Teresa Proto

Vocal music varies across the world. One of the main sources of difference is of course language: songs are sung in different languages. This is obvious. What is not obvious, however, are the ways in which languages constrain the setting of a text to a tune.
It is generally assumed that the alignment of a text to a tune is not a random process, but one that is governed by a set of rules that may vary from language to language, and possibly from one singing idiom to another within the same language). As a matter of fact, when lyrics are set to music, syllables are assigned to musical pitches in such a way as to conform to specific requirements of the language. Some of these requirements are universal, others are language specific. Both sets of requirements contribute to the well-formedness of musical settings; when either or both are violated, the resulting settings are rejected as awkward or ill formed by the participants of that singing tradition. This is because the latter have internalized a system of tacit principles and rules that regulate the occurrence in singing of violations to the grammar of the language.
A systematic study of the well-formedness conditions specific to any language or singing idiom, will demonstrate this system of tacit principles. My project represents a first step towards such a long-term systematic study, and will focus on two distinct singing idioms based on two languages that are typologically different: the German Volkslieder and the church songs of the Bamileke of Cameroon. Both studies build upon previous work carried out in 2011-2012. In particular, my analysis of Bamileke songs aims to contribute to the discussion on the interaction of speech tones and musical pitches in tonal languages; whereas the study of the German Volkslieder should provide useful insights into how the rhythmical and melodic structures of the language interact with the equivalent structures in music.