Aroui - Metrics, Music and Mind

Metrics, Music and Mind
Linguistic, Metrical and Cognitive Implications in Sung Verse
(Rome, 23-25 February 2012)
A Modular Model for the Metrics of Song
Jean-Louis Aroui*
* UFR de Sciences du Langage, Université Paris 8 – 2, rue de la liberté, 93200 Saint-Denis
([email protected])
Following Lerdahl & Jackendoff pioneer work (1996 [11983], chapters 1 to 4) on the metrics of
tonal music, huge progresses have been made these last twenty years, concerning the study of
the metrics of folk songs. In particular, we can emphasize the following issues:
– a better understanding of constituents hierarchy in the metrics of folk songs (Hayes &
MacEachern 1996, Dell 2003a);
– a study of various forms of truncation and cadences in these constituents (Hayes &
MacEachern 1998, Kiparsky 2006);
– a description of rules or constraints which work for musical textsetting in songs (Dell 1989
[1975], Halle & Lerdahl 1993, Hayes & Kaun 1996, Dell 2003b, Hayes 2009, Dell & Halle 2009,
Rodriguez-Vazquez 2010);
– an extensive study of a singular sung poetic tradition (Dell & Elmadlaoui 2008).
Most of these works use so called “metrical grids”, which are very useful to develop explicit
models and to test hypotheses. Nevertheless, it is not always very clear if the proposed rules or
constraints concern the making of the grids, or the setting of sound events onto the grid. In the
latter case, there are also some confusions, some constraints being considered as belonging to a
same set, when it is obviously not the case, as we will see during the talk. For example,
MATCHSTRESS and FILLSTRONG are constraints which do not belong to a same group, even
if they are treated as such by Rodriguez-Vazquez (2010 : 199-200, 261).
Trying to make things clearer, Kiparsky (2006) proposed a “modular” approach of song,
claiming that “the composer and performer of a song constructs a match between three tiers of
rhythmic structure: linguistic prominence, poetic meter, and musical rhythm” (2006:7). I am
going to propose an alternative model explaining the interaction of different types of
monophonic music: percussion monophony, chant, intrumental monophony and monophonic
song. This model integrates two obligatory modules (the abstract grid, the sound events), and
an optional one (the pitches). Two of these modules may include a sub-module, depending of
the type of music that is observed. This model is largly confirmed by contemporary neurology
(Sacks 2008).
Examples from various musical traditions (French, English, Occitan) will be used. The problem
of poetic meter in song will be discussed to conclude.
References
DELL, Francois (1989 [1975]): Concordances rythmiques entre la musique et les paroles dans le
chant. L’accent et l’e muet dans la chanson francaise. In M. Dominicy (ed.), Le souci des apprences.
Neuf études de poétique et de métrique. Bruxelles: Editions de l’Universite de Bruxelles.
― (2003a) : Repetitions paralleles dans les paroles et dans la musique des chansons. In J.-L.
Aroui (ed.), Le sens et la mesure. De la pragmatique à la métrique. Hommages à Benoît de Cornulier.
Paris: Champion (Colloques, congres et conferences, Sciences du Langage, 3), 499-522.
― (2003b): Singing as a Means of Counting Syllables: Text-to-Tune Alignment in Traditional
French Songs. Ms.
― (2009): Singing in Tashlhiyt Berber, a language that allows vowel-less syllables. Ms. DELL,
Francois & Mohamed ELMEDLAOUI (2008): Poetic Meter and Musical Form in Tashlhiyt Berber
Songs, Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag.
DELL, Francois & John HALLE (2009). Comparing Musical Textsetting in French and English
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(Language Faculty and Beyond, 2), 63-78.
HALLE, John & Fred LERDAHL (1993): A Generative Textsetting Model. Current Musicology,
55, 3-23.
HAYES, Bruce (2009). Textsetting as Constraint Conflict. In J.-L. Aroui & A. Arleo (eds), Towards
a Typology of Poetic Forms. Amsterdam: Benjamins (Language Faculty and Beyond, 2), 43-61.
HAYES, Bruce & Abigail KAUN (1996). The Role of Phonological Phrasing in Sung and
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― (1998). Quatrain Form in English Folk Verse. Language, 74, 473-507.
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(eds.), Formal Approaches to Poetry. Recent Developments in Metrics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 749.
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RODRIGUEZ-VAZQUEZ, Rosalia (2010). The Rhythm of Speech, Verse and Vocal Music: a New
Theory. Bern: Peter Lang (Linguistic Insights, 110).
SACKS, Oliver (2008 [2007]). Musicophilia. Tales of Music and the Brain, revised and expanded.
New York: Vintage Books.