Music in Language: Do words matter in music?
Language is too messy to be distinctly musical: It can't be efficiently organized by bar lines, has no standardized melodic contour across various languages, does not fall naturally into a 4/4 meter, etc., yet has a powerful synergy with music--depending on where it is placed on the continuum of attention.
Lyrics are typically pushed to the background of most pop music, even though the singer is singing them in the foreground. In some African cultures even the music itself is secondary to the cultural or tribal functions. We hear it in field recordings and consume it as music but that might be a great misunderstanding about its cultural purpose.
We assume music is a purely aesthetic art that can naturally absorb textual information, and have it be as powerful as text alone. But that doesn't happen naturally on its own. Sometimes you need to treat them as distinct objects in a song, and not be too attached to having them mean something to everyone. Like visual art, the meaning is an alchemy with the viewer. In African cultural rites, the meaning is what anthropologist Edward Hall calls 'high context', where meaning is tacitly understood, obviating detailed explanations. Perhaps western music in its attempt to be didactic may be falling on deaf ears--because the ears are hearing (and perceiving) different things depending on the social value.
T. S. Eliot wondered, "does the attempt to design and create an object for the sake of beauty become conscious? At what point in civilization does any conscious distinction between practical or magical utility and aesthetic beauty arise?" Cave paintings were not meant to be necessarily beautiful nor was the response to them an aesthetic one, at least not in the way we use the word..."
Sometimes words are used musically for the purpose of making social commentary (a foreground use of words), yet get pushed back by the cleverness of the approach. In the recent mashup of the sample taken from a YouTube video of a protester of a Koran burning. The phrase "Dude you have no Koran" is musical and becomes the hook. It makes an attempt to be social commentary, but may be obfuscated by the celebrity treatment of it. It is an amazingly effective use of the natural prosody of the phrase, but perhaps not so effective in being morally instructive in the literal sense. Perhaps it means that the gesture is feckless, but that might not be universally understood. Once things become reduced to slogans on placards and tshirts, the attention is on the celebrity, not the cause.
The mashup:
The source video:
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In the Talking Heads' "The Great Curve" it is obvious that the music existed before the words and were used rhythmically in layers, like the rest of the music. But they are not written to have literal meaning. It can mean something if you contemplate them, but they are 'placeholders' of meaning. If you wrote music to these lyrics it would not work the same way. The 'so say so' refrain is meaningless albeit self-referential. It is a highly rhythmic utterance, with three sibilant syllables that sound percussive when you sing them rapidly, rendering the voice into another percussion instrument.
The key to the power of words and music is to place them in the proper location--not metrically, but at the level of attention. Words are immediately powerful when placed in a title that perhaps are also in the hook of a song.
In Cee Lo Green's *Forget* You it is obvious and intentionally blatant, and musical from the standpoint of extracting the plosive power of the word, sonically and literally. The lyric is totally in the foreground. The meaning does not have to be contemplated as one would do with a cryptic poem. And the music is good on its own--it's a good song, and we can appreciate it for that. It is both a bromide and epithet depending on where you place the importance of the words.
Kanye West's song George Bush Doesn't Care about Black People written immediately following Hurricane Katrina exists purely on the one phrase. Even if there was no music or was just 4 minutes of white noise it would mean the same thing. The video extrapolates the meaning, but essentially functions the same way politically.
In Matisse's "Harmony in Red", the wallpaper in the background is of the same pattern in the tablecloth. This might be what is happening in some music with lyrics, where the elements may be meant to be at separate levels on the planes of attention but get compressed into one.
In some cultures words, symbols or designs are pushed to the foreground, with the music insignificant, or even banished. But as to how a modern culture treats lyrics may depend on where we place our attention.
Lyrics are typically pushed to the background of most pop music, even though the singer is singing them in the foreground. In some African cultures even the music itself is secondary to the cultural or tribal functions. We hear it in field recordings and consume it as music but that might be a great misunderstanding about its cultural purpose.
We assume music is a purely aesthetic art that can naturally absorb textual information, and have it be as powerful as text alone. But that doesn't happen naturally on its own. Sometimes you need to treat them as distinct objects in a song, and not be too attached to having them mean something to everyone. Like visual art, the meaning is an alchemy with the viewer. In African cultural rites, the meaning is what anthropologist Edward Hall calls 'high context', where meaning is tacitly understood, obviating detailed explanations. Perhaps western music in its attempt to be didactic may be falling on deaf ears--because the ears are hearing (and perceiving) different things depending on the social value.
T. S. Eliot wondered, "does the attempt to design and create an object for the sake of beauty become conscious? At what point in civilization does any conscious distinction between practical or magical utility and aesthetic beauty arise?" Cave paintings were not meant to be necessarily beautiful nor was the response to them an aesthetic one, at least not in the way we use the word..."
Sometimes words are used musically for the purpose of making social commentary (a foreground use of words), yet get pushed back by the cleverness of the approach. In the recent mashup of the sample taken from a YouTube video of a protester of a Koran burning. The phrase "Dude you have no Koran" is musical and becomes the hook. It makes an attempt to be social commentary, but may be obfuscated by the celebrity treatment of it. It is an amazingly effective use of the natural prosody of the phrase, but perhaps not so effective in being morally instructive in the literal sense. Perhaps it means that the gesture is feckless, but that might not be universally understood. Once things become reduced to slogans on placards and tshirts, the attention is on the celebrity, not the cause.
The mashup:
The source video:
***
In the Talking Heads' "The Great Curve" it is obvious that the music existed before the words and were used rhythmically in layers, like the rest of the music. But they are not written to have literal meaning. It can mean something if you contemplate them, but they are 'placeholders' of meaning. If you wrote music to these lyrics it would not work the same way. The 'so say so' refrain is meaningless albeit self-referential. It is a highly rhythmic utterance, with three sibilant syllables that sound percussive when you sing them rapidly, rendering the voice into another percussion instrument.
The key to the power of words and music is to place them in the proper location--not metrically, but at the level of attention. Words are immediately powerful when placed in a title that perhaps are also in the hook of a song.
In Cee Lo Green's *Forget* You it is obvious and intentionally blatant, and musical from the standpoint of extracting the plosive power of the word, sonically and literally. The lyric is totally in the foreground. The meaning does not have to be contemplated as one would do with a cryptic poem. And the music is good on its own--it's a good song, and we can appreciate it for that. It is both a bromide and epithet depending on where you place the importance of the words.
Kanye West's song George Bush Doesn't Care about Black People written immediately following Hurricane Katrina exists purely on the one phrase. Even if there was no music or was just 4 minutes of white noise it would mean the same thing. The video extrapolates the meaning, but essentially functions the same way politically.
In Matisse's "Harmony in Red", the wallpaper in the background is of the same pattern in the tablecloth. This might be what is happening in some music with lyrics, where the elements may be meant to be at separate levels on the planes of attention but get compressed into one.
In some cultures words, symbols or designs are pushed to the foreground, with the music insignificant, or even banished. But as to how a modern culture treats lyrics may depend on where we place our attention.
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