"... by 'light' vs. 'heavy' (Kpelle people in Liberia), 'sharp' vs. 'heavy' (ancient Greek music theory), 'small' vs. 'large,' used in Bali and Java, as well as among Kpelle and Jabo in Liberia...), 'young' vs. 'old' (Suyá people of the Amazon basin...) or 'weak' vs. 'strong' (the Bashi people of central Africa...). Often, pitch vocabulary seems to derive from specific cultural practices. For instance, pitch classification for the Shona mbira (Zimbabwe) includes the opposition of 'crocodile' (low pitch) with 'those who follow crocodiles' (high), and 'stable (person) who holds the piece together' (low) vs. 'mad person' (high), as well as 'old men’s voices' (low) vs. 'young men’s voices' (high), 'men’s voices' vs. 'women’s voices,' and 'thin' (low) vs. 'thick' (high).... In the Gbaya xylophone (Central African Republic), notes are arranged genealogically, and include (from low to high) grandmother, mother, father, son and daughter...."
From the delightfully named
"Beethoven’s last piano sonata and those who follow crocodiles: Cross-domain mappings of auditory pitch in a musical context" (Academia) by Renee Timmers.
I got there via a discussion with Grok that began with my question "Why is it that the most emotional part of a melody is always (almost always?) a move to a higher note?" The answer shouldn't be because in real life heights are exciting/scary/magnificent.
Imagine thinking about a melody in terms of crocodiles and those who follow crocodiles!
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20 comments:
Even “March Slav” goes up in pitch, but the thumping bases are ominous. Never heard the term “crocodile” in music. Seems like a grade school term for the crescendo and decrescendo symbols.
The ear craves resolution of a chord, high or low, the ear waits in anticipation of that resolution, that note that completes the chord.
If you’re a Tenor II, as I am, this mood intensification via transposing successive versus up by a full pitch is maddening. Pretty soon, I’m in Tenor I territory and employing my best falsetto.
See ya later, alligator.
In a while, crocodile.
This reminded me of Jackson Crawford's discussions about color names in old Norse and how people misinterpret the lack of words corresponding precisely to our modern English color names.
Music theory is a great example of "six blind men and an elephant." The most accessible modern explainer I've found is David Bennett (link below). A lot of music theory is gobbledygook to me still.
Music makes the most sense (to me), as a synthesis of natural cycles such as heart beat and breathing coupled with language (metaphors above), learning, warnings, and affiliation (friends; mating). The specific tones and patterns become a local shared code. Still, music is always rooted in heart rate and human hearing potential and language.
Think of musical passages as nouns and verbs in a story. The high points (i.e., emotional peak) follows as the culmination of X, then Y, then synthesis and resolution.
https://www.youtube.com/@DavidBennettPiano
Of course, the high notes are thrilling: they're the crocodile.
The most amazing thing about sound is the fact that our hearing ability is tuned to our vocalization ability. There are lots of frequencies we can’t hear nor emit.
Music as following crocodiles. As Nietchsze said, "Without herpetology, life would be a mistake."
Is this from What's Up Doc?
High pitch requires more tension in the vocal chords and the listener can maybe feel that. I asked Grok "is there a word or phrase for like an empathy felt when seeing someone lift something heavy etc. it might involve "mirror neurons" or whatever."
Grok answered (very satisfactorily): kinesthetic empathy
One way to increase your pain tolerance is just to recognize the different frequencies of the different types of pain and then focus on the signal and relax. A strong heavy dull ache is a low frequency signal while an intense sharp pain is a high frequency signal.
I'm my experience for music, you feel the frequencies in different parts of your body. The high frequencies go directly into your brain and you're very conscious of those sounds while the low frequencies go into your heart and affect your subconscious directly. That doesn't mean you can't consciously listen to the bass. It just means that you tend to not be conscious of it but are moved by it without truly realizing it.
Another way to look at it is that high frequencies stimulated your sympathetic nervous system of fight flight or freeze while low frequency stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system of rest and digest. This is one reason why men are authority figures. Our are deep voices, transmit, calm and confidence that makes others around you feel more secure.
The answer shouldn't be because in real life heights are exciting/scary/magnificent.
Why not? I think it's more that rising tones seemed to Westerners to be ascending, going up stairs, not chasing after crocodiles. There's also the fact that the air is thinner higher up, less substantial, "shriller" in a way -- though the Greeks may not have known that. Higher tones seem less resonant, less substantial, less overwhelming.
Heavy and light also works, or thick (fat) and thin, or deep and shallow, or dull (flat) and sharp, but by the time we were writing down music, it was going to be high and low. High and low tones are both "scary" though in opposing ways. You can be crushed under the heavy bass notes and torn apart by the screeching trebel.
“ Of course, the high notes are thrilling: they're the crocodile.”
No, they’re the guy who follows the crocodile. And gets too close.
“ For instance, pitch classification for the Shona mbira (Zimbabwe) includes the opposition of 'crocodile' (low pitch) with 'those who follow crocodiles' (high)”
Yes, when you fall into the river you shout HELP HELP in a low pitch, then you squeal help! help! In a high piched voice. Opposition vs. Following.
Leland,
I don't follow: The most memorable phrase in March Slav is a descending line, and while the melody does ascend after that, the only time it gets as high as the opening note, that is immediately followed by another descending line.
“ Why not? I think it's more that rising tones seemed to Westerners to be ascending, going up stairs….”
There is nothing actually vertical going on (other than in the written notation). Verticality is as much a metaphor as the crocodile.
“ Of course, the high notes are thrilling: they're the crocodile.”
I’m wrong there. The crocodile is the low note.
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