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A Cultural Semantics of String Arrangement for Recorded Popular Music: a Model for Analysis and Practice

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A Cultural Semantics of String Arrangement for Recorded Popular Music: a Model for Analysis and Practice A cultural semantics of string arrangement for recorded Popular music: A model for analysis and practice Briony Margaret Luttrell BMus, BMus(Hons) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Creative Industries, Queensland University of Technology (2017) Keywords String arranging, string arrangement, string style, recorded Popular music, cultural semantics, Lemke, intertextual, metafunctions, analysis, praxis, mixed method research, corpus analysis, Inter-Dimensional Aural Analysis, multimodal semiotics, social semiotics, aural analysis methods. 2 Abstract This thesis contributes new knowledge about string arranging for recorded Popular music. Specifically it contributes a new model for understanding and writing string arrangements based on an aural analysis of 500 albums released between 1952 and 2011. I show that string arrangements for recorded Popular music can be categorised under one of seven distinct styles. Each style is given coherence and made meaningful by its relationship with social and cultural institutions. The thesis collects and structures the detail of each style at the level of metafunction (Lemke, 2009, pp. 283-297; 1995a) which for the purposes of this project I define as the combination of intertextual patterns in musical and sonic elements, intertextual patterns in semantic functions, and relevant intertexts and intertextual canons. In order to frame and treat the string arrangements as styles I propose a new methodology, Inter-Dimensional Aural Analysis (IDAA), designed to facilitate analysis for praxis. To demonstrate the usefulness of the string styles I employ a practical component using them to inform the creation of nine new string arrangements. The objective of this thesis is to establish an approach to string arranging for recorded Popular music that is derived from and situated in the cultural and historical canon of examples, and is thus informed by and tailored to the conditions of recorded Popular music. My contribution to knowledge is threefold and consists of methodological, theoretical, and empirical aspects. The first is an approach to analysis that uses intertextual patterns in aural data to inform and situate new creative practice. The second is a theory of style that helps describe instances of string arrangements and reframes the relationship between analysis and practice for string arrangers working in recorded Popular music. The third is an empirical analysis and categorisation of string arrangements in recorded Popular music between 1952 and 2011. 3 Statement of Original Authorship The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made. Signature: QUT Verified Signature Date: June 2017 4 Acknowledgements Immeasurable thanks to my awe-inspiring, generous, and fiercely supportive supervisors. Phil, you are an intellectual powerhouse and an incredible role model. Thank you for motivating, inspiring, and challenging me to use all of my brains all of the time. Kiley, I am deeply grateful for your passion for the project, and your understanding and support of me as an academic, practitioner, and person. Thank you for your wisdom, insight, and helping me to keep a sense of perspective. Thanks to my family for putting up with me. With special thanks to my mum Robyn, for cultivating my nerdish tendencies from a very young age and for her relentless support. Thanks to my friends, especially Kira and James, for their encouragement, assistance, and having the decency to look interested when my only topic of conversation for over three years was this thesis. 5 Important Information for the Reader To avoid cluttering the writing, and because I reference such a large number of songs and albums in the body of this thesis, I have not included year and track listing beside each in-text citations of song or album titles. For a complete discography of the songs that comprise the corpus see appendix B. For the original list of albums that comprise the corpus, see Rolling Stone (2012). I have included appendices for this thesis as a dropbox link because of their collective size. The full list is available on page 159 of this thesis. https://www.dropbox.com/sh/91ea95yeaon79px/AAAvHYCQONTWjxSljjEYvE2 ea?dl=0 6 Table of Contents Keywords ............................................................................................................................... 2 Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 3 Statement of Original Authorship ................................................................................. 4 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 5 Important Information for the Reader ....................................................................... 6 Chapter 1: Introduction .................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...................................................................................... 15 Overview ....................................................................................................................................... 15 Arranging and instructional literature .............................................................................. 15 In search of inclusivity ............................................................................................................. 20 Strings in the studio .................................................................................................................. 25 From universal laws to cultural and historical contextualisation ........................... 29 Chapter 3: Theorising String Arrangement as Cultural Semantics ................ 33 Intertextuality ............................................................................................................................. 38 Music as cultural semantics and creative practice ........................................................ 39 String styles ................................................................................................................................. 40 Rhetorical formations .............................................................................................................. 42 The Organisational metafunction as rhetoric ................................................................. 47 Borderlines of style ................................................................................................................... 48 Chapter 4: Research Design ......................................................................................... 51 Positioning the researcher in productive blind alleys ................................................. 51 Categorical clarification .......................................................................................................... 54 Theoretical framework and the logic of method selection ........................................ 55 Data and sample ......................................................................................................................... 56 Data collection method ............................................................................................................ 60 Component 1: Inter-Dimensional Aural Analysis .......................................................... 62 Aural analysis methods .................................................................................................................... 65 Details of Inter-Dimensional Aural Analysis (IDAA) ............................................................ 68 An example of IDAA ........................................................................................................................... 69 Aural analysis quantitative findings in brief ............................................................................ 71 Component 2: Metafunctional categorisation ................................................................. 72 7 Component 3: Creative work and practice as a method .............................................. 72 Details of my personal workflow .................................................................................................. 73 Proposed method for using string styles in practice ............................................................ 76 Chapter 5: Four String Styles from Written Traditions ...................................... 79 Western Classical string style ...............................................................................................80 Broadcast string style .............................................................................................................. 88 Experimental string style ....................................................................................................... 98 World string style ................................................................................................................... 106 Chapter 6: Three String Styles from Aural Traditions ...................................... 113 Anglo Folk string style .........................................................................................................
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