Phonology and Music

Meter, stress, rhythm, and pitch hierarchies are the mediums of both language and music. Exploring how music and language are related along these parameters is leading me to write computer algorithms for generating text, actually combinations of syllables that are non-words. This research allows me to compose vocal music whereby the composed music generates the words, not the words generating the music. My research in this area began by creating a Macintosh Application based in C++ for analyzing the syllabic stress hierarchy of a word or sentence. Once the syllabic stress hierarchy is described, the program synthesizes many combinations of syllables which persevere the original hierarchy. Although the program generates unintelligible gibberish, the variations are clearly perceived as related to the original.

Here's version of the program, a paper describing my ideas and methodology, and computer generated variations of three well-known texts.

Algorithmic Poetry and Music Paper

Music to Poetry Software

Here is the score for my composition for spoken voice, the first written using these ideas, Beyond Babble: A Synthesis of Three Well-Known Texts.