From now on, every blog post will be accompanied by a video podcast. The podcast provides an introduction, whilst the blogpost explores the topic in greater detail. The podcast is in Dutch, but YouTube can translate it into English. If you like, you can also watch the podcast on your TV. Simply select YouTube and search for ‘kanaal expeditie muziek’.
I’ll be exploring the question of whether certain musical styles are best suited to a particular language. In this post, I willI explain why that is often the case.
Topics
– language and rhythm,
– language and timbre,
– language, rhyme and vocabulary,
– language and sentence structure
– and language and metre.
Language and rhythm
The linguist Kenneth Pike places European languages on a scale with ‘stress-timed rhythm’ at one end and ‘syllable-timed rhythm’ at the other,
In the ‘stress-timed’ category, the interval between stressed syllables is generally of equal length.
English is the best example of a language with ‘stress-timed’ rhythm. This language has a strong dynamic; the sound is almost bouncy, ideal for rock or rap. Passages between the stressed syllables are often swallowed or shortened (gonna, wanna, ‘n’)
‘It’s been a hard day’s night’
German is also an example of a language with a ‘stress-timed’ rhythm, coming straight after English. Dutch follows next. German also uses many abbreviations to maintain the rhythm.
In languages that belong to the ‘syllable-timed’ category, each syllable generally lasts the same length of time, without any changes in stress, as in English, German and Dutch. You then hear a flowing cadence. You can clap along to each syllable.
French is an example of a language with ‘syllable-timed’ rhythm. The fact that each syllable lasts almost the same length makes the language fluid and narrative, with undulating melodies and a less pronounced rhythm.
Je marche seul dans la nuit
You can also easily vary the stress because it is less pronounced. You could, for example, stress ‘seul’. Sometimes the final syllable also receives a slight stress.
Italian and Spanish also have have a ‘syllable-timed’ rhythm albeit to a lesser extent than French. A good example in Spanish is Richie Valens’ song ‘La Bamba’. The syllables form a series of equal beats:
Pa-ra bai-lar la Bamba.
There are almost no differences in stress. You hear open vowels in almost every syllable and even-paced phrases. The effect is a danceable and singable song with a melody that moves in time with the lyrics.
Below, I also examine other characteristics besides rhythm, such as timbre, rhyming possibilities, vocabulary, sentence structure, expression and metre. All these characteristics overlap to some extent, which is why you rarely hear them ‘in their pure form’. Combined with rhythm, they give every language a musical personality, and one could almost speak of language as a musical instrument.
Language and timbre
Differences between languages are expressed by the terms ‘hard’ and ‘soft’. This distinction partly coincides with the division between Germanic and Romance languages.
The hardness of a language’s timbre is determined by the number of consonants, the openness of the vowels, the hardness of compound sounds (‘g’, ‘ch’, ‘r’ and ‘s’), and the nasal character.
The timbre of English and German is largely similar and distinctly hard. Italian, Spanish and French are more pastel. Dutch lies somewhere in between, due to the presence of both hard consonants in the Randstad (‘t’, ‘k’, ‘p’, ‘g’, ‘sch’, ‘ch’) and long vowels (‘aa’, ‘o’ and ‘ee’) in the south.
A good example of a harsh timbre is the Rammstein track ‘Du hast’. What you hear is how the clusters of consonants (-hst, -scht, -cht) make the sound harsh and angular.
Language, rhyme and vocabulary
French is an easy language for rhyming: many words end in similar ways (‘-é’, ‘-er’ or ‘-ion’). There are therefore many possibilities, but these are often predictable. Dutch is like French in this respect. The same applies to Spanish and Italian. That is why these languages lend themselves well to arias. English lies at the other end of the spectrum: at the end of a sentence, there is great variation in sound due to differences in pronunciation; this language also lends itself to rhyming within sentences.
A good example of rhyme in French songs is ‘La vie en rose’, originally sung by Edith Piaf. Here you can hear Andrea Bocelli’s version. The song features many identical endings (‘-ose’, ‘-eur’, ‘-ant’ and ‘-é’). There are plenty of rhyming pairs: ‘rose’/’chose’ and ‘yeux’/’bleu’. This results in a continuous vocal line
Sentence structure and expression
You recognise English immediately by its short, ‘catchy’ sentences, and the language lends itself to short and powerful ‘hooks’. In this respect, Dutch comes a close second to English. In German, the verb often comes at the end, which builds tension, leads to longer sentences and a ‘dramatic’ release.
French has on average, longer sentences than the other languages, making it well-suited to narrative texts. French, Spanish and Italian feature a fluid sentence structure, emotional intensity and are ‘naturally’ singable. Jacques Brel’s song ‘Amsterdam’ is a prime example of French as a narrative language. The lyrics consist of long, continuous sentences without pauses for breath but with many conjunctions and subordinate clauses.
The influence of language on the sound of a piece of music becomes even greater when you look beyond English, French, Dutch and Italian. Most of the music in these countries is written in 3/4 or 4/4 meter. 5/4 meteris almost non-existent in pop music. Here is one rare example: ‘Living in the Past’ by Jethro Tull. Incidentally, this song does have a certain resemblance to Southern European folk music. If you go to the Balkans, however, 5/4 time is common
In summary
Of the six languages discussed, Dutch, German and English are the least fluid (‘legato’). In all Germanic languages, sentences often end with a consonant, making them sound ‘hard’. In Romance languages, sentences often end on a vowel, allowing for long melodic vocal lines.
Every language has its own expressive possibilities, and lyricists usually make use of these spontaneously. This contributes to the distinct character of songs from different countries. It is indeed true, that a Dutch lyricist wishing to write a ‘narrative’ song – a ballad or an aria – would be best advised to use a Romance language such as French, Italian or Spanish. Those who do not have a command of such a language would do better to limit themselves to the genres to which their own language lends itself better. Ramses Shaffy’s ‘Zing, vecht, huil, bid, lach, werk en bewonder’ is more of a ‘statement’ than a story, and Dutch lends itself perfectly to that.
Music: Listen, Look and Enjoy 