metaphor+in+musical+rhythm

[//Batya//] I started out thinking I would analyze the overtones in singer's voices and turn that into a comparison. Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerland came to mind because I prefer Billie and thought I could somehow justify my opinion with the data. However, I've decided that the topic seems somewhat limited- and I thought of something else.

In my paper, I will explore the ways in which music mirrors our own lives, strictly in terms of rhythm. In discussing certain examples (I would like to use Beethoven's Sixth Symphony as well as a cover of a Smith's song by the Dream Academy) I will make the case that we, as listeners, relate to the music because of its use of rhythmic patterns and the ways in which those figures work as a metaphor for life. I think it would also be interesting to then compare the ways in which the rhythmic metaphors differ between the classical and pop music styles (and perhaps look at a jazz example as well).

I checked out the chapter in Ways of Listening on motion in music and that seems to be basically the same idea....should I think of another topic since this one is already a part of our reading?

[//Aaron//] I have a few articles you might find helpful. One is a chapter from a former teacher's dissertation on metaphorical logic in the conceptualization of musical experience, one is an article by Robert Adlington on the linearity of time in musical experience, and the other is a summary of experimental findings on the contribution of various different musical parameters to a feeling of musical motion. While not dealing with rhythm per se, they all deal with ways we conceptualize motion in music. In fact, some of them deal with issues that Ian brought up in his post about Calvin and Hobbes. I'll try and bring these in for you tomorrow.

[//Jerry//] When you and I discussed your original idea, I tried to steer you away from "overtones" because they would seem to be too short-term, insufficiently "macroscopic" features of the voice. In fact, I thought we agreed, it was not merely the (abstract) voice but the style of singing, which would necessarily be realized over time. Comparable passages of the same song sung by the two singers could potentially yield pretty fruitful contrasts. You wouldn't be trying to "justify" your opinion so much as accounting for it by means of specific comparisons. I still think this is a promising idea; the thing that was "limited" about it, to me, was the focus on the overtones.

Regarding the newer idea: How, concretely, do you mean that rhythms can supply metaphors for life?

[//Ian//] I hate to be "this guy", but what, or rather whom, exactly do you mean by "we as listeners"? Are you going to have a data or research set or just analyze in terms of your own reactions?