ABSTRACT
The effectiveness and affectiveness of a single broad musical gesture that envelopes the general mood of a poem is illustrated by strophic song. While gesture can often function mimetically, it can also be distinct from mimesis, and even at odds with mimesis. This chapter utilizes 'mimetic' to refer to a composer's attempt to provide a sympathetic expression of the words and to reveal their emotional content, employing musical signifying devices that sometimes operate at the level of individual words. In theatre semiotics, for example, the mimetic sign may be restricted to facial expressions, while the gestural sign involves other bodily movement. Johann Strauss's music plays ironically with signs. A sense of irony can also be conveyed by parodies of different styles. Kurt Weill varies the instrumental arrangement from verse to verse, and concludes by varying the accompaniment to include a parody of Tin Pan Alley sentimental descending chromatics.
