Theiling Online    Sitemap    Conlang Mailing List HQ   

Re: Musical conlangs

From:bnathyuw <bnathyuw@...>
Date:Wednesday, October 16, 2002, 15:06
 --- 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 __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Everything you'll ever need on one web page from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts http://uk.my.yahoo.com