Musivisual language

In art, the musivisual language is a semiotic system that is the synchronous union between the language of music and the language of image. The term was first coined by the Spanish composer Alejandro Román, and indicates the existence of an own unique language of film music.

For over a century, film and other media (television, the video or multimedia) have developed a language of communication that has been included alongside the music specifically applied to these means of expression. In the mean time, audiovisual music has itself developed a code in relation to the image you give a new product, the brainchild of multidisciplinary interaction.

Definition

According to the author:

Musivisual Language is a special language of music placed in film and from film, understood not only from structural point of view, rhythm and sound-material, but also from the relationships and meaning semiotics in relation to the close interaction with the image and plot.

—Román, 2008: 84

When audiovisual film music and text contact, the final product acquires new meanings from which the previous elements presented separately. In this communication process, musical codes (melody, rhythm, harmony, sound, texture, form), in synchrony with the film (image, talks, noise...) interact so that the viewer (receiver) decodes the message from this union.

Román raises two levels on the specificity of film music: first appearance semiotic, i.e. the contribution of meanings of music over the image, and secondly the specific aesthetic of film music, which means it has its own stylistic elements not belonging to other music (concert or independent). These elements are presented of the shape (structure), which is determined by the cinematic form itself (assembly).

See also

• Language
• Semiotics
• Aesthetics
• Film score
• Soundtrack
• Alejandro Román
• Visual language

Bibliography

• ARIJON, Daniel, Gramática del Lenguaje Audiovisual, La Primitiva Casa Baroja, San Sebastián, 1976
• CHION, Michel, La audiovisión. Introducción a un análisis conjunto de la imagen y el sonido, Paidós Comunicación, Barcelona, 1993
• GÉRTRUDIX BARRIO, Manuel. Música y narración en los medios audiovisuales, Ediciones del Laberinto, S.L., Madrid, 2003
• OLARTE MARTÍNEZ, Matilde (editora), La música en los Medios Audiovisuales, Plaza Universitaria Ediciones, Salamanca, 2005
• ROMÁN, Alejandro, El Lenguaje Musivisual, semiótica y estética de la música cinematográfica, Editorial Visión Libros, Madrid, 2008
• ROMÁN, Alejandro, Estética de la música cinematográfica, aspectos diferenciadores, en Matilde Olarte Martínez (editora), Reflexiones en torno a la música y la imagen desde la musicología española, Plaza Universitaria Ediciones, Salamanca, 2009

External links

• Web site of the book The Musivisual Language, semiotics and aesthetics of film music
• Web site of Alejandro Román, spanish composer