Ingrid Wickelgren believes that music is
intrinsic in the daily language of a normal person. In her Audio article, The Music of Language, she
states that it is through music which individuals learn the nuances of a native
language. Wickelgren also states
that it is through language an individual learns music. This seems paradoxical, but Wickelgren
stresses the importance of music in language acquisition. Wickelgren says that
we learn what others actually mean through their pitch and tone and in doing so
we tune our ears for music. This
happens early in development, even prenatally.
Gary Marcus, author of Guitar Zero,
says almost the exact same information about music early in life as Wickelgren
does. In his book, Marcus says
that even prenatally, we are exposed to music. In the womb we may be sheltered from true music, but there
is still a lot for a fetus to hear: a mother’s heartbeat, her voice, and even
her breathing. These sounds help
tune the babies ears from the beginning of development through birth. Through these sounds the baby starts to
recognize it’s mother, Wickelgren says, and this leads to the bonding of the
mother and child. This bonding is
done through the mother’s speech that the baby heard through development and
after it was born. Marcus,
however, disagrees, and says that a person cannot simply learn music through
language and vice-versa. Marcus
does, however, believe that music and language can’t be two completely
independent entities and this can be seen through pitch. All speech has pitch and that is what
helps shape our language, reading skills, and musical ability.
Through pitch humans are able to detect
mood and intentions of another individual. If someone speaks with a stern, serious voice, it is
unmistakable that the person is conveying something that is important and
should be listened to by the target audience. If someone is excited their pitch will be higher and they
will talk faster. A great example
of this is the “motherese” as Gary Marcus puts it in his book. Motherese is the language that almost
everyone reverts to when they are talking to a baby. That high-pitched, excited babble lets the infant know that
they shouldn’t be worried and there is no imminent danger. Marcus argues that
this pseudo-language is not found cross-culturally, but Wickelgren
disagrees. She uses the comparison
of an English speaker and a German speaker. In one instance, both speakers say something positive and
both have a higher and more excited voice. In the other instance, both speakers say something negative
and this time they are both more monotone.
Both authors do agree upon one thing:
nature AND nurture. Throughout
reading Guitar Zero and The Music of Language, time and again I
came across the same conclusion; Music is a product of nature and nurture. Put simply, there are people born with
a talent for music, but without the environmental factors, such as opportunity
to play an instrument or for some a teacher, they may not succeed. The antithesis, a person who dedicates
their life to music and finds all the opportunities to play or sing but has no
natural talent, is also true.
Without the genetic predisposition for musical talent a person cannot
hope to achieve the same level of mastery as someone who was born with the natural
talent. Marcus, who admits to
having no musical talent whatsoever, uses his sabbatical to dedicate all his
time to learning guitar, and to a lesser extent piano. With all this time he spent practicing
he achieved his goal of attaining some musical prowess, but as soon as he went
to a camp for music he met more talented musicians than himself that had played
for less time.
Wickelgren discusses how language is
influenced not only by an individual’s genetics but also their
environment. She looked at women
from two different rural villages in china that spoke Mandarin. When voices
were compared in the same villages, there was barely any difference. When the women were compared across
different villages the voices were completely different. Genetically the women from both villages
were very similar which means that these differences in voices between villages
come from an environmental factor rather than a biological factor.
The similarities between language and
music are so great that some have even claimed that they are special forms of
one another. Others claim that,
while identical, language and music are completely different entities in
themselves. More research needs to
be done on language and music to differentiate between the two and answer the
question of which came first.
Scientists are constantly doing experiments on language, but the amount
of research on music is dwarfed in comparison. In order to understand language better, we need to
understand music better.
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