Musicality of words we speak stephen davismoon iss25

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… on the inherent musicality of the words that we speak By Stephen Davismoon When one contemplates the musical/vocal setting of any word (from across our world’s many languages and/ or its countless regional accents/dialects), he or she immediately (possibly unwittingly) enters into a dialectic relationship of pitch and timbre, which, in many senses exists before/separate to and reaches beyond the tip of the composer’s own pen. Since, as a word is spoken, the myriad epithets that constitute its inherent sonorous universe are set in train. Over the life of the sounding of this word, a complex ever-changing sonic continuum is set in motion, creating – at a micro-level – its own distinct musicality. This is the raw/natural sound material that the composer is confronted with, when trying to give birth to a song. And it’s a beguiling – somewhat vertiginous – dialectic at that! On the one hand it presents us with a high level of (near-global) consistency; while on the other, it presents to us what appears to be, a potentiality for endless possibilities of sonic variation and transformation. As relatively recent phonological and psychoacoustical research has shown, when we speak (in some languages more than others, granted) at the same time we – in many senses – ‘sing’. The near-perfect tuning and the high level of precision in terms of amplitude and/or dynamic control of the all-important first and second formant frequencies of the vowels in the words that we utter, is crucial to our being understood by those about us; thereby utterly vital to our successful vocal self-expression and communication. The slight variations that do occur in our musical control of the vowels in the words that we speak, will depend largely upon the lexicon of our mother tongue, the location/region of our accent and – at the end of the day – on our very own personal physiology (ie. that that makes you, you; and me, me!), ie. how large our vocal tract might be and so on. Setting to one side these regional and personal physical differences, it would seem though that (and which serves nicely here as a starting point for our discussion) each vowel has a frequency-band ‘peak’ as indicated below (given in standard music notation, ie. the vowel ‘a’ has a peak of acoustical energy between C5 and D6 and so on; it will be noted that the vowels ‘e’ and ‘i’ have two peak regions of acoustical energy):

Probably any singer versed in the Bel Canto tradition – where the vocalisation of the vowel is all-important – will know instinctively that the diagram above makes some sense, practically or technically speaking at least, in that it is much more comfortable to sing a high note on a word with an ‘a’ vowel as its focus, than it is on a word which has a ‘u’ as its target. To listeners it may also help to explain why, when singers are singing ‘outside’ or far from these ‘natural’ frequency bandwidths, it is sometimes difficult to perceive the diction and to understand the words that are being sung. Of course though, this singing ‘against’ or ‘outside’ of nature can very much have its own artistic merits. The complex sonic behaviour of a spoken vowel over time is also altered depending upon: whether or not it is to be extended or truncated; what kind of consonant (‘noise’ – frictive/plosive, etc.) it emerges from or quits to; or if it is to travel to or from yet another vowel. In fact the deeper one goes into the sonic fabric of a spoken word, only then is one aware of the highly complex, phenomenological nature of the sonic relationships at play.

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When one contemplates the sonorous mood and character of each of the vowels in this way it is perhaps impossible to not notice their very individual timbral character and their respective associative mood/expressive quality. In fact when we allow ourselves to look at the basic building blocks of musicality from this vantage point – from the micro-level – it provides a glimpse of an insight as to how and why music can be expressive and what it might be expressive of. The crucial importance of the precise musical control of the internal world of the words that we speak – for our mutual comprehension to be possible – is in many senses nothing new, indeed it seems to be something that has been intuited since ancient times. For example it has powerful resonances with Plato’s Ethos theory, where in short – in accordance with the teachings of Damon, the Ancient Greek musician – the rhythms of poetry were to be in correspondence with the ‘truth’ of the words uttered; and the sonic qualities of musical modes should be borne in mind for the purposes of appropriate communication and wellbeing. In that he believed that each had a profound and lasting influence on the gathered audience of his ‘Guardians’. So, to continue … while the diagram above suggests the frequency bandwidth where there is a general peak of activity/energy, further analysis of the levels of acoustic activity/energy within the vowels that we speak, reveals that still more precise musical control is evident at a deeper level. The last half-century or so of research into this area has allowed for the discovery of the importance (for reasons of comprehension) and comparative standardisation of the tuning and relative loudness of what are known as the first two formant frequencies. The figures below illustrate the frequency peaks (given in standard musical notation to the nearest semitone(s)) of the all-important first two formant frequencies as found in an English-speaking male (so the first formant frequency of the vowel ‘u’: (pronounced ‘oo’ as in true or through) is (c320Hz) somewhere between D#4 and E4 and its second formant frequency (c920Hz) is close to A#5:

Now this is not to suggest that all English-speaking males sound the same the world over; far from it. However it is to say though that every one of them will have an aspect in the song of their singing while they speak, that is shared or constant. In fact it would seem that without this ‘tuning’ capability – possessed by the vast majority of us – in the making of the words that we want to say in expression of ourselves, nobody would understand any conversation … ever. As I mentioned earlier, while the slight tuning/timbral differences that do occur will depend largely upon regional choices and unique individual physiological qualities, it is fascinating to ponder that the shared unchanging sonic core that exists with the annunciation of these vowels stretches beyond regional, national and even continental boundaries. It would seem that Leos Janacek (that master of the musical setting of words) had a somewhat intuitive sense for all of this – long before the spectral analysis of phonemes was even possible – when he said words to the effect of: ... When someone talks to me, I hear the intonations in his voice more clearly than I hear what he is really trying to tell me.

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Fractured Beatitudes

By Robert Davidson

‘In Greek there is no verb in any of the Beatitudes, which means That the Beatitudes are not statements, but exclamations. That is to say that the Beatitudes are not promises of future happiness. They are not statements and prophecies. We must begin with what we know and as we go on we will understand more and more … we do not need to wait for perfect understanding; we can begin with love.’ Prof.William Barclay

* Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted, but not much. There’s not much tougher in life than the ending of it. Very little has to do with gentle sundown melancholy; more heart piercing sorrow, guilt feelings, the gathering mass of loss like the swing of a wrecking ball. Slow. Slow. Wham! The impact is a wretched thing that doesn’t go away. It has to be accommodated. That loved one isn’t coming back. There is no object so inanimate as a dead body. Looking down on it you see what we’re made of, but not what we are.

I hope your loved one ended well. I hope it will be an example to you when your own time comes. This is what I’m afraid of, that I won’t live up to the way my loved ones went before me. *

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth, but where are they? The meek have been around long enough. Why haven’t they inherited by now? Where are these strong, balanced, quiet types we so badly need to run the show? I ask my friend the water man. He doesn’t know. What’s it to him? He just keeps the water coming down the pipes. How about the bus driver? He doesn’t know either. He just drives his bus. He doesn’t really care. I ask the woman at the Healthy Deli. She tells me she’s no idea and – here’s your caraway seeds. How about the teacher? Hasn’t a clue. That’s teachers of course, hopeless away from their subject. The doctor? Nope!

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And the cleaner is too busy even to listen.

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None of them know where the meek are. Yet the earth continues. It keeps going round. Who understands these things? * Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, hopefully when they most need it. Acts of kindness barely noticed when they arrive, mundane in their ordinariness, making all the difference. And it’s a sort of deal, isn’t it. More fundamental than ‘owing one’, more sophisticated than symbiosis. Giving just because it’s seen to be necessary, right here, right now. The suffering of one who is stuck, who just can’t get out of it alone. No matter who’s to blame. Maybe they are to blame. Maybe they are. And just the right degree of giving, so that once a start is made they can keep up the momentum by themselves. Helping with just the right degree of face, no lording it, no bogus humility; no debt, no conditions, except this one. Don’t give it back, pass it on. * Blessed are the poor in spirit, their sense of low self-worth is surely just the absence of a big head. There’s not much to be said for any kind of poverty – that slayer of opportunity, destroyer of health; that crushing burden, that humiliation. The essential characteristic of all possession is insecurity, it could all go suddenly, without warning – all of it, so let’s accept that a sense of humility has its place. As long as destitution is just around the corner integrity and devotion to each other are vital. We’re in this together, and there’s only one way out. We have to believe we can be adequate, even when we’re pushed to the wall. So let’s be frugal. Let’s keep nothing superfluous. Plough it all back. Let’s work together towards a world of plenty. *

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. There’s more of us around with a sense of grievance than have ever known real hunger. I’m one of them. You too?

For sure, justice isn’t going to come from within. It’s down to others to put things right. Whoever it was that did it. That bastard.

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Or maybe the law.

A wise judge would rearrange the wealth, rewrite the record. Those lies. What people think, it’s hard to thole. This is what comes with a sense of righteousness. Without that sense we’d just shrug.

And yes, it’s a hunger. And yes, it’s desperate. And that’s what we’re full of, desperation. Bung full.

Of course, what we want most is to be at peace with those others, but there’s something in the way. * Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. There seems to be an inextricable link between persecution and total honesty. Absolute fidelity is hateful to the pragmatic. You have to ask if it’s worth it. Does it suggest the persecuted have fallen into the old ‘one way’ folly? Why don’t they bide their time, go underground for a while, content with the knowledge that truth will out? Hold to those beliefs! Make that protest! But don’t pull the pin. Be practical. Hand the controls over for a while. Martyrdom is over-rated. Why be a threat? It will all work out in the end – if you’re right, that is. *

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall rush from place to place, never know rest, come to love their burden. They will set the persistence of the humane against the permanence of conflict. They will hope to someday meet a winner. This fight they fight is the War to end all Wars. Here is a prayer for them.

May they sleep like children. May they know intimacy, fellowship, goodwill.

May they find peace in the white spaces as well as the printed words, in the silence exhaustion brings because they will certainly find exhaustion. May they defend their minds with love and patience. May love and patience be sufficient. *

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Blessed are the pure in heart, that rare and dangerous quality the poet can only grope towards through singularity of intent, concentration on the work, the complete loss of self, the blend of mind and feeling that occurs, yes, in the heart.

Working alone with the theme, the hurt or the elation, the language; working, it seems, as the extension of something else, as the pen to the hand, the hand to the arm, the arm to the body, the body to the heart, so the heart to something else. Working towards a voice that isn’t the poet’s own, calling out from this side of the words, that moment when, it seems, the poem answers back from the silence. And what of the work? Then? The work is complete.

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