Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Musical Syntax
Reader Ann McKinley, professor emerita of North Central College, used the term musical syntax in an e-mail to me. I asked her to explain.
She writes:
By musical syntax I mean the logic of chord movement. A common way of referring to it is “Traditional Harmony” which even now forms the basis of beginning Theory classes in colleges (or earlier if the child has a teacher who can handle it).
This is a feature of Western music that does not directly apply when discussing other cultures (though they must have comparable systems).
You could diagram a musical sentence in much the same way you can diagram one with words. I assume we agree that the most important single word in a sentence is the verb—it generates the energy of the “thought”. It may be a single verb or it can be a verb with appendages—adverbs, subsidiary clauses, whatever. The Subject, the Noun, can be modified similarly. Diagramming a word-sentence is wonderfully clear. I’ve not seen this actually done with music but it easily could be. We have our ways! I am a little uncomfortable visualizing diagramming imposed on a musical sentence because Music is a Time art and runs in a straight line, and a fancy picture , though accurate, lacks the forward-flow element. I’m thinking of the “descenders”—adjectives, modifiers for the adjectives. Also, though words move forward, the pacing of words is determined by the speaker or the reader, not a bossy tempo mark like Allegro or Adagio.)
Let’s try the “Moonlight Sonata”—it moves slowly, that helps! There’s a pattern of notes at the beginning that establish the realm of C-sharp minor. In tonal music the first question that must be answered is “where are we” and that always means what’s the tonic. To continue: then a rather plain (but perfect-for-the-spot) melody comes in over the note-pattern which this time shifts direction slightly and goes to E major—the major key that has the same key signature (and we learn to hear the two as related to each other). We have moved forward, so to speak—we’re moving into another “room”. This forward motion accomplished with chord series (plural) is the something we hear that I’m calling syntax: “the way in which words are put together to form phrases and sentences.” You don’t have to THINK this as you listen to or play the piece but a trained listener/musician does it subliminally, so to speak, s/he thinks and there it is, and, if asked, such a person can explain every blessed note just as you can do with a sentence. It’s important for utterance, for emphasis, for meaning. It’s also wonderful to think this way. (Be warned: and not all musicians do . . .)
I should think that analyzing words would involve questions like
What kind of word is it? (Noun, verb, whatever)
Does it modify or is it itself modified?
How long or short is the sentence or sentences in the same group, paragraph?
Why did the writer chose THAT word rather than another with a similar meaning—I am assuming that ideally prose and poetry should sound good when read or spoken. I think Speed-Reading has much to answer for in the after-life, diverting the sounds of words away from our inner ears.
In “my day” Calvin College had a fine Music Dept. and I got to know several graduates as students in A2: John Wustman, Sherman van Solkema, Nolan Huizinga, and there were others. So: try this on a Music colleague. Start with the person who teaches Freshman Music Theory.
I should mention—re: syntax, there was a break with the past c. 1945 when the tonal system grew weak and organizing musical pitches in the 12-tone system shoved its way in (Schoenberg et al). To some extent the syntax was still there, camouflaged. Gradually the way of expressing musical syntax changed too—John Cage, Philip Glass, for example, and I see no need to go into this, mainly because, although I suspect there is something comparable to the way words are used these days, I don’t know what it is.
I realize this is way more than you wanted. It is not an easy topic.
Ann McKinley
Prof. Emerita, North Central College
PhD (University of Michigan)
Naperville, IL