On November 14, 2019, Viktor Kofi Agawu's music semiotics were discussed in the seminar "Epistemologien der Musik- und Klangforschung" (Module "M1 Musiktheorien") under the leadership of Mr. José Gálvez as lecture of the seminar. Agawu explained the difference of perception of literal meaning and musical meaning from their sign using Melismas in Handel's Messiah as an example. Agawu made two conclusions. His first conclusion is that music as a sign cannot be converted and understood like a general sign. This specificity of music referred to as its natural essence of music in his opinion. In the second conclusion, he argued that such a wide purview of music semiotics, so such a wide expression of music as a sign can promote pluralism* in contrast to the literal meaning of the word as a sign.
*Kofi Agawu, “The Challenge of Semiotics”, in: Nicholas Cook / Mark Everist (Ed.), Rethinking Music, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001, pp. 159–160.
As a plural expression of musical element, Agawu mentioned the word "way" in the lyric of Handel's Messiah "Everyone to his own way" which would be expressed differently by the musical element. In context with this theory, I investigated the meaning of "Kyrie Eleison"
as a literal sign and as a musical sign with the musical work The Mass in B minor, BWV 232 by Johann Sebastian Bach and compared his work with other contemporary works.
The words "Kyrie" and "Eleison" are connected by a common vowel "e", and conversely, the sound is interrupted between the last "n" and the first "K" when they are repeatedly chanted. In this way, the words "Kyrie Eleison" were perceived as one unit not only in literal context but also in musical context.
In the Bach's manuscript, the two "e" between "Kyrie" and "Eleison," are written continuously (Figure 1). However, these words are separated by putting a comma between the above two "e" in the first bar (Figure 3) in the Kalmus edition (originally Breitkopf und Härtel, reprinted 1933–1970, New York). This comma had been not added in the earlier Breitkopf edition (1856).
It would be remarkable that the later Kalmus edition introduces effects of dynamic contrasts such as crescendo and decrescendo which are not written in the Bach's manuscript. While the dynamic contrasts separate the sonorities of these two words in audible perception, the concrete literal meaning of each single word can be transferred.
(the number of basso continuo is even changed from "3" of the earlier Breitkopf edition to
"8" of the later Kalmus edition at the end of the 6th bar, so many addtional descriptions are found, and the whole might be planned and differently re-written from the earlier edition.)
Figure 1: Holograph manuscript of b minor Mass by J.S. Bach (ca.1733-49)
*Public Domain, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (D-B): Mus.ms. Bach P 180
Figure 2 (left): The Mass in B minor (Breitkopf und Härtel Leipzig, 1856. Plate B.W. VI., Bach-Gesellschaft Ausgabe, Band 6)
Figure 3 (right): The Mass in B minor (Breitkopf und Härtel Leipzig, Nachdruck 1933-70, E.F. Kalmus Catalog A2486, New York)
*Public Domain
The emphasis on the literal meaning of "Kyrie" and "Eleison" by separating the sonorities can weaken the meaning of them as musical elements and signs. Conversely, while the "Kyrie Eleison" as one unit is constructed in complicated polyphony of first soprano, second soprano and tenor/bass, the shape of the word "Kyrie" is vaguely outlined, and
this word should be perceived only as some kind of the "Savior" as the subject of "Eleison"
while repeating the above musical unit rather than as the "Christ" with concrete religious meaning of the word. This abstraction of the literal meaning can enhance a meaning of mysterious majesty of God.
The musical works of "Kyrie" by contemporary composers has different musical structure from the above complecated polyphony by Bach regarding meaning of musical elements. The composers Jan Sandström (1954–) and Șerban Nichifor (1954–) published their works using the lyrics "Kyrie Eleison". The whole chorus part has a homophonic structure through the entire works. Sandström's long melisma is influenced by Bach obviously, however, while each single word of "Kyrie Eleison" can be clearly heard, the meaning of god's majesty is not attached by the abstract profound character as in the Bach's choral works.
In former times, the Gregorian chants had been characterized by a monophonic structure. After the development of polyphony in classical music such as Bach, e.g. popular music in modern times is characterized by a homophonic structure. In this way, such musical trends are reflected in compositional style of the lyric "Kyrie Eleison" in the modern choral works. The alternative expression by means of the musical elements instead of the literal meaning may be weaken today.
Raku Sato
31.03.2020 (excerpt of additional submitted dissertation)
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