scholarly journals The Sweet Sounds of Syntax: Music, Language, and the Investigation of Hierarchical Processing

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-51
Author(s):  
Lee Whitehorne
Keyword(s):  
Sentence Processing ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Level Of Detail ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Hierarchical Processing ◽  
Generative Music ◽  
Coarse Level ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Functional Units

Language and music are uniquely human faculties, defined by a level of sophistication found onlyin our species. The ability to productively combine contrastive units of sound, namely words inlanguage and notes in music, underlies much of the vast communicative and expressive capacities ofthese systems. Though the intrinsic rules of syntax in language and music differ in many regards,they both lead to the construction of complex hierarchies of interconnected, functional units. Muchresearch has examined the overlap, distinction, and general neuropsychological nature of syntaxin language and music but, in comparison to the psycholinguistic study of sentence processing,musical structure has been regarded at a coarse level of detail, especially in terms of hierarchicaldependencies. The current research synthesizes recent ideas from the fields of generative music theory,linguistic syntax, and neurolinguistics to outline a more detailed, hierarchy-based methodology forinvestigating the brain’s processing of structures in music.

scholarly journals Decoding the Musical Message via the Structural Analogy between Verbal and Musical Language

2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-160
Author(s):  
Rosina Caterina Filimon
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Musical Language ◽  
Tonal Music ◽  
Verbal Language ◽  
Musical Perception ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Structural Analogy ◽  
Human Intellect ◽  
Universal Nature

Abstract The topic approached in this paper aims to identify the structural similarities between the verbal and the musical language and to highlight the process of decoding the musical message through the structural analogy between them. The process of musical perception and musical decoding involves physiological, psychological and aesthetic phenomena. Besides receiving the sound waves, it implies complex cognitive processes being activated, whose aim is to decode the musical material at cerebral level. Starting from the research methods in cognitive psychology, music researchers redefine the process of musical perception in a series of papers in musical cognitive psychology. In the case of the analogy between language and music, deciphering the musical structure and its perception are due, according to researchers, to several common structural configurations. A significant model for the description of the musical structure is Noam Chomsky’s generative-transformational model. This claimed that, at a deep level, all languages have the same syntactic structure, on account of innate anatomical and physiological structures which became specialized as a consequence of the universal nature of certain mechanisms of the human intellect. Chomsky’s studies supported by sophisticated experimental devices, computerised analyses and algorithmic models have identified the syntax of the musical message, as well as the rules and principles that underlie the processing of sound-related information by the listener; this syntax, principles and rules show surprising similarities with the verbal language. The musicologist Heinrich Schenker, 20 years ahead of Chomsky, considers that there is a parallel between the analysis of natural language and that of the musical structure, and has developed his own theory on the structure of music. Schenker’s structural analysis is based on the idea that tonal music is organized hierarchically, in a layering of structural levels. Thus, spoken language and music are governed by common rules: phonology, syntax and semantics. Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff develop a musical grammar where a set of generating rules are defined to explain the hierarchical structure of tonal music. The authors of the generative theory propose the hypothesis of a musical grammar based on two types of rules, which take into account the conscious and unconscious principles that govern the organization of the musical perception. The structural analogy between verbal and musical language consists of several common elements. Among those is the hierarchical organization of both fields, a governance by the same rules – phonology, syntax, semantics – and as a consequence of the universal nature of certain mechanisms of the human intellect, decoding the transmitted message is accomplished thanks to some universal innate structures, biologically inherited. Also, according to Chomsky's linguistics model a musical grammar is configured, one governed by wellformed rules and preference rules. Thus, a musical piece is not perceived as a stream of disordered sounds, but it is deconstructed, developed and assimilated at cerebral level by means of cognitive pre-existing schemes.

scholarly journals Relating Musical Structure and Content to Aesthetic Response: A Model and Analysis of Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 110

2005 ◽  
Vol 130 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Ockelford
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Aesthetic Response ◽  
Piano Sonata ◽  
Music Psychology ◽  
The Core ◽  
Physical Context ◽  
Musical Event ◽  
New Framework

AbstractA model is presented which aims to show how, for listeners familiar with a given style, aesthetic response to music may be related to its ‘structure’ (as defined in relation to ‘zygonic’ theory) and ‘content’ (the particular perceived qualities of sound that pertain to a given musical event). The model combines recent empirical findings from music psychology with other approaches adapted from music theory and philosophy. Intramusical considerations, which form the core of the model, are positioned within a broader socio-cultural, cognitive and physical context. The new framework is used to inform an analysis of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op.110, which examines in particular the notions of teleology in music and narrative metaphor.

Foundations of Musical Grammar

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Zbikowski
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Human Communication ◽  
Music And Language ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Social Dances ◽  
Musical Analyses

This volume makes a unique contribution to music theory by building on recent research in cognitive science and theoretical perspectives adopted from cognitive linguistics to present an account of the foundations of musical grammar. Musical grammar is conceived of as a species of construction grammar, in which grammatical elements are form-function pairs. In the case of music, basic constructions are sonic analogs for dynamic processes that are central to human cultures. This volume focuses on three such processes: those related to emotions, to gestures, and to dance. The first chapter introduces the volume and explains how this approach connects with previous work in music theory. The second chapter reviews research on analogy and shows how it provides a basis for analogical reference, which is fundamental to musical grammar. The third chapter describes the connection between music and the emotions facilitated by analogical reference. The fourth chapter explores connections between human gesture and musical utterances, and shows how both rely on the infrastructure for human communication that is also exploited by language. The fifth chapter demonstrates how music provides sonic analogs for the steps of social dances, and how music combined with dance has been used to structure social interactions. The sixth chapter focuses on the combination of language and music that occurs in songs, making clear how the different grammatical resources offered by music and language shape how meaning is constructed in songs. Detailed musical analyses are offered in each chapter, as well as summaries of the basic elements of musical grammar.

scholarly journals Types and Applications of P3,0 Seventh-Chord Transformations in Late Nineteenth-Century Music

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Reenan ◽  
Richard Bass
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Voice Leading ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Tristan Und Isolde ◽  
Richard Strauss ◽  
Late Nineteenth

The expression P3,0refers to one class of parsimonious voice-leading transformations between seventh chords introduced in a 1998 article by Jack Douthett and Peter Steinbach as Pm,n(Journal of Music Theory42 (2): 241–63). In addition to tones that may be held in common, the subscripts indicate the number of voices that move by half step (m) or whole step (n) in connecting one seventh chord to the next. P3,0designates a transformation in which one of the chord members is held in common while each of the other three moves by half step. P3,0transformations produce some of the most striking chromatic harmonic progressions in the late Romantic repertoire. This study focuses on aspects of P3,0transformations that include 1) their place in the broader context of neo-Riemannian voice-leading transformations; 2) their properties and a specific means of notating all possible P3,0types; 3) explications of how the various types are integrated within late nineteenth-century harmonic practice and interact with traditional tonal harmony; and 4) analytic applications that demonstrate how P3,0transformations operate within and contribute to musical structure, including the opening of the Prelude to Wagner’sTristan und Isolde, and a complete song (“Ruhe, meine Seele!” op. 27 no. 1) by Richard Strauss.

A History of Motives—Theory and Analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-102
Author(s):  
Brent Auerbach
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Arnold Schoenberg ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
The Third ◽  
Single Character ◽  
Music Theory And Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

Chapter 3 provides a history of the role of motives in Western music theory and analysis. The first section covers 1600–1750 C.E., the last period in which motive remained in its conceptual prehistory. At that time, the preeminent musical structure was the “figure,” a passage of music that conveyed a single character. The second section covers 1750–1890, a period in which the influence of figures waned as authors began theorizing about the smaller musical cells that make melodies logical, pleasant, and memorable. The third section of the survey concentrates on the work of Arnold Schoenberg, the composer-theorist who did the most during that time to popularize motive-based views of music. The fourth section covers 1950 to 2010, a period marked by stark changes in how motive was conceived and handled in analysis. Specifically, motives in the late twentieth century underwent intense fragmentation, a “boiling away” of their elements, often leaving behind only pitch intervals and/or rhythms. The chapter closes with a rumination on past and present conventions of motive and motivic analysis, laying groundwork for the rules and conventions to follow in chapters 4–7, the methodology portion of Musical Motives.

Origins

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence M. Zbikowski
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Dynamic Processes ◽  
Form Function ◽  
Language And Music ◽  
Unique Approach ◽  
And Function

This chapter provides an introduction to the unique approach to musical grammar taken in this volume, which adopts a theoretical perspective first developed by cognitive linguists. According to this theory, grammatical units are constructions that combine both form (syntax) and function (semantics). Building on the assumption that language and music have different functions in human cultures, it is proposed these media exploit different systems of reference: language relies on symbolic reference, and music relies on analogical reference. Musical grammar is based on form-function pairs (“constructions”) that provide sonic analogs for dynamic processes central to human cultures. This volume will focus on three such processes: those related to the emotions, to gestures, and to dance. The chapter provides an overview of the book as a whole and also explains how this approach to musical grammar connects with previous work in music theory.

Performers, Structure, and Ways of Knowing

2020 ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Daphne Leong
Keyword(s):  
Performance Studies ◽  
Music Theory ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Video Frame ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Theme And Variations ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Subjective Agency ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Violin And Piano

This opening chapter presents the book’s overarching project: the illumination of relations between analysis and performance through theorist-performer collaborations on twentieth-century works. The project is set in the context of two distinct though overlapping disciplines: the tradition of relating analysis and performance within the field of music theory, and the field of musical performance studies. Musical structure, on which the book focuses, is broadly defined as relations among parts and whole, emerging through interactions of objective materials and subjective agency. Ways of knowing that arise in the course of relating analysis and performance are encapsulated by wissen (knowing that), können (knowing how), and kennen (knowing, as in knowing a person). The book’s title and form (a theme and variations) are briefly described. Two rehearsal vignettes (from Crumb’s Four Nocturnes for violin and piano and Shende’s Throw Down or Shut Up!), the first accompanied by a performance video, frame the chapter.

scholarly journals On the Geometric Realisation of Equal Tempered Music

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-75
Author(s):  
Robert Linton Tavis Ashton-Bell
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Harmonic Series ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
Musical Harmony ◽  
Abstract Thought ◽  
Musical Structures ◽  
Equal Temperament ◽  
Whole Number ◽  
Simon Stevin ◽  
Tools And Techniques

Since the time of Pythagoras (c.550BC), mathematicians interested in music have asked, “What governs the whole number ratios that emerge from derivations of the harmonic series?” Simon Stevin (1548-1620) devised a mathematical underlay (where a semitone equals 21/12) that gave rise to the equal temperament tuning system we still use today. Beyond this, the structure of formalised musical orderings have eluded many of us. Music theorists use the tools and techniques of their trade to peer into the higher-order musical structures that underpin musical harmony. These methods of investigating music theory and harmony are difficult to learn (and teach), as complex abstract thought is required to imagine the components of a phenomenon that cannot be seen. This paper outlines a method to understanding the mathematical underpinnings of the equal tempered tuning system. Using this method, musical structure can be quantitatively modelled as a series of harmonic elements at each pulse of musical time.

Hollywood Harmony

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Lehman
Keyword(s):  
Music Theory ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Film Music ◽  
Theoretical Description ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
New Hollywood ◽  
Music Theory And Analysis ◽  
Psychological Models ◽  
First Time

Film music represents one of the few remaining underexplored frontiers for the field of music theory. Discovering its inner workings from a theoretical perspective is imperative if we wish to understand its tremendous effects on the ears (and eyes) of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Hollywood Harmony applies for the first time the tools of contemporary music theory and analysis to this corpus in a thorough and systematic way. In order to help readers appreciate how film music works, this study enlists a number critical apparatuses, ranging from abstract theoretical description to psychological models and sensitive close reading. It argues that matters of musical structure in film are matters of musical meaning, and pitch relations are inherently expressive, always somehow collaborating with visuals and narrative. One harmonic idiom, pantriadic chromaticism, plays an especially important role in the “Hollywood Sound,” and much of this study is dedicated to understanding its aesthetic and expressive content—of which the elicitation of a feeling of wonder is paramount. For better understanding of this tonal practice on a rigorous level, the transformational tools of neo-Riemannian theory are introduced and applied in an accessible and novel way. Neo-Riemannian theory emphasizes musical change and gesture over fixed objects or structures, and by recognizing the innate spatiality of musical experience in extended-tonal settings, it serves as an excellent lens through which to inspect film music. The works of a diverse assortment of composers are examined, with particular attention given to recent “New Hollywood” scoring practices.

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