic Approach To The Analysis Of Timbre. In M. Dines, G. Smith, & S. Rambarran (Eds.), Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies. Bristol: Intellect

• Acceptance Date: Feb 27, 2023
• Deposit Date: Jul 5, 2023
• Publisher: Intellect
• Book Title: Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies
• Keywords: timbre, ecosemiotics, electronic dance music
• Publisher URL: https://www.intellectbooks.com/
• Additional Information: Collected volume edited by Mike Dines, Gareth Smith and Shara Rambarran