1. III.2 Semiotic Anatomy
III.2.1 (W Oct 04) de Saussure‘s Dichotomies

2. Ferdinand de Saussure introduced six famous „dichotomies“ describing the finer anatomy of any, not necessarily linguistic, semiotic, developed in his university courses in Geneva, and published posthum as cours de linguistique générale 1916:
signifiant/signifié (signifier/signified)
arbitraire/motivé (arbitrary/motivated)
syntagme/paradigme (syntagm/paradigm)
langue/parole (language/speech)
synchronie/diachronie (synchrony/diachrony)
lexem/shifter (lexem/shifter)

3. Ferdinand de Saussure introduced six famous „dichotomies“ describing the finer anatomy of any, not necessarily linguistic, semiotic:
signifiant/signifié (signifier/signified)
arbitraire/motivé (arbitrary/motivated)
syntagme/paradigme (syntagm/paradigm)
langue/parole (language/speech)
synchronie/diachronie (synchrony/diachrony)
lexem/shifter (lexem/shifter)

4. car EX (expressions ~signifiant) SG (signification)
CT (contents ~signifié)

5. Ferdinand de Saussure introduced six famous „dichotomies“ describing the finer anatomy of any, not necessarily linguistic, semiotic:
signifiant/signifié (signifier/signified)
arbitraire/motivé (arbitrary/motivated)
syntagme/paradigme (syntagm/paradigm)
langue/parole (language/speech)
synchronie/diachronie (synchrony/diachrony)
lexem/shifter (lexem/shifter)

6. LP
motivated
onomatopoiesis
arbitrary CD

7. Ferdinand de Saussure introduced six famous „dichotomies“ describing the finer anatomy of any, not necessarily linguistic, semiotic:
signifiant/signifié (signifier/signified)
arbitraire/motivé (arbitrary/motivated)
syntagme/paradigme (syntagm/paradigm)
langue/parole (language/speech)
synchronie/diachronie (synchrony/diachrony)
lexem/shifter (lexem/shifter)

8. paradigmatic axis syntagmatic axis a b a‘ b‘
Roman Jakobson‘s poetical function: project paradigmatic axis onto syntagmatic axis

9. Ferdinand de Saussure introduced six famous „dichotomies“ describing the finer anatomy of any, not necessarily linguistic, semiotic:
signifiant/signifié (signifier/signified)
arbitraire/motivé (arbitrary/motivated)
syntagme/paradigme (syntagm/paradigm)
langue/parole (language/speech)
synchronie/diachronie (synchrony/diachrony)
lexem/shifter (lexem/shifter)

10. the system! your personal variant! language T  S  D  T
cadence „formula“
your personal variant!
my piece
your piece
her piece
individual realization usage of formula
speech

11. Pythagoras
monochord
tetractys

12. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on Bach‘s music (letter to Carl Friedrich Zelter):
I said this to myself: „As if the eternal harmony would have a conversation with itself, like what could have happened in God‘s chest before the world‘s creation—in such a way my interior was also agitated, and I felt as if I would not have or need ears, and the least eyes or other senses.

13. op. 23.5 (1920-23) Arnold Schönberg pitch onset
erstes 12-Ton-Werk: Walzer op 23.1 für Klavier
Hat innere Symmetrie U_f/fis, nicht starr (Klasse 67).

14. Ferdinand de Saussure introduced six famous „dichotomies“ describing the finer anatomy of any, not necessarily linguistic, semiotic:
signifiant/signifié (signifier/signified)
arbitraire/motivé (arbitrary/motivated)
syntagme/paradigme (syntagm/paradigm)
langue/parole (language/speech)
synchronie/diachronie (synchrony/diachrony)
lexem/shifter (lexem/shifter)

15. 22 years ago: Alanis Morissette
A semiotic is a system that evolves in time and is distributed in space:
history
diachronic axis
22 years ago: Alanis Morissette
300 years ago: J.S. Bach
2‘500 years ago: Pythagoras
synchronic axis
50‘000 years ago: music appears
cultures
Europe
India
America
Asia

16. Ferdinand de Saussure introduced six famous „dichotomies“ describing the finer anatomy of any, not necessarily linguistic, semiotic:
signifiant/signifié (signifier/signified)
arbitraire/motivé (arbitrary/motivated)
syntagme/paradigme (syntagm/paradigm)
langue/parole (language/speech)
synchronie/diachronie (synchrony/diachrony)
lexem/shifter (lexem/shifter)

17. symbolic physical performance
More precisely, performance is a transformation P from the symbolic reality of the score to the physical reality of sounds (a quarter note is not determined in its physical duration, only the metronome yields the relation between symbolic reality and physical reality).
The mathematical analysis of tempo and pitch transformations shows that the performance transformation P can be described by a performance vector field, as shown to the left in the symbolic parameter space.
Essentially, performance is calculated via integration of such performance vector fields, much as the time is calculated via integration of the tempo curve.
In this language, performance operators are built in order to produce new performance fields from the old ones inherited from the relative mothers.

18. M.C. Escher:
Balcony

19. More precisely, performance is a transformation P from the symbolic reality of the score to the physical reality of sounds (a quarter note is not determined in its physical duration, only the metronome yields the relation between symbolic reality and physical reality).
The mathematical analysis of tempo and pitch transformations shows that the performance transformation P can be described by a performance vector field, as shown to the left in the symbolic parameter space.
Essentially, performance is calculated via integration of such performance vector fields, much as the time is calculated via integration of the tempo curve.
In this language, performance operators are built in order to produce new performance fields from the old ones inherited from the relative mothers.

20. Sergiu Celibidache
Fauré - Requiem - Rehearsal - London Symphony Orchestra (
Fauré - Requiem - Rehearsal - London Symphony Orchestra (BBC 1983)