ABOUT USE OF “MUSICAL” TERMINOLOGY IN DESCRIBING THE BIRD SINGING IN BIOACOUSTIC STUDIES
UDC index:
781.95
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Information about authors: Pospelova Rimma Leonidovna, Dr of Art History, Associate Professor, Professor of Department of Music Theory, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: psplv@mail.ru
Annotation: The article briefly covers the practice of using the music terminology in the birdsongs’ descriptions.The attention to a subject is caused by the need for clarification of the question: whether it is simple analogy, or it is about certain real general principles of the formal organization of birdsong and music (in some known limits). Scalars (on bioacoustics) point existence of a characteristic balance between repetition and variation as an interesting link between birdsong and music. This balance is considered in article also from positions of an orientation of a musical form on a listener that contacts efficiency of communication and overcoming the monotony. In the article, the music origin problem in the context of proximity (in a number of parameters) of birds’ singing and so-called primitive music is also briefly touched (works by J. Gordania, A. Kazankov, etc.). As a result of short comparison of some scientific hypotheses of an origin of music (on the ground of music of natives), data of bioacoustics of birds and musicological tradition of understanding the principles of a musical shaping, the author is inclined to consider that these analogies aren’t superficial and aren’t casual, but they speak about a certain community of basic principles of archaic forms of vocalization and sound communication. From these positions, the assessment is also given to some directions of modern music, in particular, to minimalism, whose specifics speak from unexpected positions (the appeal to archaic forms of vocalization, comparable to hours-long singing of birds).
Keywords: “music principles” in birdsong, bioacoustics, minimalism, repetition and variation in a musical form, folk music, “music” of natives
DOI:
Article ID in the RSCI:
Article file: Download
Information about authors: Pospelova Rimma Leonidovna, Dr of Art History, Associate Professor, Professor of Department of Music Theory, Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (Moscow, Russian Federation). E-mail: psplv@mail.ru
Annotation: The article briefly covers the practice of using the music terminology in the birdsongs’ descriptions.The attention to a subject is caused by the need for clarification of the question: whether it is simple analogy, or it is about certain real general principles of the formal organization of birdsong and music (in some known limits). Scalars (on bioacoustics) point existence of a characteristic balance between repetition and variation as an interesting link between birdsong and music. This balance is considered in article also from positions of an orientation of a musical form on a listener that contacts efficiency of communication and overcoming the monotony. In the article, the music origin problem in the context of proximity (in a number of parameters) of birds’ singing and so-called primitive music is also briefly touched (works by J. Gordania, A. Kazankov, etc.). As a result of short comparison of some scientific hypotheses of an origin of music (on the ground of music of natives), data of bioacoustics of birds and musicological tradition of understanding the principles of a musical shaping, the author is inclined to consider that these analogies aren’t superficial and aren’t casual, but they speak about a certain community of basic principles of archaic forms of vocalization and sound communication. From these positions, the assessment is also given to some directions of modern music, in particular, to minimalism, whose specifics speak from unexpected positions (the appeal to archaic forms of vocalization, comparable to hours-long singing of birds).
Keywords: “music principles” in birdsong, bioacoustics, minimalism, repetition and variation in a musical form, folk music, “music” of natives
