The Language of Music

by Deryck Cooke

First published in 1959, this original study argues that the main characteristic of music is that it expresses and evokes emotion, and that all composers whose music has a tonal basis have used the same, or closely similar, melodic phrases, harmonies, and rhythms to affect the listener in the same ways. He supports this view with hundreds of musical examples, ranging from plainsong to Stravinsky, and contends that music is a language in the specific sense that we can identify idioms and draw up a list of meanings. The book's final section analyzes two symphonies, Mozart's Fortieth and Vaughan Williams's Sixth, to explore the nature of musical inspiration and the process whereby the notes actually convey emotion from composer to listener.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1962

Reviews

[Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a truly wonderful book. I happened upon a copy in a used book store and it immediately grabbed my attention. I had wondered about the possibility of music being a language, and speaking to a deep and emotional part of human nature, but had never seen the idea developed or argued at length. Within just the first few pages, however, I knew I'd found something special. Cooke argues that Western (mostly classical) music is truly a language, but one that speaks to the emotions and not to the intellect. Music is felt, and certain musical motifs or phrases evoke certain emotions in certain contexts. He provides copious examples showing this to be the case, with meticulous attention given to all basic aspects of music: pitch, volume, time, intervals, rhythm, melody, harmony. His writing is crystal clear, his reasoning is well thought out, and his presentation is both entertaining and heartfelt. He shows himself to have a deep understanding of human psychology, emotional depth, and of course, music. (This is the guy that orchestrated Mahler's Tenth, after all.) Cooke closes the book with extended analysis of Mozart's Fortieth and Vaughan-Williams' Sixth symphonies, showing how all the individual elements discussed previously come together in a fully realized work.

The Language of Music (****1/2) is a masterpiece of clarity, musical understanding and psychological depth. While it's definitely a shame that so little has been done to develop the ideas in this book since it was written (and so many have attacked his basic premise, unjustly in my opinion), it's interesting to see scientific studies confirming some of what Cooke describes, for example the universality of certain musical characteristics. Musicians will naturally play in certain ways to evoke fear, excitement, sadness, joy. But Cooke's book goes so much further. If you have some musical background (you'll need it to make sense of the examples), do check it out. It's a joy.

[Vladimir · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is widely regarded as a classic in musical aesthetics. Its thesis is that the fundamental characteristic of music is the expression and evocation of emotion. The author mostly concentrates in premodern music although also gives examples by Bartok, Stravinsky and even Schoenberg (he humbly realizes in the Preface that his theory does not generally apply to twelve tone and atonal music even when he declares to admire also that music). The book provides a "vocabulary" of music illustrated with detailed examples, were each intervalic distance is discussed and related to a particular emotion. Then, sequences of intervals, rhythm and their formal implications are also discussed, showing their 'universality' and how many classical composers have used them consistently to express something: the author attempts to elucidate music as a 'language' and to interpret style as the 'particular' fluctuations and colours around the 'universal' emotional idea, that can be translated into meaning.

Although I enjoyed reading the book and I agree -to a certain extent- that good music expresses and evokes emotion, I had the impression, after reading the book that -following the author- only premodern music was satisfactory to that end and was therefore 'good' (although the book was written in 1959). In my view, a theory is good when one can use it not only to describe what is known, but also in some way to understand what is new and to discover and predict something that is not known. The book does not provide any hint to analyze the expression of complex emotions that are contained in good radical modern music. I think that such a kind of psychological approaches are doomed to fail when one tries to extend them to these new forms of expression.

[Ronald Wise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cooke espouses the belief that there is a communication in music between composer and listener on the subconscious or semi-conscious level. He identifies basic melodic terms used and the feelings that they communicate. I hooked my Yamaha keyboard up while reading and played the sample scores for full effect. I wish I had known about this book a few years ago when I was obsessed on defining the moods of certain chord sequences! This book came to my attention from the "Further Reading" list in A Natural History of the Senses.

[Kari · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only read this because it looked interesting in a bibliography for another book, but the author of that one must have picked the most readily understandable parts for his book, so there wasn't anything else really great in this one. Same old stuff you've heard if you've ever read a music book.

[Snufkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting, and surprising the similarities it brings out! Does go on a bit but definitely worth it.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the "phrasebook" that took time to codify common "emotional" devices in music, but the rest of it was so-so. This book would light a formalist's hair on fire.