Czech Music Semiology

The Preliminary study deals with the history of the Czech music semiology. This type of aesthetics theory was developed in Czechoslovakia from the end of the 50s. Since the 70s it has been connected with the activities of the Interdisciplinary team for systems of expression and communication in art. In the 70s and 80s, a group of musicologists worked in this team, which was later called the "Prague team for music semiology". The core of this group were Jaroslav Volek (1923–1989), Jaroslav Jiránek (1922–2001), Jiří Fukač (1936–2002) and Ivan Poledňák (1931–2009). The initial wave of enthusiasm and a broader interest in this kind of research was replaced by a gradual cooling off during the 90s. It seems now that music semiology stands at the periphery of musicologists' interest, while having the advantage of an "insiders' fellowship". Such a statement may sound exaggerated, but still the absence of references in scholarly writings or the frequency of papers in conferences rather support such pessimistic statements. Though the semiotic orientation of the Prague team gradually dissipated and the team itself fell apart through the successive deaths of its members, these succeeded during more than 12 years in creating an individual conception of musical semiotics. The members of the team described it in a range of studies in periodicals, books and dictionary entries.