UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

November 20, 2008

Date:___________________

Javier Clavere
I, _________________________________________________________,
hereby submit this work as part of the requirements for the degree of:
Master in Music
in:
Music Theory
It is entitled:
Semiotic Analysis of Osvaldo Golijov's Musical Setting of the Passion
Narrative in La Pasin segn San Marcos

This work and its defense approved by:

Dr. Miguel Roig-Francol

Chair: _______________________________
Dr. David Carson Berry
_______________________________
Dr. Robert Zierolf
_______________________________
_______________________________
_______________________________
Semiotic Analysis of Osvaldo Golijovs Musical Setting of the Passion Narrative
in La Pasin segn San Marcos

A thesis submitted to the

Graduate School

of the University of Cincinnati

In partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF MUSIC IN MUSIC THEORY

In the Division of Composition, Musicology, and Theory

of the College-Conservatory of Music

by

Javier Clavere

B.A. Brigham Young University, 2002

Committee chair: Dr. Miguel Roig-Francol

 ABSTRACT

In the year 2000, Helmuth Rilling, artistic director of the Internationale Bachakademie

Stuttgart, commissioned the Passion 2000. The project was a commemoration of the 250th

anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bachs death by commissioning four musical settings of the

Passion narrative. The narrative of the Gospel of Mark was commissioned of Argentina-born

composer Osvaldo Golijov. This setting of the passion narrative represents a diversity and

combination of musical idioms. La Pasin segn San Marcos is a piece whose musical sources

are rooted in the corpus of Latin American popular music, without a specific governing musical

style, creating constant shifts in the levels of musical discourse. The concepts of musical collage,

pastiche, or quotation are usually evoked when analyzing La Pasin segn San Marcos.

However, a semiotic analysis of Golijovs Pasin reveals an interaction of musical and textual

elements. This interaction gives rise to an ironic and satiric ethos, which in turn provides the

foundation for my analysis of parody and existential irony in the work's musical expression. In

this thesis I attempt to explicate how the interaction of musical objects and text signify irony in

music; my approach is grounded on theories developed by Robert Hatten, Yayoi Uno Everett,

Juan Roque Chattah, and Erin Sheinberg. I consider trans-contextualization, inversion, and

conceptual negation of meaning against background referents. I further identify the musical

elements that act as signals negating the meaning of the text through structural appropriation,

gender characterization, and stylistic transformation and ambiguity.

Three movements will be treated to analytical scrutiny. First is Judas y El Cordero

Pascual (Judas and the Paschal Lamb), which represents the Afro-Cuban musical genre son

montuno. The Last Supper scene unfolds in this movement, including within it the betrayal by

Judas Iscariot, and the apostolic question of culpability among Jesus disciples. The second

ii
movement analyzed includes an allusional or imitative portrayal of plainchant. The characters

are placed conceptually in the opposite gender, inverting the hierarchical characteristics of the

text. This inversion occurs within the context of an iconic representation of a Medieval Church

through chant. The last movement analyzed is Demos Gracias al Seor (Let Us give Thanks to

the Lord). This setting of the thanksgiving praise after the Jewish Passover meal is set to a theme

and variations based on the protest songs melody Todava Cantamos (We Still Sing),

composed and performed by Victor Heredia during the 1980s in Argentina.

iii
Music examples copyright 2000 by Ytalianna Music Publishing
All Rights Reserved
Used by Permission

iv
 AKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to thank my wife Lindsay and my two boys, Dante and Julian. They are the

purpose and joy of my life. Their support, unconditional love, and confidence are my daily

strength by which all my work is accomplished. I consider myself blessed to have Dr. Miguel

Roig-Francol as my advisor. His strict inspiring commentary, deep thoughtfulness, and superb

suggestions have helped to focus my methodology and clarify my concepts. Dr. Roig-Francols

enduring patience, tested many times during my work, is a sign of true mentorship and

friendship. I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Robert Zierolf, who throughout the years provided me

with unconditional support and mentorship that has enabled me to become a better scholar, a

better musician, and a better person. I especially want to thank Dr. David Carson Berry for

introducing me to the world of semiotics, showing me an area of study that ignited my curiosity

and scholarly work. I also want to thank Dr. Robert Hatten, Dr. Juan Roque Chattah, and the

members of the Semiotic Society of America, who unknowingly guided me to new frontiers in

semiotic studies. Finally, I am ever grateful for the blessings of God in my life, for without His

support and unwavering love none of this would have been possible. Soli Dei Gloria.

v
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ii

Copyright Notice -------------------------------------------------------------------------- iv

Acknowledgments -------------------------------------------------------------------------- v

Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------------- vi

List of Figures ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- vii

Chapter 1: Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------- 1

Chapter 2: The Narrative of Jesuss Death: Genesis from Orality to Text ---------- 7

Chapter 3: The Passion Narrative: From Text to Musical Representation --------- 14

Chapter 4: Twenty-First Century Passion Settings, Passion 2000 and Golijov --- 21

Chapter 5: Semiotics: Irony in Music --------------------------------------------------- 28

Chapter 6: Musical Analysis: Judas Y El Cordero Pascual ------------------------- 35

Chapter 7: Musical Analysis: Eucarista ----------------------------------------------- 55

Chapter 8: Musical Analysis: Demos Gracias al Seor ------------------------------ 69

Conclusion --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 80

Bibliography ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 84

vi
 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1 Evolution of the passion narrative .................................................. 13

Figure 4.1 Tan Duns percussion notation ....................................................... 23

Figure 6.1 Anticipated Bass ............................................................................. 37

Figure 6.2 Clave Rhythm ................................................................................ 37

Figure 6.3 Tumbao (rhythmic matrices) .......................................................... 38

Figure 6.4 Rhythmic Matrices for Refrain Section .......................................... 39

Figure 6.5 Rhythmic Matrices for Chorus Section .......................................... 40

Figure 6.6 Son Rhythmic Pattern A Caballo Rhythmic Pattern .................... 41

Figure 6.7 A caballo Rhythmic Cell ................................................................ 42

Figure 6.8 Mark Section (Three Strophe-Chorus Units) ................................. 44

Figure 6.9 Judas Character ............................................................................... 44

Figure 6.10 Jesus Section (Three Strophe-Chorus Units) ................................. 45

Figure 6.11 Three Women (Observers) ............................................................. 45

Figure 6.12 Montuno Section ............................................................................ 46

Figure 6.13 A Caballo Section ........................................................................... 50

Figure 6.14 Narrative Characters ....................................................................... 51

Figure 6.15 Instrumental Montuno Section ....................................................... 52

Figure 6.16 Salsa Tumbao .................................................................................. 53

Figure 7.1 The Voice of Mark the Evangelist Soprano Solo ........................ 56

Figure 7.2 The Voice of Jesus Soprano Solo ................................................ 56

Figure 7.3 The voice of the Evangelist Soprano Section .............................. 57

Figure 7.4 Jesus and Mark the Evangelist ....................................................... 57

vii
Figure 7.5 Formal Division of the Movement ................................................. 61

Table 7.6 Musical Gesture on Section a1 and a2 ........................................... 62

Figure 7.7 Bridge Axis Section ..................................................................... 64

Table 7.8 Musical Gesture on Section b1 and b2 ........................................... 64

Figure 7.9 The Symmetrical Organization of Musical Gestures ..................... 66

Figure 8.1 Melodic Fragment from the Original Refrain ............................... 70

Figure 8.2 Bombo Legero ............................................................................. 71

Figure 8.3 Spring Drum .................................................................................. 72

Figure 8.4 Formal Structure of Todavia Cantamos ......................................... 73

Figure 8.5 Percussion Introduction ................................................................. 73

Figure 8.6 Rhythmic Variations ....................................................................... 74

Figure 8.7 Dynamic Changes and Progressions ............................................. 75

Figure 8.8 Variation I Addition of Soprano Line to Alto Solo ..................... 76

Figure 8.9 Variation II Addition of Tenor and Bass ..................................... 76

Figure 8.10 Variation III Alto Divisi .............................................................. 77

Figure 8.11 Variation IV Soprano Divisi ........................................................ 77

viii
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

The narrative of the Passion of Christ is a core structure in the New Testament.

Throughout the centuries, the Passion narrative has promoted artistic expressions that have been

influential in the life and culture of western civilization. Drama, literature, music, and visual arts

have represented the narrative of Christs death through their respective artistic means.

Composers have rendered the Passion narratives through music that typified their theological

understanding of the text; and this understanding, and the way they represented it, was in turn

influenced by their social and cultural surroundings. For example, Johann Sebastian Bachs

musical settings were shaped by his theological views, the doctrinal environment in the Lutheran

church in the seventeenth century, and performance practices of liturgical music during the

German Baroque. 1

In the year 2000, Helmuth Rilling, artistic director of the Internationale Bachakademie

Stuttgart, commissioned the Passion 2000. The project was a commemoration of the 250th

anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bachs death. 2 This project included the creation of one

distinctive musical setting for each of the Gospels Passion narratives. These musical settings

demonstrate diverse musical idioms, and provide a sample of twenty-first century musical

eclecticism and cultural diversity. The Gospel of Matthew was assigned to Chinese composer

Tan Dun, who scored his piece for choir, soloist, and percussion. The percussion section uses

sound effects produced by amplified water bowls in lieu of traditional percussion. 3 The Gospel

1
Jaroslav Pelican, Bach Among the Theologians (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1986), 53.
2
Osvaldo Golijov, La Pasin segn San Marcos, CD 98.404 (Germany: Hannsler-Verlag Classic,
2001), 25.

1
of Luke was assigned to German composer Wolfgang Rihm, who used fragments from Luke as

well as texts from German poets and the Latin setting of the Stabat Mater. 4 The Gospel of John

was assigned to Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina, who composed the work based on a

Russian translation of the text. 5 The Gospel of Mark was assigned to Argentine composer

Osvaldo Golijov; the resulting composition (La Pasin segn San Marcos) features a diversity of

musical styles representative of the world of modern secular Latin American music, Catholic

musical tradition, and political protest music. 6

This thesis considers three movements of La Pasin segn San Marcos. The analysis

focuses on irony and parody, whether satirical or not, as a meta-structure of existential irony.

Theories developed by Robert Hatten, Erin Sheinberg, and Yayoi Uno Everett will aid the

understanding and identification of incongruities as indicators of irony or the ironic ethos.

According to Sheinberg there are two ways to interpret musical incongruity:

One is to resolve them into new congruences by modifying their correlations so

that they accommodate each other. The second way is to acknowledge the
structures of incongruities as semantically significant in themselves and interpret
them as irony. The main difference between irony and metaphors is that irony is a
result not only of incongruity based on difference (as is metaphor), but also is
incongruity based on negation, i.e. the impossibility of any accommodation
between the incongruous parts of the message. Therefore is not just the presence

3
Tan Dun, Water Passion after St. Matthew (New York: Schirmer, 2001), 3.

4
Wolfgang Rihm, Deuss Passus: Passion-Stucke nach Lukas fur Soli, Chr und Orchester
(Vienna: Universal Edition, 2000), 4.
5
Sofia Gubaidulina, Johannes-Passion; fr Sopran, Tenor, Bariton, Bass, zwei gem. Chore und
Orchestre (Hamburg: Musikverlag Hans Sitorski, 2000), 5.
6
An example of protest music is the song Todavia Cantamos, music and lyrics by Victor
Heredia (Heredia 1983). This song belongs to the political protest song style, and is a musical genre that
is associated with the frustrations of daily life in Latin American culture during the times of political and
military oppression from the military government in the decades of the 1970s and 1980s in Argentina.

2
 of an incongruity that will hint at the presence of irony, but also its functioning as
an indicator of structural negation. 7

My analysis will address the following questions: How does Golijovs music hint at the presence

of existential irony in music? Is there extra-musical meaning expressed through Golijovs

compositional choices?

Richard Skirpan views La Pasin segn San Marcos as an example of collage, pastiche,

quotation, or polystylism. However, the work reveals compositional strategies that give rise to

ironic and satiric ethos through interaction of musical objects and text, revealing parody and

irony in musical expression. I will demonstrate this through a semiotic analysis of three

representatives movements: Judas Y El Cordero Pascual, Eucarista, and Demos Gracias al

Seor. These selections are not considered unique , however; any movement could successfully

be analyzed by means of semiotic methodology.

My decision to approach this topic was supported by three factors: the small amount of

information and research available on Golijovs La Pasin segn San Marcos, my familiarity

with exegetical analysis of the Passion narrative, and the possibility of relating musical meaning

to compositional choices through semiotic analysis. To date there has been only one thesis on

this work, written by the aforementioned Skirpan. It provides a summarily descriptive analysis of

La Pasin segn San Marcos, enumerating the structural characteristics of each movement.

These descriptions include a short dictionary-like definition for each movements genre and

style, instrumentation, and text. 8 The sources used in Skirpans thesis are mainly definitions

7
Erin Sheinberg, Irony, Satire, Parody, and the Grotesque in the Music of Shostakovich: A
Theory of Musical Incongruities (Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2000), 57.

8
See Richard Skirpan, Latin American Polystylism: Structure and Form in Osvaldo Golijovs La
Pasin segun San Marcos (M.M. Thesis, Duquesne University, 2004).

3
from Grove Music Online or entries based on recording pamphlets, newspaper articles, and web

sites. 9 The information provided in Skirpans analysis of Son Cubano (the compositional genre

used in Judas y El Cordero Pascual) is also a short Grove entry.

For my thesis the following sources provided insightful knowledge about the research on

historical background of the Passion narrative and its musical representation. Gerard Sloyans

work Jesus on Trial addresses the historical development of the Passion narrative. 10 Basil

Smallmans The Background of Passion Music is an important contribution to the development

and background of musical representation of the Passion narrative. 11 Regarding the birth and

growth of polyphonic settings of the Passion in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the work of

Gerald Abraham 12 and Franklin Ellis 13 addresses the developments of German Passion music

from Luther to Bach. Musical settings of the Passion narratives in the nineteenth and twentieth

centuries are addressed in the works of Melvin Wells 14 and Robert Hutchenson. 15

In the case of the musical genre Son, my analysis provides a comparison of this genre and

its use to combine a tri-partite topical interaction. My study of the Son has relied on the work of

9
Skirpan, Latin American Polystylism, 93.
10
Gerard Sloyan, Jesus on Trial: The Development of the Passion Narratives and their Historical
and Ecumenical Implications (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973).
11
Basil Smallman, The Background of Passion Music (New York: Dover Publications, 1971).
12
Gerald Abraham, Passion Music in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries The Monthly
Musical Record 83 (October-November, 1953): 208-11, 235-41.
13
Franklin Ellis, The Development of Passion Music in Germany from Luther to Bach (M.M.
Thesis, Northwestern University, 1958).
14
Melvin Wells, Settings of the Passion story in the Nineteenth Century (D.M.A. Thesis,
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1993).
15
Robert Hutchenson, Twentieth Century Settings of the Passion: An Opusculum of the
Powerless God (D.M.A. Thesis, Washington University, 1976).

4
scholars such as Vernon Boogs, who explored the Afro-Cuban call-and-response evolution in the

structural development of form in the Son Montuno from Cuba, 16 and the structural development

and formal evolution of the Son as a genre; 17 and Alejo Capentier, who studied Afro-Cuban

rhythm sequences and rhythmic antiphonal treatment in the Son. 18 Others include Donald Hill,

who discusses structural breaks in the Son and their formal function; 19 James Robins, author of

the study of symbolism and meaning in the Son as found in its form and structure; 20 and Simha

Aron, who has researched the rhythmic stratification of African-based rhythmic structures. 21

Some of the research that supported my preliminary studies of Eucarista included

Robert Hattens study of the nature of melodic gestures and the relationship between meaning

and topical systems, 22 Esti Sheinbergs work on irony and parody as gender inversion and topical

16
Vernon Boogs, Salsiology: Afro-Cuban Music and the Evolution of Salsa in New York City
(New York: Greenwoods Press, 1992).
17
Boogs, Salsiology, 1992.
18
Alejo Capentier, La Msica en Cuba (Mxico: Fondo Cultural de Economa, 1946).
19
Donald Hill, West African and Haitian Influences on the Ritual and Popular Music of
Carriacou, Trinidad, and Cuba, Black Music Research Journal 18 (Spring-Autumn 1998).
20
James Robins, The Cuban Son as Form, Genre, and Symbol. Latin American Music Review
11 (Autumn-Winter 1990).
21
Simha Arom, African Polyphony and Polyrhythm: Musical Structure and Methodology
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).
22
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994).

5
negation, 23 and Kofi Agawus theory of topics as an expression in music (work that, in turn,

draws on that of Leonard Ratner). 24

Raymond Monelle expanded the concept of topics as a methodology for the recognition

of musical meaning drawing on Ratner as well. 25 I will refer and adapt these theories of

semiotical analysis, postulating that the interaction between musical objects and text is

responsible for the creation of irony in Golijovs music. The incongruities resulting from these

interactions give rise to the ironic ethos of the work. Finally, I will conclude the analysis by

showing existential irony to be meta-structural and the main compositional goal; more

specifically, I will demonstrate how incongruencies in the works content provide the foundation

for the concept of existential irony.

23
Esti Sheinberg, Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in the Music of Shostakovich.
24
Kofi Agawu, Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classical Music (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1991), and Robert Martin, Topics as Meaning, The Journal of Aesthetics
and Art Criticism 53, no.4 (Fall 1995).
25
Raymond Monelle, The Sense of Music: Semiotic Essays (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2000) 14-23.

6
 CHAPTER 2
THE NARRATIVE OF JESUS DEATH: GENESIS FROM ORALITY TO TEXT

Events deemed important can mark the beginning or end of an era. The importance of an

event is measured by the changes produced in a particular society or culture. One particular

event marked and influenced human history in almost every aspect, from how we think and act

to how we understand the moral and ethical standards underlining the fabric of society in the

western world. This event was the trial and death of Jesus Christ, known as the Passion of Christ

or simply the Passion.

Scholarly research has strived to increase knowledge about the historical authenticity of

the Passion, its theological validity, and its religious influence. It has incited intellectual activity

through the centuries. The narrative was fundamental in early preaching, acting as a moral

compass for the early Christian community, and it served as a source of inspiration for artistic

representations. I make no supposition that in the Gospel narrative of the trial and death of Jesus

Christ we find authentic historical tradition untouched by apologetic or theological influences.

Neither do I intend to argue that the Evangelists were writing a biography, or simply preaching

to gain sympathy for their leader Jesus. Instead, the purpose of this chapter is to trace the

development of the Passions narrative form, using a derivative method in order to unfold its

development from orality to written text. In the following chapter I will then consider its

development from written text to music representation.

Nearly two thousand years ago, a group of followers of Jesus claimed that events relating

to the death of their leader took place by Gods decree, and that those events had great

importance for the salvation and redemption of humanity. These disciples found themselves in

great need of defending their masters death and his public humiliation. Their leader, believed to

7
be an innocent man, was crucified in a way reserved for the worst criminals. The narrative of

Christs trial and death explained these events, creating a repository of stories in the early

Christian memory. This repository formed a unit that proved useful for preaching and

reaffirming the collective knowledge of these early communities. The Evangelists utilized the

materials available to them, and they had their audiences in mind while composing their

accounts. If we compare the characteristics of the Passion narrative of Mark and the

characteristics of a Midrash, a literary form of first-century Jewish tradition, we find the

methodologies used to construct the narratives to be similar. The Midrash and its form fit the

need to formalize a series of events for the knowledge of future generations. In other words, the

Midrash was the appropriate form available to preserve this event in the social memory and

transmit it to future generations. 26 Violent events, because of their nature and characteristics, are

engraved permanently in the social memory of the affected group. 27 The violent execution of an

innocent man produced the necessary circumstances for the creation of the narrative.

26
The Midrash was a form of oral tradition, which did not become a written form until the second
century C.E. The term is commonly applied to the whole tradition of Jewish biblical exegesis, but it
primarily denotes rabbinic interpretation of the Bible as it flourished in Palestine and, to a lesser extent, in
Babylonia. In all the midrashic texts, Scripture is seen as the primary source of all wisdom and truth; it
originated in the mind of God and so is inerrant and totally coherent. The aims of the expositor are to
explain apparent errors, harmonize contradictions, and draw out the teaching of the Law and apply it to
Jewish life. To this end, the expositor may resort to extreme techniques of text-manipulation. Despite the
chronological problem, the rabbinic Midrashim have been used to elucidate NT exegesis of the OT, and
they shed light on the works of origin and St Jerome. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian
Church, ed. E. A. Livingstone, Midrash (Oxford: Oxford Reference Online, 2007); accessed 1 May
2007; available from http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?
27
Alan Kirk and Tom Thatcher, eds., Memory, Tradition, and Text: Uses in the Past in Early
Christianity (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), 191.

8
 Mark is widely recognized as the writer of the first of the four Gospels. 28 The belief that

most of the materials available to Mark were in circulation as distinct open stories is the basis for

the theory known as the Pre-Marcan tradition or Ur-Markus. 29 The Ur-Markus theory further

supports the notion of a midrashic structure for the narrative, whereby Mark created a new

literary form, the Gospel, in approximately 70 C.E. 30 Old Testament allusions such as Psalm

22, Psalm 34, and Isaiah 52 were foundational blocks in the development and validation of the

Passion narrative. These allusions to Old Testament writings made the text apologetic in nature

and contributed to the creation of future Christian theology and the validation of the Passion

narrative.

The events of the trial and death of Jesus took place in the environment of oral tradition

of first-century Judea, where oral culture and the workings of social memory were crucial

devices for the survival of the meaning of events. 31 In first-century Judean context, social

memory was heuristic and not mimetic; it did not intend to represent or duplicate but to construct

the narrative. 32 Immediately after Christs death, a sort of primitive Passion narrative circulated

in the social memory that spread from Jesus disciples to Jews and gentiles alike. In the

confinement of social memory and within the realms of ancient rhetoric, the passion narrative

acquired the characteristics of rhetorical oration.

28
Gerard Sloyan, Jesus on Trial: The Development of the Passion Narrative and Their Historical
and Ecumenical Implications (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1973), 36.
29
Werner Georg Kummel, Introduction to the New Testament (Nashville: Abingdon 1975), 53.
30
Sloyan, Jesus on Trial, 36.
31
Kirk and Thatcher, Memory, 121.
32
Kirk and Thatcher, Memory, 126.

9
 This primitive oral passion narrative, or rhetorical oration, is associated with the Ur-

Markan theory. German biblical scholar Martin Dibelius presents evidence of this association in

his analysis of insertions and expansions in the narrative. 33 The possible presence of a coherent

Passion narrative prior to Marks writings attests to the role of social memory in the transition

from orality to literary form. This transition gave way to the creation of normative memory in the

early Christian community. This normative memory made a connection between

commemoration and moral exhortation. In the death and suffering of an important person,

commemorative memory found the necessary focus to point to the persons virtues as moral

teaching tools. 34

In approximately 70 C.E., the Passion narrative ars memoriae was formed into a written

Gospel. Consequently, the Gospel of Mark became the longest recounted collection of

consecutive actions of Jesus. It was introduced with a sense of staging (from Gethsemane to the

grave), in contrast to redactions or vignettes about Jesus ministry and miracles. 35 It is not

possible to make claims about the monopolization of a single pre-Marcan narrative, but some

evidence points to the existence of a collection of concurrent narratological Midrashs about

Jesus. The internal structure in the Gospel of Mark is perceived as a dramatic culmination of

Marcan Christology, by which the Passion narrative is framed within a complete Gospel with an

33
John Donahue, The Passion in Mark: Studies of Mark 14-16, ed., Werner Kelber (Philadelphia:
Fortress Press, 1976), 8.
34
By normative memory, we observe the essential connection between commemoration and
moral exhortation. It is by virtue of its normativity that the past makes programmatic, urgent moral claims
upon a community. See Jan Assmann, Das kulturelle Gedchtnis, Schrift, Einnerung und politische
Identitt in frhen Hockkulturen, (Munich: Beck, 1992). See also, Kirk and Thatcher, Memory, 191-206.
35
Raymond Brown, The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave (New York:
Doubleday, 1994), 11.

10
introductory section of ministerial vignettes. 36 The accounts of the death and trial of Jesus were

set in writing, which allowed the possibility of incorporating them into the development of

liturgical rites in the early Christian Church. From Gospel to liturgy was the next transition of the

Passion narrative. The liturgy itself provided the solidity necessary for other forms of

representation to emerge.

In the middle of the fifth century, Pope Leo I (Leo the Great) decreed that for the Roman

liturgies, the Passion narrative of St. Matthew was to be read during Palm Sunday and

Wednesday of Holy Week, adding that the narrative from Johns Gospel be read during the Good

Friday service. A couple of centuries later, the narrative of the Gospel of Matthew was replaced

by the narrative in the Luke Gospel during the Wednesday Mass. 37 These texts were recited as

Gospel lessons during the Mass. Other writings and commentaries developed in order to clarify

the meaning of Christs suffering. Among the most influential are Tractatus in Iohannem by

Augustine, Homilia in Evangelica by Gregory, the commentaries of Jerome on the Gospel of

Matthew, and those of Bede on the gospels of Mark and Luke. The literary embellishments of the

Passion narrative added detail and brought the passion narrative closer to reality. These

embellished narratives probably originated in the twelfth-century Glossa ordinaria, a

commentary on the standard repository of biblical interpretation. 38 In literary devotional writing,

few sources from before 1100 C.E. survive. However, there are a few examples from prayer

36
Werner Kelber, The Passion in Mark: Studies on Mark 14-16 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1976), 177.

37
Kurt Von Fisher and Werner Braun, Passion, Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 26
November 2007), available from http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu
38
Thomas Besbul, Text of the Passion: Latin Devotional Literature and Medieval Society
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996), 30.

11
books designated for personal use. 39 In the mind of the medieval worshiper, the last moments of

Christs life in the liturgy were enough to portray the great immolation, there was no need to

imitate the event through imperfect means of impersonation and stagecraft. 40

On the other hand, dramatic presentations called Passion plays had their beginnings in the

planctus, a medieval type of song or poetry with the character of a lamentation. 41 The Passion

plays were accounts of the Gospel narrative with the insertion of details and dramatic elements

that approximated the story to the intended audience. The transformation of the Passion narrative

from biblical text to dramatic form is uncertain. The representation of the subject was

approached with great caution and respect. During Holy Week, a single deacon recited the

Passio, marking the change of characters in the dialogue by changing the pitch of his voice. 42

The Passion narrative found a new instrument for representation that alleviated some doctrinal

and theological fear of approximating the subject of Jesus death, and provided at the same time

a wider emotional range to develop means for the narrative to evolve. It is with this capability

that the Passion narrative found in music the greatest means for evolution and development.

39
Bestul, Text of the Passion, 34.
40
Karl Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), 494.
41
Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church, 309.
42
Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church, 538.
12
Figure 2.1 Evolution of the Passion narrative

Event: Preaching and Gospel of Mark

Trial and Death Midrash Passion
of Jesus Christ Ur-Markus Narrative

Representations of the
narrative
FROM THE
LITURGY

Dramatical Literary
Representation Representation
Passion Plays Musical
Representation

13
 CHAPTER 3
THE PASSION NARRATIVE: FROM TEXT TO MUSICAL REPRESENTATION

Of all sacred texts with a history of musical settings, of which we may therefore
speak as a genre, the Passion stands apart from the rest, being pure narrative
from beginning to end. 43

Historically, music plays an important role in the expression of meaning, human feelings,

and emotions. The subject of the Passion narrative has attracted the work of many composers,

who have used the genre as a medium for the expression of meaning through their compositions.

The musical representation of the narrative of Christs death sprang from the liturgical

framework of the Christian liturgy itself, as early as the fifth century. Though no precise date or

event can be provided as a marker for the initial development of the representation of the

narrative, we find, through the writings of patristic theologians such as Pope Leo the Great, that

the representation of the narrative of Christs death developed within the confined rules and

rubrics of theological understanding and religious beliefs of the time, which in turn dictated the

possible means of representation. 44

There seems to be a correlation between the assignment of the liturgical readings of the

narrative to different days in Holy Week and the musical representation of the Passion. The

recitation of Passion settings within specific days implies the need for representational meaning

and intent within each performance of the Passion text for each day, suggesting an overarching

narratological trajectory of the four Passion narratives leading to a climatic resolution on Easter

Sunday.

43
Paul Hillier, Arvo Prt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 122.
44
Kurt Von Fisher and Werner Braun, Passion, Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed
September 5 2007), available from http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu

14
 Oration provides ways to embellish these performances in order to channel meaning

through performance. In oration, a special pattern of speech is necessary to utter the recitation of

the text. It resembles a single-tone recitation rather than strict speech. The representation of the

Passion in pseudo-musical terms may have emphasized a need to increase the solemnity of the

delivery. The need for this increased solemnity was in accordance with Saint Augustines

teachings in his sermon 218, solemniter legitur passion, solemniter celebrator (solemn reading

of the Passion, solemn celebration of the Passion), and the patristic theology of didactic function

of the Gospel. There is very little evidence that the Passion was sung by more than one singer,

the diakon, until the thirteenth century. 45 Manuscripts from the ninth century attest to the

insertion of litterae significativae (letters added to the neumes in plainchant in order to explain

how they should be executed), as an increment in the dramatic presentations of the singer as he

changes from one character to another in the narratological trajectory. This type of chanting, if it

is catalogued as such, belongs to the first musical representation of the Passion narrative, the

monophonic Passion. Further additions of pitch, tempo, and volume in the litterae significativae

were indications of a greater dramatic approach.46

As stated in chapter 2, in the minds of the early Christian worshipers, the last moments of

Christs life were a sacred event that didnt need dramatic mechanisms to portray the great

immolation by imperfect imitation or impersonations. 47 Because of this dogma, any

approximation to musical staging of the Passion narrative was not encouraged; a dramatization

of one person, however, allowed for an accepted staging in the medieval worship. It was not until

45
Von Fisher and Braun, Passion.
46
Hillier, Arvo Prt, 123.
47
Karl Young, The Drama of the Medieval Church, 494.
15
the year 1254 that the parts among the turba (in the Passion narrative, the text that is spoken by a

group of people) were distributed for the first time among different people, as it was observed in

the Dominican manuscript Gros Livre. 48 With this distribution of parts arose a new sense of

narration and meaning in the delivery of the text. Specific notes are assigned to singers for the

parts of Christ, the turba, and the Evangelist. It was not until the fourteenth and fifteenth

centuries that distribution of voices to different singers in a monophonic fashion became

universal. The first indication of a monophonic multi-voice presentation appears in a manuscript,

written in 1348: PL-WRuI-F459. 49 There were other elements that increased the dramatic

representational intensity of the narrative. Among these elements, the contemporary sense of

theological pietism and mysticism of Bernard de Clairvaux, as well as Franciscan-Dominican

piety, allowed the nature of the Passion narratives to transform from didactic to compassio,

increasing the dramatic and emotional content and delivery. 50 In consequence, contemporary

theological thought and belief dictated (or at least strongly determined) the musical form and

performance style. Evolution of the musical Passion narrative was marked less by musical

explorations or advancements than by the theological understanding of the time.

A different shift occurred in the fifteenth-century theological understanding of the

Passion narrative: the aim of the presentation moved from compassio to imitatio, in order to

bring the believer to a closer experience of the event. Examples of this are found in the St. Luke

48
Ray Robinson and Allen Winold. A Study of the Penderecki St Luke Passion. Celle: Moeck
Verlag, 1983: 28.
49
Von Fisher and Braun.
50
Von Fisher and Braun.

16
Passion and a fragmentary St. Matthew Passion in the manuscript GB-Lbl Eg.3307. 51 There were

two main compositional styles that approximated this need to imitate the narrative by musical

means: the responsorial Passion (choral Passion, dramatic Passion, as in St. Matthew Passion by

Richard Davy, found in the Eton Choirbook c1490), and the through-composed Passion (or

Motet Passion, as in Johannes a la Venture and Antoine de Longueval Passion settings). In the

responsorial Passion, the presentation of the Evangelist was delivered in a monophonic fashion,

while the words of Christ and the parts of the turba were presented in a polyphonic fashion. In

the through-composed Passion, the complete account of the text is set polyphonically. These

settings were musically arranged either following one Evangelists account, or through a

combination of all the Gospels into a fusion of all four narratives, also known as Summa

Passionis.

A new development in the musical form of the Passion resulted from the eras theological

understanding, known as the Protestant Passion. The writings of Martin Luther, especially his

Theologia Crucis, pronounced the statement that the Passion of Christ should not be acted out in

words and pretence, but in real life. 52 A more authentic representation closer to the life of people

should be crafted. This thought helped the development of the polyphonic and monophonic

settings of the Passion in the German language, which spread rapidly in popularity.

In the seventeenth century, responsorial and through-composed Passion types continued

to provide models for compositional purposes. The models set by Johann Walther, Passion music

set to the German vernacular, replaced the recitation of the Evangelist, which was set against a

51
Von Fisher and Braun, accessed [January 10, 2008] available from
http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu/shared/views/article.html?music.40090.2
52
Von Fisher and Braun.

17
polyphonic setting of the turba utterances. The dramatic representational aspects of these

contrasts were increased by the use of rhythmic and harmonic settings in the polyphonic

sections. 53 However, these settings, such as Schtzs Dresden Passions (intended primarily for

use in the electoral court of Saxony) quickly became independent from their liturgical teleology.

During the mid-seventeenth century, a radical innovation to the musical narrative was

introduced, by which new signification was added to the performance. A group of German

Hanseatic cities introduced instrumentations in the form of fundamental accompaniment and

ornamental embellishment to the text. These settings were referred to as Oratorio Passions, and

they were embellished not only by musical instruments but also by insertion of interpolations of

textual reflective episodes, the addition of instrumental meditational sinfonias, and addition of

supporting biblical texts as well as new madrigalian verses and hymns. Examples of these

settings are St. Matthew Passion by J.G. Khnhausen, c1680, and J.V. Meder's St. Matthew

Passion. 54 Now the parts representing the words of Christ were musically set to the

accompaniment of a continuo, or the melodic narrations of the Evangelist were set to

instrumental melodic embellishment. Meaning and narratology changed within this context of

the Passion narrative and its liturgical source, adding to the nature of the dramatic representation

and changing the Passion from liturgical use to a concert piece.

By the eighteenth century there were three groups of musical representations of the

Passion narrative. In the first place there was the vocal Passion, where no instruments were used,

but which included, in some cases, embellishments by the addition of hymns. Within this group

the chanted Passion settings utilized in the Roman liturgies were still present. A second group

53
Von Fisher and Braun.
54
Von Fisher and Braun.
18
included the Oratorio Passions, where the biblical text was a principal force. This type of Passion

included more representational means of musically portraying the text. Examples of this group

are the Latin settings of the St. John Passion by Alessandro Scarlatti, c1680, and Gaspare

Gabellone, 1756. Lastly, a third group included the lyrical meditations of the Passion without

direct dialogue and narration. In eighteenth-century Passion representation there is a

complication in the classification of musical styles. A wide array of hybrid types provided many

new styles that did not develop into genres. Within their structure and musical form,

compositions added sectional interpolations such as poetical preludes, free recitatives, da capo

arias, or even full arias.

By the nineteenth century, with the evolution of public concerts, choral societies, and

music festivals, the Passion narrative took different characteristics, becoming a concert piece

outside the liturgical environment. These Passion musical settings, or even the newly

rediscovered St. Matthew Passion by Johann Sebastian Bach, were used as full concert pieces

that did not offer a liturgical teleology, but were rather performed for aesthetical pleasure instead

of liturgical worship. Even the performances of these works in churches were not meant to serve

the liturgy. The church buildings were transformed from a place of theological worship to a

concert hall, for musical works of sacred material that were designed and performed within the

aesthetic surroundings of a sacred building and architecture. In the twentieth century an attempt

was made to revive the liturgical use of the musical Passion narratives. The Cecilian movement

intended to promote and return the Passion narrative to the original liturgical use. During the last

decade of the nineteenth century and the twentieth century a clear distinction was made between

musical Passion settings intended for the concert hall and settings intended for liturgical use. An

example of the latters is Heinrich von Herzogenbergs Die Passion. Among the most popular

19
settings for concert use are Pendereckis Passio et mors Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum

Lucam 1965 and Arvo Prts Passion Domini nostri Jesu Christi secundum Joannem 1982.

20
 CHAPTER 4
TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PASSION SETTINGS, PASSION 2000, AND GOLIJOV

In the year 2000, Helmuth Rilling, artistic director of the Internationale Bachakademie

Stuttgart, commissioned the Passion 2000. The project was a commemorative homage of the

250th anniversary of Johann Sebastian Bachs death and was intended to prove that the Passion

is still in demand and not the least out of date. 55 The ontologies and intentionalities of Passion

settings in the twenty-first century tend to be far removed from their original liturgical context,

and this project was no exception. These settings were designed as aesthetical performances that

utilize the subject of religiosity in the context of a concert piece, bringing the subject of Jesus

death back to the concert hall for performance, instead of reserving it for ritual devotion. These

settings have the intent of attracting and developing awareness of new musical expression,

intending further to bring people back to the concert halls while promoting the artistic works of

new composers within the confines of religious matter. Concert halls have became the houses

which give shelter to the musical representation of the Passion narrative in the present, as sacred

worship spaces did in the past. As Richard Taruskin has noted, the sacred is marketable and

profitable, seemingly a paradoxical, even blasphemous, notion. 56 However, from the time of

Handels oratorios to the present, there are many precedents for a sacred subject becoming a

conduit for gain within the musical marketplace.

Within this context the project Passion 2000 commemorated the death of Johann

Sebastian Bach by commissioning four settings of the Passion narrative, one from each

evangelist, within a multi-cultural context, maintaining a distinctive musical and textual

55
Osvaldo Golijov, La Pasin Segn San Marcos, CD 98.404 (Germany: Hannsler-Verlag
Classic, 2001), 25.
56
Richard Taruskin, Sacred Entertainments, Cambridge Opera Journal 15, no.2 (2003): 114.
21
representation for each of the four Gospel Passion narratives. These musical representations of

the Passion narrative aimed to approximate the polarity markers by which we perceive the

diversity of musical idioms in our times. They intended to provide a sample of twenty-first

century musical eclecticism, while reading the texts with the perceptive lenses of cultural

diversity and theological relativism.

Chinese composer Tan Dun received the commission for the narrative based on the

gospel of Matthew. Tan Dun, who was raised in Maoist China, is far removed stylistically from

the influence of Bachs Passion oratorio tradition. The work, Water Passion after St Matthew,

shaped by the composers affinity to ritual and theatrical musical performance, is a dramatic

representation through the eyes of a culture foreign to Christianity. The presentation of the

narrative as Chinese ritual is represented by using splashing water as a percussive device,

integrating throughout the work Western musical compositional styles such as American country

fiddling, with vocal styles found in Peking opera and Tuvan throat singers. 57

The element of water is present as the main source for musical inventiveness, as Tan Dun

commented: the experience of living with water, playing with water, and listening to water was

very important for me. 58 Among the indications for performance are six different and unusual

ways to perform with water as a percussive instrument:

1. Water drips (water drips from the hands)

2. Water bubbles (with bottles)

3. Plucking the water with fingers

57
Nick Strimple, Choral Music in the Twentieth Century (New Jersey: Amadeus Press 2005),
298.
58
Brett Campbell, Tan Dun Talks on Water, Andante Magazine: Everything Classical
[accessed October 18, 2007] available from http://www.andante.com/article/article.cfm?id=17791.

22
 4. Waterr patting (with the left orr right hand))

5. Raise a tube in thee air and let the water naaturally drip down from it (with two

hands)

6. Raise a tube in thee air and let the water naaturally drip down from it (with one

hand) 59

Figure 4..1 Tan Dun percussion notation

R
Reprinted with perm
mission Schirmer Rental
R Library

The piecees scoring includes

i a mixed
m choir with mum number of six singeers per part.
w a minim

Singers are
a required to play withh water and Tibetan
T fingeer bells, and to sing overrtones in

alternatioon with playing ancient ceramic

c winnd instruments. The sopraano part reacches a high E6,
E

and the vocal

v bass a low
l C2, creaating a wide range of tonne. Instrumental parts incclude violin,,

cello, sam
mpler (speciffically indicated as a Yaamaha A30000), electronic sound-processors, andd

59
Tan Dun, Water
Wa Passion after St. Mattthew (New Yoork: Schirmerr, 2001), 3.

23
three percussionists. The percussionist and the chorus play on a set of seventeen hemispherical

transparent water basins with twenty floor-bass lamps and thirty pairs of Tibetan bells.

German composer Wolfgang Rihm received the commission for the narrative of the

Gospel of Luke. Deus Passus is articulated within the language of German postmodernism and

seems at first to be contrite in its musical gestures. However, by combining gospel accounts of

Jesus persecution with textual interpolations of Tenebrae by holocaust survivor Paul Celan, and

the liturgical text of the Stabat Mater and Liturgy of Holy Week, Rihm created a compelling

reminder that all acts of inhumanity, even if two thousand years apart, are driven by the same

evil impulses. 60 The compositions musical forces include five vocal soloists (soprano, mezzo-

soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone), supported by a mixed choir. The orchestra consists of two

flutes plus alto flute, two oboes, English horn, baritone oboe, bassoon, contrabassoon, four tenor

and bass trombones, two percussionists, harp, organ, six first violins, six second violins, six

violas, four violoncellos, and two double-basses. 61

Russian composer Sofia Gubaidulina received the commission for the narrative of the

Gospel of John. Her work is an extension of Russian Orthodox musical tradition, where bass

solos, vibrating low and deep, combine with melodic and structural climaxes to create a climate

of musical meditation and contemplation of higher spiritual events. Textually, there are additions

from the book of Revelation and the Russian-language gospel text, lending an apocalyptic

character to the musical gestures. 62 The work is composed for two choirs, the first a chamber

60
Strimple, Choral Music, 298.
61
Wolfgang Rihm, Deus Passus: Passion-Stucke nach Lukas fur Soli, Chor und Orchester
(Vienna: Universal Edition 2000), 4.
62
Strimple, Choral Music, 298.

24
choir of twenty-four singers and the second a massive choir of eighty members. In addition, there

are four soloists: soprano using a microphone, dramatic tenor, baritone, and the trademark of

Russian sacred choral music, a solo basso. All of this is accompanied by a full orchestra with six

percussionists, organ, amplified piano with two microphones, and synthesizera massive music

ensemble indeed. 63

The narrative of the Gospel of Mark was commissioned of the most eclectic and

paradoxical composer of the four, Argentina-born Osvaldo Golijov. La Pasin segn San

Marcos represents a diversity and combination of musical idioms through its use of various

compositional styles. These styles are representative of the world of modern secular Latin

American music, Catholic musical tradition, Jewish tradition and prayer, and political protest

music. 64 The composition uses a blend of techniques that belong to both art music and popular

music, creating at times a fusion of the two. Though Golijov expressed a fear of being a Jew

writing a Christian piece, 65 he successfully managed to appropriate the styles and develop a

composition that reinforces his status as a leading composer. Richard Taruskin rightly praises the

composition as a lavish collage of musical idioms from Latin American, Afro-Cuban, and

Jewish cantorial idioms. 66 Indeed, it could be argued that Golijovs is not an original

composition, and that the elements developed by the composer are indicative of styles already

developed by other performers and composers. Whatever the case, the composition is a clever

63
Sofia Gubaidulina, Johannes-Passion; fr Sopran, Tenor, Bariton, Bass, zwei gem. Chre und
Orchestre (Hamburg: Musikverlag Hans Sikorski, 2000), 3.
64
See page 2, note 6.
65
Richard Skirpan, Latin American Polystylism: Structure and Form in Osvaldo Golijovs La
Pasion segun san Marcos (M.M. Thesis, Duquesne University, 2004), 4.
66
Richard Taruskin, Sacred Entertainments, Cambridge Opera Journal 15 (2003): 113.

25
construction of musical styles and structures at the hands of Golijov. It would be appropriate to

classify this work as a collage of musical ethnographic quotations, with the addition of Golijovs

compositional nuances and stylistic weaving.

Some important questions remain unanswered. Is the composition polystylistic? What is

the best analytical tool to understand the relationship and organization between the formal

structures, text, and musical elements? How is meaning represented through music in this

collage? Golijov states: I want to recordlike Rembrandt recorded the Jews, I want to record

the Christians, simply that. For instance, my great grandmother had a picture of Jeremiah

Lamenting the Fall of Jerusalem by Rembrandtit's the greatest Jewish picture ever, and he

was not a Jew, but he lived amongst themI cannot aspire to be Rembrandt but if at least one

section of the Passion has the truth about Christianity that Rembrandt's paintings have about

Judaism, I'll be all rightthat's enough. 67 Herein lies a difficulty: how should we analyze this

work in the context of Golijovs statement? As Rembrandt utilized techniques to approximate his

painting to his understanding of the subject, one must find a theory that will approach Golijovs

composition in a similar fashion. An analytical system is necessary to understand how meaning

is achieved in such a complex musical collage. In his thesis, Richard Skirpan approached the

analysis through a descriptive exposition of polystylism. Unfortunately, Skirpans approach does

not represent a helpful tool to understand the complex compositional processes or to map the

relationship between textual meaning and musical articulation. The projection of meaning and

the narratological trajectory through the composition are achieved by the fusion and interaction

between musical characteristics (structures, stylistic musical gestures) and characteristics of the

text (interpolations, original text, quotations from scriptures). Models and theories of metaphor

67
Osvaldo Golijov. Accessed October 15, 2007, available from
http://osvaldogolijov.com/wd1.htm

26
and irony in music, put forth by Robert Hatten, Juan Chattah, Yayoi Uno Everett, and Erin

Sheinberg, will prove indispensable in considering the correlation between musical articulation

and gestural utterances on the one hand, and textual structures and meaning on the other.

27
 CHAPTER 5
SEMIOTICS, MEANING, AND IRONY IN MUSIC

The concept of meaning in music has occupied the minds of theorists and performers

throughout the centuries. In the twentieth century, associational theories of signification and

meaning stemming from Ferdinand de Saussure in Europe and Charles Sanders Peirce in the

United States, developed into a discipline that later would include the study of musical discourse.

This approach, addressing meaning in music, has entered the realm of musical scholarship as

musical semiotics. This area of study deals with musical objects as signsentities with the

potential for signification. It draws its sources from philosophy, music theory, musicology,

ethnomusicology, cultural history, literary criticism, and linguistics. Analytical models are

employed to achieve sound correlation between the musical object and its signification. A model

that seems to achieve success in this quest for meaning in music is the associative model. In this

model we first listen to music recognizing what is familiar, then we associate those familiarities

as we recall other music schemata. 68

A type of associative analytical technique is arbitrary encoding, in which the

associations are beyond dispute and widely recognized as characteristics of the music. 69

Prototypes of this associative example are compositions used in the context of military music, in

particular national anthems, and military marches. Other associative techniques include

quotation, where the music appeals to our familiarity with a certain musical element to convey

specific meaning, stylistic allusion, in which the familiarity may be displayed as a general

68
Peter Burkholder, ed., Approaches to Meaning in Music (Indiana: Indiana University Press,
2006), 79.
69
Burkholder, Approaches to Meaning in Music, 81.
28
melodic pattern or style rather than a specific melody, references to specific pieces or

conventions, and references to musical syntax. 70 Within the associative process there are two

competencies that further dictate understanding of musical discourse: stylistic competency, the

general principles and constraints of a style, and strategic competency, individual choices and

exceptions occasioned by a work. 71 In stylistic correlations and strategic interpretations we can

understand the means by which composers map expression and meaning in musical structure.

The same fundamental dialectic between stylistic and strategic competencies is analogous to that

of understanding an utterance in language. 72 The musical message is decoded first according to

the code, then is interpreted according to its context. The quest for meaning in musical semiotics

is concerned with unveiling not what music means, but rather how music means. 73

The concept of markedness, explored in linguistic theory by Michael Shapiro in the

1980s and Edwin Battistella in the 1990s (but tracing its origins to Roman Jakobson and the

Prague School), can be applied to musical analysis as a helpful tool by which we can analyze and

explain the role of musical opposition in the creation of expressive meaning. Robert Hatten

explains markedness as a valuation given to difference where differentiation brings inevitable

opposition. Hatten quotes from Battistela when he states a marked term asserts the presence of a

particular feature, and an unmarked term negates that assertion. 74 The example of the unmarked

term cow helps to illustrate the concept. For Hatten, the term cow is unmarked because it

70
Burkholder, Approaches to Meaning in Music, 82.
71
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994), 30.
72
Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 33.
73
Kofi Awagu, Playing With Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classic Music (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1991), 5.
74
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 34.
29
doesnt require a distinguishing explanation of gender. A cow can be either gender. However, the

term bull specifies a male gender. Bull is marked for oppositional meaning of gender, where

cow is umarked. 75 Hatten goes further to classify two types of markedness. The first, privative

opposition, indicates whether a term can be unmarked to show lack of relevance or can be

expressively excluded (presence of A vs. absence of A). The second, equipollent opposition,

asserts the presence of contrary features rather than the presence or absence of a single feature.

The concept of markedness is suitable for musical analysis at different levels. A musical work

can be analyzed in terms of harmonic opposition (major and minor keys as a form of expressive

meaning), melodic opposition (melodic contours and gestures as forms of expressive meaning),

formal opposition (sections and structures as oppositions), rhythmic oppositions (rhythmic

structures acting as opposite markers), as well as in terms of timbre and texture. Markedness in a

musical composition can be analyzed within both stylistic and strategic contexts. As is in the

case of La Pasin segun San Marcos, Golijovs use of markedness constitutes a complex web of

multi-level referentiality. The differences in referentiality can be evaluated as oppositional, and

the elements comprising the oppositions are not confined to a single stylistic or strategic plan.

Within the context of markedness, there are associative references such as in the case of

metaphors. A metaphor is an explicit or implicit comparison which is literally false. 76 Chattah

explains that according to Katz, a metaphorical reading occurs when a predicate violates literal

category membership. In Chattahs explanation of metaphor, Herbert Clark and Peter Lucy

present the three-stage model for recognizing metaphors by calling attention to their literal

75
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 34.
76
Juan Chattah, Semiotics, Pragmatics, and Metaphor in Film Music Analysis (Ph.D. diss.,
Florida State Univeristy, 2006), 10.

30
falsehood. 77 The metaphor derives the literal meaning of an utterance, testing the derived

meaning against the context of the utterance. Reference to context is primordial, as context is the

element that can transform a literal true statement into a metaphor and vice versa.78 As explained

by Hatten, metaphors have the characteristic of interactivity by which meaning emerges.

Metaphorical thinking and metaphors in music have suffered an unfair reception, because

of the temptation to qualify all musical expressive meaning as metaphorical. Thus, there must be

a better system than simply applying metaphorical labels to every musical utterance. It is

important to provide a consistent set of instances where meaning is cued by particular features

and context in music. 79 Within semiotic studies, music has always been in a continuous

relationship with cultural units. However, there are times where incongruencies between musical

units and cultural units occur. In order to understand these relationships between musical and

cultural units, we need to approach the analysis of the material within a different philosophical

methodology. Irony in music becomes the philosophical method of analysis by which we can

describe and understand the creative principles behind a composition and the artistic techniques

that provide meaning.

According to Hatten, irony is a high-order trope that is inaugurated by the contradiction

between what is claimed and a context that cannot support its reality. The trope is interpreted by

recognizing that something else is meant. 80 We find that metaphors do mean something

different. However, in the case of irony there must be a potential for reversal in interpreting what

77
For a detailed explanation of metaphor see chapter Metaphor in Chattah, Semiotics, 10-25.
78
Chattah, Semiotics, 10.
79
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 164.
80
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 172.

31
is really meant. In irony, there must be an intentional inappropriateness. This inappropriateness

may be literal or metaphorical, and by it we can interpret the contradiction as meaningful or

expressive. 81 The use of irony in conjunction with parody has an ideological goal. In La Pasin

segn San Marcos one could state that there are aesthetical motivations that underlie parody,

irony, and satire. It is useful to frame the interest and motivation of analysis of irony to provide

not an explanation of why the composer meant the piece in ironic terms, but an analysis of how

the composer meant it.

If we abide by the statement, in musical discourse, parody and irony present elusive

terms that defy concrete analysis, then this can leads us to the question how can parody be

systematically distinguished from collage, pastiche, and quotation in twentieth-century music? 82

In order to answer this question, Yayoi Uno Everett and Esti Sheinberg provide a set of

definitions that qualify each of the categories in terms of the ethos and aesthetic motivations that

(presumably) guided the composers while adapting their various parodic techniques. First,

Everett defines parody in musical discourse as a composers appropriation of pre-existing music

with the intent of highlighting it in a significant way. 83 The analyst further determines whether

the ethos that accompanies the music is deferential (neutral), ridiculing (satirical), or

contradictory (ironic). 84 The three constructs and procedures outlined by Everett are: 1) a

paradigmatic substitution of expressive state, by correlation or analogy; 2) incongruous

juxtaposition of stylistic elements; and 3) the progressive de-contextualization of literal and

81
Robert Hatten, Musical Meaning in Beethoven, 173.
82
Yayoi Uno Everett, Parody with an Ironic Edge: Dramatic Works by Kurt Weill, Peter
Maxwell Davies, and Louis Andriessen Music Theory Online 10, no.4 (2004): 1.
83
Everett, Parody with an Ironic Edge, 5.
84
Everett, Parody with an Ironic Edge, 5.
32
stylized quotations. Everett further points out that, by these procedures, the satiric ethos may be

induced locally or combined to convey an ironic ethos at a broader metaphorical level of

interpretation. 85 Sheinberg offers more specific criteria helping to outline the identification of

musical irony:

1. Stylistic incongruities within one governing style

2. Stylistic discontinuities within one governing style

3. Incongruities with available information about the composers set of convictions,

beliefs, values, or about his or her personal characteristics

4. Incongruities based on meta-stylistic norms, e.g., rendering a feeling of too high, to

fast, too many repetitions etc., not when measured relative to a certain style or

topic, but per se

5. Shifts between levels of musical discourse

6. Juxtapositions of more than one stylistic or topical context, none of which could be

regarded as governing. 86

In the analysis of ironic interpretation, Juan Chattah further emphasizes the need to specify such

other rhetorical devices incorporated in the form as hyperbole (exaggeration), parody (reference

and imitation), satire (intending to ridicule or criticize a social sector), sarcasm (intending to

ridicule or criticize an individual), and the grotesque (juxtaposition of the ludicrous with the

horrifying). 87

85
Everett, Parody with an Ironic Edge, 8.
86
Esti Sheinberg, Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in the Music of Shostakovich: A
Theory of Musical Inconguities (Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2000), 64.
87
Chattah, Semiotics, 80.
33
 One important concept expanding our understanding of irony as a method of expression

is that of existential irony, the double nature by which two types of ironic statements are

understood. According to Sheinberg, existential irony may be understood as follow:

On one hand it uses contradictions to express the idea of infinite negation which is the
endless process of Socratic irony, and on the other hand expresses the contrary idea, that
of infinite accretion, the process that accepts and affirms all contradictory data as part of
one large, rich, and varied picture. 88

Golijov uses existential irony in La Pasin segun San Marcos as a meta-language by which

ethical messages are encrypted under the disguise of structural juxtaposition, stylistic

incompatibility, and incongruous cultural cross-mapping. Sren Kierkegaard regarded irony as a

matter of the utmost ethical consequences. For Kierkegaard irony is not a matter of speech but a

basic attitude toward life and human existence. 89 By taking this position, one locates the use of

irony as a greater subject in Golijovs music, dealing with the ideological and ethical

consequences of musical choices. Golijovs use of irony is a good referential marker by which

one can see a glimpse of the composers ethics through his artistic work. Consequently,

Golijovs music speaks about human nature, religiosity in the twenty-first century, and

multiculturalism in a collage of emotions and expressions, sometimes incongruent and in

complete opposition, occupying a shared space and time.

88
Sheinberg, Irony, 313.
89
Sheinberg, Irony, 318.
34
 CHAPTER 6
SON MONTUNO JUDAS Y EL CORDERO PASCUAL
(Son Montuno Judas and the Paschal Lamb)

Robert Martin raises the question: what is the connection between the musical work and

meaning? 90 As a response, one could use Robert Hattens explanation which states that music

can mediate by habit of association, when stylistically encoded, by producing correlations. When

these correlations are strategically inferred through a stylistically interpretative process, music

produces interpretations. 91 Music is able to indicate, denote, connote, communicate, express,

suggest, and symbolize.

When the relationship between the musical object (musical work) and meaning includes

text, one also needs to consider the meaning of the text and its relationship to the musical object

with its contribution to musical expression. One must consider the following:

1. Is there a collection of recognizable kinds of containers or musical objects that

can be associated to particular expressive connotations, derived from the

environment where they habitually exist?

2. Are the associations common knowledge to the environment of the cultural group,

and is the group aware of the fact that they are common knowledge?

3. Are the characteristics of these musical objects easily recognized as allusions to

the kind of associations portraying referential meaning associations? 92

90
Robert Martin, Topics as Meaning, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 53, no.4
(Fall 1995): 417.
91
Robert Hatten, Meaning in Beethoven, 275.
92
Martin, Topics as Meaning, 418-19.

35
In Judas Y el Cordero Pascual, Golijov uses the musical sub-genre son montuno (a derivative

sub-genre from the main son musical genre) as a cultural referential marker. For our analysis, it

is important to point that the son genre, including all its derivative sub-genres, is the most

important musical representative of contemporary Cuban popular culture.

A highly syncretic form, the son is among the most important musical forms of the

Caribbean, usually it is in duple meter, has simple harmonic patterns, and alternates between

verse and chorus sections. 93 The son genre evolved by an amalgamation of musical materials of

African and European origin. In its beginnings as a musical genre, son was played and sung

exclusively by black people. However, later the son found popularity among white musicians

and listeners alike. 94 Today, the genre is representative of indigenous musical aesthetics and has

become a symbol of musical nationalism in Cuba. In order to create this musical symbol as a

signifier of racial integration and social unity, there was need for a social movement to help fuse

both musical cultures. Finding its way into the musical forms, the poetic movement poesa

Afrocubanista (Afro-Cuban poetry) was the principal factor making son a unifying national

cultural sign. 95

The son has certain musical characteristics that make it aurally recognizable. One of them

is the anticipated bass rhythmic pattern (figure 6.1).

93
Gerard Bhague, Robin Moore: Cuba, Grove Dictionary Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed 28
February 2008), http://www.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu
94
James Robbins, The Cuban Son as Form, Genre, and Symbol, Latin American Music Review
11, no.2 (Autumn-Winter, 1990): 182.
95
The Afrocubanista is a movement where the mulatto literary forms in the 1930 emerged from a
common stock formed by the historical interaction between black and white Cubans. Afrocubanista
poetry was one of the products of this process, a mulatto literary genre that symbolized black and white
cultural unity because it introduced black cultural forms into white poetry. See Miguel Arnedo,
Afrocubanista Poetry and Afro-Cuban Performance, The Modern Language Review, 96, no.4 (October
2001): 991.

36
Figure 6..1 Anticiipated bass

This anticipated-basss rhythmic pattern is usuually played throughout the

t son by thhe doublebasss

and the piano.

p Howev
ver, other innstruments allso follow thhe pattern. The anticipateed bass is a

distinctivve musical ch
haracteristicc of son. It caame to be as an inherent fusion of rhhythms foundd in

d Habanera and Danznn. 96 The anticcipated bass

the Rumbba Guaguanco and the Europeanized
E

creates a sense of ten

nsion, upbeatt exhilarationn, and forwaard motion by
b anticipatinng and markking

the upcom
ming harmon
ny that woulld unfold in the upcominng beat.

A
Another musiical characteeristic of the son is the cllave rhythm in which ann ostinato patttern

is the prim
mordial uniffying elemennt (figure 6.22).

Figure 6..2 Clavee rhythm

The clavee presents a single patterrn, its rhythm

mic continuiity functions as a guidingg element annd as

a foundattion for the entire

e instrum
mental struccture.

966
Peter Manueel, The Anticcipated Bass in Cuban Poppular Music, Latin Americcan Music Reeview
6, no.2 (A
Autumn-Winteer, 1985): 2599.

37
 L
Lastly, the ma
atrices rtmiicas (rhythm
mic matrices) or tumbaos are rhythmiic patterns

mposite rhythhms of all thee parts (figurre 6.3). 97

producedd by the com

Figure 6..3 Tumbao (rhythmicc matrices)

James Roobbins alludes to tumbaoos as construuctions incorrporating thee rhythmic chharacteristiccs of

all the paarts. The tum

mbaos or rhytthmic matricces are particcularly impoortant in son because theey

determinnefor the liistener, musiician, and daancerswhaat musical evvents to expeect. For exam
mple,

during thhe singing so

olo section (rrefrain) the tumbao
t utilizzes a rhythm
mic pattern thhat is continuuous

and emphhasizes the downbeat

d wiithout distraccting from thhe melodic material.
m Thee bongos plaaying

downbeaats together with

w the Guiros support the
t melodic gesture arrivving to the downbeat
d (figure

6.4).

97
James Robbiins, The Cubaan Son as Forrm, Genre, annd Symbol, 18
88.

38
Figure 6.4
6 Rhyth
hmic Matrix for refrain section (son soloist sectioon)

A recognnizable chang
ge occurs in the chorus section.
s The bongos are now avoidinng the downbbeat,

and the bass

b is only playing
p the downbeat
d at the beginninng of the choorus section continuing the
t

pattern of a silent dow

wnbeat throuughout (figuure 6.5). Throough this chhange in charracter and

rhythmicc change, thee dancers aree invited to jooin as they will

w not interrfere with thhe solo singinng.

Also, thiss change sig

gnals the endd of the solo singing, connsequently marking
m the beginning
b off the

chorus. Traditionally
T y, the chorus part is wherre audience members
m aree encouragedd to sing along

and dancce.

39
Figure 6..5 Rhyth
hmic matricees for choruss section

Thee silent downbeaat

continues throughouut the
whoole refrain sectioon

T son musiical style refflects as a whhole a syncreetic mix of musical

The m gestuures and poeetic

articulatiions that in th
heir combination of elem
ments alludee to unity, fussion, and cohhesiveness.

Within thhe son there are sub-genrres that conttain small am

mounts of vaariants in thee style, amonng

ntuno, son chhang, and son sucu-sucu. 98 Golijovv uses the suub-genre sonn
them are the son mon

988
For a detaileed explanationn of son sub-ggenres see Geerard Behage and James Moore,
M Cubaa,
Grove Muusic Online edd. L. Macy (A
Accessed 24 July
J 2007), avvailable from
http://www
w.grovemusic.com.proxy.libraries.uc.edu

40
montuno in his musiccal representtation of the Last Supperr narrative sccene from Marks
M Gospeel.

There aree two main characteristic

c cs belongingg to the son montuno,
m thee inclusion of
o an a caballlo

section and
a a conclud
ding coda-likke montuno.

Inn the a caballlo (horse-sstyle) sectioon there is a peculiar chaange in the rhhythmic

structure of the tumbao, where thhe rhythmic pattern

p channges from thee son patternn to the a cabballo

pattern. This
T pattern is called inn horse style because it imitates the strong and fast
f galloping of

a horse as
a an iconic representatio
r on of joy, viggor, and highh-spirited euuphoria (figuure 6.6). Thiss

change inn rhythmic pattern

p calls the attentionn of the audience as an innvitation to join
j in the

joyous siinging.

Figure 6..6 Son rh

hythmic patttern a cabaallo rhythmicc pattern

The iconic representaation of the galloping

g off the horse iss achieved byy the combinnation of thee

addition of a rest on the

t downbeaat of the bonngos rhythm
mic patterns and
a the Guirros rhythmic cell

(figure 6.7).

41
Figure 6..7 A caballo rhythmiic cell

Boongos

Guuiros

T montuno section is a coda-like seection in whiich all the prrevious musical materiall
The

blends toogether bring

ging the final structural gesture
g to a climatic
c closse. In its struuctural closinng,

the son montuno

m secttion emphasiizes a sense of unity andd fusion of alll the diversee musical

elements as a last forrmal gesture.

N that I haave identifiedd the son background referent, let uss consider hoow Golijov
Now

places it against the narrative

n sceene, the betraayal (Mark 14:
1 10-11), thhe betrayer (Mark
( 14: 177-

21), and the apostolicc question (M

Mark 14:19). In Louis Marins
M semiootic analysiss of the Passiion

narrativee, five narratiive characterrs are distingguished. 99 These

T narrativve elements or characterrs are

the voicees of the evan

ngelist as thee narrator, a chorus representing the apostles, tennors represeenting

Judas Isccariot, the vo

oice of Jesus, and a choruus of observvers. Thoughh Martin conssiders and naames

these chaaracters top

pics and figurres, we will avoid usingg these terms as they creeate controveersy

with the idea of musiical topics explored byy Leonard Ratner,

R Roberrt Hatten, annd Kofi Awaagu.

For our analytical

a pu
urposes I willl use the term
ms narrativee objects or characters.
c

Inn Golijovs use

u of the geenre son monntuno againsst Marks narrrative scenee, one can pooint

to inconggruities betw
ween the mussical objects and its correesponding teext. There is an inability to

999
Louis Marin
n, Semiotic off the Passion Narrative,
N opics and Figuures (Pittsburrgh: Pickwickk
Top
Press, 19880), 42.

42
correlate with and accommodate each other. This can be classified as irony in music with the

intention of creating a satirical effect. The technique used to effect this particular occurrence of

musical irony is trans-contextualization, where there is a replacement of a familiar whole with

another to create a satirical effect. The musical object is trans-contextualized, taken from one

familiar context to another, with which it is stylistically incongruous. 100

The overall form of Golijovs son comprises three main sections: Marks (I), Jesus (II),

and a final montuno section (III). The first main section (Marks section) is a three strophe-

chorus structure (figure 6.8). During the interaction between the soloist (strophe) and the choir

(chorus), as stated earlier, the chorus is a designated place in which other musicians or audience

members can join. 101 This creates an interactive engagement between the musicians and the

audience, creating another sense of unification between the roles and interactions of

performanceperformers.

100
Esti Sheinberg, Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in the Music of Shostakovich: A
Theory of Musical Incongruities (Vermont: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2000), 102.
101
James Robbins, The Cuban Son as Form, 190.

43
Figure 6..8 Marks section (thhree strophe--chorus units)

MARK
K SECTION
N (I)

mm 1--28 mm 29-44 mm 45-556

Strophe Chorus Stropphe Choruus Strophe C
Chorus

Mark: mm 9-24 mm. 299-40 mm

m. 45-52
Choir: mm. 25-28 mm. 41-44
4 mm. 53- 56
m
Judas: mm. 41-44
4 m 53-56
mm.

T soloist siings the narrrative characcter of Mark the Evangellist, while the correspondding
The

chorus reesponds, in a call-response style, singing

s the character of the
t disciples. In the secoond

call the character

c of Judas
J is introoduced in m.
m 41 as a voiice shifting rhythmically
r y in the choraal

entrancess (figure 6.9)).

Figure 6..9 Judas Character

44
 Section (II), the
t Jesus secction, is a thrree strophe-cchorus occurrrence by thee soloist singging

the charaacter of Jesuss (figure 6.10). In the thiird strophe-rrefrain there is an additioon and

introducttion of a new
w element, thhree womens voices as observers (fi
figure 6.11). In this sectioon

however,, the narrativ

ve and musiccal material begins
b to fusse as they prrogress towaard the climaatic

structural closing of section (III),, the montunno section (fiigure 6.12).

Figure 6..10 Jesus Section (thrree strophe chorus unitts)

JESUS
S SECTION
N (II)

mm 57
7-76 mm 77-92 mm 93-1116
Strophe Chorus Stropphe Choruus Strophe C
Chorus

Jesus: mm 57-72 mm. 77-92

7 mm
m. 93-116
Choir: mm. 73-76 mm. 89-92
8 mm. 93 to end
m
Judas: mm. 73-76 mm. 89-92
8 m 93 to end
mm.
Observers: m 93 to end
mm.

Figure 6..11 Threee Women (Obbservers)

45
Figure 6.12 Montuno section

Montuno Section

mm. 117-124

Jesus ..
Choir .
Judas ..
Observers ...

The narrative projection unfolds diachronically from the topic of Mark to the topic of

Jesus (in terms of its evolution over time), bringing forth the first section, Marks section, as a

commentary on the words of Jesus in a rhetorical shift, marking or disrupting the flow of the

musical discourse. 102 We observe the appearance of a displaced melody in the tenor during the

second strophe-chorus (mm. 41-44), and every chorus that follows, as introduction of the voice

of Judas by implication and indexical pointing. 103 As opposed to iconic pointing, where the

object is referred to by means of resemblance, or symbolic pointing, where the object is referred

to by means of arbitrary encoding or convention, indexical pointing is achieved by relationship

of necessity. This relationship of necessity is identified with the relation between an effect and its

102
Robert Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes: Mozart, Beethoven,
Schubert (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004), 135.
103
See Pierces theory of icon, index, symbol. Raymond Monelle, Linguistic and Semiotics in
Music (Switzerland: Hardwood Academic Publishers, 2000), 193-214.

46
cause, or conversely. 104 In the context of the textual elements of the musical object, Judas is

asking if he is the traitor, and denying that he is the traitor, while the narrative exposed earlier his

act of treason toward Jesus. Musically speaking, the indexical pointing occurs by Judas denial

and question (cause), represented by the shift in rhythmic alignment with the rest of the choir,

suggesting a separation from the group (effect). This scene in Marks narrative (Mark 14:10 and

14: 17-21) is the beginning of disunity and separation among the disciples in the Passion

narrative, which precedes the foretelling of Peters denial and Jesus arrest, the final act of

physical separation and disunion of the apostolic group. As mentioned earlier, the main musical

referential meaning of the genre son was social and racial unity. The meaning of the background

referent in the narrative scene is the disintegration of unity and the resulting physical separation

of Jesus and his disciples. There are distinct incongruities between the structural musical

elements and the narrative elements.

Krystyna Tarnawska-Kaczorowska explains that music refers to four spheres of extra-

musical reality:

(1) Physical Reality: where in the real world there are some physical objects which music

can reproduce by means of sound denotations (horns, church bells, clocks), or sound

imitation by onomatopoetic equivalences or icons (birds singing, horses gallops)

(2) Psychical Reality: where music can evoke, connote, suggest, or convey quite a gamut

of emotional states, affective content

(3) Non-objective reality: certain abstract notions and qualities, certain extra-perceptive

mental representations, which music renders perceptible and present (triviality,

104
Thomas Sebeok, Ed., Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics (New York: Mouton de Gruyter,
1994), 341.

47
 sublimity, pathos, dramatism, the sacred, symmetry, violence, conflict, unity, and so

on)

(4) Cultural Reality: music itself is subject to sonic reincarnations, reanimation,

reinterpretation, and the musical and cultural of bygone eras (techniques, idioms,

pathos, idea subject, trends, etc). 105

Within the sphere of non-objective reality, the incongruity is found between the culturally

implicit presence of unity in the son montuno sub-genre and the narratives disunity and

disintegration process within the disciples group. The technique that Golijov employs to

accommodate these two unrelated systems is trans-contextualization that is, taking something

from one familiar context to another with which it is stylistically incongruous. 106 He inverts the

correlation of unity with disunity creating a satirical effect. One can see this specifically

exemplified in the juxtaposition of two elements, the a caballo section (chorus response) and the

narrative element of the apostolic question and displacement of Judas accusation as traitor

(Mark 14: 19). The a caballo rhythm imitates the galloping of a horse, creating an upbeat sense

of excitement and joy as people are encouraged to join the refrain of the son (figure 6.13). The

upbeat horse rhythm is incorporated into the narrative moment where the apostles question sadly

whether they are the traitors (apostolic question). The chorus responds to complete the solos with

a fragmentation of Mark 14:19, where the saddened disciples question Jesus with Will it be I?

105
Eero Tarasti gen. editor, Tarnawska-Kaczorowska Krystyna, The Musical Work as Sign:
significative constituents, layers, structures. In Musical Signification: Essays in the Semiotic theory and
Analysis of Music (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1995), 123-25.
106
Esti Sheinberg, Irony, Satire, Parody and the Grotesque in the Music of Shostakovich, 102.

48
This question accentuates the element of distress and sadness in the disciples. 107 Within these

choruses we see the addition of Judas unfolding his inner struggle, reflected in his questioning of

treason, Traitor? followed by his denial I am not a traitor! This inversion, created by the

incongruence of the musical elements, creates a conceptual negation of the narrative meaning

against the musical reference.

107
John Donahue, The Passion in Mark: Studies on Mark 14:16 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1976), 394.

49
Figure 6..13 A caballo section

T closing montuno
The m secttion featuress a dense juxxtaposition of musical annd textual

elements. Here is wh
here the closiing structuraal gesture com
mes to a clim
matic close, bringing all

elements together in a final fusioon. The choirrs include thhe simultaneoous participaation of all fi
five

narrativee characters (figure

( 6.14)).

50
 Figure 6..14 Narrattive Charactters
Mark the Evangelist
E
and Jesus they are
both sung in unison
Choir of Observers by the sam
me singer

J
Judas Iscariot

Apostles

Within thhe instrumen

ntal part, the montuno seection includdes the particcipation of thhe whole

ensemblee. The brass section is reeplicating doownbeat omission, characteristic of thhe rhythmic

differentiiation betweeen the a cabballo sectionn and the refrrain section, particularlyy in the part of
o the

conga. This
T is dupliccated by the piano, whilee the tres continues its rhhythmic dennsity from itss

original form
f (figure 6.15).

51
Figure 6..15 Instru
umental montuno sectionn

In the rhyythmic sectio

on montuno,, there is a reeplacement of
o a main rhythmic compponent. The a

caballo tumbao
t is no
ow replaced by
b the salsa tumbao (figgure 6.16). Among
A somee of the

noticeablle differencees between thhe a caballo and the salssa tumbao arre: the salsa rhythm has a 4/4

feel insteead of the 2/4

4 of the son;; in salsa, thee rhythmic articulations
a tend to be grouped
g in eiight

measuress instead of the

t traditionaal four meassure articulattion of the soon; and the clave
c rhythm
m in

the salsa tumbao emp

phasizes thee downbeat innstead of thee silent downnbeat of the son.

52
Figure 6..16 Salsa tumbao

These chhanges are efffected in thee percussion part only, creating a juxxtaposition of
o two stylisttic

elements in one stylee. The rhythm

mic matrix iss replaced byy a Salsa tum
mbao which does not bellong

to the styyle of the son

n, thus subveerting the exxpressive meeaning to a deeper level. Golijov

established at the beg

ginning of thhe work the referential
r reelationship between
b the son
s montunoo and

53
the narrative scene. In the montuno section he departs from the stylistic referential. As the work

reaches its highest point of structural fusion and climax, the narrative characters reach their point

of greater disunity, and a new rhythmic component is added. One could determine that the

accompanying ethos is contradictory, thus ironic, confirmed by the ambiguity of the structure

and the negation of the narrative and musical expressive meaning.

54
 CHAPTER 7 EUCARISTIA
(Eucharist)

In the movement Eucarista (Eucharist), Golijov musically represents the scene of the

institution of the Eucharist (i.e., Holy Communion or Lords Supper) within the Passion narrative

(Mark 14: 22-25). This scene contains a pivotal theological concept in the narrative. Rooted in

this scene is a core belief in early and contemporary Catholic theology, that of transubstantiation,

the belief of the real presence of Christ in the bread and wine. The music represents the text in

the form of allusion and stylization of Gregorian chant, an iconic musical representation of the

act of instituting the Church. Golijovs use of this particular musical style is an axiomatic choice

that symbolically represents the textual fragment of Mark 14: 22-25.

In this movement there is an interaction between two systems. The first system includes

the narrative elements: Mark the Evangelist, Jesus. The second system includes the musical

elements: melodic musical gestures, structural symmetry, and voice range and gender instanced

by a soprano solo as the voice of Jesus (figure 7.1), a chorus acting as the voice of Jesus (figure

7.2). The melodies sung by a group of sopranos are referential markers pointing to the narrative

element of Mark as the narrator.

55
Figure 7..1 The voice of Markk the evangeelist sopranno section

The solo soprano is the

t referentiaal marker poointing to thee narrative chharacter of Jesus,
J as he

speaks inn first person

n (figure 7.2)).

Figure 7..2 The voice of Jesus soprano solo

Both Maark and Jesuss referential markers

m inteeract with eaach other diaachronically, instead of

unfoldingg synchroniccally, meaninng at the sam

me time (figuure 7.3).

56
Figure 7..3 The voice of the Evangelist - soprano secttion

A certain poiints the charracters echo their narrativve elements within the same
At s diachroonic

pattern (ffigure 7.4).

Figure 7..4 Jesus and Mark thhe Evangelisst as a sopranno soloist annd a womens choir

T interactio
The on between these
t two groups of elem
ments gives rise
r to paroddic stylistic

allusion that
t creates incongruitie
i s between thhe object of reference
r annd the referring object. Inn

order to analyze
a these interactionns I will use melodic geestures as units
u of analyysis and as

parameteers for recogn

nition of sym
mmetrical strructures. Byy melodic gestures, I undderstand the

utterancee of a melodiic motion whhich can be considered

c a a whole unnit closed byy resolution or a
as

feeling of wholeness by the preseence of a staarting and arrrival motionn. Though thee definition of

57
musical gesture is similar to that of a musical phrase, the latter tends to be interpreted mainly by

elements such as tonal gravitational centers and/or rhythmic stability that produce the sense of

closure.

Robert Hatten states that musical gestures are grounded in human affects and its

communicationthey are not merely the physical actions involved in producing a sound or

series of sounds from a notated score, but the characteristic shaping that give those sounds

expressive meaning. 108 Musical gestures are generally defined as communicative, expressive,

energetic shaping through time by musical characteristic features such as beat, rhythm, timing of

exchanges, contour, and intensity.

According to Hatten, the foundational principles of a semiotic theory of musical gestures

as applied to music are:

1. Musical gestures are continuous (it is not necessarily the sound that is continuos, but

there is continuity in shape, curve, motion across silence, etc.)

2. Musical gestures possess articulate shape

3. Musical gestures possess hierarchical potential

4. Musical gestures possess a significant envelope (being that gestures can be affected

by pre and post movement)

5. Musical gestures are contextually constrained and enriched, both stylistically and

strategically

6. Musical gestures are typically foregrounded

7. Musical gestures can be beyond precise notation or exact reproducibility

108
Robert Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes, 93.
58
 8. Amenable to type-token relationships via cognitive categorization or even

conceptualization and

9. Musical gestures are potentially systematic to the extent of being organized

oppositionally by type, as in gestural language or ritual movements. 109

Musical gestures can be a very useful tool in the determination of formal structures. They

provide a gravitational background field. They help to understand articulations, accentuations,

dynamics, tempo, timing, and stylistic types.

According to Hatten, musical gestures may be generalized under types such as:

1. Spontaneous (individual, original, creative); These mappings of expressive

gestures are marked and subsequently thematized within the musical context.

2. Thematic (as a subject of discourse for a movement); this gesture may be treated

to a developing variation.

3. Dialogical (as gestures between agencies, suggestive of a conversation among

equals, or oppositional ideas).

4. Rhetorical gestures [RG] (marking an unmarked musical discourse or flow); these

gestures provide markers by which a musical discourse can be analyzed and

systematized within the parameters of rhetoric.

a. RG can be used to foreground stages of an expressive genre, providing a

dramatic or narrative character to the musical discourse.

b. RG can act as referential markers indicating sudden or unpredicted

rhetorical pauses (moments of suspension or cessation within the

109
Robert Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, 124.
59
 narrative, moments of changes toward a different narrative projection, or

shifts within the narrative indicating displacement or reposition.

c. RG can highlight the reversal of tonal structures or the textual

undercuttings within the musical discourse and narrative.

5. Troping of gestures (characters of two separate gestures are blended into an

emergent gesture). 110

I use a specific instance of musical gestures (melodic gestures) as units for analysis and

as parameters for recognition of symmetrical structures. In formal terms, and according to the

definitions postulated above, the movement is divided into two sections with a connecting

bridge. Sections A and B are mirror reflections of each other with a bridge as axis (figure 7.5).

The textual parsing for each of the section is as follows:

1. Section A

Sub-Section a1: corresponds to Mark 12:22

Sub-Section a2: corresponds to Mark 14: 23-24

2. Section B: corresponds to Mark 14: 25

110
Robert Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, 136-37.
60
Figure 7.5 Formal division of the movement

Overall Structure

A B

Section a1 Section a2 Bridge Section b1 Section b2

[3+2+2] [3+2+2] 2 [2+2+3] [2+2+3]

The grouping of musical gestures determines, together with text parsing, the structural unfolding

of the work. Section A and section B contain seven melodic gestures. Sections a1 and a2 are

structurally mirrored with sections b1 and b2 connected by the bridge.

There is a numerological connection between the number of gestural utterances and the

symbolism of the number seven as indicator of perfection and completeness in biblical

scriptures. Within the metaphorical expression in biblical context, the numerological symbolism

of seven symmetrical melodic gestures represents in Golijovs movement the wholeness,

completeness, and perfection of the institution of the rituals of the Christian Church. 111 This

numerological symbolism is emphasized by the mirrored order of gestural appearances and the

palindromic arrangement of the melodic gestures order within the flow of musical discourse.

According to Peirce, an icon is a sign that refers to the object which it denotes by its own

111
"Meaning of numbers in the Bible." September 28, 2008.
http://www.biblestudy.org/bibleref/meaning-of-numbers-in-bible/3.html (Accessed September 3, 2008)

61
features, and everything that is an icon of something has to be similar to the something and has

to be used as a sign of it. 112 In this movement, according to a Peircean view of the sign, the use

of seven melodic gestures arranged in a symmetrical way is an iconic representation of the

perfection and completeness of the churchs rituals (figure 7.9).

The classification of melodic gestures shown in example 7.6 is governed by textual

markedness, musical completeness, or by a combination of both. Through musical gestures the

text can indicate rhetorical pauses, changes, or shifts marking an unmarked musical discourse or

flow. Together with the text, the melodic gestures provide a sense of articulation, suspension, or

closure in the formal unfolding of the movement (table 7.6 and table 7.8).

Table 7.6 Musical gesture on section a1 and a2

Label
(Section/ Score Rhetorical function
gesture)

a1 g1 Rhetorical pause

a1 g2 Rhetorical pause

Rhetorical shift
a1 g3
(narrative action)

112
Thomas Sebeok, Ed., Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics (New York: Mouton de Gruyter,
1994), 328.

62
 a1 g4 Rhetorical pause

Rhetorical closure
a1 g5
(change)

a1 g6 Rhetorical pause

a1 g7 Rhetorical closure

a2 g1 Rhetorical pause

a2 g2 Rhetorical pause

Rhetorical shift
a2 g3
(narrative action)

a2 g4 Rhetorical pause

Rhetorical closure
a2 g5
(change)

a2 g6 Rhetorical pause

a2 g7 Rhetorical closure

The bridge section contains two untexted musical gestures acting as rhetorical pauses (figure

7.7).

Figure 7.7 Bridge axis section

63
 Jesus
Chorus

Table 7.88 o section b1 and b2

Musiccal gesture on

L
Label Score Rhettorical functtion

b1 g1 Rhhetorical pausse

b1 g2 Rhhetorical pausse

b1 g3 Rhhetorical pausse

Rhhetorical pausse
b1 g4

b1 g5 Rhhetorical pausse

64
b1 g6 Rhetorical pause

Rhetorical closure
b1 g7 (change)

b2 g1 Rhetorical pause

b2 g2 Rhetorical pause

b2 g3 Rhetorical pause

b2 g4 Rhetorical pause

b2 g5 Rhetorical pause

b2 g6 Rhetorical pause

Rhetorical closure
b2 g7
(final closure)

65
Figure 7.9 The symmetrical organization of musical gestures

A B

Section a1 Section b1
[3+2+2] [2+2+3]

Section a2 Section b2
[3+2+2] [2+2+3]

Section a1 Section a2
[a1-g1 + a1-g2 + a1-g3] = 3 gestures [a2-g1 + a2-g2 + a2-g3] = 3 gestures
[a1-g4 + a1-g5] = 2 gestures [a2-g4 + a2-g5] = 2 gestures
[a1-g6 + a1-g7] = 2 gestures [a2-g6 + a2-g7] = 2 gestures

Section b1 Section b2
[b1-g1 + b1-g2] = 2 gestures [b2-g1 + b2-g2] = 2 gestures
[b1-g3 + b1-4] = 2 gestures [b2-g3 + b2-g4] = 2 gestures
[b1-g5 + b1-g6 + b1-g7] = 3 gestures [b2-g5 + b2-g6 + b2-g7] = 3 gestures

This representation of musical gestures is iconically sound and stylistically appropriate. It

provides a sign topology by which we can analyze the perceivable kinds and forms of rhetorical

articulations within the narrative text. However, the musical elements (voice gender and range)

create negation by gender inversion. This gender inversion occurs by the assignment of the

singers gender and the consequent change in the vocal range after the inversion (soprano range).

In musical settings of biblical and liturgical text, the voice of Jesus is always portrayed and sung

by ordained clergy (male), or in the case of Passion plays and musical Passions by a male singer.

By allocating the voice of Jesus to a soprano voice, and the voice of the Evangelist to a choir of

66
women (as indicated in the score), the gender inversion creates an incongruity. The markedness

of this gender inversion transgresses pre-existent cultural codes (females are not to sing the part

of Jesus in musical representation of the Passion narrative), in addition to cultural and historical

performance practices (roles were always assigned to male singers). By inverting the role of

Mark the Evangelist (a male) to a group of sopranos and Jesus (clergy) to a soprano solo, Golijov

leads the listener to the existence of polemical oppositions.

The analysis of signification cant take place at the level of rhetorical characteristics

within the context of melodic gestures and text. Again, we are invited to look at the non-

objective realities of the sign, as postulated by Tarnawska-Kaczorowska, where pathos, the

sacred, cultural codes, symmetry, numerological symbolism, and triviality coexist. 113

There is a difficulty when we analyze the non-objective realities of a musical work. Esti

Scheinberg points at the difficulty of drawing clear lines between parodic stylistic allusions and

non-polemical use of formerly existing styles, genres, and musical elements. According to

Tinayanovs and Bakhtins definition of parody, the elements that exist in parody and are not

present in stylizations are inversions, polemical opposition, or an incongruity inserted between

the object of reference and the referring work. 114 Within the musical system of Golijovs

Eucarista, the most salient stylistic allusion in this movement is to the genre Gregorian chant.

Unlike a replication of a Gregorian chant melody, this movement is to set a scene fragment of the

113
See Krystyna Tarnawska-Kaczorowska. The Musical Work as Sign: Significative
Constituents, Layers, Structure (New York: Mouton de Gruyer, 1995), 123-28.

114
Esti Sheinberg, Irony, 195.

67
narrative to a stylization of chant. 115 This doesnt make the stylization necessarily ironic or

parodic. However, the double-voiced discourse according to the incongruity of the narrative and

musical systems presents a polemical opposition, creating an incongruity inserted between the

object of reference and the referring work, pointing to the existence of parody in the musical

discourse of the movement.

Within metaphorical expression, the numerological symbolism of seven symmetrical

melodic gestures would represent the wholeness and perfection of the institution of the rituals of

the Christian Church. The stylistic allusion of Gregorian chant would increase the indexical

referent of the Christian Churchs rituals by evoking a sense of ritual performance, suggesting

the use of a familiar musical object to the ritual and conveying a gamut of emotional and

affective states related to the action of the institution of the Eucharist and its ritual repetition.

However, in Eucarista these physical realities, indexed by the sonic and cultural associations,

are negated by the characters transgender inversion and its polarity in relationship to text and

cultural codes. These inverted musical signs negate the physical reality of the movement, thereby

inserting abstract notions and qualities, extra-perceptive mental representations which by the

musical inversion of gender are rendered perceptible and present. This transgression of the

convention or social agreement about the way to represent musically this narrative scene, both in

gender and vocal range, expresses a new referentiality by indexical implication. This being that

the churchs rituals, though perceived to be perfect and complete by an evocation of musical

gestures, formal structures, and numerological symbols, are not complete and perfect when a

gender is excluded.

115
Golijov footnote indication in the score indicates that the movement should be phrased with
the flexibility and air proper of the Gregorian melodies. Osvaldo Golijov, La Pasion segun San Marcos,
113.

68
 CHAPTER 8
DEMOS GRACIAS AL SEOR
(Let Us Give Thanks)

The movement Demos Gracias al Seor (Let Us Give Thanks) is a set of variations on

the melody of Todava Cantamos (We Still Sing), a member of the protest-song genre, composed

by Victor Heredia in the 1980s in Argentina. Protest songs are musical expressions of injustices

or problematic issues in a given society or culture. Usually they take the form of a metaphorical

utterance. The content of the protest may include moral issues, discrimination of all kinds, war,

and abuses or violations of human rights. The genre usually associates itself with folk-artistic

expressions and attempts to reach a popular audience, oftentimes the oppressed. Heredias song

was written as a metaphorical protest to the oppressiveness of the military government and the

violation of human rights in Argentina during the 1970s and 1980s. The lyrics are a metaphorical

outcry against the atrocities of the dirty war, including the disappearance of thousands of

young people on the basis of political dissent. My own translation of the texts refrain states we

still sing, we still sing, still ask, still dream, still hope.

Golijov uses a fragment from the refrains melodic material to create a four-phrase

statement that ends with a further fragmented conclusion. By this process the theme of the

variations is created. Golijov uses a very small rhythmic cell to unify the theme from which the

entire movement is built (figure 8.1).

69
Figure 8..1 Melod
dic fragmentt from the orriginal refraiin and concluusion fragmeent

Golijovss affinity forr symmetry is

i once againn displayed in
i the overalll structure of
o the movem
ment.

In this movement
m theere is an abseence of appaarent distortiion, stylistic exaggeration, or other

musical characteristic
c cs that would hint at ironny and paroddy. The use of a melody from a protest

song as a thanksgivin
ng hymn inddicates, by asssociation, irrony or parody as an undderlying

approachh. A composeer could sim

mply use this melody in quotation
q or paraphrase. However,

Golijovss treatment of
o the musicaal materials against the narrative
n sceene establishhes a self-eviident

referentiaal relationsh
hip indicatingg the presencce of irony or
o parody. Thhis presents the followinng

questionss: What are the

t stylistic incongruenc
i cies that creaate this ironyy? Which refferential

representtations of thee musical annd textual content hint too irony in muusic? Which layers are

musicallyy and textually related inn order to produce irony or parody?

W need to lo
We ook at the intteraction of elements in each layer as
a symbolic signs
s dependdent

odes. 116 Theere are two sttylistic layerrs in this moovement that require a closer
on learneed cultural co

116
See Monellle, Sense of Music,
M 14.

70
examinattion; one is the
t protest soong genre ass a declamatiion of disconntent and obj
bjection to a

reality, annd the secon

nd is the mom
ment during the Passion narrative whhen Jesus disciples
d singg

psalms of thanksgiving at the endd of the Passsover meal. Let us exam

mine how Goolijovs use of
o

musical material
m in reelationship with
w the narrrative text hiints at irony..

T movemeent is scored for a SATB

This B (soprano, alto,
a tenor, annd bass) chooir, accompannied

by a perccussion trio comprised

c of two bomboos and a spring drum, insstruments chharacteristic of

Argentinne folklore. A native instrrument of foolklore musicc in Argentinna, and not well
w known

outside itts genre, the bombo legero is

An Argentinee drum tradittionally madde of a hollow

A wed tree trunnk and coverred with
cuured skins of animals suuch as goats, cows or sheeep. Becausee the fur is leeft on the
hide, the bom mbos sound is deep and dark. The boombo servess as a combinnation of
bass and perccussion, not justj maintainning the metter, but evokking an elemeental,
visceral respo onse. It is callled legero because it can
c be heard from many leguas
(tthe distance a gaucho cann ride for ann hour, in Arrgentina is allso a way to
appproximate to t 5 kilometters). The leggero, considdered one off the oldest
innstruments in n human history, is an esssential elemment of Argeentine Folkloore
(ffigure 8.2). 1117

Figure 8..2 Bomb

bo legero

Publiic Domain Image

117
Wikipedia Online Encycclopedia, Thee Bombo Legero [Accesssed (Decembeer 12, 2007)],
available from http://en
n.wikipedia.oorg/wiki/Bombbo.

71
The sprinng drum or lions roar drrum on the other hand iss

A membranop phone in thee form of a friction

fr drumm, consisting of a cylindrrical or
buucket-shaped vessel withh one end oppen and the othero closedd with a mem
mbrane. A
leength of cordd or gut is faastened throuugh a hole inn the centre of
o the membbrane; the
coord is resineed and rubbed with coarsse fabric or a glove, prodducing a passsable
immitation of a lion's roar (figure
( 8.3). 118
1

Figure 8..3 Spring

g Drum

Reprooduced by permissiion from www.rem

mo.com

This com
mbination of instruments, by their tim
mbre and muusical characteristics, prooduces a veryy

distinctivve sound, wh
here their perrformance promotes
p the expansion of
o dynamic ranges
r and

emphasizzes the increease of dynam

mic density. Together with
w the choirr they becom
me versatile in
i

both their dynamic an

nd rhythmicc ranges.

O
Once again, Golijov
G outliines a formal structure thhat resemblees a palindrome, each forrmal

section mirroring
m its opposite in shape (figurre 8.4).

118
James Bladdes and Jamess Holland: 'Strring Drum: Lions Roar', Grove
G Music Online
O ed. L.
Macy (Acccessed [6 Jan
nuary 2008]), available froom http://www
w.grovemusicc.com.proxy.llibraries.uc.eddu

72
Figure 8..4 Formaal structure of Todava Cantamos

IIntroduction Theme Variation I Variation II Variation III Variation IV Closing

Percussion A B B AB AB AB A B B Percussion

Set in mootion by a fo
our-measure introductionn, where an ostinato-like
o e rhythm is unfolded,
u thee

theme is presented by
y a series off four melodiic fragmentaations of the original sonngs refrain

(figure 8.5).

Figure 8..5 Percussion introduuction

As each variation
v unffolds there are
a two proceesses taking place by whhich Golijovv realizes his

variationn techniques:

1. The
T variation
ns increase inn rhythmic density
d and dynamic
d attaacks

2. The
T variation
ns expand in the vocal raange and voicces participaating

73
The rhythhmic density
y is unfoldedd by the addiition of smalll variants inn the underlyying rhythmiic

structure of each of th
he variations within the percussion accompanim
a ment. These changes
c add

rhythmicc density to the

t original ostinato
o patteern (figure 8.6).
8

Figure 8..6 Rhyth

hmic variatioons end of section A inn the theme (mm. 16-19))

As the vaariations unffold the rhythhmic variantts become loouder togetheer with the voices.
v

These rhyythmic variaations occur in mm. 35-338, 39-43, 555-56, 67-69, 92-95, 106--108,

122-129,, 143-147, 15
58-160, and 165-173.

T dynamic level increaases organicaally as the movement

The m unnfolds and reaches its

loudest leevel during the

t last four measures prrior to the closing percusssion solo. This
T

growth inn volume and sound is a representatiion of the woorks material layer. In this
t layer

the musiccal object reflects a psycchical realityy evoking, coonveying, orr suggesting the

affective content asso

ociated withh a growing frustration
f orr anger at a protest
p song not

being heaard (figure 8.7).

8

74
Figure 8..7 Dynam
mic changess and progresssion

(Box 1: m.
m 5 | Box 2: m
m. 44 | Box 3: m. 96 | Box 4: m. 135 | Box 55: m. 174)

75
 T vocal parrts unfold the variation form
The f by the addition
a of a soprano vooice to the altto

solo in vaariation I (figure 8.8), exxpanding thee texture to an

a SATB in variation II (figure 8.9),

dividing the alto secttion in two parts

p in variaation III (figuure 8.10), annd finally subbdividing thee

soprano section
s and the
t alto sectiion in variation IV (figurre 8.11).

Figure 8..8 Variattion I addition of sopraano line to alto

a solo

Figure 8..9 Variattion II adddition of tenoor and bass

76
Figure 8..10 Variattion III alto divisi at m.
m 96

Figure 8..11 Variattion IV sopprano divisi

W regard to
With t the narratiive elementss, the lyrics include
i fragm
ments of Psaalms 113-1188. It

is assumeed that in Mark 14:26, after singingg songs of prraise, they walked
w out too the mount of
o

77
Olives, 119 the disciples sung psalms of thanksgiving proper of the conclusion of the Jewish

Passover meal. In Jewish tradition the Hallel psalms (114 -118) are sung to conclude the

Passover meal with hymns of praise and thanksgiving in remembrance of the Exodus. 120 Golijov

interpolates paraphrasing from the text of the psalms:

Psalm verse Paraphrase

113:1 Alabemos su nombre

113.5 El reina all en lo alto

114: 7 Aunque tiembla la tierra

118:1 Alabad a Jehov porque es bueno

118:1 Porque para siempre es su misericordia

118:14 El es mi fortaleza y mi salvacin 121

In order to clarify, consider that the two stylistic layers or systems (text and music)

present self-evident distortion or exaggeration as referential markers for satirical parody. Musical

stylistic characteristics provide means of referring to the outer world creating referentialities

outside themselves. Under the classification of non-objective reality, the relationships between

the textual elements of the Passion narrative (psalms of thanksgiving sung at the end of the

Passover meal) and the musical genre that provided the original material or musical element for

the variations (the protest song melody) are fused within the musical process of variation (the

119
New American Bible (Kansas: Catholic Bible Publishers, 1985), 1014.
120
Donahue, The Gospel of Mark, 401.
121
Libro de los Salmos, Biblia Latinoamericana (Madrid: Editorial Verbo Divino, 1972).
78
increase in rhythmic density, dynamic range, vocal range expansion, and the intensity of the

percussion attacks) providing then the necessary evidence of the presence of parody.

The parody is made evident from the tripartite stylistic clash between (1) the musical

referent background (a protest songs refrain), (2) the place in the narrative scene (the text of the

hallelsinging of the thanksgiving psalms after the Passover meal), and (3) an increasing

dynamic and rhythmic level in the evolving variations that reaches no resolution or conclusive

climatic event. This clash (or parody) doesnt have the intent to satirize. The musical object

keeps building in its euphoria in dynamic and rhythmic strength, achieving no apparent

resolution or conclusion. The purpose of this movement is ironic but not satirical; it can be

classified as a non-satirical parody. Whereby two or more stylistic layers are presented without

necessarily exaggerating or distorting them, the parody is made apparent by the very stylistic

clash. 122 The disciples are singing psalms of thanksgiving and praise to the texturally increasing

tune of a protest song.

122
Steinberg, Irony, 147.
79
 CONCLUSION

The application of theories of musical incongruities to the music of Golijov offers an

analytical approach by which we have been able to decipher some irreconcilable differences

between the Passion narrative and its musical representation. Sometimes concepts like quotation,

pastiche, or collage fall short of explaining the incongruity between the musical object and the

intended meaning of the narrative. Robert Hatten implies the inadequacy of this analysis when he

says

Of course, one cannot assume that the text determined the meaning of music, or
that the music merely illustrates the text. As I have argued, music meaning may at
times contradict the text, perhaps tropologically (i.e., ironically), and only a
theory of musical meaning not tied to words or programs will enable one to
establish such productive collision and interpret their potentially tropological
significance. 123

In search for a statement that describes the need for such a theory, the words of Hatten are

precise and appropriate. We understand that incongruities in musical discourse are indicators of

ironic ethos. So it is with this frame of mind that we can understand that it is not the existence of

incongruities that will hint at the presence of irony, but the function of those incongruities as an

indicator of structural negation. 124 In music, the extent to which the violation of cultural norms

can communicate satirical meaning is perhaps best exemplified by the appropriate use of a

musical object, due to its more easily definable character. 125 The theoretical applications and

methodologies of musical semiotics provide a deeper understanding of the incongruity between

123
Robert Hatten, Interpreting Musical Gestures, 294n13.
124
Shienberg, Irony, 57.
125
Sheinberg, Irony, 107.

80
the musical object and the intended meaning of the narrative. Irony in music is a tool for satirical

purport and expression of the unresolvable. 126

In the case of the examples analyzed, the trans-contextualization of a popular genre and

stylistic incongruencies within the norm of the Passion narrative create a satirical effect. In the

son montuno Judas y El Cordero Pascual (Judas and the Paschal Lamb), there are

incongruities between the relationship of the structural musical elements (the iconic or indexical

features of the sons form and structure) and the Passion narrative elements. The son Golijov

chose for this movement is the most important musical representative of contemporary Cuban

popular culture. In the son montuno, the structural or formal musical characteristics symbolize

unity and cohesion throughout. As the work reaches its highest point of structural fusion and

climax, the narrative characters reach their point of greatest disunity, and rhythmically a new

foreign component is added. I determined that the accompanying ethos is contradictory, thus

ironic, confirmed by the ambiguity of the structure and the negation of the narrative and musical

expressive meaning.

In the case of Eucarista, I observed the characteristics of parody in the elements of

incongruous and polemical components inserted as satirical parody. The characters are trans-

gendered to an opposite, pointing stylistically to a new context, thus creating stylistic incongruity

and parody. The music represents the text in the form of allusion and stylization of Gregorian

chant. In this movement, the use of seven melodic gestures in a symmetrical order is an iconic

representation of the perfection and completeness of the churchs rituals. However, the musical

elements create negation by gender inversion. The double-voiced discourse according to the

incongruity of the narrative and musical systems presents a polemical opposition, creating an

126
Shienberg, Irony, 27.

81
incongruity between the object of reference and the referring work, pointing to the existence of

parody in the musical discourse of the movement. By the transgression of conventions or social

agreements about the way to express this narrative scene, Golijov parodies through the

inappropriateness of the musical elements, both in gender and vocal range, the implication of

lack of ritual integrity when a gender is excluded.

The variations on the melody by Victor Heredia (Todavia Cantamos) are an expression

of non-satirical parody. Both stylistic layers are presented without hints of exaggeration or

distortion. The stylistic clash between the musical referent background (a protest songs refrain),

the moment in the narrative scene (the text of the hallelsinging of the thanksgiving psalms

after the Passover meal), and an increasing dynamic and rhythmic level in the evolving

variations that reaches no resolution or conclusive climatic event creates a sense of irony that is

non-satirical.

The theoretical applications and methodologies of musical semiotics provide a deeper

understanding at the incongruity between the musical object and the intended meaning of the

narrative. Irony in music is a tool for satirical purpose and the expression of the unresolvable. 127

There is a meta-structure in the study of irony: existential irony. According to Sheinberg,

existential irony has a double nature: on the one hand uses contradictions to express the idea of

infinite negation. On the other the idea of infinite accretion, whereby a process of accepting and

affirming all contradictory data as part of one large, rich, varied picture. 128 Golijovs double-

layered musical discourse conveys a strong sense of existential irony. Structurally the work is in

a constant state of interaction that creates negation or referential inversion at different levels.

127
Shienberg, Irony, 27.
128
Shienberg, Irony, 313.

82
Kierkegaard regarded irony as a matter of the utmost ethical consequences, a basic attitude

toward life and human existence. 129 Consequently, Golijovs music speaks of religiosity, the

sense of the sacred, human nature, and lifes ambiguity, expressing the unresolvable, through a

tessellation of the sacred, the banal, the sublime, the grotesque, and the beauty of the divine.

129
Shienberg, Irony, 318.
83
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