Among the many words and concepts that surround music and its learning, there is one that is especially ambiguous and recurring. Musical language, that expression that we have heard in so many different situations and mouths, clearly suggests some kind of communication system, but what do we mean when we put the words music and language together? Let's try to clarify this matter once and for all.
What do we understand by musical language?
Well, like so many other words and expressions, what we know as musical language can refer to several different aspects of music practice and theory. On the one hand, from a more academic point of view, musical language brings together issues as diverse as musical notation, reading, rhythmic, melodic and harmonic expression, ear education or even musical elements and their structure. All of this large group of areas of knowledge, so to speak, turn musical language into a kind of catch-all where almost anything that is considered “knowing music” fits in everyday conversations.
Notation and musical reading
How to remember a piece of music over time? This question has been resolved throughout history in different ways, depending on the degree of technological evolution, so to speak, of each era and human community. What in ancient times was probably an art based on repetition and memory, where oral transmission was the center of any musical activity, was accompanied by attempts to leave in writing, through some system of signs, that information, that cultural legacy, those compositional findings of previous generations. Thus, for centuries, the call was concocted musical notation. We are referring to increasingly numerous staves, notes and interpretive symbols that attempted to transfer to paper, to a graphic representation, the musical works and experiences that were being created. That today, if you have learned this code of signs, these musical spellings, we can write and read musical pieces, reproduce the intention of a composer or performer, to a certain extent, at least, is due to that continued effort of musicians. who wanted to preserve the music of the past and present so that it would be accessible in the future. What the invention of the printing press made it the best way to immortalize a musical work, in the 20th century, with the appearance of musical audio recordings, provided another way, perhaps more direct, of listening to previous works, learning them and reproducing them. .
The musical expression
But, in addition to notation, writing and reading staves, and trying to synthesize something alive like a sung song or an instrumental piece played by humans, other details, often subtle but no less important, affect our perception. musical. The way of understanding and interpreting musical passages with any instrument, including the voice, for example, the qualities of the sound we produce with those instruments, the use of silences and, in general, the internalization and rhythmic execution of melodies or songs. accompaniments are some of the facets covered by the so-called musical expression. To a certain extent, we could say that musical notation tries to be scientific, precise, scrupulous, while expression in music, as a discipline of study, points rather to the subjective, to how each person projects their inner voice and creates or contributes. to previous compositions his personal stamp, his particular character at a given moment and time.
Ear education
Accompanying all this rosary of signs, we have another very important component of what we know as musical language: the auditory education. Academically, it is common to consider the internalization of musical elements as training, as a systematic and repetitive practice of the so-called relative ear, which, based on a given note, can mentally recognize music heard, written or memorized. What has traditionally been called sol-fa It would be a part of this training, as well as melodic, rhythmic and harmonic dictations, among other related exercises. Based on the musical intervals and rhythmic figures, basically, the musician should be able to reproduce the music that is proposed to him and, it is assumed, also understand its logic and purpose.
Musical elements and structure
Rhythm, melody and harmony are often mentioned as the fundamental elements of any piece of music. Language, when we refer to music, specifically includes these elements both individually and together. Melodic and harmonic analysis, rhythmic perception and expression, and the intersections of these elements that, in reality, cannot exist in the real world separately, are issues that are addressed from different perspectives as part of what is considered musical language. . The formal structure of songs and the various ways of organizing musical material in pieces with purposes and durations of all kinds are also the object of study in the so-called musical language.
Practice and language in music
When we become interested in a specific composer or performer and we begin to listen to his or her works, for example, carefully, what we are going to be perceiving is precisely his or her musical language, the specific selection of sound elements that he, she or they, if We mean a group, you have chosen to communicate musically with the world, with us. That is perhaps the most useful meaning for anyone when listening to music and songs, to be able to complete that special communication between musicians and listeners. Understanding the combination of a certain type of rhythms, or a particular way of playing an instrument and the final result of those specific characteristics, the ensemble, is one of the greatest satisfactions that an audience can obtain from a musical experience.
Conclusions
With all this said, written and commented, we could think that musical language is a theoretical question and little more. It's not strange. Musical education, especially in societies that usually call themselves more developed, has been institutionalized little by little and practice, which is the origin and logical and healthy destination of musical experiences, has remained almost as an accessory. of the theory, as something later, in the best of cases, as a reward for the effort of years of study. It would be good to break with this trend if we want music to have vitality and presence in the daily life of cities, towns, their communities and their families, in the most everyday part of our lives. Music is free. Everyone can sing and, in fact, most of us sing without worrying about the theory that may emerge from our singing. What is too pompously called musical language is music itself in action. When we sing carefreely or play an instrument in a self-taught way, for example, we are using musical languages, perhaps without the support of theoretical terminology, but with a completely authentic and real intention, with an instinct that brings together everything from our genetics to the sound education that we have. we have had, even if unconsciously. getElementsByClassName( 'event-ga-me-apoint-form-small', function( event ) { gtag('event', 'submission', { 'event_category': 'form'});}, false ); #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_form { } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_column_with_background { padding: 10px; } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_form_column:not(:first-child) { margin-left: 20px; } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_paragraph { line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 20px; } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_segment_label, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_text_label, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_textarea_label, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_select_label, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_radio_label, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_checkbox_label, 3 .mailpoet_list_label, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_date_label { display: block; font-weight: normal; } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_text, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_textarea, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_select, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_date_month, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_date_day, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_date_year, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_date { display :block; } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_text, #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_textarea { width: 200px; } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_checkbox { } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_submit { } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_divider { } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_message { } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_form_loading { width: 30px; text-align: center; line-height: normal; } #mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_form_loading > span { width: 5px; height: 5px; background-color: #5b5b5b; }#mailpoet_form_3{border: 1px solid #fcb900;border-radius: 40px;text-align: center;}#mailpoet_form_3 form.mailpoet_form {padding: 20px;}#mailpoet_form_3{width: 70%;}#mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_message {margin : 0; padding: 0 20px;}#mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_paragraph.last {margin-bottom: 0} @media (max-width: 500px) {#mailpoet_form_3 {background-image: none;}} @media (min-width: 500px) { #mailpoet_form_3 .last .mailpoet_paragraph:last-child {margin-bottom: 0}} @media (max-width: 500px) {#mailpoet_form_3 .mailpoet_form_column:last-child .mailpoet_paragraph:last-child {margin-bottom: 0}} Please leave this field emptyDo you write songs or would you like to?
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