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----- Original Message ----- From: "Max Richards" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 5:09 PM Subject: Speech patterns and music > From a footnote [p.242]in Oliver Sacks's new book, Musicophilia... > > 'What makes the music of Sir Edward Elgar sound so distinctively English?' > they [Iversen, Patel and Ohgushi of the Neurosciences Institute] ask. > 'What > makes the music of Debussy sound so French?' > > Patel et al. compared rhythm and melody in British English speech and > music > to that of French speech and music, using the music of a dozen different > composers. They found, by plotting rhythm and melody together, that 'a > striking pattern emerges, suggesting that a nation's language exerts a > "gravitational pull" on the structure of its music.' > > The Czech composer Leos Janacek, too, was greatly exercised by the > resemblances between speech and music, and he spent more than thirty years > sitting in cafes and other public places, notating the melodies and > rhythms > of people's speech, convinced that these unconsciously mirrored their > emotional intent and states of mind. He attempted to incorporate these > speech rhythms into his own music - or, rather, to find 'equivalents' for > them in the classical music grid of pitches and intervals. Many people, > whether or not they speak Czech, have felt that there is an uncanny > correspondence between Janacek's music and the sound patterns of Czech > speech. > > Sacks's bibliography is packed with research journal items, but I note > this: > > Patel, Aniruddh D. 2008. Music, Language and the Brain. New York: Oxford > University Press. > > In other words, forthcoming... > This is fascinating - I'll have to get this book. There was a study in the '70s - The Material Word, by Silverman and Torode - that was about inherent rhythms not only in monologue but in dialogue, and, importantly, in dialogues between people with different status and degrees of power. Probably superceded by now but was fascinating and a big influence on me.