A Multimodal Discourse Analysis Of The Musical The Phantom Of The Opera

Multimodal discourse analysis has been a linguistic discussion with a high heat,attracting the attention of many scholars.Based on Kress & Van Leeuwen’s Visual Grammar and van Leeuwen’s Audio Grammar,Zhang Delu’s Synthetic Theoretical Framework of Multimodal Discourse Analysis(MDA),this thesis tries to explore the meaning construction in the musical The Phantom of the Opera(Phantom)by combining quantitative and qualitative research methods with the help of computer software Multimodal Video and Cool Edit Pro.The thesis aims at solving the following research questions:(1)How is the meaning construction realized in the visual and audio modes of the musical Phantom?(2)What is the relationship between visual and audio modality in the musical Phantom?(3)How do the visual and audio modalities interact to serve the thematic meaning of the musical Phantom? The main results are as follows:In the visual mode,it found that the scene of the musical Phantom is a visible simulation of objects existing in the real world,which has a vast resource in visual modality.The real scenes enable a manifestation for abstract notion to help the audience in understanding the musical Phantom’s theme,romance,love,bravery and respect.Action process and symbolic process are two primary processes in the representational meaning.The former is used to convey the sentimental entanglement between Christine,Raoul,and the phantom,and serves the musical’s narrative premise of "romance first,love forever." The latter is employed to shape the mysterious and grotesque visual image of the phantom,leaving a deep impression to the audience.In the interactive meaning,it found that the musical Phantom is a discourse with both the function of transmitting information and communicative interaction.The distribution of offer and demand act is relatively balanced that indicates the musical Phantom provides information to the audience and establishes a relationship between the audience and the role,allowing the audience to interact with the role.The long shot shows the love entanglement between Christine,the phantom and Raoul’s love,enhancing drama of the musical Phantom.The close shot brings the audience closer to Christine,Raoul and the phantom,making their pleasures,sufferings,and sorrows catch the audience’s heart.The distribution of the frontal and oblique angles is balanced that emphasizes on igniting the audience’s emotional resonance with the roles.The wide use of eye level shows that a relationship of equality and respect is established between the audience and roles,which coincides with its theme "respect is the foundation of love".The visual signals of the musical Phantom belong to high modality,which makes the emotion highly authentic and infectious.Low modality refines the emotional changes of Christine,Raoul and the phantom to deepen the audience’s understanding of the theme "romance and love,respect and courage".In the compositional meaning,the view framework of the musical Phantom is a continuum composed of several identical or diverse scenes that is convenient for the audience to deconstruct the differences in the expression forms of love embodied by Christine,Raoul and the phantom.The majority of the information relating to romance,love,respect,and courage is located at the right and center of the scene.As for the salience,Christine,Raoul and the phantom are highly featured roles to direct the audience’s attention to their emotional interaction.In the audio mode,it found that the interaction between the figure and ground is inseparable.When information sounds such as solo,chorus and voice-over play the role of narration,the sound is foreground and plays the role of transmitting information,while the melody plays the role of creating atmosphere by cooperating with sound and visual scene.When the voice is foregrounded,sounds of information such as chorus,solo and aside play the role of narration,while melodies are used to create atmosphere.When sound information is integrated with melodies,the significance of the musical Phantom is strengthened.Loudness reflects the interpersonal relationship between the roles.The sequential sound is conducive for guiding the audience to deconstruct and reshape the central issue of the musical Phantom "what is true love".The simultaneous sound leads to the struggle for the dialogue right of the roles through the sound stacking phenomenon,which interprets the uniqueness of the thematic concept of "everlasting love" and enhances the theatricality of the musical Phantom.The sound elements of the musical Phantom belong to high modality.The use of low modality intensifies the dramatic conflict and makes the story of the musical more intriguing.From the perspective of multimodal relationships,both of enhanced and nonenhanced relations are involved in the musical Phantom,including four manifestation patterns,such as prominence,primary and secondary,coordination and association.It found that the flexible use of the above relationship forms enables multimode to interact with each other in an effective and harmonious way,helping to construct the overall meaning of the musical Phantom.This thesis discusses the meaning construction of multi-semiotic resources in the musical discourse from the multimodal perspective.It demonstrates the meaning construction of sound interaction in the musical discourse and provides a reference for further multimodal discourse analysis researches from social semiotic perspective.