Re: On the Grammar of Music

[Alexandra Hettergott <a.hettergott@xxxxxxxxxx>]

John Croft replied :
>Certainly; but if musical stylistic variation is analogous to stylistic
>variation within a language, then is there any plausible candidate for
>the analogue of grammatical differences *between* languages?
Isn't this also sort of a (national / regional / epochal) *stylistic*
variation ...?
Anyhow, (musical) idiom / style / (particular) grammar use should be
interrelated, and as stated already, I wouldn't necessarily look for
1:1-(speech) analogies here. Something like a local dialect might most
closely correspond to the adequate (traditional) folk music style ; so
if you focus on aspects like different (traditional) instrumentation /
rhythmization, you might find a lot of examples as for idiomatic /
stylistic particularities. Imagine, for instance, the tune of the 'Blue
Danube' (J. Strauss jr.) rendered by the following music ensembles :
a Trinidad Steel Band, a Balinese Gamelan, a New Orleans Dixieland Band,
a Viennese Heurigen Ensemble ... Or in the (individual) style / musical
idiom of Franz Liszt (piano), Ravi Shankar (sitar), Jimmy Rodgers
(vocal), Fritz Kreisler (violin) ... Or in choral (canon) / symphonic
(sonata) / Lied (strophic) form, all with the respective
(genre-specific) cast ...
:ah