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University of Southampton Research Repository ePrints Soton Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination http://eprints.soton.ac.uk MUSILINGUA: A MODEL FOR THINKING AND COMMUNICATION BASED ON THE IMAGING OF ACOUSTICALLY CONSTITUTED TWO AND THREE- DIMENSIONAL STATIC AND MOBILE CONFIGURATIONS by Benaiah George Bardi Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Southampton CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 - FORMS OF COMMUNICATION 1.1. The sound channel 10 1.2. Signs, signals, gestures and symbols 21 1.2.1. Visual signs 33 1.2.2. Visual signals 37 1.2.3. Gestures 38 1.2.4. Auditory signals 43 1.3. Information, sense, meaning and understanding 45 1.3.1. Information 49 1.3.2. Sense 52 1.3.3. Meaning 55 1.3.4. Understanding 57 1.4. Acoustic surrogate languages 65 1.4.1. Tone languages 68 1.4.2. Types of tone languages and their basic 70 characteristics 1.5. Drum languages 72 1.5.1. Runyoro Bantu 72 1.5.2. Tumba 72 1.5.3. Yoruba 73 1.6. Idiophones 74 1.7. Whistle speech 76 1.7.1. Mazatec 80 1.7.2. Tepehua 81 1.7.3. Amuzgo 81 1.7.4. Kickapoo 82 1.7.5. Gomera 82 1.8. Ideographs 82 CHAPTER 2 - TONAL ALPHABETS 2.1. The pitch-dimension link 84 2.2. The Octatone Alphabet 88 2.2.1. Tonal alphabets 90 2.3. A music notation writer 98 CONTENTS (Continued) Page 2.4. A new alphabet (linear) 99 CHAPTER 3 - MUSI LINGUA 3.1. The 'eye' of music 104 3.2. Universal language 109 3.3. Pattern recognition and the sonic structuring 115 and transmission of mental three-dimensional configurations 3.4. The Musi lingua code 12 3 3.4.1. The rationale 125 3.4.2. Model 1 127 3.4.3. Model 2 130 3.4.4. Model 3 134 3.4.5. Other models 136 3.4.6. Models used in the second term 138 3.5. A new alphabet (circular) 139 3.6. A new system of musical notation 140 3.6.1. Musical thinking in the third dimension 141 3.6.2. Electronic musical notation 141 3.7. Field work - term 1 142 3.7.1. Musi lingua session 1 145 3.7.2. Musi lingua session 2 157 3.7.3. Musi lingua session 3 170 3.7.4. Musi lingua session 4 181 3.7.5. Musi lingua session 5 192 3.7.6. Musi lingua session 6 210 3.7.7. Musi lingua session 7 223 3.7.8. Musi lingua session 8 227 3.8. Some thoughts on Musi lingua 232 (Participants' comments) 3.9. Towards the structuring of a course 239 in Musi lingua - term 2 3.9.1. Musi lingua session 1 241 3.9.2. Musi lingua session 2 243 3.9.3. Musi lingua session 3 250 3.9.4. Musi lingua session 4 255 3.9.5. Musi lingua session 5 261 3.9.6. Musi lingua session 6 267 CONTENTS (Continued) Page 3.9.7. Musi lingua session 7 272 3.9.8. Musi lingua session 8 275 3.9.9. Some further thoughts on Musi lingua 278 (Participants' comments) 3.9.10. Final assessment 287 3.10. An electroencephalographic investigation 288 3.10.1. Proposed research project 290 3.10.2. Research procedure 293 3.11. Musi lingua : The prerogative of creativity, 300 emotionality and intellectuality in the acquisition of aural skills and in the development of musicianship 3.11.1. Creativity 302 3.11.2. Emotionality 304 3.11.3. Intellectuality 306 3.11.4. Independent musical imaging 307 3.12. Conclusions 311 3.13. Projected future research ^,25 References 326 Appendix 1 Whistle speech 335 Appendix 2 Acoustic military signals 344 Appendix 3 Aural training syllabus 352 LIST OF TABLES I Signs and signals 32 II Visual signals - the hierarchy 34 III Auditory signals - the hierarchy 44 IV Information 53 V The universe of sense and speech 79 LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS I Model 1 129 II Model 2 132, 133 III Model 3 135, 136 IV Other models 136, 137 V Models used in second term 138 CONTENTS (Continued) LIST OF RECORDINGS Recording title Recording number Tape number Side Daniel whistle A African drums A Mazateco whistle A Speech Tepehua whistle speech Amuzgo whistle speech 5 A Tonal Alphabets 6 A • Eval uati on of Tonal 7 A1phabets Musil ingua session 1 8 1 B Musil ingua session 2 9 1 B Musil ingua session 3 10 2 A Musi 1 ingua session 4 11 2 A Musil ingua session 5 12 2 A Musi 1 ingua session 6 13 2 A Musil ingua session 7 14 2 B Musil ingua session 8 15 2 B Electroencephalograph 16 2 B UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES MUSI LINGUA IN EDUCATION Doctor of Philosophy MUSILINGUA: A MODEL FOR THINKING AND COMMUNICATION BASED ON THE IMAGING OF ACOUSTICALLY CONSTITUTED TWO AND THREE- DIMENSIONAL STATIC AND MOBILE CONFIGURATIONS by Benaiah George Bardi The notion propounded in this thesis is that sound-based modes of thinking and communication which are not language related are possible, and may enable hitherto unknown states of consciousness to be attained. To test this hypothesis, a Musi lingual code was devised, and researched with the help of the Vice-Director and students at the Royal College of Music. Preliminary Electroencephalographic investigations appear to indicate that Musi lingual thinking may occur in a part of the brain different to that used for linguistic, mathematical, pictorial, three-dimensional or musical thinking, and that it is probably a higher intellectual activity. The theory of Musi lingua, which has as its basis the relationship between sound and spatial configuration is expounded, and avenues for further research in areas such as Musi lingua and thinking, Musi lingua and music, and Musi lingua and the study of the brain are opened up. More specifically, questions are raised about the outcomes Musi lingual thinking will engender, the effects of Musi lingual fluency upon musical skills and musicianship, and the possible role of Musi lingua in cases of brain disorders such as aphasia and amnesia. Finally, based upon the results obtained in the present research, a proposal ^ made for the incorporation of a course in Musi lingua into the aural training syllabus of music students as an initial step prior to its possible subsequent incorporation as a new subject in the music syllabus of the National Curriculum. Acknowledgements Many thanks are due to Mr. Robert Hoare for his encouragement to proceed with the project, to Mr. Michael Lloyd for his cooperation and advice, to Mr. Patrick Souper for his most insightful guidance through the difficult early stages, to Dr. Dudley Plunkett for his wise advice at a crucial stage, to Professor Christopher Brumfit for taking over supervision in mid-stream and for his subsequent help and support, to Mr. Michael Gough-Matthews and Mr. Ian Horsburgh for giving the project a chance, to the students at the Royal College of Music who volunteered to participate in the project for their invaluable contribution, to Mrs. Kathy heald for her cheerful and effective organizing, to Mr. David Jones and Mr. Nicholas King for their participation as subjects in the EEG investigation and to Drs. Neil and Paulette Robinson for their help in carrying it out, to Mr. Nicholas King for his outstanding and unique contribution and continuous support throughout the practical research period, to Mr. Michael Blackstein for his help with the photography, to my son Marc for his continuous help and interest, and to him and his colleagues for their help with the final presentation, to Mrs. - Sharon Salmon for conscientiously typing the thesis, and to my wife Beryl for her endless patience and understanding and imaginative contributions. "For when there are no words (accompanying music) it is very difficult to recognize the meaning of the harmony and rhythm, or to see that any worthy object is imitated by them" Plato. Laws. Book II INTRODUCTION Language is undoubtedly a magnificent tool for thinking and communication, yet it is not without its limitations. It is proposed here to examine some of these limitations and to explore as systematically as possible a different mode of experiencing the world through sound and space. We shall argue that even though at the moment language appears to hold pride of place in our thinking processes, conceptualisation is not exclusively in language and could feasibly take place predominantly through other means thus causing a shift ^ the balance between the senses which will result in a different kind of perception of the world. Language is closely intertwined with (xr physiology, and much of the work which has been done on the relationship between muscular and cerebral activity demonstrates this. For example, as early as 1921, Golla found that the strength of forearm tonicity was related to the difficulty of problems to be solved, and concluded (1929) that muscle activity may not be merely a manifestation of cerebral activity but a necessary concomitant of it.
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