You keep using that word -- I do not think it means what you think it means

What would they be exactly? Figures of music using, er, musical devices in non literal (non musical? non standard?) ways? "The banjo represents sophistication, instead of its more usual rustic connotations." Well maybe there's mileage in that, but that's not how I see it used.

oh, that kind of theme.

otherwise being more literal, the job here is to ask the question: what are the musical equivalents of "antonomasia, irony, metaphor, metonymy and synecdoche"? then we have to work out what word in the ontology of musical devices encompasses all of those. then use that word instead of trope.

trope

In recent philosophical usage, an abstract particular; an instance of a property occurring at a particular place and time, such as the color of the cover of this book or this page. The whiteness of this page and the whiteness of the previous page are two distinct tropes, identical neither with the universal whiteness that is instantiate in both pages, nor with the page itself; although the whiteness of this page cannot exist independently of this page, this page could be dyed some other color. A number of writers, perhaps beginning with D.C. Williams, have argued that trope must be included in our ontology if we are to achieve an adequate metaphysics.

More generally, a trope is a figure of speech, or the use of an expression in a figurative or non-literal sense. Metaphor and irony, e.g., fall under the category of tropes. If you are helping some one move a glass table but drop your end, and your companion says, Well, you’ve certainly been a big help, her utterance is probably ironical, with the intended meaning that you have been no help. One important question is whether, in order to account for the ironical use of this sentence, we must suppose that it has an ironical meaning in addition to its literal meaning. Quite generally, does a sentence usable to express two different metaphors have, in addition to its literal meaning, two metaphorical meanings-and another if it can be hyperbolic, and so forth? Many philosophers and other theorists from Aristotle on have answered yes, and postulated such figurative meanings in addition to literal sentence meaning. Recently, philosophers loath to multiply sentence meanings have denied that sentences have any non-literal meanings; their burden is to explain how, e.g., a sentence can be used ironically if it does not have an ironical sense or meaning. Such philosophers disagree on whether tropes are to be explained semantically or pragmatically. A semantic account might hypothesize that tropes are generated by violations of semantical rules. An important pragmatic approach is Grice’s suggestion that tropes can be subsumed under the more general phenomenon of conversational implicature.

See also implicature, metaphor, Metaphysics, Skeptics. R.B.

but if the listener is not familiar, then this cannot be true for them

"exhausted by indie tropes"
"I think the point of the [moon/june/spoon] critical trope is that it's lazy"

There are 50 occurrences of "trope" on Stylus, compared to 32 on the whole of bbc.co.uk!

Part 2 of my crusade: an embargo on the use of "sophomore" for "second" ;^)

Maybe I read this wrong, but surely the essence, indeed the very definition, of a meme is that it is a replicator, ie contagious?

sorry i meant movement as opposed to thingness, not as opposed to contagiousness. it should have been

meme is too much just about the movement + contagiousness part. (and not the thingness)

also, maybe fuzzy thinking is all that can be done at certain stages in the development of discourse.

now i'm REALLY playing devil's advocate. NOT LITERALLY, i'm not actually being an advocate for an incarnation of evil. etc

Ah I see. Thanks.

who will be the dawkins of "trope" used within the discourse of musical appreciation.

maybe nobody. possibly with good cause.

I still don't like the metaphorical sense because it seems to miss out on the central idea of a trope, that is, something standing for something else.

iconoclast
An iconoclast originally referred to a person who destroyed icons, that is, sacred paintings or sculpture. The more common meaning in current usage is that an iconoclast is a person who carries out symbolic or quixotic acts of protest against authority figure. The term may also refer to a person who reacts against popular culture or ideals.
(from answers.com)

Trope (Lat tropus): Additional music and words which preceded, were interpolated with, or followed a piece of liturgical plainsong. Many such additions were written between the 9th and 11th centuries, most often to the Introit, Offertory, Communion and Gloria of the Mass. The words, whether poetry or prose, commented on and amplified the original text, as for example in the following translation of the St Martial trope Hodie Stephanus martyr and its Introit Etenim sederunt (the text of the Introit is italicised):

"Today Stephen the martyr went up into heaven; of him the prophet once said, lifting up his voice: 'Princes sat, and spoke against me, the Jewish people rose up against me wickedly, and the wicked persecuted me; full of hate, they crushed me with stones: help me, O lord my God, take up my soul in peace, for thy servant was exercised in thy justifications."

The liturgical drama, from which the latter medieval mystery plays developed, sprang directly from the trope; the earliest liturgical play is considered to be the enactment in the 10th century of the story of the three Marys coming to the tomb during the singing of the Easter Introit-trope Quem quaertis. The drama expanded with the adition of other Easter Day events, and added imitations on Christmas themes. The trope to the Introit for Christmas, Hodie cantandus est, in any case had dramatic implications, being in the form of a dialogue. Other New Testament subjects were also dramatised such as 'The Journey to Emmaus', 'The Rising of Lazarus', and 'The Conversion of St Paul'. The only surviving Old Testament play complete with music is the magnificent and elaborate 12th century 'Play of Daniel' written at the cathedral school of Beauvais.

The expression 'trope' is also widely applied to the addition of new words to the existing words and music of the liturgy, but without historical justification. The early manuscripts use the Latin term 'prosula' for such additions, never 'tropus'. The more melismatic parts of the liturgy were particularly suitable for use as prosulae.

Other parts of the liturgy to which prosulae were sung included the Ite missa est at the end of Mass and the Benedicamus Domino at the end of Mass un Lent and Advent and at the end of the offices.

In the later middle ages polyphonic settings of the liturgy often incorporated additional unofficial sections of text. One of these, beginning Virgo mater eccliesiae, was included in virtually all the polyphonic settings of the antiphon Salve Regina by English composers from about 1400 until the Reformation. All additions of this kind were eliminated from the Roman liturgy by the decrees of the Council of Trent from the 16th century.

Me! Heheh. :)