Semiotic resources of music notation: towards a multimodal analysis of musical notation in student texts

Abstract

Music notation is a page-based multisemiotic resource for making meaning. I situate the use of music notation within the broader context of what music performance students are required to do. I briefly describe the various ways in which music notation constructs meaning. I present and describe examples from student texts to demonstrate how music notation and linguistic text work together, drawing on Royce's (1998) framework to demonstrate how meaning relations contribute to the structure and meaning-making of the text. This study draws on research into music discourse through the case studies of Honors Jazz Performance student research projects.