Cog A: Meter, Rhythm, and Grouping in Textsetting and Beyond

This course uses the phenomenon of textsetting as a window onto the rhythmic structure of music. In textsetting, the prosodic structure of linguistic material is mapped onto musical meter, which has very different formal and substantive properties. This mapping is mediated by musical grouping, phrasing, or 'event hierarchies', which are closer in nature to linguistic prosody and can stand in a variety of more congruous and less congruous configurations with regard to musical meter. The course will introduce basic elements of musical meter and grouping, explore simple 'congruous' text mappings, and then touch on more complex textsetting systems that require a separation between musical constituency and meter. No musical background is assumed, but a basic familiarity with musical rhythm will be helpful. In linguistic terms, I'll assume some very low-level familiarity with linguistic syntax (e.g. what is a constituent and why) and general familiarity with the prosodic hierarchy (e.g. what is a syllable, what is stress).