Abstract
In this article I situate Peircean semiotics within Peirce’s larger phenomenological project. Because Peircean theory is directed at the analysis of specific instances of experience it provides a series of powerful conceptual tools for ethnomusicologists and scholars in other ethnographic disciplines. After revisiting the social potentials of Peirce’s primary sign types and their utility for ethnomusicological work, I explore the importance of Peirce’s three basic ontological categories-Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness-for understanding and analyzing musical experience. I suggest that these categories are useful for parsing out the whole range of musical states of mind-from trance and "deep listening" to the thoughtful planning of variations and contrasts during performance. Finally, I attempt to show the systematic nature of Peircean theory and why an understanding of different sign functions is necessary for comprehending the states of mind represented by the categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness. I use my own performance of string band music as a case study.
