The Musical Syntactic Categories and the Idea of “Primordial Substances“ - The Archetype as a Linking Factor Between Different Levels of Artistic Com
The Musical Syntactic Categories and the Idea of “Primordial Substances“ - The Archetype as a Linking Factor Between Different Levels of Artistic Com

Summary/Abstract: The notion of musical archetype seems to be discredited due to overuse and often confused interpretation. Based on an extension of C. G. Jung's theory, I have tried to show, in a series of studies, the advantages it offers to musical analysis on the level of music psychology. Other Romanian contributions belong to Octavian Nemescu and Dan Dediu. The archetypes of the essential points of a musical form, like those of the Beginning and of the End (of ”Birth” and ”Death”), can serve as a basis of relationship between internal levels of music as well as in syncretic contexts. If there is a common element between such different levels in a film or in an opera (music, image, text), it should be first sought on a psychological level, as their common level. But not only is the congruence of these levels significant: their incongruity may play an equally important role and bring new tensions to the overall image. Some analytical levels allow pairs of opposite archetypes (e.g. Incipit/Finis), just as certain musical structures are "scalar" (e.g. pitch, duration, dynamics can be measured and classified according to a simple criterion: frequency, time units, and decibels). Not the same can be said about musical timbre, an area in which the mixture of different parameters is too complex to allow a simple classification. But the problem of systematization of musical colours is not restricted to timbre itself: heterogeneous elements like density and the character of sounds also play an important role in the definition of musical objects. A possible model is suggested by the four primary elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, considered symbolic and named, according to Jung, Terra-Aeter-Aqua-Ignis. There is a parallel with the four categories of musical syntax as defined by Ştefan Niculescu: homophony, polyphony, monody, heterophony. Symbolic associations like homophony-Terra, monody-Aeter and, perhaps less, polyphony/heterophony-Aqua/Ignis, may help define conceptually solid, ethereal, formless and elusive musical substances. Just like the four syntactic categories, the four types of substance can be recognized not only in music. The manner of application of this idea requires a good understanding and acceptance of symbolic thinking.

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