Sources on Oral & Written Transmission and Cognition: A Literary Review

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1 Mary Husslein MUS 911 Sources on Oral & Written Transmission and Cognition: A Literary Review There are two elements that are critical to writing. First, one must have good sources. What do I mean by good? After reading articles by Walsh, Kuzma and Deeming, finding good sources requires both a process and the ability to think contextually. One should ask questions when reading through an article, book or encyclopedia. Critical review allows the researcher to step away from the text and read it for organization, content and relevance to the subject. Thinking contextually involves the ability of a researcher to look outside the central topic for sources. As I began my thesis work, my subject involved oral and written transmission in ritual settings, looking at how these transmissions were processed cognitively. Drawing from several areas of study, one can examine sources on many levels. This review looks at sources ranging from musicology and history to psychology and neurology and how each source is useful for studying oral and written transmission in ritual setting and their cognitive processes. Sources in musicology vary in subject and approach; however, articles by Leo Treitler, Làszlò Dobszay, Kay Shelemay and Peter Jeffrey draw from theories in oral and written transmission. Leo Treitler has written several articles in areas of written and oral transmission in western music specifically Gregorian chant and its origins in the written form. In Homer and Gregory: The Transmission of Epic Poetry and Plainchant, Treitler looks at the theory of oral composition that has emerged from the study of epic poetry (used in this article as a paradigm). While 1

2 the article works specifically with Gregorian transmission, it asks some broader questions surrounding transmission process. This article is a pivotal example of a historical study that incorporates theories from outside disciplines. For example, Treitler spends a section of the article on cognition and its relationship to memory. There were not scores to read music as the medium of transmission was through performance, or in our case the oral. There, he points out the misunderstanding that the singer has memorized a melody as though we might be saying that he had swallowed a score. 1 Treitler is working in a time where there is an absence of scores, which means that the medium of composition itself is performance. 2 He outlines Bartlett s theory on remembering. It depends on the theory of perception, or the way we recall experiences depends on how we grasp them. Perceiving is active organization that draws upon certain features serving as signposts for process assimilation and reorganization. In general, remembering, or memorizing as it is applied here, is the constructs of patterns of past experiences activated and reconstructed. 3 He applies these theories as he looks at the Homeric Question regarding compositional method and transmission. Treitler suggests that oral composition is composition done in the act of performing and describes it in two forms: themes and formulas. 4 This raises questions about Gregorian and Old Roman transmissions and how their formulas connect with and distinguish them from other versions. Given these 1 Leo Treitler, Homer and Gregory: The Transmission of Epic Poetry and Plainchant, The Musical Quarterly, LX (1974): Ibid Ibid Ibid

3 variants, he asks how the different melodic types could be written down and admitted into standard repertory. 5 Leo Treitler s reputation precedes him. An American musicologist, Treitler focuses his research in Medieval and Renaissance music, especially concerning Gregorian chant and early polyphony. He has published several articles ranging from the historiography of music history to the rise of medieval notation and early polyphonic forms. This article is an appropriate source for this area of study because it looks at theories in oral and written transmission while also considering other theories from psychology and literary viewpoints. It asks questions and only hypothesizes solutions. A good representative source should not inhibit a viewpoint, but instead present several viewpoints and question each of them. Studying oral and written transmissions in a period where evidence is lacking can make what is available difficult to understand. Because of this, scholars often debate over the theories of transition from oral to written transmission. Làszlò Dobszay traces the debate about oral and written transmission in medieval times. He presents the issues, brings together the problems raised, and points out areas where there are any inconsistencies or questions of precision. 6 Scholars agree that pre-gregorian chant was derived from oral transmission. 7 Dobszay raises questions starting from the notated codices and works back toward the beginning. These questions include: 5 Ibid Làszlò Dobszay, The Debate about the Oral and Written Transmission, International Musicological Society Congress Report XV: Madride (1992): Ibid. 3

4 What music did the scribe record by this device? What extent was this recording a Vorschrift or a Nachschrift? Dobszay examines whether the identity of the material or the differences found within the material is more important in study. His findings indicate that the identity is more important. As a result, in this viewpoint a single archetype is formed and minor differences are often overlooked. 8 These differences often define the characteristics in chant variation. He also presents debate on the very definition of Gregorian Chant and its origins. 9 Làszlò Dobszay is a musicologist from Budapest where he has made several contributions in early music writing as well as modern Christian practice. 10 This source is valuable because it serves as a launch pad for other topics and scholars in this area. For example, in providing an overview of debated topics surrounding oral and written transmission, the reader gains insight on perspectives from scholars, including Leo Treitler, Helmut Hucke, David Hughes, Kenneth Levy, Hendrik van der Werf and Peter Jeffery. Recognizing areas where topics are debated allows researchers to filter materials more carefully as is applicable. In addition to sources examining theory on oral and written transmission, it is important to incorporate material that takes the theory and applies it to a system or culture. In this case, Kay Shelemay and Peter Jeffery study oral and written transmission in cultures whose rituals are known and/or have living representation 8 Ibid Ibid Làszlò Dobszay 4

5 of the said tradition. We can use these case studies to support questions regarding this aspect of research as well as formulate hypotheses for cultures whose ritual tradition is less known. Kay Shelemay, Peter Jeffery and Ingrid Monson s Oral and Written Transmission in Ethiopian Christian Chant represents such a case of living tradition. In Ethiopia, one can witness many of the same processes of oral and written transmission as might have been around in medieval Europe. 11 Music and literacy were taught in the same curriculum; however, students first learn the repertory through memorizing chants that serve as learning tools for entire melodies and sources of melodic phrases linked to individual notational signs. Later, students copy complete notated manuscripts on parchment using medieval methods, again primarily as study techniques. 12 Shelemay explains how the language barrier presented an initial problem for exploring manuscripts; however, the larger problem was the relationship between notation and unwritten or oral features, which were relegated to performance practice considerations instead of being studied on equal terms with notation and written transmission. As medieval scholars became more interested in the transition from the oral to written transmission forms, the relationship began to change. 13 Shelemay outlines her method for studying this correlation. Most studies of oral tradition up until this point had approached analysis through examination of standard musical or textual phrases or formulas; they were identified by the scholar 11 Kay Shelemay, Peter Jeffery and Ingrid Monson, Oral and Written Transmission in Ethiopian Christian Chant, Early Music History 12 (1993): Ibid Ibid

6 through repeated performances of surviving written documents. 14 Her method works in reverse as she looks at performance practice through singing chants and learning the notation from this. Shelemay presents some issues as she carried out her research: 1) The relationship between the individual s knowledge and the system at large; 2) Ethiopian culture has a complex musical system; 3) Reading notation is impossible without knowledge of oral tradition; 4) Issues on analysis and interpretation. 15 Her study presents information that can be used as living evidence for examining a medieval tradition in ritual transmission. Kay Kaufman Shelemay is an Ethnomusicologist, working as Professor of Music and African and African American Studies at Harvard University. Her research interests include musical ethnography, music and memory and more recently in Ethiopian music and musicians in their North American diaspora. She has published several articles including those in Garland Readings in Ethnomusicology (1990) and more recently Let Jasmine Rain Down: Song and Remembrance Among Syrian Jews (1998) among others. 16 This source is relevant and vital to studying oral and written transmission in ritual chant because it serves as a living template for what may have taken place in other cultures including Western Roman chant. Peter Jeffery examines the surviving tradition of Jerusalem chant in his article The Earliest Christian Chant Repertory Recovered: The Georgian Witnesses to Jerusalem Chant. He cites how the orders of service followed in Jerusalem 14 Ibid Ibid Harvard University Department of Music: Kay Kaufman Shelemay, last modified 2010, 6

7 exercised influence on Christian worship everywhere. 17 There is extensive imitation of Jerusalem rite especially in the Stational liturgy. Jeffery goes into detail on the cultures that lived there including the Greeks, Syrians, Byzantine and Lebanese. Up until this point, research on liturgical traditions of Jerusalem has focused on nonmusical sources, such as biblical readings, sermons, liturgical calendars and prayers. 18 Today, however, scholars have recovered the entire textual repertory of Jerusalem chant plus information on the melodies. In some cases, they have been able to trace chant history from the fourth through twelfth centuries as well as determine modes and neumes for these chants. 19 This information regarding Jerusalem chant is vital for studying the problem surrounding medieval chant origins. Jeffery notes how Jerusalem chant may have been the first repertory to be committed to writing, and tracing its historical development will teach us much about the process by which the other Eastern and Western rites may have been formed, collected, and written down. 20 Because of this, there are some distinct parallels to the process by which Roman chant was adopted and spread in Western Europe. These parallels haven t been studied further because up until recently, the texts that survived in medieval texts whose translated languages are unknown. 21 The breakthrough for this has been through 17 Peter Jeffery, The Earliest Christian Chant Repertory Recovered: The Georgian Witnesses to Jerusalem Chant, Journal of the American Musicological Society, 47 (1994): Ibid Ibid Ibid Ibid. 7

8 study of the Georgian monks. Their language is the only language that these texts can be read and translated to. 22 The article then discusses modal systems and origins of the chant melody. The characteristics that the Ambrosian and Byzantine cultures shared in chant are notable. These included having the same general range, the use of syllabic text setting and similar melodic shape. While outlining melody origins, Jeffery makes a significant point about the way oral transmission is studied: The Greek melody, transcribed from a recording, illustrates one way that this chant can be sung in the Greek Orthodox church today [ ] Though the choir may have learned the chant from a printed book using modern Byzantine or modern Western notation [ ] its performance stands within a living tradition in which oral or performance-related processes are more significant than in early twentieth-century Milan, where the chant had to be revived and restored from medieval manuscripts. 23 This quote outlines the importance of why this source is an important tool in understanding oral and written transmission in ritual chant. [ ] Its performance stands within a living tradition in which oral or performance-related processes are more significant than those revived from medieval manuscripts. Since oral tradition reflects and moving and changing tradition, tracing living performance provides more insight as a whole than simply reading and transcribing a document does. Peter Jeffery currently serves as professor at the University of Notre Dame. 22 Ibid Ibid

9 His research and publications are centered on Gregorian chant scholarship. 24 These sources are useful as case studies and are equally accessible because they take theory and apply it in living traditions. Sources from scientific articles provide an objective and technical insight into how the brain processes and stores music. Brain Organization for Music Process by Peretz and Zattore looks at how the brain processes music. In their abstract they note how this is emerging as a rich and stimulating area of investigation of perception, memory, emotion and performance. 25 Peretz and Zatorre study brain organization in order to gain insight on the extent to which music processing neural networks are distinct from those used in other auditory functions, such as language. They break down several elements including music perception, pitch and time relations, pitch relations, time relations, memory, and performance. In perception, the basic process involves a sound reaching the eardrum that sets in motion a complex cascade of mechanical, chemical and neural events in the cochlea, brain stem, midbrain nuclei and cortex that results in percept. 26 They point out important areas of music, which are often misunderstood. One of these is the definition of melody. The pitches themselves are not what distinguish a melody, but rather the arrangement of intervals between pitches. 27 This connects with the research in oral transmission that observes melodic and rhythmic patterns in performance practice such as in Treitler s Homer and Gregory. How the brain 24 University of Notre Dame: Peter Jeffery, 25 Isabelle Peretz and R. Zatorre, Brain Organization for Music Processing, Annual Review Psychology, (56: 2005), Ibid. 27 Ibid. 91 9

10 processes music is an important element in understand how cultures using oral and written transmission in ritual settings developed a notational system. The article draws upon many studies performed on brain-damaged patients as well as theories from other researchers in the field. The authors of this article are very involved in the area of music cognition. Dr. Robert Zatorre is a professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Montréal, Québec. He has published several articles from 1979 to 2011 on cognitive aspects associated with music. 28 Dr. Isabelle Peretz is a cognitive neuropsychologist and professor of psychology at the Université de Montréal, Québec. Her research interests include biological foundations of music, brain organization principles for music, music and speech in singing and neural correlates of pitch-related deficits. She has published over 150 scientific papers on topics including memory, perception, and emotions. She is also the co-director of the international laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS) dedicated to the cognitive neuroscience of music. 29 Upon review of content and authorship, the next element of this source is the accessibility. The article is published in a psychological journal and contains terminology that may or may not require some scientific background to understand. This is something to take into consideration when looking for research outside of one s primary field of study in this case, music. This next source is interesting as it is meant as an educational tool. David Butler s The Musician s Guide to Perception and Cognition is a textbook. Each section 28 Robert Zatoree s Homepage 29 Isabelle Peretz: Research Laboratory 10

11 of the book provides a basis for the understanding of neurological aspects of music. Section one is an introduction that explains the current stages in Music Cognition research and testing and reductionism. The second section, Essentials of Acoustics looks at basic research and defines aspects such as sound waves, propagation of sound (that including wavelength, transverse and longitudinal motion, speed of sound, etc. The third section looks at the sensory attributes of pitch. The overall divisions of categories include two parts. The first part relays information on psychology perception and defining basic functions within this category. Part two looks at the mental representations of Musical Relationships. At the end of each chapter, there is a set of problems that address topics brought up in the earlier section. Even though the text is written for a broader audience, the content does not down-play the importance of the context or spend excessive time in every category of study. Some chapters bring in psychological study including Terhardt s learning matrix study. This matrix is important because it serves as a model of pitch perception and an alternate to Plom s theory. 30 Looking at how cognition fits into the transition from oral to written transmission, one must ask What can one take from these sources? Each area of research explored in these articles draws upon music as it is studied for different structures. Whether through language, scientific study or theories on oral and written transmission, each source above provides a piece to the puzzle that continues to grow in size as more explorations lead to more questions, that researchers continue to ask. 30 David Butler, The Musician s Guide to Perception and Cognition (New York: Schirmer Books, 1992),

12 Bibliography Butler, David. The Musician s Guide to Perception and Cognition. New York: Schirmer Books, Dobszay, Làszlò. The Debate about the Oral and Written Transmission, International Musicological Society. Congress Report XV: Madride (1992), 707. Harvard University Department of Music: Kay Kaufman Shelemay, last modified 2010, Isabelle Peretz: Research Laboratory Robert Zatoree s Homepage Peretz, Isabelle and R. Zatorre. Brain Organization for Music Processing, Annual Review Psychology 56 (2005), Treitler, Leo. Homer and Gregory: The Transmission of Epic Poetry and Plainchant, The Musical Quarterly, LX (1974), University of Notre Dame: Peter Jeffery, 12

The Role of Cognition in Oral & Written Transmission as Demonstrated in Ritual Chant

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations August 2013 The Role of Cognition in Oral & Written Transmission as Demonstrated in Ritual Chant Mary Elizabeth Husslein University