Of Syntax
and Chords;
The Universal Connection of
Language and
Music
by S.Mariam Md.Iliyas
“ People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent
videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them
over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands - literally thousands of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss “
Nick Hornby, High Fidelity
N
owadays, people all around the world
see education as a very important aspect
in their lives. Regardless of any subject
or topic that is being focused into, there
are indeed many researches and studies to improve
the quality of education. Among all the subjects are
music and language. These two subjects are indeed
not the same subject; however, I do believe that music and language is interrelated to each other; based
on several aspects.
Both music and language share a same
principle, which is the structure. In order to build
a structure; for example a sentence or a phrase of
melody in the song, we need to organize every single thing to make sure that the end result is in order
and highly structured.
In other words, both music and language share
a same principle; which is syntax. Syntax can
be defined as ‘a set of principles governing the
combination of discrete structural elements into
sequences.’ (Patel, 2003). The example of the
structural elements here are words and musical
tones.
For instance, in a conversation, people do
not just blabber anything that cross their mind.
The same thing goes to a musician who plays a
musical instrument. In order to produce a good
melody he will apparently not just play the instrument and make any sound without organizing the
sound first. In both cases, it is obvious that both
music and language do have structures.
The Universal Connection of Language and Music
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