On the Evolution of Compositional Language

2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (5) ◽  
pp. 910-920
Author(s):  
Jeffrey A. Barrett ◽  
Calvin Cochran ◽  
Brian Skyrms
Keyword(s):  
Compositional Language

Compositional Syntax From Cultural Transmission

2002 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Brighton
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Language Evolution ◽  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Characteristic Structure ◽  
Language Structure ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
Acquisition Device ◽  
Knowledge Of Language ◽  
Language Exposure

A growing body of work demonstrates that syntactic structure can evolve in populations of genetically identical agents. Traditional explanations for the emergence of syntactic structure employ an argument based on genetic evolution: Syntactic structure is specified by an innate language acquisition device (LAD). Knowledge of language is complex, yet the data available to the language learner are sparse. This incongruous situation, termed the “poverty of the stimulus,” is accounted for by placing much of the specification of language in the LAD. The assumption is that the characteristic structure of language is somehow coded genetically. The effect of language evolution on the cultural substrate, in the absence of genetic change, is not addressed by this explanation. We show that the poverty of the stimulus introduces a pressure for compositional language structure when we consider language evolution resulting from iterated observational learning. We use a mathematical model to map the space of parameters that result in compositional syntax. Our hypothesis is that compositional syntax cannot be explained by understanding the LAD alone: Compositionality is an emergent property of the dynamics resulting from sparse language exposure.

Two artists and two mélodies

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-398
Author(s):  
Clare Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Poetic Language ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Musical Structures ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
Poetic Imagery ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Musical Character

André Caplet (1878-1925) set just two of Baudelaire’s poems: La Cloche fêlée [‘The Cracked Bell’] and La Mort des pauvres [‘The Death of the Poor’]. These mélodies were composed in 1922, just three years before the artist’s death. For a composer with a tendency to shy away from setting poetry of the French giants of literature, the questions of how and why Caplet chose to translate Baudelaire’s poetry into the mélodie are intriguing. This exploration of La Cloche fêlée and La Mort des pauvres considers the ways in which Caplet reflects the poetic imagery of Baudelaire’s texts within musical structures. Caplet’s compositional language is distinctive, and his artistic approach to musically illuminating poetic meaning is perceptive and sensitive. Through viewing the creative intersection of these two artists, this article offers an interpretation that presents a perspective on Caplet’s musical character and reveals insight into his connection to Baudelaire’s poetic language.

ON HORATIU RADULESCU'S FIFTH STRING QUARTET (‘BEFORE THE UNIVERSE WAS BORN’) OP. 89

Tempo ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 68 (268) ◽  
pp. 34-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Dougherty
Keyword(s):  
String Quartet ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ancient Philosophy ◽  
Compositional Process ◽  
Compositional Approach ◽  
String Techniques ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
The Universe ◽  
Formal Construction

AbstractHoratiu Radulescu's Fifth String Quartet, ‘before the universe was born’, is a shining example of his radical compositional approach. With an intense interest in creating a rich, numinous sound-world constructed firmly on principles of nature, science and ancient philosophy, Radulescu developed a unique compositional language that breaks with traditional musical conventions. In hopes of illuminating the inner workings behind his often enigmatic compositional process, this article examines various aspects relating to Radulescu's Fifth Quartet: the work's formal construction, with a focus on its notation and overall large-scale harmonic development; the Quartet's rhythmic devices and their link to the philosophical underpinnings that drive the work; the extended instrumental string techniques employed throughout, the sounds they achieve, and how they are executed; and the work's spectral pitch organisation.

SCHUBERT AS SCHILLER’S SENTIMENTAL POET

2007 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
SU YIN MAK
Keyword(s):  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Literary Imagination ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Close Correspondence ◽  
Song Settings ◽  
Present Experience ◽  
Close Friendships ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
Analytical Practice ◽  
The Ideal

ABSTRACTSchubert’s lifelong interest in literature, his close friendships with poets and his preference for lyric poetry in his prolific song settings suggest that his compositional language may be shaped as much by a literary imagination as by musical concerns. This article argues for a close correspondence between Schubert’s late instrumental style and Friedrich Schiller’s conception of the elegiac. In ‘On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry’ Schiller describes the sentimental poet as having to contend with two conflicting objects, the ideal and actuality, and to represent their opposition either satirically or elegiacally: whereas satire rails against the imperfections of present reality, elegy expresses longing for an ideal that is lost and unattainable. Paradoxically, however, the poet’s longing must take place in a flawed present; the elegiac thus projects not only a disjunction between divided worlds, but also a cyclic temporality in which memory and desire, past and future, are both entwined with the immediacy of present experience. In both Schiller and Schubert, this paradoxical temporal sensibility is often represented by patterns of returning, repetition and circularity. A close reading of Schubert’s Moment musical in A flat major, d780/2, illustrates how Schiller’s conception of the elegiac might be put into analytical practice.

scholarly journals A language-driven reverse-engineering tool for the analysis of architectural precedents: A Palladian case study

Spatium ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 21-33
Author(s):  
Buthayna Eilouti
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Engineering ◽  
Architectural Design ◽  
Analytical Tool ◽  
Language Design ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Visual Tool ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Significant Point

The analysis of precedents represents a significant point of departure for design processing. By applying a language/ design analogy, this research introduces a reverse-engineering tool that helps guide the systematic analysis of architectural precedents. The visual tool consists of four main layers: the morphological, the semantic, the semiotic, and the pragmatic. To test the tool?s applicability, a prominent precedent from the Palladian designs is analyzed as a case study. By developing the tool and demonstrating its applicability for the analysis of the underlying regulatory and formative principles of the Palladian design, this paper aims to contribute to the knowledge of architectural design by introducing an analytical tool for decoding and externalizing the design language. This tool can be added to the existing toolbox of designers, and it can help reveal new insights into the multi-layered compositional language of precedents and their underlying architectonics. The findings related to the tool?s applicability and the compositional language of the Palladian design and its associative meanings and connotations are explained, discussed and illustrated by diagrams.

scholarly journals THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE „JAPANESE TRACE“ IN THE WORK OF NIKOLAY STOYKOV

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-93
Author(s):  
Nikolina KROTEVA
Keyword(s):  
Turning Points ◽  
Compositional Style ◽  
Male Voice ◽  
Musical Structures ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
Eastern Cultures ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Voice And Piano

e contemporary Bulgarian composer Nikolay Stoykov is extremely attached to the image world of the Bulgarian musical folklore. Colorful as an author, he reconsiders and liberates authentic folk material with modern compositional language and thus breaks the traditional boundaries of musical structures. The subject of my monograph1 was the questions related to the artistic imagery in the choir work of Nikolay Stoykov and the original composer techniques usedby the author. While I was researching and writing about the rich heritage of the composer – about 100 opuses, I encountered various unique and turning points of his life. Stoykov was taught composition by the unsurpassed Pancho Vladigerov. I thought this was the most important fact that largely influenced and shaped his compositional style. In one of the chapters of themonographic survey „Vocal Landscapes“ (Кroteva 2017, pp. 20 – 27), I point to a little-known fact – the meeting of Nikolay Stoykov with the Japanese lyrical art. Back in 1966 he wrote four exquisite pieces of „Tanka“ for a male voice and piano on poems by Ishikawa Takuboku. Nikolay Stoykov has various creative appearances. In addition to musical works, he has published three books with haiku poetry and poetic messages in which he has expressed himself „without notation“. The question of the influence of the short Japanese poetic forms on the composer’s creative invention was not in the focus of my work, and remained unexplored in depth. The theme of the International Science Forum „The East – So Far, So Close“ provoked me to trace the creative predisposition of Nikolay Stoykov to the Eastern cultures and to add extra touches to the portrait of this extremely interesting composer.

scholarly journals The life and music of André Tchaikowsky: A series of performances, an analytical survey of his compositional style, and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Gabriela Glapska
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Performance Edition ◽  
Compositional Style ◽  
Entire Family ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Warsaw Ghetto ◽  
Piano Trio ◽  
20Th Century Music ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Compositional Language

<p>This thesis focuses on André Tchaikowsky (1935–82) – a Polish émigré musician who was mostly recognised as a brilliant pianist, even though he considered himself primarily a composer. His traumatic childhood spent in bombarded Warsaw during World War II, losing his mother along with almost his entire family due to the Holocaust, and being hidden in several places after escaping the Warsaw Ghetto, made a great impact on creating his eccentric and complex personality as well as his artistic outcome. Tchaikowsky’s legacy of seven published works, including compositions for piano, two string quartets, a piano trio, and an opera, as well as several unpublished works, is a small but very significant body of 20th-century music.  This research explores the evolution of Tchaikowsky’s compositional style throughout his lifetime, based on selected works with piano, and investigates the elements of war stigma in his compositions. Significant contributions to the existing body of knowledge are the analysis of the selected works and a critical/performance edition of the unpublished Sonata for Piano, written in 1958 by the 33-year-old composer. Some answers can be provided to three main research questions through this analytical survey. The questions are: How did Tchaikowsky’s compositional style evolve over his life? Why does he remain largely unknown even in music circles? How did the Holocaust affect his life and work as a composer and pianist? This thesis consists of two parts, with the first presenting the result of research into the stylistic development of Tchaikowsky’s compositional language and a critical/performance edition of the Sonata for Piano, while the second is a performance component comprised of five recitals, which is the prevailing element of this degree. Each recital includes one of the analysed Tchaikowsky compositions, which are connected with other composers and their works in various ways, shaping five concerts of engaging and under-performed music.</p>

Gérard Grisey, Accordionist

2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-29
Author(s):  
JONATHAN GOLDMAN
Keyword(s):  
Spectral Music ◽  
Compositional Language ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Main Instrument

AbstractIt is tolerably well known that Gérard Grisey's first instrument was the accordion, but little has been written about the influence the pioneering spectral composer's main instrument had on his compositional language. The decade of the 1960s was marked by the centrality of the accordion and saw the completion of his first youthful compositional essays, most of which were scored for the accordion. It was also the period in which he studied at a school devoted to the accordion, in Trossingen. Later, when studying with Messiaen in Paris, Grisey distanced himself from the accordion, writing in 1969 that ‘I am not playing accordion anymore. My way is another one.’ After establishing the chronology of Grisey's engagement with the accordion, this article assesses the extent to which the spectral composer's training on the accordion left traces in his mature compositions and raises questions about the standard historiographies (and geographies) of French spectral music.

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