Barthes speaks of the signifying and signified in relation to Musorgsky's Death of Boris versus the Death of Melisande. He claims Boris represents "the triumph of the pheno-text, the smothering of signifying under the signified; soul." (275) In the pheno-song we understand the  singer from the totality of the piece: rhythm, tone, melody, voice, silence. In this case the grain of the voice is overpowered by the drama of the other elements. Barthes notes the "perfect intelligibility of the denotation." Under this ideal, I speculate if the sheet music for such phenotypical music might convey as much to someone able to understand it as hearing the song performed. On the other hand, Barthes describes the "prosidic contour of the enunciation" for Melisande; presumably representing signifying and the geno-text. Here, the precise way a single word might sound or the way it is pronounced interacts with the (rather than embodying) denotation to form a more original meaning. Signifying's part of speech implies its nature: signifying acts on language wile signified has been planted by language.

I have a few questions. I wonder if I have oversimplified geno and pheno text? Additionally I'm curious about how Barthes interchanges "text" and "song"  because it might clarify how and why Barthes chooses to read a song like a text.

My song is "22 Offs" by Chance the Rapper. I will mostly let it speak for itself. I think Chance is signifying in the way he repeats "Off" (in homage of Jay-Z's 22 Twos) to give a sense of his own offness from the expectations of society, but his tone maintains excitement and self-empowerment.