Does music technically qualify as a language?

Thu May 12 18:26:35 UTC 2011

And, just to complicate the issue a bit, there is also Steven MIthen's 
2005 /The Singing Neanderthals: the Origins of Music, Language, Mind and 
Body/ Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, which explores the 
potential role of music-making in language origins.  --Harriet Ottenheimer

On 5/12/2011 1:59 PM, Jim Wilce wrote:
> On this issue I would also recommend the work of ethnomusicologist 
> Elizabeth Tolbert:
>
> Tolbert, Elizabeth
>     2001    Voice, Metaphysics and Community. In Pain and its 
> Transformations. S. Coakley and K. Shelemay, eds. Cambridge, Mass.
> —
>     2001    Music and Meaning: An Evolutionary Story. Psychology of 
> Music 29(1):84-94.
> —
>     1992    Theories of Meaning and Music Cognition: An 
> Ethnomusicological Approach. The World of Music 34(3):7–21.
> —
>     2001    The Enigma of Music, the Voice of Reason: “Music,” 
> “Language,” and Becoming Human. New Literary History 32:451–465.
>
> Jim Wilce
>
>
> On 5/12/11 8:26 AM, Steve Black wrote:
>> Dear Scott and Glenn,
>> I think one of the best places where an anthropological perspective 
>> on these issues is addressed is in Steven Feld and Aaron Fox's 1994 
>> piece, "Music and Language," in Annual Review of Anthropology. One of 
>> their points in there is that from the "music as language" 
>> perspective, music is semantically more opaque and syntactically more 
>> redundant. You can't say, "I need to go to the store to get some 
>> bread," through music, unless you know how to do this with a talking 
>> drum or you add lyrics to the music. And the rhythm, harmony, and 
>> melody of most music is much more repetitive than any other form of 
>> communication.
>>
>> Of course, if you shift your focus from a formalist perspective to an 
>> ethnographic and communicatively oriented one, then you start to see 
>> many more shared features, and to really understand how it is that 
>> music communicates emotion. I myself have found great value in 
>> viewing both music and language as types of communication that 
>> differentially utilize the full breadth of semiotic modalities 
>> available to humans (syntax, prosody, stress, volume, but also 
>> gesture, facial expression, body orientation, the physical 
>> environment) [This semiotic modalities perspective comes from the 
>> work of Charles and Marjorie Goodwin]. I wrote a little about this in 
>> a recent Anthro News article, in January 2011, "The Body in Sung 
>> Performance." But there is a wealth of important literature 
>> discussing the music language connection, especially from an 
>> ethnographic standpoint. Two of my favorite recent contributions are 
>> Aaron Fox's book, "Real Country: Music and Language in Working Class 
>> Culture," and David Samuels' book, "Putting a Song on Top of It: 
>> Expression and Identity on the San Carlos Apache Reservation."
>>
>> Best,
>> Steve Black
>>
>>
>>
>> On May 12, 2011, at 7:14 AM, Scott F. Kiesling wrote:
>>
>>> Colleagues:
>>>
>>> I received this query and thought some of you musically minded folks
>>> might be able to help (or any of you really). Please reply to Mr.
>>> Rudolph and not to me. Of course, discussion on the list might be
>>> interesting too.
>>>
>>> SFK
>>>
>>> ----- Forwarded message from "Glenn L. 
>>> Rudolph"<glrudolph at verizon.net>  -----
>>>
>>>> From: "Glenn L. Rudolph"<glrudolph at verizon.net>
>>>> Date: Wed, 11 May 2011 12:40:04 -0400
>>>> To: "Kiesling, Scott F"<kiesling at pitt.edu>
>>>> Subject: Does music technically qualify as a language?
>>>> Good Afternoon Dr. Kiesling,
>>>> Please bear with me for a bit - I write you as a composer seeking 
>>>> advice and information from a linguist. I hope you don't mind my 
>>>> contacting you - I pulled your email address from the PITT 
>>>> Linguistics Department website.
>>>> I very recently (last week) received my Masters Degree in Music 
>>>> Composition from Duquesne. Other than composition, a major interest 
>>>> of mine is music's ability to communicate meaning and emotion. 
>>>> Essentially, the question I'm exploring is (speaking of classical, 
>>>> or art music) "why is it that when I hear contemporary (20th/21st) 
>>>> century compositions for instance, some pieces I 'get' and others I 
>>>> do not?" A very different question from whether I like the work or 
>>>> not. I might understand a piece musically, but not particularly 
>>>> like it, while others I simply don't understand. My intent here is 
>>>> to formulate a theory that answers the question and submit it to 
>>>> one of the various music theory journals.
>>>> My gut feeling is that I simply don't understand the composer's 
>>>> musical language - the musical vocabulary, syntax, and grammar that 
>>>> the composer employs - which presupposes that music is a language 
>>>> of some sort. Volumes have been written about music and meaning and 
>>>> music as a language which I have been reading for the past year or 
>>>> so. Some of the arguments presented against music qualifying as a 
>>>> true language is it's lack of key features that languages possess, 
>>>> such as the ability to indicate past tense or possessive case. My 
>>>> initial, uneducated reaction to these arguments was that I wasn't 
>>>> sure all languages have the ability to indicate past tense or 
>>>> possessive case.
>>>> So my questions for you are:
>>>> *
>>>> linguistically, is there a list of qualities or mechanics that a 
>>>> system must possess, at a minimum, in order to qualify as  language
>>>> *
>>>> knowing what you now do about my area of interest, can you 
>>>> recommend resources that would be helpful in giving me a basic 
>>>> understanding of the branch of linguistics appropriate to this 
>>>> endeavor?
>>>> *
>>>> is there presently a graduate student in your program who might be 
>>>> interested in collaborating on and co-authoring this project?
>>>> Thanks so much for your time and attention,
>>>> Glenn L. Rudolph
>>>> 298 Cottingham Place
>>>> Cranberry Twp., PA 16066
>>>> Phone: 724.453.0683
>>>> Email: glenn at reindeermusic.com
>>>> Website: www.reindeermusic.com
>>> ----- End forwarded message -----
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Scott F. Kiesling, PhD
>>>
>>> Associate Professor
>>> Department of Linguistics
>>> University of Pittsburgh, 2816 CL
>>> Pittsburgh, PA 15260
>>> http://www.linguistics.pitt.edu
>>> Office: +1 412-624-5916
>> “Natural science gives us an answer to the question of what we must 
>> do if we wish to master life technically, but it leaves quite aside… 
>> whether we should and do wish to master life technically and whether 
>> it ultimately makes sense to do so” --Max Weber
>>
>> "Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. And today? Today is a 
>> gift. That's why we call it the present." --Babatunde Olatunji
>> .
>>
>
>

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