Invariant equivalents and their representation in the symbolic musical notation: a case in the musical culture of Paraguay

Abstract

Understanding musical notation as a language and a system of musical communication brings a series of interesting ontological consequences. In this context and its consequent semantic theory it is possible to analyze how the musical discourse is articulated around its own and very singular referents. It is because of the open texture of language, the ambiguity of its terms, and from here, the ease of understanding the meaning of what is expressed under its rules of construction –in this case the musical grammar- can generate referential misses with unsuspected consequences from the point of view of musical significance. Taking the mathematical concept of "invariant" and corresponding to their structural equivalents in music, we can demonstrate how these can be modeled in different ways; these models will be very different in their formalism but equivalent as the object referenced (invariant). It can not be categorically stated –as some Paraguayan music masters do- that there is a correct way of writing music (in this research the example is given within the cultural context of Paraguayan popular music but can be extended to any field) because in the conventional nature of writing, and understanding as a medium that refers to something.