Research of the Sounds of Literature: Formant Music and a Prosodic Notation for Performance

Abstract

The author addresses relations between literature and United States society from 1926 through 1986. This relationship is first addressed via a description of the roaring 1920s in terms of the sale of a pickle. Then the author discusses his research and creation of formant music involving melodious, dissonant, rise/fall resonances in the upper oral regions of the vocal tract. This is ‘whisper music’ made by differing the shapes of the oral cavity through postures of the tongue, lips and jaws. Third, an alphabetic notation for performance called ‘prosodynic print’ is introduced. Here, distorted but readable letters act as cues to instruct readers to speak levels of intensity, pitch and duration of vowels, i.e. modulation of voiced speech. Relations of voiced speech through the larynx and pharynx of the lower vocal tract with oral resonances in the upper vocal tract are discussed.