580720

book-review2015

MSX0010.1177/1029864915580720Musicae ScientiaeBook Review

Book review

Musicae Scientiae
15
The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1029864915580720
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Jean-Jacques Nattiez. Analyses et interprtations de la musique: La mlodie du berger dans le Tristan et Isolde
de Richard Wagner. Paris, France: Vrin, 2013. 401 pp. ISBN: 9782711625123.

Jean-Jacques Nattiezs inauguration of the field of musical semiology in 1975 heralded a chain
of discursive responses and critical revisions, of which the present volume is an explicit continuation. The updated English translation of his subsequent monograph Musicologie gnrale et
smiologie (1987), published as Music and Discourse (1990), brought his systematic approach
and philosophical erudition to a receptive Anglophone readership, where its intellectual
reference and epistemological reach have secured its place at seminar tables the world over.
Nattiezs latest volume, on the Shepherd melody from Wagners Tristan und Isolde, is perhaps
best understood in this context as a critical exemplification of the tenets laid out in that
translated monograph.
At the time, his stated view of music was explicitly multifaceted, encompassing a works
genesis, its [structural] organization, and the way it is perceived (1990, p. ix). The principal
categories of 1987 the neutral (or immanent), the esthesic, and the poietic have proven a
durable model. Readers will recall that, for Nattiez, the poietic emphasizes creative genesis and
production (linguistically, the sending of a message), the esthesic emphasizes acts of witnessing, reception and perception (receiving a message), while the neutral or immanent level analyses the structure of the message itself, and constitutes the remaining trace left behind when
esthesic and poietic considerations are subtracted. Famously borrowed from the French linguist
Jean Molino, the three semiological categories, in Nattiezs hands, become an epistemological
filter whose role is to reveal the paradigms, suppositions and contingencies supporting any individual analytical approach to any given music. From a certain perspective all analysis arguably
has an esthesic function, of course, and, for those sceptical of linguistic systems, Molinos categories can appear somewhat outdated (see, e.g., Taruskin, 2004, pp. 1112). But for those
who prefer to tarry within Nattiezs intellectual framework, music remains inclusive, constituting both a total social fact and that which can be constructed as symbolic form
(1990, pp. ix, 34), namely:
the result of a complex process of creation (the poietic process) that has to do with the form as well as
the content of the work; [and] the point of departure for a complex process of reception (the esthesic
process) that reconstructs a message. (1990, p. 17)

In 1987 as in 2013, the tripartite model yields six levels or analytical situations, of which the
final level like Schillers Spieltrieb renders the system dynamic by promoting communication
between the other levels and their agents (Nattiez, 1990, p. 140). The powers of synthesis
required for such a synoptic perspective are considerable, and time and again Nattiezs erudition
and balanced reasoning have proven courageously disrespectful of disciplinary boundaries.

Musicae Scientiae

But the book under discussion is ostensibly a book about Wagner. Hence it has two identities.
On the one hand, it is an encyclopedic study of one of Wagners most singular and enigmatic
melodies, the 42-bar alte Weise that Tristan hears upon waking, weak and mortally wounded,
in Act 3 of Tristan und Isolde. This diegetic melody not only signals news of the death of Tristans
parents, but seemingly asks him for what fate was I born at that time?. Supplying the harsh
answer: to yearn, to die!.1 For Ernest Newman, its four phrasal segments constitute simply
one of the strangest and most poignant [melodies] ever imagined by the man (1949/1991, p.
264). On the other hand, the melody is beside the point, becoming merely the prism through
which to access analytical method; it brings into focus the situatedness of the different perspectives we adopt towards our objects of study within different analytical and musicological traditions each seemingly in search of a greater truth. In this sense, Nattiezs book is an extensive
and cross-disciplinary study of 42 bars by Wagner, but will garner interest principally as
a comparative critique of method that believes in the promise of greater self-awareness.2 It
effectively poses the Big Question about musical knowledge: where has the mainstream been
hiding? The universal voices of the mid-to-late century, the grand old methods, are getting
older and grander, but the land they preside over appears increasingly restrictive.
Divided into four sections and 11 chapters, it adheres to Molinos tripartite model (three
points of view) stated above, though Nattiez adds a fourth element the hermeneutic to the
grand musicological family (p. 367). The first section the longest and most detailed of the
four is devoted to comparative linear, formal and paradigmatic analyses of the melodys structure; this incorporates Schenkerian and prolongational strategies by Allen Forte and Fred
Lerdahl as well as prosodic and implicative analyses by Annie Labussire and Nattiez,
respectively. In this, Nattiez emphatically answers earlier criticism that his perspective in Music
and Discourse ignored the proto-structuralism of Schenkerian analysis (Agawu, 1992, p. 319);
while he includes Schenkerian (Forte) and prolongational (Lerdahl) analyses of the melodic
line, Fortes analysis relates necessarily to one of the harmonized versions of the alte Weise
that appears later in Act 3, which deviates from the unaccompanied version in a number of
respects. The absence of an Ursatz indicates there is no actual close, and Forte speaks instead of
gestures of closure. Nevertheless, this section is replete with detail and an illuminating comparative presentation of different understandings of the melodys linear structure (Table 4,
extending over five pages, offers a synopsis of the different groupings of phrasal units, though
in doing so, it arguably privileges Lerdahl and Leichtentritt over the likes of Labussire, see pp.
9397). The plentiful musical examples (numbering some 140) and analytical illustrations are
beautifully presented, adding an essential visual aid for readers.
The second section the esthesic perspective addresses principally semiotic and immanent
structure(s) rooted in the rules of perception proposed by Lerdahl and Jackendorf s Generative
Theory of Tonal Music, a touchstone for much of Nattiezs work in the esthesic domain. And
within Chapter 5, through Irne Deliges extensive experimental verification of grouping
structure from 1998, this section seeks to probe and substantiate those rules. The third section
investigates Wagners melody at a poietic level, incorporating manuscript sources and ethnographic transcriptions, Wagners (five) relevant written statements about it, comparable works
by Liszt and Mendelssohn, and an account of the melodys compositional genesis. In the opening neutral analytical section, Nattiez historicizes the methods linear, formal, paradigmatic
under discussion, pinpointing their origins within the field; the application of source criticism
in the third section exemplifies this historical sensitivity, for it persuasively, if straightforwardly,
follows Wagners autobiographical pronouncements about his inspiration for the melody. To
take one example, Wagner describes being awoken at 4 a.m. by an alpine horn whose music he
couldnt get out of his head when trying to rekindle his sleep, and which he took to inform the

Book review

Shepherds very amusing melody (sehr lustige Melodie, p. 226);3 as a result the entire genealogy of le ranz des vaches becomes a valid field of enquiry, and is only delimited by those melodic
instantiations that Wagner may have conceivably heard or read about (including Rousseaus
intriguing transcription in the 1768 Dictionnaire de musique). A similar rationale and letter
leads to the genealogy of Venetian gondola songs (p. 227). As an aside, readers may be pleasantly surprised to see full colour reproductions of Wagners three sketches for the melody from
the Nationalarchiv der Richard-Wagner-Stiftung, all subsequently transcribed (pp. 269281).
In the fourth section, Nattiez addresses hermeneutic methods more directly, defining them
as the interpretation of meanings by connecting the materials with horizons (p. 293). This
breaks down into two intellectual zones: the theory or philosophy through which practices and
musical works are interpreted; and the context that determines the horizon against which the
interpretation is undertaken. Hence, Nattiez admits this isnt really a separate section in
Molinos terms, for hermeneutics has not been absent from the preceding chapters (p. 293).
Again, following a familiar biographical bias, the discussion of Schopenhauers metaphysics
yields a number of thought-provoking conclusions. One example is Nattiezs explanation for
why Wagner consistently titled the end of Tristan Verklrung (transfiguration) before the
world acquiesced to Liszts term, Liebestod:
The apotheosis that ends the opera allows us to see and hear the transfiguration of Isolde in her eternal
union with Tristan finally realized. But it is also the transfiguration of the [Schopenhauerian] spirit of
the music that gave birth to Tristan. Finally, it is the immediate expression of the will by which Wagner
the Redeemer brings us redemption with Tristan und Isolde. (p. 365)

Poetics aside, the Schopenhauerian reading of the operas achievements in the metaphysical
sphere contrasts with Wagners lengthy caution to Liszt not to depict Paradiso in a postulated
third movement of the latters Dante Symphony (I must have a little chat to you about that.
dearest Franz, there is in reality a considerable difficulty).4 Liszt as we know settled instead for
a symbolic Magnificat with female chorus at the close of Purgatorio. This reluctance explicitly
to depict aspects of the metaphysical within the musical leaves open a historical question about
the extent to which the will itself can be thematized within a musical narrative.
One of Nattiezs abiding premises is that analysis begins from a neutral or immanent level,
wherein the poietic and esthesic dimensions of the object have been neutralized, and one
proceeds to the end of a given procedure regardless of the results obtained (1990, p. 13). In
the case of Wagners Shepherd melody, this began with linear analysis, and the resulting paradigmatic relations, we learn, can be used not only to illuminate relations between phrasal units
but also to show the melodys prolongational structure. The later admission that analysis at
the neutral level is far from absolutely fixed (p. 368) in the hands of different analysts, begins
to undermine the possibility of its neutrality. But Nattiezs pragmatic response is that notation
is a closed system, and it is precisely the immanence of that system that underpins its value as
a neutral starting point:
It is illusory to suggest that musical works signify if one does not specify, each time and systematically,
what musical realities these significations are supported by. Without the immanent [or neutral]
analysis I cannot say what I mean, as musicological discourse is never built from nothing. That is
why, throughout this lengthy enterprise, I have consistently tried to lean as much as possible on the
completeness of the musical text without ever letting it go. (p. 372)

This has some very practical consequences. As part of his study of how cor anglais players on
recorded performances organize phrase structure, Nattiez proposes his own phrasal divisions

Musicae Scientiae

that indicate where players are to breathe (p. 157). The flipside of such pragmatism is a certain
recourse to top-down models of analysis to performance that figures such as Nicholas Cook,
Jonathan Dunsby and John Rink have been at pains to overturn.5 Nevertheless, this is merely
implied, and the gesture of seeking to solve an ostensive problem for performers adds a degree
of utility to what remains a scholarly text.
Amid a series of robust mid-century debates over melodic theory, melody was often defined
in the shadow of language and Philologie along national lines, and a number of German
writers, Wagner included, allied it in the strong sense to Bellinian form. Even into the late 20th
century, the puzzling nature of the Shepherds melody in Tristan has made it an irresistible
object of analysis. The specific impetus to use Wagners cor anglais melody as an explicative
case study for articulating a semiology of music dates back to the early 1990s. At that time,
Nattiez asked Forte, Lerdahl and Delige to undertake analytical studies of the melody; the initial results were presented in four lectures at the Collge de France in 1993. The papers resulting from a subsequent, related symposium on the topic in 1997 were published in a special
issue of Musicae Scientiae in 1998.6 While it is undoubtedly true that Nattiezs ideas are in a
constant state of development, the current book, appearing 15 years on, represents a bold synthesis of this scholarly undertaking vis--vis the original project of musical semiology.
In 1987 an underlying premise of Nattiezs system to think through not only the process of
a work but also analyses of that work was to offer an answer to the question: How can we
reconcile formal and hermeneutic description, the analysis of a neutral level, and a material
trace, with the web of interpretants? (1990: 28). Readers of his current Wagner monograph
may feel the degree to which it highlights the multiplicity of analytical constructions and proposed networks of signification implicitly endorses a familiar relativistic agenda, one that has
dominated postmodern discourse. To this end, it is telling there is an inevitable embrace of pluralism in Nattiezs interpretations (as far as was possible I have consistently avoided talking of
meaning, and I prefer the term meanings, often in the plural, to emphasize their proliferation,
p. 372). But he rejects the label of relativism, instead calling for a sober acceptance of fragments of truth and partial truths uncovered in the momentary confluence of approaches:
So can we speak of the truth or validity of this or that musicological discourse? The acquisition of
music and musical works is always fragmentary. Otherwise we would not witness the appearance of
new methods made necessary by the emergence of unresolved problems and unexpected enigmas.
Whether it is a question of immanent analysis, the poietic and esthesic investigations or exegesis, we
have to resign ourselves to the fact that we only have access to fragments of truth. There is no real
knowledge of the works totality, only partial and particular constructions of some of its moments. A
definitive statement based on our tentative attempts to elucidate the mysteries of music is not possible.
Yet even if our proposals are fragmentary, we can rejoice in achieving some success. To do so we must
obey certain fundamental principles. (pp. 370371)

To invoke fragments in pursuit of unknowable truth or wholeness is perhaps redolent of an

older literary romantic tradition, that of Victor Hugo and Friedrich Schlegel, where what is
fragmentary can gesture to the infinite precisely by virtue of its incompleteness while at the
same time being isolated from the surrounding world and complete in itself .7 This, it seems,
is the paradoxical condition to which Nattiezs impressively detailed, synthesizing enterprise
can lead us. Along the way, the journey is at times illuminating, at times fascinating, as a
spur to critical self-reflection. While some may not see the value in such methodological selfawareness, the clarity and quantity of research data structural, historical, critical, epistemological that informs this book makes it invaluable for anyone with a serious interest in seeking
to understand Wagners music. For this reader, the conclusion cited above begins to undermine

Book review

the putatively ahistorical status of the tripartite system organizing Nattiezs approach. But if
firm conclusions prove elusive in a study that prefers to sift judiciously, self-conscious of its
methodological footprint, it undoubtedly offers an erudite demonstration of comparative
applied theory. In this capacity it will prove invaluable for researchers and graduate students
alike, and to that end an English translation would be a helpful next step.
Notes
1. Whether the sensation of pure instrumental sound is merely a prompt to Tristans psychological interiority here or carries a more coherent sub-lexical message remains an open question. On this topic,
see Thomas Grey (2011, p. 77), and Trippett (2013, p. 285ff).
2. Similar enterprises are rare, though Suzannah Clarks study (2011) of Schuberts historical analysts
would number among them.
3. Richard Wagner to Minna Planner, 9 July 1859, in Wagner (1999, p. 153).
4. Doch muss ich mich darber etwas mit Dir unterhalten. Und mit diesem Paradiese, liebster
Franz; hat es in Wahrheit einen bedenklichen Haken. Wagner to Franz Liszt, 7 June 1855, in
Wagner (1988, pp. 203204).
5. See, most recently, Cook (2014).
6. A special edition of Musicae Scientiae, entitled An interdisciplinary approach: Five authors in search
of a subject was published in Spring 1998. The authors were Nattiez, Allen Forte, Fred Lerdahl,
Irne Delige and Michel Imberty.
7. Friderich Schlegel, Athenaeum fragment 206. Translated adapted from Schlegel, Philosophical
Fragments, trans. Peter Firchow (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), pp. 45.

References
Agawu, K. (1992). Review of the book Music and discourse: Towards a semiology of music, by Jean-Jacques
Nattiez. Music & Letters, 73, 317319.
Clark, S. (2011). Analysing Schubert. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Cook, N. (2014). Beyond the score: Music as performance. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Grey, T. (2011). In the realm of the senses: Sight, sound and the music of desire in Tristan und Isolde. In
A. Groos (Ed.), Richard Wagner: Tristan und Isolde (pp. 6994). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University
Press.
Nattiez, J-J. (1975). Fondements dune smiologie de la musique. Paris, France: Union gnral dditions.
Nattiez, J-J. (1990). Music and discourse: Towards a semiology of music (C. Abbate, Trans.). Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Newman, E. (1991). The Wagner operas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1949)
Taruskin, R. (2004). The poietic fallacy. The Musical Times, 734.
Trippett, D. (2013). Wagners melodies: Aesthetics and materialism in German musical identity. Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Wagner, R. (1988). Smtliche Briefe (Vol. 8, H-J. Bauer & J. Forner, Eds.). Leizpig, Germany: VEB Deutscher
Verlag.
Wagner, R. (1999). Smtliche Briefe (Vol. 11, M. Drrer & I. Kraft, Eds.). Wiesbaden, Germany: Breitkopf.

David Trippett
University of Bristol, UK