SIGITAS MICKIS

CATEGORIES OF MUSIC THEORY IN TERMS OF LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION

SIGITAS MICKIS

Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre / Academy of Music of Vytautas Magnus University sigitasmickis@outlook.com

This report seeks to infuse alternatives into the usual typology based on music theory to support the composition, performance, or analysis of music. The assumptions of ethnomusicology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience are used to do so, especially the communicative theory of musical meanings (Cross and Woodruff, 2009).

The field of sound communication, analyzing the similarities and differences of music with speech, is divided into three dimensions – motivation of social uncertainty, cultural power, and social intentions, showing that the latter is reasonably conceptualized in a bundle of categories and tools of analysis. In the speech analysis, such tools are classified as prosody, but linking the latter to possible music-only entrainment shows an alternative contribution to the meaningful discourse of typologies in music theory (based on the biological and psychological assumptions of humans as a species).

Examples of application of the signification concept include short-term perceptual memory focus (attention) control with metrical accents, the influence of dimensional perception of frequency (e. g., low perceived as the big one) on arrangement intentions, differentiation of sound emanation effort, and biological sound communication power with melodic and rhythmic contours (e.g., wide vs. narrow, open vs. closed), as well as recursive cyclicality of musical structures (musical form associations and hierarchy).

The benefit of the presented cognitive method is alternative consideration of musicking solutions from a communicative point of view (next to insights based on intuition and/or the tradition of music theory), possibly allowing message encoding to music on a more immediate supra-cultural level.

Keywords: communicative interaction of music typology and signification, sound emanation prosody, cyclicity of musical entrainment, supra-cultural intentions of making music, musical motivation of social uncertainty.

Sigitas Mickis (b. 1969) studied piano at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art. He holds a Master of Piano Performance (1993, under Prof. Raimundas Kontrimas), a Master of Composition (2008, under Prof. Rimantas Janeliauskas), and a Doctor of Art (2018, artistic research project “Projection of the phenomenon of creativity in musical composi-

tion” under supervision of Prof. Hab. Dr. Gražina Daunoravičienė and Prof. Vaclovas Augustinas) from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (LMTA). In 2015 he took part in the Principles of Music Composing conference; his report-based article “Parametrical judgment of cognitive melodic realm: technological aspect” was published in the conference collection. In 2016 his article “Research of creative phenomena in music composition: theoretical model” was published in Lithuanian Musicology, vol. 18. In 2017 Mickis presented the stand-alone report “Creative composing of rhythm: rational contexts of expression (cognitive model)” at the 17th International Music Theory Conference “Principles of music composing: ratio versus intuition.” In 2018 he took part in the Principles of Music Composing conference with the report “Targeting three dimensions of auditory imagery in creative composing: models of rhythmical expression.” Mickis is an associate professor of music theory, music technology, and music production at the Academy of Music of Vytautas Magnus University and is a master’s thesis supervisor at the LMTA.

In 2014 Mickis composed music and produced a soundtrack for the animation feature film Gustavo nuotykiai (The Adventures of Gustavas). In 2015 his opera for children Zuikis Puikis (Rabbit the Haughty) was staged at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. In 2016 his piece for chorus Žmogus Tamsoje (The Man in the Dark) was awarded third place at the Vox Juventutis contest. Mickis is the keyboard player and/or arranger in the projects Paskutiniai Brėmeno muzikantai (The Last Musicians of Bremen), Musė (The Fly) and Naktis teatre (a Night at the theater).