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Musical Languages [Hardcover]

Joseph P. Swain (Author)

3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews) |

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Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 1997

An insightful exploration of the link between music and language.

"How is music like language, and so what if it is?" Using this double-barreled question as a starting point, Joseph P. Swain takes us to the fascinating crossroads where the philosophy and theory of music meet the worlds of linguistics, perception, cognition, meaning, and even poetry.

In Musical Languages, Swain revisits the age-old analogy between music and language in light of the latest advances in modern linguistics and cognitive psychology. The author examines the aptness of the analogy and the degree to which it can be stretched, not only demonstrating the essential similarities between music and language but also exposing where the analogy breaks down. This book picks up where Leonard Bernstein's The Unanswered Question leaves off, rendering the ubiquitous expression "musical language" fresh once again.

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An insightful exploration of the link between music and language.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Joseph P. Swain is associate professor of music and head of the music theory curriculum at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. He has written on an unusually wide range of subjects and is the author of two earlier books: Sound Judgment: Basic Ideas about Music and The Broadway Musical: A Critical Study, the 1991 winner of a Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music.

Product Details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (August 17, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0393040798
ISBN-13: 978-0393040791
Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 0.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds

Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Sure What the Point Is, March 31, 2009

Chuck - See all my reviews

This review is from: Musical Languages (Hardcover)

I'm generally not keen on giving away surprise endings in books, but this one was pretty annoying, so--in the last chapter of this book, a book supposedly about "musical languages", the author states: "I do not conclude that music is a language". He follows up with: "A good many readers are no doubt irritated that this matter was not taken care of with an explicit definition right in the opening chapter". Indeed. He argues that examining music in terms of linguistics nevertheless provides "a treasury of images, models, and hypotheses for thinking about music". More like a contrived scholastic exercise, crashing two incompatible systems together in order to fill up a book with "compare and contrast". In the end it didn't seem particularly meaningful, maybe "interesting" in some way but nothing to enhance one's feel for language or music.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating analogy between music and language, June 16, 2008

John E. Potter (Hawaii) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Musical Languages (Hardcover)

Professor Joseph presents a new meaning between Language and Music, taking us to a wonderful journey.

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Hoffmann asked this question at a moment in history when the image of music as a kind of extraordinary language had reached a peak of sympathy. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
musical semantics, harmonic syntax, musical syntax, music perception, musical community, linguistic syntax, musical tension, semantic range, music analysis, motor rhythm, musical language, musical communities, syntactic effect, harmonic rhythm, pitch relations, harmonic tension, musical perceptions, pitch classes, rhythmic notation, musical information

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Charles Rosen, Fred Lerdahl, Milton Babbitt, Nicholas Cook, Well-Tempered Clavier, David Cruse, Mozart's C-major Quintet, Richard Wagner

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Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats

Citations (learn more)

This book cites 100 books:

The Classical Style: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (Expanded Edition) by Charles Rosen on 8 pages
The Language of Music (Clarendon Paperbacks) by Deryck Cooke on 6 pages
Languages of Art by Nelson Goodman on 5 pages
An Encyclopedia of Language (Routledge Reference) by N.E. Collinge on 5 pages
The Modularity of Mind by Jerry A. Fodor on 5 pages

See all 100 books this book cites

13 books cite this book:

Schoenberg and His World by Walter Frisch on page 49, and page 50
Classically Romantic by Jeffrey L. Buller in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste: Aesthetics in Religious Life by Frank Burch Brown in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Good Taste, Bad Taste, and Christian Taste: Aesthetics in Religious Life by Frank Burch Brown in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Music in Christian Worship: At the Service of the Liturgy by Charlotte Y. Kroeker on page 155

See all 13 books citing this book

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Perception And Cognition Of Music by Irene Deliege

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