Decker, Gregory J. - Singing in Signs

Singing in Signs: New Semiotic Explorations of Opera offers a bold and refreshing assessment of the state of opera study that engages composer-constructed and work-specific music-semiotic systems, broader socio-cultural music codes, and narrative strategies, with implications for performance and staging practices today.

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CONTENTS

List of Figures
List of Musical Examples
List of Tables
List of Boxes
List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Gregory J. Decker & Matthew R. Shaftel
Part I: Musical Constructions and Interpretation
Chapter 1: Twelve-Tone Serial Techniques in Dallapiccola's Il prigioniero as a Reaction to Fascist Ideology
Jamuna Samuel
Chapter 2: Science, Spirit, Sound, and Sign: Anthroposophy and Viktor Ullmann's Der Sturz des Antichrist
Rachel Bergman
Chapter 3: Motives and Motivations: Linkage Technique in Britten's Operas and Other Vocal Works
Michael Baker
Chapter 4: Sowing the Seeds of Loss: Permanent Interruption in Verdi's Otello
Edward Latham
Part II: Cultural and Conventional Signs
Chapter 5: Dance Music and Signification in Handel's Opera Seria
Gregory J. Decker
Chapter 6: The Romanesca as a Spiritual Sign in the Operas of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven
Olga Sanchez-Kisielewska
Chapter 7: Verdi's Dramatic Use of Tonality, Topics, and Recurring Themes: Two Analyses
David Easley
Part III: (Dis)Continuity and Narrative
Chapter 8: Unity and Discontinuity in the Act 2 Finale of Le nozze di Figaro
Matthew R. Shaftel
Chapter 9: Stormy Weather: Issues of Form, Deformation, and Continuity in Operatic Storm Scenes
Deborah Burton
Chapter 10: Song and Sign: Poetic-Musical Strategies in Wagner and Strauss
Arnold Whittall
Chapter 11: Postmodern Opera 101: Irony, Nostalgia, and Bifurcated Narratives
Juan Chattah
Chapter 12: John Adams's The Death of Klinghoffer: Straddling the Fence Between Myth and Realism
Yayoi Uno Everett
Index