The Grammar of Music

Reviews the book, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music by Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff (1983). The two authors, a composer and a linguist, have directed this book to an audience comprised of linguists, psychologists, and musicians. The reviewers broadly represent this audience. One is a musically sophisticated neurologist and neurolinguist, and the other is a musically unsophisticated cognitive neuropsychologist. The authors propose to present "a synthesis of the outlook and methodology of contemporary linguistics and the insight of recent music theory". They feel that the present attempt has broader implications because it reflects an important aspect of human cognition. In this sense, the claim is similar to the one previously formulated by Chomsky with regard to the structure of language and speech. In carrying out their goal, the authors have borrowed much of the style of Chomsky's linguistic works while maintaining a perspective that the grammar of tonal music need bear no resemblance to the grammar of language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)