rhetoric & prosody in musical composition

By rhetoric, do you mean things like madrigalisms? You know that everything is very closely linked to aesthetics, what are you particularly interested in? A historical survey... or what?

Natan, I imagine this

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retorica_musicale

Musical rhetoric aims to adopt the same tools used by classical rhetoric in order to make music closer to human language, thus attempting to captivate the listener more effectively, convincing them of the value of the musical work, and putting the listener into a particular state of mind. Another purpose of this discipline is to pursue the beauty of musical discourse through the combination of rhythm, accents, and pitches. It should be emphasized that there is no single rhetoric, but rather that every historical era has developed different models, including modern music.

I am interested in understanding how rhetorical concepts have been employed in composition throughout history, not only out of personal curiosity but also to draw inspiration from them. Both as a composer and, obviously, as an author of literary texts. I will give a practical example: OXYMORON, which is (correct me if I'm wrong!) the antithesis of two contrasting concepts, e.g., A DEAFENING SILENCE. Well, in this case (considering also the vocabulary used), it seems quite simple to me to apply the concept of oxymoron in a musical dimension, e.g., a phrase composed of 2 half-phrases, the first performed by a single instrument, the second by a fuller ensemble; the first half-phrase could have a melodic profile that develops within a limited range, e.g., a minor 3rd, and the second half-phrase in a significantly larger range; the first half-phrase could be in a minor key and the second half-phrase in a major key. And so on. It is not yet entirely clear to me whether I am plucking the "strings of the obvious" or those of "trade tricks." In any case, I would like to understand which rhetorical figures lend themselves to a purely musical use. Consequently, I need a good text on the subject

A text worth knowing is that of Angelo Marchese: Dizionario di retorica e Stilistica .. which I will send you as soon as I have a moment.

thanks a lot, frank!

You could also start from Gallotta's text

http://www.rugginenti.it/item.php?id=RE%2010128

The book contains useful glossaries specifically aimed at dissecting the various rhetorical figures in literature... your task then could be to try and translate them into music

Frank wrote:

A text worth knowing is that of Angelo Marchese: Dictionary of Rhetoric and Stylistics .. which I will send you as soon as I have a moment.

I would like it too

It occurred to me that in the past we had happened to talk about Chiasmus

http://www.pianoconcerto.it/forum/index.php?/topic/1590-il-chiasmo-in-musica

http://websolci.alte...ca musicale.pdf

http://elvio.cipollo...Rhetoricans.pdf

http://www.conservatoriomessina.it/pubblicazioni/musica%20retorica/01%20FRONTE.pdf

By Eleonora Rocconi, Music and rhetoric in Dionigi di Alicarnasso's 'De compositione uerborum': for a hypothesis on the rhythmic sources of the Dionysian treatise

http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/handle/10077/3574

thanks a lot, frank! file received! I'll eat it in a bit!

thanks to everyone for the subsequent interventions and advice!

http://www.updim.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/la-seconda-prattica.pdf