Abstract
Singing is a universal human activity. Across the vast range of song traditions throughout the world, native speakers have consistent intuitions about how the syllables in a given line of song text should be set to the tunes and/or rhythms within their various song traditions. This paper presents an Optimality Theoretic analysis of text-setting in a set of ceremonial songs traditionally sung and passed on orally by groups of Kaytetye-speaking women in Central Australia. Australian Aboriginal songs are renowned for the degree to which they diverge from speech. For our analysis, we use a computational method to exhaustively generate all permitted ways sung forms may diverge from their spoken equivalents along with all possible ways each form may be set to rhythm. We show that the seemingly idiosyncratic nature of text-setting strategies in this song set can be accounted for through a relatively generic set of constraints (even when thousands of competing candidates are considered), reflecting many of the fundamental processes that govern the interaction of language, meter, and music.
Highlights
While the basis for these preferences in textsetting has been the subject of some research in phonology and metrics (e.g. Halle & Lerdahl, 1993; Dell & Halle, 2009; Hayes, 2009), the song traditions analysed have not involved significant changes to the song texts when sung. If presented with such a tradition, it is natural to ask the following questions: Why does the metrical template of the song tradition require such significant changes to the sung text? What properties of the language permit such changes? How do the rhythmic requirements and the set of permitted changes interact such that a specific type of change is expected in a given rhythmic context for a given text but not in any others? More broadly, what do such interactions reveal about the relation between language and music?
We present an analysis of textsetting in Akwelye [akʊʎә] — a set of ceremonial songs traditionally sung and passed on orally by groups of Kaytetyespeaking women in Central Australia
This paper has shown how the metrical template of Akwelye signals measure boundaries through increases in the rhythmic duration of the measurefinal syllables
Summary
All but two of the nonfaithful sung lines are associated with song texts that begin with an unstressed utteranceinitial vowel, e.g. the initial [a] in (1a) [awɪʎɔwaɾәɳә] Singing this line faithfully would involve alignment of the unstressed vowel [a] to the downbeat (a rhythmically strong location), and one of the nonfaithful options is preferred. Among the nonfaithful options, the deletion of the initial unstressed vowel [a] is preferred in the case of (1a) given the morphophonological structure of the song text and rhythmic requirements of Akwelye. We show that the seemingly idiosyncratic nature of textsetting strategies in Akwelye can be accounted for through a relatively generic set of constraints (even when thousands of competing candidates are considered), reflecting many of the same fundamental processes that govern the interaction of language, meter, and music
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
