The Unanswered Question: Six Talks at Harvard 1/6: Musical Phonology (Leonard Bernstein, 1976) VO

Lecture 1, “Musical Phonology“ Phonology is the linguistic study of sounds, or phonemes. Bernstein’s application of this term to music results in what he calls “musical phonology“, To describe musical phonology, Bernstein first explores monogenesis, the hypothesis of a single, common origin for all languages. Bernstein’s linguistic example for this is the prevalence of the sound “AH“ (p. 11). He makes a case for musical monogenesis through the use of the harmonic series. Bernstein uses a low C as an example to show how a note contains overtones, or higher pitches that sound simultaneously. Using this concept, he relates the harmonic series to tonality in several ways. First, he notes the relationship of the fundamental pitch, in this case a C, and its second overtone, in this case a G (the first overtone is an octave). These pitches make up the tonic-dominant relationship fundamental to the system of tonal music. Continuing to identify the overtones, he points out that the fourth overtone, the next pitch whose class differs from that of the fundamental, is two octaves plus a major third above the fundamental. The overtones C, G, and E comprise a major triad. Moving on to later overtones, A (it’s actually somewhere between a well-tempered A and B-flat, but A is the usual choice), he constructs a major pentatonic scale. This scientific aspect of pitches, Bernstein says, makes music universal, or a “substantive universal“ (p. 27). Although he still supports the idea of musical monogenesis, he identifies Chomsky’s innate grammatical competence as a theory especially applicable to music. Bernstein justifies the remaining notes of tonal music through the circle of fifths (p. 37). Here he introduces the balance between diatonicism and chromaticism, diatonic notes being those found lower in the harmonic series of the specific key area. The notes higher in the series add ambiguity, or expressiveness, but do so at the loss of clarity. Bernstein uses Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 to illustrate these harmonic implications. He points out several particularly chromatic passages before playing his recording of the piece with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. While his overview of the harmonic series is a thorough and understandable introduction for those unfamiliar with the concept, Bernstein distorts some of the intricacies slightly. His discussion of Non-Western music is rather limited in its understanding of non-tonal language. For instance, the use of a Balinese pentatonic scale for supporting evidence does not accurately reflect Balinese music. As Keiler points out, “there is absolutely no relationship of intervallic content between [the Balinese] scale and the overtone series.“[8] Finally, the term monogenesis is slightly misapplied. A common origin for all languages means that a single language emerged before populations spread, after which diversity among languages arose. Polygenesis, in contrast, states that languages spontaneously arose in different places at once, which seems to be closer to Bernstein’s hypotheses for musical origin. Arguing that the harmonic series is a universal truth, independently discovered by all musical cultures, would actually be polygenesis.