Transcript Abstract and Concrete Meter

Abstract and Concrete Meter
John Halle
Bard College Conservatory
Introduction: Four problems in metrical form.
•
“Pure” Linguistics: The Stress Assignment Problem (e.g. SPE 1968, Hayes 1995, Idsardi 2005 etc).
•
The prosodic form problem-(PFP) (Traditional Prosody: e.g. Malof 1970, Attridge 1982, Cureton
2000. Generative Metrics e.g. M. Halle-Keyser 1971, Hayes 1979, Hayes 1989, Hanson and
Kiparsky 1996, etc. )
“Given a poetic meter M, what conditions are imposed on a sequence of syllables S such that S can
be construed as members of the class M.”
•
The text setting problem (TSP) ( J. Halle-Lerdahl 1993, Hayes and Kaun 1996, Hayes and
MacEachern 1998, Kiparsky 2007, Hayes forthcoming)
“Given a sequence of syllables S and a (strophic) tune T, what assignments of S to T result in an
acceptable text setting.”
•
“Pure” Cognitive Music Theory (GTTM) The beat induction problem (Temperly 2006, Desain 2003,
Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1982, Longuet-Higgins 1981 etc.)
Prosodic form problem: assignment of abstract metrical form (general)
Phonological sequence
(candidate line)
Metrical Paradigm
Abstract Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Metrical Line
Assignment of abstract meter (specific): Halle-Keyser (1971) Iambic Pentameter
Syllabic Sequence:
“The curfew toll the knell of parting day.”
“Ode to the West Wind by Percy Byssche
Shelly”*
HK Iambic Pentameter:
(W)SWSWSWS(X)(X)
Assignment: correspond each syllable to position
in metrical paradigm
Evaluation: SM must appear in S position.
Stress Maximum definition:
“Fully stressed syllable adjacent to
unstressed syllables in the same syntactic
constituent.”
Metrical Line
W S W S W S W S W
S XX
The curfew tolls the knell of parting
day.ø ø
Ode to the West Wind by Percy Bysche Shelly.ø * (unmetrical line)
Text setting problem (English):
Syllable sequence
a. “Tell me not in mournful numbers”.
b. “Through all the compass of the notes”.
Note Sequence-e.g “Ode to Joy”
x
x
x
x
x x x x x x x x
B B C D D C B A
Concrete Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Assign syllables to note(s)
Subject to
•
Stress-beat matching
•
Constituency matching
•
Constraints on melismas
Acceptable text setting
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x x
B
B
C
D
D
C
B A
“Tell
me
not in mournful numbers”.
“Through all the comp ass of the notes”.*
Strophic Text setting problem
Syllable sequence
Strophic Tune Family
Concrete Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Acceptable text setting
Tune family defined by strophic variants: “The Drunken Sailor” (Halle-Lerdahl 1993)
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
A
A
A
A
A
What
shall we
do
with
Keel
haul
him
Put him in
the scup pers with
x
A
a
a
x
x
x
A
drun
till
hose
x
x
x
D
ken
he’s
pipe
x
x
x
x
F
sai
so
on
x
x
x
A
lor? Original
ber. variant
him. variant
Similarity Metric (Halle, forthcoming):
1 = mandatory occupancy (occupied in original and in strophic variants)
Ø = mandatory vacancy (vacant in original and in strophic variants)
+ = optional occupancy (vacant in original may be occupied in strophic variants)
- = optional occupancy (occupied in original may be vacant in strophic variants
x
+
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
A
A
A
A
A
1
+
1
+
What
shall we
do
with
Keel
haul
him
Put him in
the scup pers with
x
A
a
a
x
x
x
A
1
drun
till
hose
x
+
x
x
D
1
ken
he’s
pipe
x
x
x
x
F
+
1
sai
so
on
x
x
A
+
1
lor? original
ber. variant
him. variant
x
“The Farmer in the Dell”
x
C
+
x
C
1
The
The
El
The
x
x
F
1
far
rat
i
far
x
F
+
za
x
x
x
F
F
1
mer
in
eats
beth eats
mer
in
x
F
+
x
F
the
the
the
the
x
x
x
x
x
x
F
1
ø
ø
ø
dell. (attested)
cheese. (attested)
cheese. (construct but OK)
val ley.* (construct, not OK)
Does PFP = TSP?
Indication 1) Abstract metrical paradigm designates a string of positions, some of which are
occupied or vacant. Exactly analogous form of strophic variants.
HK metrical paradigm (revisited): (W) S W S W S W S W S (X) (X)
Parentheses represent “optional positions” within attested iambic pentameter lines:
(W) S W S
W S W S W S (X) (X)
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day. ø
ø (regular “end stopped” line)
(W) S W S W S W S W S (X) (X)
To be or not to be that is the question. ø (“feminine ending”)
(W)S W S W S W S WS(X)(X)
Whatever ails me, now a-late especially. (“double feminine ending”)
(W) S W S W S W S W S (X) (X)
ø Twenty bookes clad in blak and red ø ø (headless iamb)
Expressing HK iambic pentameter paradigm within the similarity metric
Step 1) Assign each position in HK paradigm appropriate occupancy status
- 1
(w) s
1
w
1
s
1
w
1
s
1
w
1
s
1
w
1 + +
s (x)(x)
Step 2) Assign metrical levels: (SM in bold)
x
x
x
x x x
x
x
x
- 1 1
1
1
1
(w) s w
s
w
s
The curfew tolls the knell
x
x x x
1 1 1
w s w
of parting
x
x L(0)
x x x L(-1)
1 + +
s (x)(x)
day.
Not
x
x
x
x
x
L(0)
x x x
x
x
x
x
x x
x L(-1)
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
Why? Contains mismatches. (see e.g. Kelly and Palmer 1992)
Reason 2) SMP (prosodic category) appears to help explain Stress-Beat
Mismatch in text setting.
a) Relatively stressed syllables in weak positions-no mismatch
x
x
x
x
x x x
By the dawn’s early light (U.S. National Anthem) (Prince 1988)
b) Relatively unstressed syllables in relatively strong positions-no mismatch
x
x x
xxx x
California (here I come)
c) But stress maxima in weak positions problematic:
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x x x x
x x x x x x x x
1) By the a maz ing light.* (construct)
C D E C C D E C (Frère Jacques)
2) The boy is at home on Friday*
3) Joe's boy is at home on Friday
So PFP = TSP (maybe)
Not so fast. Consensus among metricists is no.
Tarlinskaya (2002) (contra Attridge 1982):
"though music and language used to be intertwined, they parted ways long ago. Musical meter
and meter of verse texts cannot be equated; musical theories of meter need no resurrection."
Why the skepticism? All external evidence is negative.
1) Temporalist/musicalist representations of declamation patterns of metrical texts are often at best
idiosyncratic at worst bizarre:
e.g. Lanier (1899)
Gross (1964): Lanier “scatters sand in the eye and pours wax in the ear. “
2) Recitations of unproblematically metrical texts are frequently not in any
obvious objective or subjective sense periodic.
e.g. Shakespeare/Gielgud
3) Consistent with conclusion of Patel (2008):
“Temporal periodicity is widespread in musical rhythm but lacking in
speech rhythm. The notion that speech has temporal periodic structure
drove much of the early research into speech rhythm, and was the basis for
a rhythmic typology of languages which persists today (stress timed vs.
syllable timed languages). It is quite evident that that the notion of
isochrony in speech is not empirically supported.”
Explains
a)
Why musicalist scansions have been seductive.
b)
Why they don’t work.
But if traditional prosodic and GM representations of poetic meter do not implicate
temporal/rhythmic structure, what are they representations of?
Representation of abstract structure.
• Groves (2002): “Formal prosody has reject(ed) the notion that the utterance of the verse can have
any relevance to the meter.” Meter is “a property of texts rather than utterances . . . static and inert, a
pattern existing outside of or apart from any actual reading of the poem.”
• HK: Metrical form = "abstract pattern" comparable to "flowers in a flower bed, desks in a
classroom, windows on the side of a house.”
• Fabb and Halle (2008): “stipulate a fundamental difference between the meter of a text viewed
abstractly and the rhythm of a concrete performance of the text.”
• Gouvard (2000):
Cette distinction entre la versification et la prononciation des vers, qui relève de la
practique du récitant, du comedien ou de l'orateur, est un point capital: l’étude de la forme
du vers n'est pas l’étude de la declamation du vers du telle ou telle époque. Les règles qui
president l’écriture versifiée d'une oeuvre litteraire ne sont pas de règles de composition.
Conclusion: Concrete and abstract metrical form are independent structures with shared elements.
Poetic meter
Text setting
Abstract Metrical Paradigm
Syllable sequence
Syllable sequence
Abstract Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Metrical Line
but
Note sequence
Concrete Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Acceptable Text Setting
(performance specification)
Abstract and concrete metrical form frequently interact:
1)
Pre-existing metrical texts probably constitutes the majority of lyrics e.g. Schubert,
Debussy, Fauré, Dowland, etc.
2) Hymnals: arranged according to textual meter (Kiparsky 2007) LM (long meter), SM
(short meter), CM (common meter) etc.
3) Metrically rigid texts Oehrle (1988), Nursery rhymes (Arleo 2003) (Burling 1970),
Dolnik (Tarlinskaya 2001) are easily assigned a concrete periodic/rhythmicized form by
readers.
e.g.
Thirty days hath September
April June and November
All the rest have thirty-one
Excepting February alone
And that has twenty-eight days clear
And twenty-nine in each Leap Year
4)
Hayes p.c. “Composing songs with metrical texts is much easier.”
How do concrete and abstract form interact in text setting?
Consensus position: abstract, textual meter mediates between text and tune.
Kiparsky (2007):
In setting texts, “(c)omposers . . . construct a match between three tiers of rhythmic
structure: linguistic prominence, poetic meter, and musical rhythm.”
Dell-Elmadoui (2008) Berber text setting
Abstract meter is not a necessary characteristic of acceptable texts assigned to tunes.
Reason 1: Settings of prose texts are a) common and b) constrained with acceptability
evaluated on the same grounds as metrical texts.
(Turn, Turn, Turn-Pete Seeger setting of Ecclesiastes 3: 1)
(Simplified transcription)
x
C
To
x
x
E
eve
C
E
there is
A
And
x
x
x
x
F
G |
ry thing/
x
x
x
x
x
F
G
G ||
a seas on//
A
a
G
G
F
E
time/to eve ry
D
pur
C | E D
D
C
|||
pose/ un der hea ven. ///
/ = linguistic constituent (prosodic) boundary
| = musical constituent (group) boundary
SM in bold
1 constituency mismatch, 0 SM mismatches
But Ecclesiastes 1:1 (also prose) assigned to Seeger tune seems unnatural:
x
C
Van
x
x
E
i
C
van
E
i
A
the
C
| E
van
i
x
F
ty
x
x
G |
of
F
G
ties/sa
A
prea
D
ties/
x
x
x
x
x
x
F
it
E
y
D
of
G ||
ith
G
G
cher.//Van
D
C
|||
all
is . . .
7 constituency mismatches, 3 SM mismatches
Reason 2: Even when text is metrical, composer may be unaware of abstract
metrical structure, choose to ignore it, or interpret it idiosyncratically. Text is effectively
prose.
Conclusion:
A formal model of text setting must represent that
1)
2)
Both prose texts and metrical texts can be associated with tunes. Both are
evaluated according to the constraints of text to tune matching.
Metrical texts tend to dictate a relatively narrow class of melodic forms,
including, but not limited to, the “schoolboy” declamation pattern associated
with them.
Abstract Metrical
Paradigm
Syllable sequence
Mediated path
(prosodic text setting)
Direct path
(prose text setting)
Abstract Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Note sequence
Metrical Line
Concrete Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Text Setting
(performance specification)
Mediated path: abstract meter directly mapped onto concrete meter defines prosodic tune
family. (Parlor game).
Iambic tetrameter tune family.
1) Hernando’s Hideaway
Prosodic tune family: tune-text composite with the following specifications:
S > strong grid position, W > weak grid position, line final syllable > group final note (usually max. long)
2) Syncopated Clock (simplified)
Iambic pentameter tune family: Fain and Hallmark (1977)
x
x
x
x
x
x
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
W S
W S
W S
W S
W S
|
Schubert: “Ungeduld”
Text Initial, Mediated Path
Abstract Metrical
Paradigm
Syllable sequence
Abstract Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Note sequence
Metrical Line
Concrete Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Text Setting
(performance specification)
Tune Initial Text Setting
Abstract Metrical
Paradigm
Syllable sequence
Abstract Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Metrical Line
(“for free”)
Concrete Metrical Form
(assignment-evaluation)
Text Setting
(performance specification)
Prosodic Note
sequence
Conclusion:
In these instances, abstract metrical form is a special case of the strophic
textsettting problem.
D Pesetsky (p.c.)
“What we call "iambic pentameter" or the like is simply one of a set of tunes
that are elevated to special status within a poetic tradition. It could just as well
have turned out that our literary culture would have elevated White Christmas,
Drunken Sailor or 76 Trombones, but it didn't. In general, the English poetic
tradition picked fairly sedate and highly regular patterns as its canonical tunes,
but that's an accident of our literary culture.”
Empirical question: How prevalent are these instances? If dominant, TSP =
PFP.