Abstract
The question how music influences the perception of lyrics is rather
complicated. There are indications that music enhances the perception,
comprehension and memorization of sung language, but also that it
obstructs language perception and comprehension by withdrawing
attention from the words, or undermining their meaning. The
linguistic concept of foregrounding, might be helpful to understand
the paradoxical way in which music seems to affect lyric perception.
Foregrounding (the use of stylistic features such as metaphors and
parallelisms, etcetera) is supposed to obstruct normal understanding,
but, by doing so, to draw attention to the language too. Foregrounding,
for example, both slows down reading and increases strikingness and
affects ratings. The Musical Foregrounding Hypothesis (MFH) states
that matching music to words has a similar effect to language
perception as linguistic foregrounding. However, music is far more
complex than any stylistic feature. Music consists of components such
as rhythm, pitch, harmony, song structure, etcetera, all of which might
affect lyric perception independently. This leads to several
sub-hypotheses. An MFH-based model for lyric perception explains
the relations between the MFH and these sub-hypotheses. Support for
some of these sub-hypotheses is found in the existing literature, others
should be tested. The MFH offers an interdisciplinary approach to
song and to the relationship between language and music, that might
be beneficial to science, education, music, advertising and literature.
complicated. There are indications that music enhances the perception,
comprehension and memorization of sung language, but also that it
obstructs language perception and comprehension by withdrawing
attention from the words, or undermining their meaning. The
linguistic concept of foregrounding, might be helpful to understand
the paradoxical way in which music seems to affect lyric perception.
Foregrounding (the use of stylistic features such as metaphors and
parallelisms, etcetera) is supposed to obstruct normal understanding,
but, by doing so, to draw attention to the language too. Foregrounding,
for example, both slows down reading and increases strikingness and
affects ratings. The Musical Foregrounding Hypothesis (MFH) states
that matching music to words has a similar effect to language
perception as linguistic foregrounding. However, music is far more
complex than any stylistic feature. Music consists of components such
as rhythm, pitch, harmony, song structure, etcetera, all of which might
affect lyric perception independently. This leads to several
sub-hypotheses. An MFH-based model for lyric perception explains
the relations between the MFH and these sub-hypotheses. Support for
some of these sub-hypotheses is found in the existing literature, others
should be tested. The MFH offers an interdisciplinary approach to
song and to the relationship between language and music, that might
be beneficial to science, education, music, advertising and literature.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the Ninth Treënnial Confenrence of the European Society of the Cognitive Sciences of Music, Manchester UK, 7-22 August 2015 |
| Editors | J. Ginsborg, A. Lamont, M. Phillips, S. Bramley |
| Place of Publication | Manchester UK: Royal Northern College of Music |
| Pages | 724-735 |
| Number of pages | 11 |
| Publication status | Published - 19 Aug 2015 |
Keywords
- Music - music cognition - music perception - language - poetics - education - music therapy