Journal Article

Commentary

Sami Abu Shumays

2024

Overview

[1.3] Music Theory has yet to catch up with field of Linguistics in being fully comparative, and is at least 108 years behind that field in my estimation: dating to the 1916 publication of Saussure’s Le Cours de linguistique générale, which established a theoretical framework rooted in the comparison of different languages, the arbitrariness of the sign, and the description of language as a communication system. [1.4] Hence the current MTO special volume by the editors of Music Theory in the Plural is tremendously important in beginning to rectify these gaps in knowledge—at minimum it will allow English-language readers to begin to contemplate what they didn’t know that they don’t know. ~ [2.1] On the second level of my commentary I’ll say that the basic premise of Liam Hynes-Tawa’s translation of Fumio Koizumi’s text is convincing to me on the basis of the evidence presented: that there exist nuclear tones in Japanese melodies, and that many melodies exhibit two such tones, often a fourth apart. A deeper comparison between these traditions might yield interesting insights. ~ [3.1] The third level of my commentary will be on the weaknesses of the analysis in my view. For those without such experience, the experiential proof I assert here is rooted in a more concrete fact: that notating music strips the overwhelming majority of information content from the sound in order to reduce it to notation.

• Publisher: Society for Music Theory
• Subject: African music / Arabic music / Greek civilization / Linguistics / Melody / Music theory / Traditions