Abstract
In their pioneering Generative Theory of Tonal Music (1983, ‘GTTM’), Lerdahl and Jackendoff attempted to apply Chomsky’s Transformational Generative Theory method to music, with the aim of explaining the musical structures as a language. Their insight has been further developed by Katz and Pesetsky’s “Identity Thesis” within the framework of the Minimalist Program of linguistics. While those studies are concerned with the “common practice” period in music, the aim of the present study is to point out that while GTTM and Identity Thesis are genuine approaches to music in tonal tradition, they do not address the issue of early periods (pre-tonal period). To answer this question, this study uses Generative Theory’s X-Bar approach to analyze “early music” repertoires and associate it with Foucault’s archaeological approach to the historical documents. It proposes hierarchical relationships within the intervals of hexachord system as an approach to the theory of early music and applies its output to the “Annus Novus versus” of Aquitanian Polyphony.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Same quotation takes place in [1]. The citation is taken from the original source.
- 2.
Many special thanks to A. Sumru Özsoy who has helped me to understand the compelling topics in Generative Theory.
- 3.
In future studies, we will assume that “differentia” parts of the medieval music could be associated by this conceptualization.
- 4.
[ 17] is a well-organized website to basic knowledge for hexachord system.
- 5.
Many thanks to Professor A. Sumru Özsoy who suggested this for representation.
- 6.
Many thanks to Professor Paul Whitehead acquiring this concept to our study by making me aware of various historical facts as to the period we study.
- 7.
Numbering is from left to right in DiscP.
- 8.
In the representation, we see under a single bar level, a sister relationship as 1-‘and 4-P. To show the adjunct function of the 4-P to 1-P, we have to draw the tree in this way. On the other hand, the validation of this representation in language could be arguable in Verbal/ Linguistics discipline.
- 9.
Numbering starts to begin from right in the ConP Region.
- 10.
To the transformations between natural, hard and soft hexachords, the most fundamental characteristic of the hard hexachord is the natural b and of soft is bb and of the natural is that it does not include b note.
References
Bent, M.: The grammar of early music: preconditions for analysis. In: Judd, C. (ed.) Tonal Structures in Early Music. Garland Pub, New York (1998)
Katz, J., Pesetsky, D.: The Identity Thesis for Language and Music, version 2.1 (January 2011). http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/000959
Cohen, D.E.: Notes, scales, and modes in the earlier middle ages. In: Christensen, T. (ed.) The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2002)
Powers, H.: Language models and musical analysis. J. Ethnomusicology 24(1), 1–60 (1980)
Sullivan, B.: Grammar and harmony: the written representation of musical sound in Carolingian treatises. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles (1994)
Chomsky, N.: Remarks on nominalization. In: Chomsky, N. (ed.) Studies on Semantics in Generative Grammar, 1st edn, pp. 11–61. The Hague, Mouton (1972)
X-Bar Theory. http://ai.ato.ms/MITECS/Entry/haegeman.html
Patel, A.: Music, Language, and the Brain. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2008)
Molholm, S., Martinez, A., Ritter, W., Javitt, D.C., Foxe, J.J.: The neural circuitry of pre-attentive auditory change-detection: an fMRI study of pitch and duration mismatch negativity generators. J. Cereb. Cortex 15(5), 545–551 (2005)
Carnie, A.: Syntax a Generative Introduction, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York (2011)
Foucault, M., Sheridan, A.: The Archaeology of Knowledge. Pantheon Books, New York (1972)
Radford, A.: Transformational Grammar: A First Course, Reprint edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1990). (Reprint ed.)
Lerdahl, F., Jackendoff, R.: A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. MIT Press, Cambridge (1983)
Winkler, I., Háden, G.P., Ladinig, O., Sziller, I., Honing, H., Purves, D.: Newborn infants detect the beat in music. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 106(7), 2468–2471 (2009)
Hexachord System. http://www2.siba.fi/muste1/index.php?id=72&la=enhexachords
Phonetics: The Sounds of American English. http://soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html
Katamba, F.: An Introduction to Phonology. Longman, London (1989)
Fuller, S.: Tendencies and resolutions: the directed progression in “ars nova” music. J. Music Theory 36(2), 229–258 (1992)
Godwin, J.: The Harmony of the Spheres: A Sourcebook of the Pythagorean Tradition in Music. Inner Traditions International, Rochester (1993)
Fuller, S.: Aquitanian polyphony of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Dissertation, University of California at Berkeley (1969)
Treitler, L.: Musical syntax in the middle ages: background to an aesthetic problem. J. Perspect. New Music 4(1), 75–85 (1965)
Acknowledgment
To my dear mother and sister, thanks to you for always standing behind on my decisions and I am grateful to my dear professors Paul Whitehead in Historical Musicology and A. Sumru Özsoy in Linguistics. If there had not been their guidance and intellects, this study would not exceed a threshold of a positivity but marks time in its myths.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Tuğral, O. (2015). A Linguistic Approach to the Syntax of Early Music: Representation of the Hexachord System by X-Bar Method as an Excavation Tool. In: Eismont, P., Konstantinova, N. (eds) Language, Music, and Computing. LMAC 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 561. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27497-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27498-0
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)