IMAGE SCHEMAS IN INTERACTION BETWEEN LISTENERS AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC

Although they are fundamental to our basic life experiences, image schemas are rarely discussed across disciplines. In fact, knowledge about them is almost non-existent within the music community. This article aims to present the modest musicological literature on the subject, explore image schemas in Two Studies for piano (1986) by Paweł Szymański, and examine image schemas identified in music history. First Study, a post-tonal composition in eight episodes, features series of identical chords of increasing length, where the first chord is always loud and subsequent chords softer. Interpreted as an expanding musical echo, it requires image schemas such as ITERATION, FORCE, PATH, and UP. Second Study is a fast-paced, one-voice piece alternating between quasi-baroque and modernist sections. Assuming that we consider the etude as a rapid musical movement in two different manners̶ one with a well- defined goal and one with a goal that resists clear definition̶ it incorporates the following image schemas: +PATH and +GOAL for quasi-baroque sections, +PATH and –GOAL (or TELEOLOGICAL MOVEMENT) for modernist sections, and CYCLE for the entire study. According to the author, the enumerated schemas are highly characteristic of music, regardless of genre, style, or musical system (major- minor, post-tonal, or others).