人类的音乐语法

音乐是人类共同的语言，不同地方的音乐，其风格也不一样。最近科学家发现，来自不同文化的音乐，还是有着很多共通之处。

难词探意

1. bop /b?p/ n. 博普舞会

2. ethnographic /?eθn??ɡr?f?k/ adj. 人种志的

3. vocal /?v??kl/ adj. 嗓音的；发声的

4. annotate /??n?te?t/ v. 给……加评注

5. notation /n???te??n/ n. （数学、科学和音乐中的）符号；记号

6. anthropologist /??nθr??p?l?d??st/ n. 人类学家

7. algorithm /??lɡ?r?eem/ n. 算法

Track 03

预读思考

1. Do you know the story between Liu Zhengfeng and Qu Yang in Jin Yong's novel The Legendary Swordsman（《笑傲江湖》）? Why did they develop deep friendship?

2. What is a musical grammar likely to mean in the text?

No matter where you are, abopis a a melody makes people get up and dance, comforts their hearts, or calms them down to sleep, similar rhythms and tones make music a universal language. Now, there might be science to back it up.

A team of researchers find that not only is music universal， but also that similar songs are used in similar contexts around the world, according to a study published in the journal Science.

To better understand the similarities in music that could provide insight into its biological roots, the researchers focused on music with lyrics. They started by looking atethnographicdescriptions of music in 315 cultures worldwide, all of which featuredvocalmusic, before analyzing musical recordings from 60 well-documented cultures.

The team used a combination of methods，including machine learning, expert musicologists and 30,000 amateur listeners from the United States and India，to analyze a public database of music. In one part of the study, online amateur listeners were asked to categorize random music samples as lullabies, dance songs, healing songs,folk songs， or love songs. Dance songs were the easiest to catch. In other parts of the study, the music samples wereannotatedby listeners and translated into a musical staff, which is a form of musicalnotationin Western cultures. When this data was fed to a computer, it was able to tell different kinds of songs apart at least twothirds of the time.

“Basically, the team found that humans share a ‘musical grammar’,” explains the study's lead author Samuel Mehr, a psychologist at Harvard University. “Music is built from similar, simple building blocks the world over,” he says.

“Music is something that has confusedanthropologistsand biologists since Darwin,” says Luke Glowacki, an anthropologist at Pennsylvania State University and a co-author on the paper. “If there were no underlying principles of the human mind, there would not be these regularities.”

Critics have questioned the use of machine learningalgorithmsand Western notation because of the biases that come with both. Ethnomusicologist Elizabeth Tolbert of John Hopkins'Peabody Institute, who wasn't involved in the study, says that the research team “may be overinterpreting their results” by searching for common patterns in such a diverse variety of music.

Co-author Manvir Singh, a cognitive and evolutionary anthropologist at Harvard University, says that the music database is open-access.“We'd be glad for anyone to test our conclusions using an alternative method,” he says.

阅读自测

1. What makes music a universal language according to paragraph 1?

A. The function of music. B. The melody of music.

C. Similar rhythms and tones. D. Touching lyrics and voices.

2. What is the function of the underlined sentence in paragraph 3?

A. To provide more information. B. To explore more about music.

C. To describe the process vividly. D. To make the research convincing.

3. What kind of songs are easiest to understand in the research?

A. Folk songs. B. Love songs.

C. Dance songs. D. Healing songs.

4. Which word can best describe the research according to paragraph 8?

A. Creative. B. Doubtful.

C. Beneficial. D. Thoughtful.

文本探究

Ⅰ. 文本填空

1. Now, there might be science to ________it ________（证明；证实）.

2. A team of researchers find that not only is music universal but also that similar songs_________(use) in similar contexts around the world, according to a study _________(publish) in the journal Science.

3. To better understand the similarities _________music that could provide insight_________ its biological roots, the researchers focused _________music with lyrics.

4. The team used a ______ (combine) of methods, including machine learning, expert musicologists and 30,000 amateur listeners from the United States and India,_________ (analyze) a public database of music.

文章来源：《人类学学报》 网址: http://www.rlxxb.cn/qikandaodu/2021/0225/557.html