McGowan 1

Robert McGowan

The Musical Cognitive Faculty as a Linguistic Analogy

The principal role of aesthetic philosophy has historically been to examine the subjective

experience of absorbing and creating art. The methods of pondering these uniquely human

activities more often than not encompassed metaphysical discourse on the mysterious nature of

artistic perception. With the art of music especially, very little was understood as to why a

certain sets of organized sounds could conjure such vivid experiences. With the progression of

the empirical studies and the rise of cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics, these

metaphysical arguments are moving into the domain of observable research. It is thus the thesis

of this discussion to inquire on the processing and higher understanding of music as a uniquely

human sensational experience. This processing and understanding is thus analogous to linguistic

theories of compartmentalized mental faculties that enable conscious agents to develop higher

understandings of complex input stimuli.

As the leader of the reemergence of innatist theories, Noam Chomsky is a linguist who in

his 1972 book called “Language and Mind” put forth the idea that humans are born with the

innate ideas of language functionality and basic grammar. He coined this term “language

acquisition” and he goes about proving this theory by studying the linguistic development of

children. The immediate insight that we see when looking at the linguistic developmental stages

of children is the sheer proficiency which all healthy children share in so easily learning such

complex social communication nuances. It seems that babies go through the same stages of

development no matter what language they learn. Children intuitively know the difference

between questions and statements and are able to quickly break down the grammatical structure

of a sentence into subject, verbs and adjectives. Chomsky points out that children would have a
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much more difficult time in learning language if we all were indeed born without a mental

faculty dedicated to the acquisition of language. To be so fast at language acquisition, Chomsky

proposed that we are born with a “language acquisition device” which is preprogramed in the

mind (Chomsky, 1974).

The same phenomenon of innate acquisition could be seen in music and the instinctual

response we have towards it. Music has been a part of every human culture and demonstrates a

natural predisposition to its creativity. Even before infants are able to talk, they are able to

respond and show emotional cues when exposed to music. There are many on the empirical side

of the fence who argue that our response to music is a learned trait and is unique to the tonal

system we are exposed to. Though many cultures around the world and through time have

developed musical tonal systems which differ from the western tonality that many of us are used

to, they all share the common trade of expressing abstract ideas through certain musical

characteristics. For example, in our western tonal system, there is a clear correlation between a

major chord or a major key and the emotion of happiness. Similarly, a minor chord or key would

evoke more somber emotions. If music were indeed a learned trade, then this response would be

subjective relative to the listener and the cultural tonal system they grew up with. However, the

complete opposite conclusion was reached in a 1999 study at York University in Toronto where

listeners were asked to listen to native Indian ragas (a musical style developed independently of

western influences). Listeners were able to accurately categorize the pieces according to the

dominant emotion which was being conveyed through the music. In essence, despite the different

tonal system, there still existed a fundamental structure which evoked common emotions within

those listening. All this suggests the innate framework of musical literacy (Johnson, 2009).
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Even more evidence for this is found when comparing the different tonal systems of the

world. At first glance, the world’s music might seem as diverse and dissimilar as the language

systems developed according to geographic and cultural boundaries. One only needs to compare

our western system to that of traditional Hungarian folk songs, or even the native Indian ragas

discussed above to see the variety in tonal structures. There is however, a fundamental similarity

in five key notes, which binds all tonal systems developed throughout history. In the west, we

call this the “pentatonic scale”, and this scale could be easily found as the black keys on a piano.

Evidence for this musical acquisition could be found in the earliest artifacts of musical

instruments. A study in Nature revealed the discovery of bone and ivory flutes from the early

Aurignacian period of southwestern Germany dating back 35,000 years ago. What’s even more

remarkable is the fact that these flutes have the characteristic of five distinct holes which

represents notes that could be played. It is believed by researchers that these flutes were tuned to

the pentatonic tonal series; a clear indication that this musical framework existed even in ice

aged humans (Conard, Malina, & Münzel, 2009).

This fundamental tone row is so ingrained in the human psyche that mothers and infants

are shown to harmonize with each other’s speech according to the pentatonic tonal series.

Researchers recognize this phenomenon as a “foundation for the later socio-emotional and

cognitive development, as well as for the language acquisition of the child”. The researchers of

this study pointed to the science of the overtone series and its relation to the human voice which

attracts us to the use and harmonization of the pentatonic scale; and much like language, the

higher complexity of a society’s tonal system is simply a derivative and embellishment of these

fundamental five notes (Van Puyvelde, Vanfleteren, Loots, Deschuyffeleer, Vinck, Jacquet, &

Verhelst, 2010).
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A key observation of Chomsky’s is the mechanism of which we are able to so quickly

pick up on the subtle nuances of everyday speech. In an effort to combat the empirical thinking

that the human mind is simply a “blank slate”, Chomsky noted the fact that children at a very

early age are able to decipher ungrammatical speech and communication patterns. Such a

complex mental faculty could not simply be “learned” but instead, we are born with a built in

mental “organ” which instinctively deciphers these ungrammatical strings of sentences into a

coherent idea (Chomsky, 1974). Similarly, listeners of music are able to pick up on equally

“ungrammatical” strings of melodies and harmonies and process them into a coherent idea.

A perfect example of this could be seen in the practice of incorporating “leitmotif” into a

larger musical work to draw the attention back to a representative idea. To be clear, a leitmotif is

a short reoccurring musical phrase in the form of a few notes or bit of harmony which acts as a

metaphor for a person, place, or idea. The most famous use of leitmotifs could be found in the

operatic works of Richard Wagner. In his four part opera cycle entitled “The Ring of the

Nibelung”, Wagner introduces leitmotifs as a dramatic story telling device. By using these short

musical phrases, he is able to change the key, mode, harmony and instrumentation to evoke a

fresh interpretation on these motifs. These musical ideas could be woven and stacked to create

compound representation and layered storytelling. It is also used to remind the audience of a

specific idea which might have been introduced in a previous part of the opera cycle.

Similar to language, it is a curious phenomenon for the listener to identify the abstract

representation of a given leitmotif after it has been through a substantial metamorphosis. For

example, a given motive could be introduced to represent the idea of love. If this idea is

represented in the key of Bb major in the first violins, this motif might be reintroduced later in
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the opera in the key of E minor in the woodwind section. Such an atmospheric change would be

intended to match the emotional environment of the storyline. Even without ever seeing an

opera, most would be familiar with this method of music composition as it is the direct

inspiration for the movie scores we are used to hearing today. Despite the significant change to

the music, one could still harken back and identify the nucleus theme of these motifs. It is thus

that these motivic reintroductions come to us in an “ungrammatical” form; something never

heard but able to be interpreted. This once again points to the distinct music faculty being

employed in the mind as it is able to interpret brand new inputs as a coherent idea.

Of course, to accept this theory of ungrammatical music, one must also acquiesce to the

idea that music could be grammatical in the first place. If language itself could be broken down

into components which culminate into an intelligible idea, then so too does music. The linguistic

method to dissect sentences is to break down a sentence into phonetical, syntactic, and semantic

qualities. In relation to music, the same “grammatical” divisions could be observed under the

complex surface structure. The phonetic qualities of music would be the individual notes and

sounds which culminate into the syntactical qualities of chords, phrases and songs. The semantic

extraction would encompass both the phonetic and syntactical qualities and would thus add

meanings and emotions to these seemingly arbitrary set of notes (Berstine, 1973).

It is no coincidence that classical music theory takes inspiration from linguistic terms

when describing musical phrases. For example, a classical “sentence form” is a musical phrase

characterized by a clear introduction with a noticeable theme (much like a subject) and a

dominant-tonic cadence which stamps a “period” at the end of the statement (The sentence –

Open Music Theory, n.d). Though this portion of musical theory comes from western classical

music, virtually every culture exhibits this musical structure of “phrasing” and a metric division
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of sound according to even beats. So too does all music favor the idea of tension and release.

When examining harmony alone, tension is created by dissonant intervals of notes which pull to

resolve into a more consonant harmony. Even in cultures where rhythmic music is favored,

dissonant polyrhythms act as the source of tension which longs to resolve to a more steady pulse.

These longing for resolutions parallel the deeply human passion for order and

equilibrium. Since the foundation of the field of “Music Cognition”, thinkers postulated that

music was simply a form of “auditory cheesecake” and “an exquisite confection crafted to tickle

the sensitive spots of our mental faculties”, as pointed out by cognitive psychologist Steven

Pinker (Honing, 2013). Though an evolutionary psychological perception might unveil the

natural progression of bird song to symphony, the complex organization of sound into grand art-

forms remains a uniquely human construct; much like the progression of primitive grunts into the

works of Shakespeare or Goethe. It is thus clear that our natural disposition for music is a

cognitive faculty innate to all humans; and thus an innate disposition for art is the deepest

aptitude for all humans.

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References

Berstine, L. (1973). The Unaswered Question: Musical Pholology. Harvard Lectures. Retrieved

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MB7ZOdp__gQ

Chomsky, N. (1972). Language and mind. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Conard, N. Malina, M. , & Münzel, S. (2009). New flutes document the earliest musical

tradition in southwestern Germany. Nature, 460(7256), 737-740.

doi:10.1038/nature08169

Honing, H. (2013.). Was Steven Pinker Right After All? Retrieved March 05, 2017, from

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/music-matters/201309/was-steven-pinker-right-

after-all

Johnson , D. (2009). Music in the Brain: The Mysterious Power of Music: Dartmouth

Undergraduate Journal. Retrieved December 18, 2016, from

http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/2009/11/music-in-the-brain-the-mysterious-power-of-

music/#.WFdAlPkrJEY

The sentence – Open Music Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2017, from

http://openmusictheory.com/sentence.html

Van Puyvelde, M., Vanfleteren, P., Loots, G., Deschuyffeleer, S., Vinck, B., Jacquet, W., &

Verhelst, W. (2010). Tonal synchrony in mother–infant interaction based on harmonic

and pentatonic series. Infant Behavior And Development, 33387-400.

doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2010.04.003