{"id":43377,"date":"2016-02-23T13:00:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-23T19:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.toiletovhell.com\/?p=43377"},"modified":"2016-02-23T12:00:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T18:00:20","slug":"language-tonality-and-the-grammar-of-western-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toiletovhell.com\/language-tonality-and-the-grammar-of-western-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Language, Tonality, and the Grammar of Western Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
\n– Genesis 11:7<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Part 1: Music and Language<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"Music_and_Language_brain_areas_compare_and_contrast\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Over the past five years, I’ve been exploring (slowly) the world of music that exists outside of conventional Western tonality – which is to say: music not tuned to a piano. Most all of the music we hear and listen to (with a few exceptions) is tuned in 12-tone equal temperament (hereafter referred to as 12-ET). 12-ET is, simply put, the notes on the piano. C, C#\/Db, D, D#\/Db, et cetera (click\u00a0here<\/a> for a detailed explanation of 12-tone equal temperament). Most conventional instruments\u00a0are fretted in this tuning, and even fretless instruments are rarely used to play something other than 12-ET.<\/p>\n

As lifelong listeners of music, we know on an implicit level, before the first listen, what an album will sound like. I’m not speaking of our assumptions about instrumentation, arrangements, or melodies and harmonies in any given genre. I’m speaking directly of the one implicit assumption we all have when we approach new music: tonality. We take 12-ET for granted, never considering that music could be written using a completely different tonal base.<\/p>\n

We do this because we are exposed only to music written in 12-ET from a young age. During the critical, formative periods of our young years, we exclusively experience music written in conventional 12-ET tuning. As we progress in our musical experience, we often look for new, challenging sounds (especially we in the metal community); but what we do not always look for, and indeed, something we may not even consider, is to change the\u00a0basic framework of Western music. We approach new music with the same presuppositions we approach reading new concepts or writing using more complex language; that is, from an English standpoint.<\/p>\n

Let’s explore further the similarity between our understanding of music and our understanding of language: we are exposed to language very early on in our lives, and it continues to be a subject of speculation how young children acquire language as quickly as they do. What we do know for certain is that children exposed to language are able to learn it, and eventually speak in complex sentences, conveying the meaning in their thoughts to other people in their social circles. Initially, we give this acquisition of knowledge little thought; it’s only later in life that we start giving grammar lessons, or spelling bees, to ensure our children’s understanding of language is of a high enough calibre to be able to communicate effectively in reading, writing, and speaking.<\/p>\n

How often have we remarked “she is out of tune” or “he can’t carry a tune”? We recognize tonality as though it were a language, a common ground of comprehension, and interact with music based on that implicit assumption. 12-ET is our first music language, and to break from its mold when challenged with an alternate musical language is difficult – more difficult, in ways, to learn a second language, since encountering a different language is more common in life than encountering an alternate tonality.<\/p>\n

Tonality is our way of understanding music — it is essentially our grammar. It is the framework, the rule, through which a wide variety of statements can be made. When we encounter a new tonality, we are as lost as we would be speaking with a person whose language we couldn’t understand. We may be able to grab onto a few things here and there, but as far as understanding goes, we’d be hopelessly unable to make any kind of meaningful communication.<\/p>\n