Journal :: Music perception
2009
Parallels and nonparallels between language and music
Music perception 26(3):195--204, 2009
THE PARALLELS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MUSIC CAN BE explored only in the context of (a) the differences between them, and (b) those parallels that are also shared with other cognitive capacities. The two differ in many aspects of structure and function, and, with the ...
2004
Music Perception 21(3):313-337, 2004
Music functions, at least in part, to convey certain structures to the listener via a surface of notes. For communication to occur successfully, the structures must be recoverable from the surface. I argue that this consideration has been an important factor in the shaping of ...MORE ⇓
Music functions, at least in part, to convey certain structures to the listener via a surface of notes. For communication to occur successfully, the structures must be recoverable from the surface. I argue that this consideration has been an important factor in the shaping of musical styles, and sheds light on a number of phenomena: the greater degree of syncopation and lower degree of rubato in traditional African music and rock versus common-practice music; the extensive use of rubato in pieces with consistent repeated patterns (e.g., much Romantic piano music); the rise of swing tempo and the higher degree of syncopation in jazz as opposed to ragtime; and the greater variety of chord-tones and lower tolerance for chordal inversion in jazz as opposed to common-practice music.