On Parallels Between Words and Music

Abstract

A generalised song is a means of drawing parallels between words and music. The parallels are encoded in a mathematical structure, which is interpreted in a verbal structure and a musical structure. Here we develop a number of new techniques for drawing such parallels, in giving two examples of generalised songs, ‘Relation’, and ‘Merge/Split’. The first five partials of a note played on a piano are roughly 0, 12, 19, 24, 28 semitones above the fundamental. ‘Relation’ is a generalised song, whose musical part is played on a piano, constructed from the mathematical relation 4 × 28 = 3 × 12 + 4 × 19. ‘Merge/Split’ is a generalised song whose mathematical part consists of the mathematical operations of merging and splitting, the braid relation, and coassociativity.