Re: Musical conlangs

 --- Adrian Morgan <morg0072@...> wrote: >
The possibility of a true musical language occured
> to me a long time
> ago, but I haven't known - and don't know - if it's
> really possible.
> I can't prove that it isn't, though.
>
> By "true musical language" I mean to imply far more
> than a code that
> just happens to use notes as phonemes. A language
> where the word for
> "thief" happens to be mi-fa-re-do, for example, and
> every word in the
> lexicon has a similar mapping, is not a true musical
> language in this
> sense. I have in mind a language where morphemes
> correspond to
> collections of notes defined as obeying certain
> parameters, rather
> than as following precise sequences.
>
> These parameters would be flexible enough that any
> sentence could
> actually be tuneful, with a skilled player being
> able to make a more
> tuneful version of exactly the same sentence via
> ornamentations and so
> on, without changing the meaning, or changing it
> only in subtle ways
> such as emphasis. A study of music theory would be
> essential for
> designing such a language.
>
> I've had some ideas for a grammar:
>
> Let's suppose that a "stressed beat" is one in which
> the left hand
> plays a do-so cord (e.g. E and B if playing in the
> key of E), that a
> stressed beat is usually the first beat of a bar,
> but that not every
> first beat of a bar is stressed.
>
> Then perhaps: Two quick identical notes on a
> stressed beat (OSB)
> indicate the beginning of the subject phrase, two
> quick notes the
> second a tone above the first OSB indicates the
> beginning of the verb
> phrase, and two quick notes the second a tone below
> the first
> indicates the beginning of the object phrase.
>
> Or perhaps: If the second beat in a phrase is lower
> than the first
> then this indicates the first person in some form,
> if the second beat
> in a phrase contains two notes on either side of the
> notes on the
> first beat then this indicates the second person,
> and if the second
> beat in a phrase is higher than the first then this
> indicates a third
> person or object.
>
> Or perhaps: A verb can be made negative by delaying
> the first stress
> in its object phrase until the the third beat, or
> using a dummy object
> for object-less verbs.
>
> Or perhaps: A return to the key note (do) OSB
> indicates a pronoun
> similar to "it", referring to the object.
>
> These are miscellaneous ideas, and I'm not convinced
> of the
> possibility of such a project - you'd surely end up
> with morphemes
> being very long if they're to be flexible. It's just
> that: if it
> *could* be done, and could be done well, it would be
> a magnificent
> achievement.
>
> It's just a thought, and I must rush and cannot stop
> to proofread and
> tidy up this post, which has been written hastily.
>
> Adrian.
a few hasty thoughts to a 'hasty' ( seemed pretty
coherent to me ) post :

would this be played or sung ? you mention a left hand
 ; does this imply playing on a keyboard instrument

do you plan on using conventional tonal language ? if
so you could use tonal relationships for various
meanings ( you could mark active with, eg, perfect
cadences and passive with plagal )

i'm not entirely sure about your idea of using a tonic
to mark each phoneme, perhaps what i alluded to just
now could be done : end each clause with a cadence
which could indicate various things about the clause :
tense, mood, voice &c. indeed, i can see a strong
arguement for using the pre-cadence progression to
indicate verbs ( making clauses verb-final ). you
could also use imperfect cadences to mark subordinate
clauses ( in which case you would need to have them
come before the main clause, or else in the middle of
it ) and so on

you could also consider modulation as a marker of some
sort : maybe for causal sentences : up a step for 'so'
and down a step for 'because' or something

i'm not sure about identifying morphemes with ictus,
but you might want to introduce accentuation ( either
in volume or in rhythm ) to generate certain meanings

but in general i spose i would suggest looking at how
the structure of complex musical phrases can be
reconciled with that of complex sentences, and then
try to introduce features where they converge

anyway . . . good luck !

bn

=====
bnathyuw | landan | arR
stamp the sunshine out | angelfish
your tears came like anaesthesia | phèdre

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