Art. 154: Semiotic Aspects of Musicology: Semiotics of Music

1.1 Topography of Music 1.1.1 The Ontological Topography of Music The role of semiotic aspects in musicology is best described from the complex ontological topography of music. We start this article from the fundamental description [70], stating that “music is communication, has meaning and mediates on the physical level between its mental and psychic levels”. This fact suggests that three ontological dimensions: reality, communication and sign are described to locate facts that deal with music. It turns out that each dimension specifies three aspects, corresponding to three coordinate values on the cube of musical topography, see Figure 1. For the relation of this scheme to the generic model of semiosis (5.1.2 of this handbook), see 1.1.1.3 and 1.1.3.