Musik – Sprache – (Sprach-)Bild. Zur Semiotizität italienischer barocker Gleichnisarien (2. Teil)

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to describe some of the possible relations between music, language and verbal picture (or metaphor) which are given in the drammi per musica of the early 18th century and, especially, in four allegorical arias in Vivaldi’s opus La Griselda (1735). This paper sketches some aspects of the cooperation between librettist (Goldoni) and composer (Vivaldi) as well as the importance of metaphor for the interlinkage of music and language in such arias. The essay is divided up into two parts: the first part, which has been presented in ATeM 2 (2017), outlines the bipartite textual structure of the mentioned simile arias (metaphoric vs. literal stanza) which recalls the same two-piece structure of renaissance and baroque emblems. The second part which is presented in the following will focus on the interaction of poetic language, verbal image and Vivaldi’s music in the mentioned simile arias. Here it is explained why questions on musical semantics primarily require a theory of the sign occurrence before generalizations can be carried out on the level of sign systems. The contribution also sheds light on the central role of internal sign learning processes that may transcend arias, entire operas and other combined artworks.