Филологические науки /7. Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация
Candidate of Philology Kurashkina N.A.
Bashkir State University, Russia
The
Role of Musical Terminology in Portraying Bird Voices
by Means of Human Language
The history of the development of methods available for
the analysis of bird voices begins with simple musical transcriptions, or verbal
renditions made by ear. Musical notations are a good possibility but they in fact turn out not very
helpful from a scientific point of view.
Actually for a variety of
reasons, it is impossible for any human ear to ascribe a musical pitch to most
sounds made by birds. For one thing, many bird vocalizations are pitched well
above the range of human music, at frequencies where pitch discrimination is
problematic. For another, a great many bird sounds are harmonically complex,
comprising not a single tone but an admixture of several. Finally, even
harmonically simple sounds, if they change pitch extremely quickly, may fool
the human ear into interpreting them as complex [Pieplow 2007: 50].
The impact of the sound
spectrograph after the Second World War was revolutionary. For the first time,
all of the rich complexities of birdsong were revealed for objective study [Marler 2004: 37]. Sonograms are now being superceded by new techniques for describing and
comparing birdsongs, methods of great sophistication and power. Audio
spectrograms and oscillograms as modern visual representations of sounds help scientists
1) name different kinds of sounds for clearer communication, 2) increase
“ear-birding” skill by engaging visual memory in building a library of known sounds,
and 3) objectively evaluate recordings that are presented as documentation for
distributional records [McCallum 2010: 50-51].
The advantages of
audio spectrograms are successfully applied in the updated field guides where
simplified phonetics and similes go together with the modern presentation of
the chief call-notes and song phrases. Thereupon all language interpretations of
bird vocalizations are in great demand (see the detailed analysis of various
language means of bird voice verbalization [Курашкина
2011]). As for terminology related to music it is rather frequent in bird voice
descriptions especially when it comes to English and French field guides.
Musical terms used
in such descriptions can be classified in accordance with those acoustic parameters
of bird voice that they characterize.
1) Volume: forte – loudly, strongly or powerfully; piano –
quietly, softly; pianissimo – very
quietly and softly (all the definitions are borrowed from [Music Glossary; The
Probert Encyclopedia 1993-2012]).
2) Pitch: falsetto – a very high male voice, soft
and poor in overtones but able
to reach the pitch of a female; tessiture
– the range of a vocal part.
3)
Tone quality: flat – sung slightly
lower, i.e. a note should be lowered by a semitone; in a more general sense
music that is flat may simply be out of tune, its pitch below the accepted
pitch; major – greater by a semitone,
either in interval or in difference of pitch from another tone; can be
identified by a positive affirming character; minor – can be identified by the dark, melancholic mood.
5) Rhythmic pattern
interpreted as “any change of the sound in time and its reflection in perception”
[МЭС 2003: 174]: accelerando – at a gradually increasing speed;
cadence – a sequence of two chords that
provides musical punctuation at the end of phrases; crescendo – a gradual
increase in the strength and fullness of tone; decrescendo – a gradual decrease in the volume of sound; diminuendo – in
a gradually diminishing manner; fioriture
– small decorations or embellishments introduced into a melody, or else a
virtuosic piece of music; glissando –
sliding from one note to another; presto – in a fast tempo; rallentando – sung with a gradual
decrease in time and force; roulade –
a smoothly running passage of short notes (such as
semi-quavers, or sixteenths) uniformly grouped, and sung upon one long syllable;
staccato – sung in short detached notes; tremolo
– quick repetition of the same note or the rapid alternation between two notes;
also indicates an unsteady or wavering voice.
Here are some
illustrations of the use of music terms in the descriptions of bird
vocalizations. The piping-call of an oystercatcher (Haematopus
ostralegus): in full form
composed of three phrases a) introductory accelerando
leading into b) main trill and followed by c) closing rallentando [Snow,
Perrins 1998: 537]; the contact
rattle-call of a turnstone (Arenaria interpres): a short tremolo or staccato
chuckle like that of Redpoll [Snow, Perrins
1998: 687-688]; the song of a waxwing
(Bombycilla garrulus): la note répétée inlassablement est de
tessiture aiguë [see Oiseaux 2011]; the song of a lesser whitethroat (Sylvia curruca): râpeux correspondant а une crécelle, faisant se succéder de courtes strophes,
chacune en crescendo [see Oiseaux 2011].
The use of musical
terms is not deprived of subjectivity which is naturally connected with differences
in bird voice perception by human ear. Compare the
ways the song
of a mistle
thrush (Turdus viscivorus)
is described by
different Russian scientists: короткая,
звучная, свистовая – 4-5 крупных посвистов (напоминает песню чёрного дрозда, но
короче и в меланхоличном мажоре) in melancholic major [Демянчик 2003: 292]; состоит из весьма коротких и сходных между
собой 5-6 строф, составленных из чистых флейтовых переливов, с меланхолическим, грустным (with
a melancholic shade)
оттенком; сходна по характеру звуков с
песней черного дрозда [Кайгородов 2006: 196]; песня неторопливая, громкая и красивая,
похожая на песню черного и певчего дроздов, но обычно выше тоном, с менее
сочными звуками <…>; тональность песни почти всегда мажорная,
без печальных оттенков (in major,
without melancholic shades)
[Рябицев 2008: 527].
As it is clearly seen,
the role of musical terms in bird voice descriptions is rather limited now but
when used they mostly help to reflect the rhythmic pattern of the most
complicated vocalizations. Sometimes musical terms are observed characterizing
the volume, pitch or tonal quality of bird calls and songs. No matter what bird
voice features they represent terms related to music are always integrated into
a detailed lexical description. The only disadvantage noticed can be the total
ignorance of music terms on the part of a birdwatcher.
REFERENCES
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аспект
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