Editorial Reviews
Book Description
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.
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.
Musical Languages,Joseph P. Swain,W. W. Norton & Company,0393040798,General,History & Criticism - General,Linguistics,Music,Music and language,Philosophy And Esthetics Of Music,Reference,Cognition & cognitive psychology,Language & Linguistics,Musical theatre,Theory of music & musicology
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