Re: Music/language

Keith R Sawyer (sawyer who-is-at cats.ucsc.edu)
Fri, 20 Oct 1995 19:21:17 -0700 (PDT)

Explorations of parallels between music and language have been
interesting, but largely unsatisfying. I believe this is because of the
"logocentrism" if you will of both semioticians and musicologists, both
tending to be text-focused. Attempts to identify parallels have either
(1) tried to say what the "meaning" of music might be (many have claimed
"emotion", e.g. Langer, Bernstein); (2) trying to identify structural
parallels a la syntax, grammar.

I believe the primary parallels are interactional, in the performative
and collective nature of both language and music. Yes, language is
primarily performative; only recently (and especially in
modern/industrial societies) has language been thought of as "written."
Semioticians speak of three aspects of sign usage: syntax, semantics, and
pragmatics. Parallels can best be identified at the latter level.

The problems come primarily when "music" is conceived to be a _score_ on
a page, divorced from performance context, and when "language" is
conceived to be a _text_, divorced from usage in social context. The
parallels with Vygotsky and Bakhtin should be clear.

Sudnow's book is very difficult to read and enjoy, I find. Also, it is
focused on learning jazz piano in _isolation_; leaving out the most
important, unique aspect of jazz, that it must be performed as an
interaction with other musicians.

P.S. My _Semiotica_ article elaborates on these points, with extensive
reference to prior literature on this topic.

Keith Sawyer
UC Santa Cruz