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FANTASY and FUNCTIONALITY Surveying Personal Italo Disco

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FANTASY and FUNCTIONALITY Surveying Personal Italo Disco FANTASY AND FUNCTIONALITY Surveying personal italo disco related musical experience as a metaphoric-affective conceptualization process Sami Mertsalo Master’s thesis University of Turku School of History, Culture and Arts Studies Musicology November 2020 The originality of this thesis has been checked in accordance with the University of Turku quality assurance system using the Turnitin OriginalityCheck service. UNIVERSITY OF TURKU School of History, Culture and Arts Studies / Faculty of Humanities MERTSALO, SAMI: Fantasy and functionality – Surveying personal italo disco related musical experience as a metaphoric-affective conceptualization process Master’s thesis, 115 p. Musicology November 2020 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – In this thesis I study personal musical experience in the light of so-called embodied cognition. According to this research paradigm, meaning arises from our interaction with the physical world in a process where the human body has a mediating role. The process has been shown to be metaphorical by nature, due to which I base my intro- spective findings mostly on the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) of Lakoff & John- son. Interaction with environment invokes affects, which has consequences in terms of person’s preference for metaphoric content. The goal of my work is to investigate reasons for my penchant for certain kind of music. Addressing this involves scrutinising my own perceptions and feelings when listening to italo disco, thus, music that I like, and supporting the findings with theories and earlier research. Besides CMT and also traditional music analysis, I utilise, for example, the complementary theories of the sonic object and musical gestures in point- ing out experiential entities from textural and timbral elements of an italo disco song. The entities (sonic objects) are expected to arise from an affective sensation of motion, a process where conceptual metaphor plays an important role. Therefore, at the second stage of the analysis, I demonstrate metaphors on the grounds of the sonic objects in an attempt of establishing at least a part of my personal “metaphorical repertoire”. Arnie Cox’s mimetic hypothesis and framework for the study of musical affect is ap- plied particularly during the second part of the analysis. The results of the inquiry confirm my hypothesis about the central role of conceptual metaphor in the emergence of (personal) musical experience. The set of metaphors I succeeded to point out suggest that I’m inclined to music that communicates powerful and energetic, thus clearly arousing affects–music that responds to the need of indulg- ing in fantasy. Keywords: italo disco, italo-disco, embodiment, embodied cognition, conceptual met- aphor, metaphor, image schema, affect, mimesis, sonic object, sound object, musical gesture, gesture, EDM TURUN YLIOPISTO Historian, kulttuurin ja taiteiden tutkimuksen laitos / Humanistinen tiedekunta MERTSALO, SAMI: Fantasy and functionality – Surveying personal italo disco related musical experience as a metaphoric-affective conceptualization process Pro gradu -tutkielma, 115 s. Musiikkitiede Marraskuu 2020 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – Tutkin työssäni yksilöllistä musiikkikokemusta niin sanotun kehollisen kognition paradigman kautta. Tämän lähestymistavan mukaan merkitykset syntyvät vuorovaikutuksessa fyysisen maailman kanssa. Keholla on tässä prosessissa välittävä rooli. Prosessi on osoittautunut metaforiseksi, minkä vuoksi pohjaan introspektiiviset havaintoni pääasiassa Lakoffin & Johnsonin käsitteelliseen metaforateoriaan. Ympäristön kanssa vuorovaikutuksessa oleminen herättää affekteja, millä on vaikutusta siihen, minkälaisen metaforasisällön henkilö laittaa etusijalle. Työni tavoitteena on tutkia syitä musiikkimieltymyksiini. Metodina käytän omien aistimusteni ja tunteideni tarkkailua kuunnellessani italodiskoa–musiikkia, joka vetoaa minuun. Tuen introspektion tuloksia eri teorioilla sekä aiemmalla tutkimuksella. Käsitteellisen metaforateorian ja esimerkiksi perinteisen musiikkianalyysin lisäksi käytän muun muassa niin sanotun ääniobjektin ja musiikillisten eleiden teorioita pyrkiessäni osoittamaan kokemusperäisiä kokonaisuuksia italodiskokappaleen tekstuurisista ja äänenvärillisistä osatekijöistä. Kokonaisuuksien (ääniobjektien) voidaan olettaa syntyvän affektiivisen liikkeen aistimuksen pohjalta. Tässä prosessissa käsitteellinen metafora on tärkeässä roolissa. Siksi analyysin toisessa vaiheessa osoitan ääniobjekteihin pohjautuvia käsitteellisiä metaforia tarkoituksenani esitellä osa henkilökohtaisesta ”metaforarepertuaaristani”. Arnie Coxin mimeettistä hypoteesia ja musiikillisen affektin viitekehystä sovelletaan varsinkin analyysin toisessa vaiheessa. Tutkimuksen tulokset vahvistavat hypoteesini käsitteellisen metaforan keskeisestä roolista (henkilökohtaisen) musiikkikokemuksen synnyssä. Osoittamani metaforakokoelma viittaa viehtymykseeni voimakkaita ja energisiä, selvästi kiihottavia affekteja viestivää musiikkia kohtaan–musiikkia, joka mahdollistaa heittäytymisen fantasian maailmaan. Asiasanat: italodisko, italo-disko, kehollisuus, kehollinen kognitio, käsitteellinen metafora, metafora, mielikuvaskeema, affekti, affektiivisuus, mimesis, ääniobjekti, musiikillinen ele, eleet, diskomusiikki, EDM TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Embodied cognition, conceptual metaphor and other main concepts ............... 3 1.2. Research questions, methods and progression of the work............................... 4 1.3. Italo disco and its musical genre characteristics ............................................... 6 1.4. Earlier research.................................................................................................. 9 2. VIEWS TO EMBODIED COGNITION AND MEANING .................................. 11 2.1. Embodied vs. representational meaning-making ............................................ 11 2.2. Conceptual metaphor theory ........................................................................... 16 2.3. Sonic objects, musical gestures and movement on different timescales ......... 24 2.4. Musical affect and its mimetic conceptualization ........................................... 29 3. ESTABLISHING THE SONIC OBJECTS ........................................................... 35 3.1. “Shooting star (six times)” as a source of perceived motion .......................... 35 3.2. On the meso timescale: melody, metre, harmony and tonality ....................... 42 3.3. In between the timescales: harmony, tonality, pitch, metre and rhythm......... 50 3.4. The micro timescale: sound spectra and timbre .............................................. 59 4. CONCEPTUAL METAPHORS AND THEIR AFFECTIVE SOURCES ............ 69 4.1. The associated image schematic structures ..................................................... 70 4.2. Music as landscape and moving force ............................................................ 76 4.3. The “airy” feeling ............................................................................................ 84 4.4. Bright sound .................................................................................................... 88 4.5. Proceeds like a train (or a horse) ..................................................................... 93 5. DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................... 101 5.1. Functional fantasies ....................................................................................... 101 5.2. Conclusion .................................................................................................... 105 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 110 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CMT Conceptual metaphor theory EDM Electronic dance music Hi-NRG High Energy MMA Mimetic motor action MMI Mimetic motor imagery 1. INTRODUCTION The topic of this work is embodied personal musical experience and how it can be studied utilizing theories and empirical findings from the interdisciplinary field of research often referred to as embodied cognition. The main focus will be on the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT). Also, the notion of affect and its relation to human conceptualization lies at the heart of my study. In addition, some other theories and research paradigms that can be seen as related or complementary to CMT will be adopted at different stages of my research, whenever found useful in terms of supporting my hypotheses about the origin of my personal musical experience. Of these, special attention will be paid to the theories on sonic objects and musical gestures especially at the beginning of the analysis. Adopting multiple complementary theories is beneficial to my work in the sense that I don’t want to rule out any aspect of musical texture and timbre as a source of experiential content. Theories and earlier research on embodied cognition vary in terms of their emphasis on different musical phenomena. My intention is to scrutinize my own experiences, feelings and bodily sensations when listening to or imagining music, and more precisely to italo disco, a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) fairly popular especially in the 1980’s. The goal of my research is to study how music “works”, and
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