science

Musical language

Musical language is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Musical language rather than just read about it. In short: Musical languages are constructed languages based on musical sounds, which tend to incorporate articulation. Whistled languages are dependent on underlying spoken languages and are used in various cultures as a means for communication over distance, or as secret codes.

Key takeaways

Musical language belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Musical language to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Musical language from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Musical languages are constructed languages based on musical sounds, which tend to incorporate articulation. Whistled languages are dependent on underlying spoken languages and are used in various cultures as a means for communication over distance, or as secret codes. The mystical concept of a language of the birds tries to connect the two categories, since some authors of musical a priori languages have speculated about a mystical or primeval origin of the whistled languages.

Constructed musical languages There are only a few language families as of now such as the Solresol language family, Moss language family, and Nibuzigu language family. The Solresol family is a family of a posteriori languages (usually English) where a sequence of 7 notes of the western C-Major scale or the 12 tone chromatic scale are used as phonemes.

Domila Eaiea Sarus Solresol Sdefa Amnenas Moss is a pidgin built out of melodic shapes. The Nıbuzıgu family Kobaïan is a language constructed by Christian Vander of the band Magma, which uses elements of Slavic and Germanic languages, but is based primarily on 'sonorities, not on applied meanings'.

Musically influenced languages Hymmnos

In fiction Voyage to Faremido Close Encounters of the Third Kind The Moon Moth

See also Tonal language Whistled language

References

External links "Domila" at forum.unilang.org/viewtopic.php?t=30169 Koestner Bruce. "Eaiea". eaiea.com BizHosting. Moss website (archived)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Musical language

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Musical language claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Musical language before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Musical language ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Musical language

In research: Musical language appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Musical language in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Musical language is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Musical languages, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Musical language outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Musical language in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Musical language means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Musical language out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Musical language in simple terms?

Why does Musical language matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Musical language?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Musical language.