Sons, sentimentos e idéias : aspectos da iconicidade musical

From a perspective based on the semiotic theory of Charles Peirce, an integrated theory ofthe several faces of musical representation is proposed. Three fields are considered: 1) acoustic qualities, musical forms and structures; 2) reference; 3) perception, performance, composition and analysis. The focus of this article consists in the study of the several kinds of musical iconicity, i.e., representations based on similarity, analogy and metalinguistic resources. Acoustic imitations, representations of movement, effects, forms, paraphrases, quotations, and other species of musical meaning are analyzed in works by Bach, Mattheson, Berlioz, Berio, Hindemith, and others. Even though most of the cases here are considered from the field of reference, it is shown how musical signification cannot be thought about, apart from both its musical materiality and the reception of a certain work and its context