musical and scientific approaches to chinese performance

VOL. 56, NO.1 ETHNOMUSICOLOGY WINTER 2012

Call and Response

Consilience Revisited: Musical and ScientificApproaches to Chinese Performance

FRANCESCA R. SBORGI LAWSON / Brigham Young University

Introduction

Frustrated by the increasing fragmentation and specialization of knowledge inacademia, biologist, environmentalist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author E.

O.Wilson issued a call for "consilience"-the synthesis of all branches of humanknowledge through the adoption of the scientific method (1998:64-65). Tenyears later, Wilson's student Aniruddh Patel issued his own version of a call forconsilience: In Music, Language, and the Brain, Patel makes a plea for interdis-ciplinary collaboration in the area of language-music studies. Representing theculmination of years of research into the neuro-scientific study of music, Patel'swork is both a formidable review of the literature and a compelling presenta-tion of his own research on the differences and possible relationships betweenlanguage and music. Patel explains,

The study of music-language relations is one area in which scientific and humanisticstudies can meaningfully intertwine, and in which interactions across traditionalboundaries can bear fruit in the form of new ideas and discoveries that neither sidecan accomplish alone. (2008:417)

Judith Becker's bold exploration into the possible relationships betweenethnomusicological research and empiricism, recently highlighted in Ethno-musicology, concludes that such cross-disciplinary research is still "a work inprogress" (2009b:495). How might one approach the musical-scientific divideto enable a fruitful continuation of the work that has just begun?' If consilience(as global academic synthesis) may be premature at this point in time, is Patel's

© 2012 by the Society for Ethnomusicology

Lawson: Consilience Revisited 87

suggestion about interdisciplinary cooperation in language-music studies aviable direction for both ethnomusicology and empirically-based research?

This paper offers a humanistic perspective on selected topics raised bytwo scholars in the neuroscientific community. Additionally, it raises a specificquestion about the feasibility of a musicological topic for empirical research.Before proceeding, however, a brief review of the encounters that promptedthis paper sets the stage for continuing the conversation about music, language,and cognition.

Becker's Experiment

Becker's foray across disciplinary boundaries provides a springboard fora discussion of Patel's call for interdisciplinarity. The recent publication of herarticle "Ethnomusicology and Empiricism in the Twenty-First Century" in Eth-nomusicology (Becker 2009b) coincided with the publication of her companionarticle in the Empirical Musicology Review (2009a), "Crossing Boundaries: AnIntroductory Essay:'Both articles were followed by responses from members ofthe two societies who commented on her experimental research that had beensubmitted to the journal Psychology of Music. Becker should be applauded notonly for her intellectual curiousity in engaging in experimental research andher bravery in submitting her work to a journal outside her customary field ofexpertise, but also for her perseverance in continuing the dialogue between prac-titioners in the respective disciplines of ethnomusicology and music psychol-ogy. Publishing the results of her experiment and the review process promptedseveral candid responses from both humanists and empiricists.

Clearly, Becker's articles are meant to broach further possibilities for in-terdisciplinarity. Even before these latest publications, however, members ofthe neuroscientific community were aware of her research on "deep Iisteners.?For example, Patel cites her as an example of one of the "prominent minds" onboth sides of the divide (2008:417) and argues, as mentioned above, that thearea of language-music research is one that is particularly fertile for potentialcollaboration between neuroscience and musicology. Additionally, some of theconclusions reached by cognitive archeologist Steven Mithen in The SingingNeanderthals (2006) are also pertinent to language-music research. A brief sum-mary of selected views about music and language proposed by Patel and Mithenunderscores the potential interest of this research for ethnomusicologists.

Contrastive Views about Music in Current Scientific Inquiry

Patel discusses research in linguistics, neuropsychology, archaeology, an-thropology' musicology, and neuroscience to provide the background and com-parative perspective for his own work on the deep neural connections between

88 Ethnomusicology, Winter 2012

the domains ofmusic and language in the brain. Although Patel argues that thecurrent state of research provides only weak evidence to suggest that music is abiological adaptation, he does counter Pinker's argument that music ismerely akind of "auditory cheesecake"-a frill that confers no survival advantage (Pinker1997:534).3Instead, Patel feels that "the choice between adaptation and frill isa false dichotomy" (2008:400). In his view, music is a technology invented byhumans that has been integrated, transformed, and re-integrated in a never-ending cycle.As a "transformative technology;' music is universal in all humancultures and has the capacity to "change the very structure of our brains, enlarg-ing certain areas due to motor or perceptual experience" (ibid.:401).

In contrast to Patel'sconclusion that music is a transformational technologyrather than abiological adaptation, StevenMithen argues that "there was a singleprecursor for both music and language: a communication system that had thecharacteristics that are now shared by music and language, but that split intotwo systems at some date in our evolutionary history" (2006:26).As a cognitivearchaeologist and professor of early prehistory, Mithen advocates a view thatlanguage and music co-evolved and our immediate evolutionary predecessors,the Neanderthals, used a kind of proto-language that was holistic, manipula-tive, multimodal, musical and mimetic-a phenomenon that he refers to bythe acronym "Hmmmm" (ibid.:27). Because pre-linguistic human infants areinterested in a speech that exaggerates the usual melodic and rhythmic featuresof language, he concludes that infant -directed speech suggests that music mayhave a developmental priority over language (ibid.:69). Consequently, Mithenbelieves that "the neural networks for language are built upon or replicate thosefor music" (ibid.). This is a fascinating thesis that placesmusical communicationbefore language in the evolutionary scheme, offering a contrast to Patel'sviewthat music is a transformational technology rather than a biological adaptation.

As a humanistic scholar interested in language- music relationships, Iam intrigued by Patel's suggestion that the study of music-language rela-tions is one area in which scientific and humanistic studies can interconnect(2008:417) and by Mithen's views that music is so deeply embedded in ourbiology that music and language are best studied in conjunction with eachother (2006:2). Both authors emphasize the critical importance of music,a subject that has been neglected in scientific research in their respectivefields of neuroscience and cognitive archaeology. An important subtext inboth Mithen's and Patel's works is a refutation of Pinker's dismissal of music(Pinker 1997:534), although Mithen and Patel reach different conclusionsabout the evolutionary role of music.

While one might argue that addressing the roles of differing epistemolo-gies in ethnographic versus scientific studies is a necessary first step in consid-ering potential interdisciplinarity, that discussion is not the focus of this paper.Rather, this essay is a response to Patel's call for interdisicplinarity, with the


hope that mutually agreeable topics might emerge from the conversation andprompt rewarding epistemological exchanges. Hence, my purpose is twofold:first, to outline areas where humanistic research might provide both historicaland ethnographic knowledge to round out Patel's and Mithen's conclusions,and second, to respond tentatively to Patel's call for interdisciplinarity witha question emerging from my own research about the cognitive differencesbetween aural and visual learning-a question that might be ultimately ad-dressed by empirical research."

Historical Gaps

In her article "Crossing Boundaries: An Introductory Essay;' Becker listsseveral barriers to communication between traditional humanistic approachesand, in this case, psychological approaches to the study ofmusic (2009a:45-46).I would also like to address one issue that was not raised by Becker. While Iwholeheartedly agree with her first point that psychological studies involvingmusic overwhelmingly deal with Western art music (ibid.), I would also arguethat even when addressing examples from Western art music, empirically-ori-ented scholars tend to ignore the vast historiographic literature. Of even greaterconcern, I have yet to come across any reference to the historical contributionsof classical Asian cultures to the study of music in empirically-based studies."Although the potential link between cognitive research and ethnomusicology (asthe study of living traditions) may appear to be particularly fruitful because ofthe possibility of engaging in empirical research with living subjects, the weightof musical evidence from historical sources also constitutes an important yetneglected part of the potential material to be considered in the study of music,language, and the brain-the title of Patel's book. I argue that ignoring the his-torical dimension of human musical experience denies the scholar importantevidence in evidence-based research. Mithen spends a good deal of his bookstudying the fossil record to determine the potential for making music amongour evolutionary predecessors, so why would scholars ignore the actual historicalrecord of music making that complements and elucidates current research onthe cognitive processing of living musicians? In order to demonstrate the wayin which historical evidence can contribute to empirical research on music, Iwill focus first on the theory of social cohesion-one of the many ideas raisedin Patel's discussions about the possible adaptive value of music.

Patel's Social Cohesion Theory

While reviewing evidence for the possible role of natural selection in shap-ing human musical abilities, Patel describes a few adaptationist hypothesesabout music. The one he terms "social cohesion" concerns the way music ap-


pears to promote social bonding. Patel explains that "according to this hypoth-esis' music helped cement social bonds between members of ancestral humangroups via its role in ritual and in group music making" (2008:370).

While Patel recognizes that this is a potentially appealing hypothesis, healso raises some concerns about it.

[T]he premise that music is primarily a social activity in small-scale cultures de-serves critical scrutiny. Itmay be that most of the obvious music in these culturesis social, but there also may be a great deal of "covert music" as well ... By covertmusic, I mean music composed and performed discreetly for a very select audience(perhaps even only for oneself), because it represents an intimate statement oflove,memory, loss, and so forth. (Ibid.:371; emphasis in original)

Although Patel makes reference to social cohesion only in small-scale societ-ies' one could certainly make the case for the viability of this hypothesis bylooking beyond small-scale societies, particularly by considering the histori-cal and contemporary role of music in promoting social cohesion in China.

Social Cohesion and Chinese Music

In no other culture is the link between music and social cohesion moreclearly articulated than in China. Early Chinese history is replete with ar-chaeological evidence ofmusic making, scientific experimentation on musicaltopics, and textual sources about music, many of which are now accessible inEnglish language publications (Needham [1962] 2009; Kaufmann 1976;De-Woskin 1982, 1985,2002; Kuttner 1990;Von Falkenhausen 1993;Lam 2002;Wu 2002). The earliest written records about musical practices are found onoracle bones dating back to the Shang dynasty (1600-1045 BCE), providinginformation about musical instruments and the ritualistic use ofmusic. Towardthe middle of the succeeding Zhou dynasty (1045-221 BCE), one encountersrich textual sources expounding the role of music in human society and in theheavens: "music was seen as part of a grand cosmological scheme designed tocorrelate nature, human society, and the cosmos through careful experimenta-tion and mathematical calculation" (DeWoskin 1982:156).Discussions of thevital role of music in personal and social governance continued during thesucceeding Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) and beyond, but for this paperit will suffice to address a few specific musical issues from the middle of theZhou period-the classical period of Chinese thought-as they relate to thesocial cohesion hypothesis raised by Patel.

Throughout the Zhou period, music was believed to have a regulatory andbonding function for members of society (DeWoskin 1985:36-39). Reflectingthe current thinking of the time, Confucius not only espoused the idea thatmusic had a significant role in schooling the feelings and behavior of people,


but also taught that it was incumbent upon the ruler to utilize music wiselythrough proper ritualistic practices in order to ensure good government anda harmonious society. Recognizing that music is an instrument for directingeducation, social control, political rectitude, and personal behavior, Confuciuspromoted music that he considered to be proper and edifying. Confuciusalso denounced certain musics as lewd, inferior, and decadent (Kaufmann1976:60. Consequently, proper music was both an outward manifestationof and a reason for the moral success of the kingdom; the corollary view wasthat improper music was the emblem of and a reason for social failure.

The ancient notion that proper music is a potent tool for promoting socialcohesion has continued to influence Chinese society (Wong 1991;Wu 1994;Tuohy 200O. Tuohy reminds us that musical performances have galvanizedthe Chinese people throughout the country's history, from performances onthe ancient (fifth century BCE) set of sixty-four bells that displayed the powerof the state of Zeng, to the Han dynasty's imperial assessment of the politicaland social inclinations of its citizens through its collection and analysis of folksongs, to the rousing urban songs that students and intellectuals in the 1930sdirected against foreign invaders (2001:107-08). She continues:

Are these random musical incidents connected only by their geographic coinci-dence? I argue they form a piece, a monumental piece composed through the dis-course and practices of twentieth -century musical nationalism that link them to eachother within the organizational form of the Chinese nation ... temporally spanningfrom the ancient past through the future and from morning through night. The sonicdimensions are at once vernacular, traditional, modern, and international, and theycome together in a national soundtrack of epic proportions. (Ibid.)

The persistent belief in the power of music as a means for creating socialcohesion was most dramatically demonstrated to the rest of the world by theelaborate ritual performances of the 2008 Beijing Olympic ceremonies, wheresome fifteen thousand performers moved in perfect ritualized musical syn-chrony in a series of ceremonies that took nearly two hours to perform (TheGames 2008). The carefully choreographed performances were designed toexemplify as well as promote the importance of social cohesion -a social,cultural, and political goal endorsed vigorously by Premier Hu Jintao (ibid.).

Covert Music Making in China

Patel also argues that one of the weaknesses of the social cohesion hy-pothesis is that music is indeed "composed and performed discreetly for avery select audience (perhaps even only for oneself) because it represents anintimate statement of love, memory, loss, and so forth" (2008:370. AncientDaoist philosophers would agree completely with the viability of covert music


making, considering solitary music performance and an increased emphasison being audient as the highest form of intelligence. Daoism offered a comple-mentary perspective to Confucianism, and they played against each otherlike two competing-yet-balancing contrapuntal themes throughout Chinesehistory. DeWoskin explains that Daoist philosophers

explore music and its relation to individual perception and individual expressionapart from a social context. The context for [D] aoist comments on music is anenlarged sphere, nature itself. Among Chinese mythological accounts, music andmusical systems are derived from nature. They have a kind of non-arbitrary prov-enance, having been learned by man through careful attention to the sounds around.(1985:40)

One of the distinguishing qualities of a sagewas the ability to hear soundsthat are inaudible to others, suggesting that wisdom implies being fully engagedwith and highly sensitive to the natural world. Early Chinese philosophers notonly highlighted music in their philosophical and historical writings, but also"attached a special importance ... to hearing as the central link between themind and the outside world and the exploitation of hearing and aural sensitiv-ity as a metaphor for perspicacity in general" (DeWoskin 1982:7).

These elegantly articulated Daoist views about musical performance pro-vide fascinating historical evidence for the phenomenon of covert music mak-ing raised by Patel. In addition, the complementarity of the two seeminglyoppositional Confucian and Daoist views about music reflects the apparentdifferences between the social cohesion and the covert music making hypoth-eses as articulated by Patel. In other words, the distinctions between the powerof music to promote social bonding and the tendency of music to encourageintroversion have already been argued since the latter part of the Zhou dynasty(sixth through third centuries BCE). Hence, Confucian views about music inritual strongly support the social cohesion hypothesis, while Daoist views aboutmusic as a highly intimate form of communication reinforce the covert musichypothesis. In the ancient Chinese mind these two notions were not mutuallyexclusive, as Patel seems to imply.

Why, then, must the social cohesion hypothesis be negated by the existenceof covert music? Perhaps the problem lies in our inability to distinguish be-tween the vastly different functions of music in its roles as a group activity andas a solitary pursuit. If Peretz has concluded that the brain exhibits a modularityof music and language, with musical and linguistic information flowing alongtheir respective pathways of information (Mithen 2006:63), might there alsobe a variety of pathways for different music modules? In other words, mightritualized musical performance involve movement along different musicalpathways than solitary musical performance?


In addition to Patel's concern about excluding the importance of covertmusic making in the social cohesion hypothesis, he also raises what he feelsis a more serious question:

If music were an adaptation to promote social bonding, then one would predict thatbiologically based social impairments would curtail responsiveness to music. Yetautistic children, who have pronounced deficits in social cognition, are sensitive tomusical affect ... Music thus does not appear to have an obligatory relationship tobrain mechanisms involved in social behavior, as one might predict from the socialcohesion hypothesis. (2008:371)

Even if all autistic children were sensitive to musical affect, they repre-sent a relatively small percentage of the human population. Using the smallnumber of musically sensitive autistic individuals as one of the main criteriafor discrediting the social cohesion hypothesis is to discount an entire theorythat appears to have validity for virtually every human society. As mentionedpreviously, the Daoist view of music as a type of audient introversion alsosuggests that music does not always have a requisite relationship to socialbehavior. In his review of the Daoist writings on music in the Six Dynastiesperiod (220-589 CE), DeWoskin elaborates on this point:

In the Chinese view, all parties to the aesthetic act are inherently participants in avalidation of cosmic patterning ... Cosmic order is omnipresent, and, when themind is there as well, any of the common components of the aesthetic event can beeliminated - the performer, the sound, the instrument, the audience-as long asformal correspondence between the mind and nature is achieved. Vastly reducedin importance is the responsibility of the performer to "express:' the burden of themusic to "affect:' and the need for a listener to "respond:' (1982: 179-80)

Hence, DeWoskin's description of this Chinese concept points to a possibleexplanation for Patel's notion of covert music.

Consequently, my point is this: while Patel raises two seemingly conflict-ing ideas-musical cohesion and musical introversion-and implies that theyare mutually exclusive,I argue that by including heretofore neglected historicalinformation that is relevant to the apparent incongruities implied by Patel'sexplanations of the two hypotheses, one gains additional insight as to how bothof Patel'stheories might exist simultaneously. Thus, historical data can be a use-ful form of evidence in empirical research on music, language, and the brain,shedding light on topics that may appear to be otherwise unrelated. If there arediscrepancies among empirically, historically, and ethnographically-deriveddata, then explanations for these inconsistencies should be an important focusfor scientists, ethnographers, and historians. Attempting to reconcile the generaldiscrepancies in scientificand humanistic approacheswilleither lead to mutuallyprofitable engagement or continued disciplinary estrangement.


The Study of Music and Language:A Humanistic Perspective

In his desire to engage specificallyin language-music research as an area ofpotential interdisciplinary collaboration, Patel describes one of his major goalsas exploring the underlying processing mechanisms of music and language,and thus avoiding the "distraction of superficial analogies between music andlanguage" (2008:5). To this end, he focuses on "the relationship between ordi-nary spoken language and purely instrumental music" and explains his choiceby saying:

initially it may seem more appropriate to compare instrumental music to an artis-tic form of language such as poetry, or to focus on vocal music, where music andlanguage intertwine. The basic motivation is a cognitive one: To what extent doesthe making and perceiving of instrumental music draw on cognitive and neuralmechanisms used in our everyday communication system? Comparing ordinarylanguage to instrumental music forces us to search for the hidden connections thatunify obviously different phenomena (ibid.).

I can readily see the reasoning behind wanting to avoid superficial analo-gies,and concentrating instead on the deep, neural connections between musicand language by looking at music and language individually-devoid of anyinterconnection. Music and language do occur separately in cultural com-munication. I wonder, however, about the continued feasibility of looking atthese communicative domains as individual cognitive entities. At what pointwill neuroscientists look at language and music as they mutually interrelatein real-world situations?

As a scholar in the humanities, one of my pressing questions is how musicrelates to language in the myriad ways encountered in musical ethnography.Indeed, it is rare to find examples where music and language do not interactin some profound way,particularly in the Chinese performing arts. Since theethnographical evidence of the interconnections between language and musicis overwhelming, the collaborative opportunities that Patel seeks to have withhumanistic scholars will be severely restricted if the study of language andmusic is restricted to separate manifestations.

The Chinese Speaking-Singing Genres

My own research interests stem from the intriguing way music and lan-guage interrelate in the northern Chinese narrative arts traditionally known asshuochangf which literallymeans "speaking-singing"-in China, the inextrica-bility oflanguage and music is reflected in the very name of these genres. With


over 150 documented narrative styles throughout the country, China has thelargest and most diverse narrative tradition in the world (Zhang 1983: 11-13).Representing virtually every dialect and region and appealing to members ofall social classes, the Chinese narrative arts are particularly interesting in theway the linguistic message of the story is rendered musically. Since all Chinesedialects are tonal and a large percentage of narrative performances are sung,communicating a story that is linguistically comprehensible as well as musicallysatisfying is both the challenge and the reason for the popularity of narrativeperformance (Rebollo-Sborgi 2002:247-48). Chinese aficionados considernarrative forms as musical without being considered music and as literarywithout being considered literature, agreeing that certain genres emphasizemusical delivery to the point where linguistic messages are obscured, whileothers underscore linguistic meaning, using music primarily as a means forlinguistic delivery (ibid.).

Given the fluidity between linguistic and musical concerns, Chinese nar-ratives might provide a tantalizing subject for potential empirical analysis.After engaging in field work and musical analysis, I have been amazed by thecognitive complexity of music-language constructs in human vocality." Im-provised vocality is one of the great examples of human intelligence that hasscarcely been appreciated, let alone understood. I wonder, therefore, if theremight be ways to document and analyze the neural complexities of humanvocal creativity. In other words, how might empirical studies both contributeto and benefit from looking at evidence of vocality in actual-rather thanlaboratory-simulated -human communication?

Assuming for the moment that the various permutations oflanguage andmusic in Chinese narratives may be of interest to neuroscientific inquiry, Ipropose one of the most intriguing questions arising from my work: What isthe influence of written orthographies on musical and linguistic performance?In conducting fieldwork among narrative singers, I was struck by the differ-ent ways they learned their material. With some genres, a form of text wasused as the prescription for constructing a musical performance; other genresfavored a more oral/aural approach to learning new pieces. The influence ofwritten texts on aural learning adds a wrinkle to the already confusing inter-connectedness of language and music, but I wonder if studying the effect ofvisual orthographies on aural learning may be an area of inquiry that lendsitself to neuroscientific research. In order to demonstrate the significance ofthe aurality question, I will briefly explain two examples of northern Chinesenarrative forms in which written orthography appears to affect the cognitiveprocesses involved in musical and linguistic improvisation.


Aural Paradigms

One of the most fascinating aspects of these genres is the way materialis transmitted from teacher to disciple. In order to explain the fundamentalaurality of these forms, I will use a concept explained by Treitler (1991).8 Heintroduces the notion of the aural paradigm as the basis for a discussion aboutperformances that do not rely solely on texts:

The differentiation that I am suggesting here is interestingly reflected in a differ-entiation of cognitive faculties that we make when we speak of performing musicwithout the use of a score: "by heart" and "by ear:' The former is easily translatedas "from memory:' The sense of playing by ear is more elusive ... In the context ofmusical performance, we usually speak of the ability to "play by ear" as the abilityto perform something from an internalized sense of how it goes ... or to repeatsomething right after hearing it, based not only on a good memory but also on agood knowledge of the style or idiom. I shall call such a basis for a performance anaural paradigm. (Ibid.:78)

Treitler'sdescription of an aural paradigm is a useful point from which to begina discussion about performances of two genres that exemplify the constras-tive practices of performing by heart and by ear. These genres underscore theimportance of recognizing the different cognitive processes involved in theaurality ofmusical performance due to the very different cognitive archetypeson which these performances are created.

Aural Paradigms and Orthography

In addition to the need to understand the notion of aural paradigms, acomparison of prescriptive and descriptive notations is also pertinent to adiscussion about aural learning. Charles Seegerwas one of the first musicolo-gists to address the hazards of using musical notation as a text for performance(1977b). He suggests that every music scholar faces a quandary when using avisual representation (notation) to study the full auditory parameter of music(1977a:23). In discussing the risks associated with writing music, he cites oneof the problems as "our failure to distinguish between prescriptive and de-scriptive uses of music writing-between a blueprint of how a specific pieceof music shall be made to sound and a report of how a specific performanceof any music actually did sound" (1977b:168).This is an important distinctionbecause it clarifiesthe two primary waysnotations are used in academic schol-arship-prescriptively and descriptively-and the different kinds of hazardsassociated with each type.

While Seeger considers the very act of notating or writing music as apotential misrepresentation, he concedes the performative potential for pre-


scriptive notation. Most musical notations, including the one used in Westernmusic, are prescriptive in nature, meaning that the notation represents a blue-print designed for a trained musician to interpret. Although Western notationis a fairly detailed prescription for performance, it has meaning only to thosewho are skilled enough to interpret it. Only great performers are capable offully rendering all the nuances implied by the prescription, and each musi-cian offers his or her own interpretation within culturally acceptable boundsestablished by the performance tradition. The very partiality of the prescrip-tion is the reason for the variance in performance possibilities among greatinterpreters, whose individually performed interpretations become the keyto aesthetic listening pleasure. I also submit that the more detail prescribedin the written notation, the less reliance on aural paradigms in learning andperforming, as suggested by the following examples.

From Aural to Written Paradigms

One of the beloved forms in northern Chinese narrative performance iskuaibarshu (Fast Clappertales),? in which a performer rapidly recites memo-rized verse-nowadays learned from a printed source-by heart to the ac-companiment of bamboo clappers. The clappers are two castanet-like instru-ments held in each hand that provide a rhythmically virtuosic display beforethe narrative begins and a steady beat throughout the performance. From theperspective of this paper, however, the immediate predecessor of this genre, aform known as shulaibao (Rhyming in the Money), is particularly interestingbecause of the exclusively aural paradigm used in performance, a paradigmthat initially did not rely on notation of any kind.

Shulaibao was an early twentieth -century performance genre in whichbeggars would improvise verse (by ear) while accompanying themselves withbamboo clappers. A beggar would approach the home of a rich person andimprovise a verse to earn money. The more clever the verse and the bet-ter the performance, the more money the performer could earn. If he weresufficiently rewarded, he would move on.'? If not, he would begin to reciteunfavorable rhymes until the unwilling patron remunerated the performerto his satisfaction.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, any form ofbegging was seen as a poor reflection on the new country, so this particulargenre could not continue in its original incarnation. It should be noted, how-ever, that in its pre-1949 form, shulaibao utilized solely aural paradigms as thebasis for performance. Walls translates the following printed example of a pre-1949 Chinese beggar's extemporaneous versification into English (1977:61-63).Since witnessing such a performance has not been possible for about seventy


years, this translation (Figure 1) of a printed excerpt represents a rare trace ofan extinct performance tradition.

The original transcription of the Chinese lyrics lacks the virtuosic intro-duction (usually played on ox bones) that provided the rhythmic accompani-ment to the verse-a key factor that not only enhanced the beggar's perfor-mance but, more importantly, also demonstrated the rhythmic basis of theaural paradigm on which the words of the performance were improvised. 12

Hence, even the best descriptive translations oflyrics do not do justice to thecomplexity of the whole performance event, and thus provide few clues to thecognitive processes used in extemporizing verse.

Finnegan describes a similar type of improvised performance among theHausa in Northern Nigeria:

The wandering singer arrives at a village and carefully finds out the names ofleadingpersonages in the area. Then he takes up his stand in a conspicuous place, and pro-duces a praise song to the individual he has decided to apostrophise. It is punctuatedby frequent demands for gifts. If he gets what he wants, he announces the amountand sings his thanks in further praise. But if he does not, his delivery becomesharsher and the song becomes interlaced with innuendo about the "patron's" birthand status. Sooner or later the victim gives in, and buys the singer's silence with acash payment or valuable gift. (1977:55)

The Chinese and Hausa descriptions demonstrate some ways in whichperformances may be improvised based on the responses of the unwitting pa-tron' the audience, and the internalized rhythmic patterns that, depending onthe context, shape the creation of the verse by ear. This type of vocal improvisa-tion, then, relies on aural paradigms whose realization is context -specific, withno visual notations or texts used in such performances." Eventually, however,the best shulaibao performers were invited to perform in teahouses. Some ofthe lyrics of those first teahouse performances were eventually transcribed,becoming descriptive notations of shulaibao performances.

In due course, authors came to specialize in composing new lyrics basedon the transcriptions of improvised performances by exceptionally talentedshulaibao performers such as the legendary Li Runjie (interview, Zhang Zhi-kuan, Nankai University, Tianjin, 3 June 1986). Li was especially interestedin upgrading his art form in keeping with trends among many narrative per-formers in the rapidly modernizing Republic of China {1912-1949 on theChinese mainland). 14 Keenly aware of his role in modernizing the art form anddisavowing previous associations with begging, Li codified certain rhythmicmotifs (demonstrated below) that had been used in shulaibao, using these mo-tifs as the basis for instructing students in the newly -created, updated genre ofkuaibarshu -a genre that was recited from memory rather than improvised. 15

Figure 1. Descriptive transcription of the lyrics of a Shulaibao performance

I


Today, kuaibarshu performers are salaried professionals who recite composedtexts according to rhythmic patterns similar to vestigial aural paradigms usedin shulaibao, while accompanying themselves with a large bamboo clapper inthe right hand (dabar) and a smaller bamboo clapper in the left tjiezibars:"

Zhang Zhikuan, eminent kuaibarshu artist and student of Li Runjie, ex-plained that the kuaibarshu performer showcases his technical skill in theintroduction in a way that is similar to the beggar's introduction using oxbones, slowing down right before the story begins (ibid.). Figure 2 is my de-scription of a rhythmic introduction to a kuaibarshu piece titled Wu Song Killsa Tiger (Wu Song Dahu), played just before the lyrics begin. The top line is atranscription of the smaller of the two bamboo clappers (jiezibar), and thesecond line transcribed just underneath is the larger clapper (dabar), playingthe slower part; the relative, indefinite pitches of the two clappers are arbitrarilyplaced on a modified Western staff for the sake of convenience in visualizingthe rhythmic introduction.

In the first two measures of the clapper introduction, the dabar plays asyncopated pattern against the more straightforward pulse created by thejiezibar. The most interesting visual and aural pattern is notated in measurestwelve through fourteen. Here the dabar scrapes the top of the jiezibar andthen briefly hits the bottom of the jiezibar in a kind of circular motion, creat-ing an exciting visual display for the audience."

Not only is the introduction still considered a lure for potential audiences,but Zhang explained that the introduction also introduces the four fundamentalrhythmic motifs that undergird the subsequent performance of the text, all ofwhich were codified by Li Runjie as part of his efforts to modernize and upgradethe genre (ibid.)." Since these performances are never musically notated, andonly the performers and aficionados of the genre are consciously aware of therhythmic motifs, descriptive notation is useful for demonstrating to the un-initiated listener the rhythmic complexity of the introduction as well as all therhythmic motifs used throughout the piece." Figure 3 illustrates the four rhyth-mic motifs used by performers to set their texts: basic pattern (jibendiar), singlepattern (dandiar), double pattern (shuangdiar), and mixed pattern (hunhediar).Each of the four motifs is also found throughout the introduction (Figure 2).The following list indicates the first time each motif occurs in Figure 2: basic(measure 1), single (measure 8), double (measure 1), and mixed (measure 5).

After the voice enters, both clapper parts become simpler, softer, andless obtrusive, allowing the vocal part to dominate, with the basic and doublerhythmic motifs prevailing. Figure 4 is a notated excerpt of the first five linesof the story The Grasshopper and the Cricket (Guoguor gen Ququr), illustratinghow the vocal syllables fit into the rhythmic pattern of the delivery. While


Figure 2: Kuaibarshu clapper introduction to Wu Song Kills a Tiger

.. - 100> >

lee erB r StU I

this notation indicates the way the rhythm undergirds the lyrics, it does notindicate the heightened speech, which is not quite "melodic" enough to bemusically notated-a type of speech that is also illserved by simply transcrib-ing the lyrics. These subtle aspects of performance are features of the auralparadigms that defy visual notation of any kind."

The Grasshopper and the Cricket (with the author's English translation) is

Figure 3: Four rhythmicmotifs of Kuaibarshu &f r r >r r r r r

>

J>

J

Figure 4: Excerpt from The Grasshopper and the Cricket

Shuo xing qi han, w() dabjia{} qia6jiim liao yi ge

til lea La! nUrdmlll!l!

Lfzai mill shUn chi le ;cbl ban 1<111 hCL"


a favorite piece usually taught to beginning students ofkuaibarshu, an excerptofwhich is transcribed in Figure 5. Although the following example of the textis short and relatively simple, it demonstrates the kind of prescriptive text anovice might encounter when beginning to study kuaibarshu."

Hence, what began as an improvised performance completely based onaural paradigms has metamorphosed into a genre that uses a textual pre-scription for performance with the rhythmic style embedded in the lyrics,whose "melodic" delivery eludes any easily accessible form of transcription.Kuaibarshu texts have become a minimal prescription that presupposes yearsof knowledge and training with a master performer in order to perform thecomplex rhythms associated with different textual patterns. The exclusivelyaural paradigm of shulaibao has shifted to a partially written paradigm withaural information encoded within the kuaibarshu lyrics.

Although kuaibarshu is a favorite genre for modern audiences, the remark-able ability of shulaibao performers to improvise in any context has been lost inthe genre'snewer incarnation. Transcribed lyrics from a shulaibao performancerepresent a trace of a lost oral-aural tradition that survives only in textual pat-terns written according to an older aural paradigm. While the realization ofa prescriptive kuaibarshu text in performance is exciting, it probably pales incomparison to the thrill of hearing a shulaibao performer compose verse onthe spot, in front of a possibly adversarial patron and onlookers.

The Effects of Written Orthography

Patel makes an interesting point regarding the way in which parts of thebrain can actually be changed because of certain motor or perceptual experi-ences' particularly with regard to written orthography (2008:401). He saysthat "the specialization of certain human brain regions for reading writtenorthography demonstrates that learning can lead to neural specialization dur-ing development. Thus the human process of invention, internalization, andtransformation can change the very organ that makes this process possible"(ibid.).

If the brain adapts to different perceptual experiences, is there a differencebetween a brain that improvises vocally according to aural paradigms learnedsolely by listening and one that learns by studying printed textual cues? Ac-cording to this passage, one might suppose that changes from aural to visualcues in learning music or language would result in different kinds of cognitiveprocesses. As a student and researcher of oral traditions, this is a key questionfor me. In the case of the shift from shulaibao to kuaibarshu, it is too late tostudy changes in brain activity. But how might one approach the differencesbetween aurally-based and text-based learning in music, language, and in

Figure 5: Chinesetext (prescriptionfor performance)

with Englishtranslation

(' "HmlJL all creatures that 11y in Ill ...

1 heard


genres that feature both music and language (since it is nearly impossible toseparate the two)?

McLuhan speaks to the issue of text -based vs. aurally-based learning whenhe states that a new medium typically does not displace or replace another asmuch as it complicates its operation:

It is precisely such interaction that obscures media effects. Early mankind's tech-nology-the one from which writing, print, and telegraph all derived-was speech.Transformed into writing, speech acquired a powerful visual basis, producing effectsin social and cultural organization that endure to the present. But the gain in powercame with a loss, for writing separated speech from the other physical senses. (2003:xv)

Similarly, the original performance of shulaibao involved performing byear without any reference to a visual text. On the other hand, performers ofkuaibarshu have to learn the visual texts by heart, although the ultimate per-formance involves the rendering of verse according to rhythms still learnedby ear. As McLuhan states, the visual medium complicates the auditory sen-sorium' and this phenomenon gives rise to a different kind of paradigm forperformance in kuaibarshu.

Hence, one could argue that the technological nature of the musical speechin shulaibao changes when a visual medium is used to communicate informa-tion that had been previously communciated aurally. I wonder if empiricalresearch might explore questions like the shift from aural to textual communi-cation. Tobe sure, the shift from aural to textual learning is complicated by be-ing musical as well as linguistic. But complicated musical and linguistic formsare precisely what one encounters in ethnographic and historical research.The age-old epistemological question is how to design empirically-rigorousexperiments that will speak to real-world problems in which it is impossibleto isolate musical and linguistic elements.

Precursor for Music and Language

The difficulty in separating music and language in real-world ethnographymakes StevenMithen's theory about the origin of music intriguing, because heposits that music and language originate from a single precursor (2006:260-66).Influenced byWray'swork on formulaic language (seeWray 2002,2008), Mithenargues that "the formulaic aspects of language suggest a greater similarity withmusic than might initially be apparent" (2006:19).He concludes that formulaiclanguage reflects an evolutionary history oflanguage that was based on holisticphrases, and that "we can't rid ourselves of the habit" (ibid.:277). The continu-ous, ubiquitous presence oflanguage- music constructs in virtually every worldculture would seem to validate a theory that claims the origin of music andlanguage was a communication that involved aspects of both.


Consequently, if Mithen's theory about music and language stemmingfrom a single precursor were true, and if formulaic language implies a simi-larity to music, his theory might then help to explain the prevalence of oralperformance in human society from early historical records to the present day(Lord 1960; Finnegan 1979)-performance that freely uses both formulaiclanguage and musical delivery. And, more specifically,his theory might alsoexplain how music and language are deeply, intextricably embedded in thenorthern Chinese narrative traditions precisely because our brains seem tobe hard-wired for communication that involves both language and music.

While the research indicates that the neural networks that process lan-guageand music exhibit some degree of independence from each other (Mithen2006:62),"the separation of the modular music and language systems ... is notcomplete, as severalmodules ... appear to be shared between the two systems"(ibid.). Furthermore, when one considers that songs establish a more exten-sive and elaborate network of information in the brain because both speechmemory and melody memory systems are involved, it leads to the conclusionthat the recognition of a songmelody is easier "becausemore neural circuits arestimulated when the music is played than is the case when a melody is purelyinstrumental in nature:' (ibid.:55).Mithen goes on to suggest that

Song can be considered as the recombination of the two products of"Hmmmm" [theprotolanguage] into a single communication system once again. But the two prod-ucts, music and language, are only being recombined after a period of independentevolution into their fully evolved forms. Consequently, song benefits from a superiormeans of information transmission, compositional language in the form of lyrics,than ever existed in "Hrnrnrnm," combined with a degree of emotional expression,from music, that cannot be found in compositional language alone (ibid.:273).

Although it is impossible to prove the validity of the "Hmmmm' theory, Ifind Mithen's views credible given the historic and ethnographic evidence thatI see in the Chinese narrative arts. Music and the art of listening are accordedgreat importance in Chinese historical writings, and the prevalence of narra-tive traditions from at least the seventh century (from when we have textualand pictorial evidence of narrative arts in Buddhist storytelling) indicate thepresence of music and music-language constructs early in Chinese history.Like archaeological evidence, historical and ethnographic evidence shouldbe considered in explaining the cognitive functions of music and language.

Areas for Collaboration

While revisiting the idea of interdisciplinary cooperation between eth-nography and empiricism-as a precursor to Wilson'snotion of consilience-Iwonder about the next step after the initial call for increased efforts in inter-


disciplinary exchange. Becker's courageous move into uncharted territoryresulted in a disappointment, and the responses of scholars from both sidesof the divide did not necessarily indicate a willingness to move beyond thestumbling blocks that have separated disciplines in the first place. As a hu-manistic scholar considering Patel's and Mithen's works, I have addressedone general issue-the need to consider both historical and ethnographicdata that come from real-world musical phenomena (not simply laboratory-induced phenomena or fossilevidence) in evidence-based research-and onespecificissue-the desire to study the differencesin human cognition betweenlearning music and language by using aural paradigms, visual notations, ora combination of the two. Perhaps by working collaboratively in isolatingareas of mutual interest and in designing empirically significant, historicallyinformed, and culturally appropriate experiments, humanists and scientistscan move beyond the scholastically-imposed barriers and plan projects thatwill utilize the expertise of empiricism, ethnography, and historiography.

Notes1. The "musical-scientific divide" is Patel's term (2008:417). Scholars who can comfortably

work in both an empirical and humanistic setting might not perceive such a divide; however, givenBecker's experiences, one could argue that there is indeed a gulf that divides these two realms ofscholarship. The test is whether or not scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds can posequestions of mutual interest that will lead to interdisciplinary collaboration.

2. Becker explains that "Deep Listeners' is a term I have adapted from the composer PaulineOliveros ... In my own definition, deep listeners is a descriptive term for persons who are profoundlymoved, perhaps even to tears, by simply listening to a piece of music" (2004:2).

3. Pinker argues that music is "an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots ofat least six of our mental faculties" (1997:534). He asserts that music is clearly not an adaptationbut rather a "frill" -something that humans have invented for mere entertainment.

4. Given the response to Becker's submission to Psychology of Music, I am wary of enteringinto uncharted territory without some initial validation from scholars coming from a neurosci-entific perspective. Is my question (articulated in the first full paragraph on page 24) a viable onefor empirical research? If so, I would be interested in hearing from empirically-trained scholarsto consider possibility of collaborative research. If not, why is my question not viable? Positive ornegative answers these questions may help to determine the feasibility of future collaboration.

5. Patel does cite several contemporary ethnographic studies on cross-cultural similaritiesand differences between musical and affective categories (2008:3l3-14).

6. Other narrative traditions in different parts of the country have different traditional names.For example, pingtan is the term for narratives in the Shanghai-Suzhou area and nanyin is the cor-responding term in Guangzhou. Since 1953, all narrative forms have been called quyi in order tolink them together under a single, government -approved rubric.

7. I am borrowing the term vocality from Paul Zumthor, who feels that orality does not conveythe importance of the voice in performance and reception-particularly in the textually-orientedresearch of medieval poetics (Zumthor 1987:20-31). I use vocalityto refer to the kind ofimprovisedChinese verbal performance discussed later in this paper. While this Chinese genre is not sung, itnonetheless represents a kind of vocal performance for which we do not have a suitable term inEnglish.


8. Treitler's work in medieval song is an example of the fascinating work historical musicolo-gists have undertaken in considering the relationship between written orthographies and musi-cal performance. The existence of this scholarship reinforces my point that historical evidence isimportant in the study of music and cognition. See Lawson 2010: 1-2 for a summary of some ofthe research conducted by historical musicologists on this subject.

9. All consultants refer to this genre as kuaibarshu, rather than Kuaibanshu, which is the wayit would be written. Given the folk origins of this genre, I have chosen to refer to it the way nativeperformers and audience members do.

10. To my knowledge, all shulaibao singers were male.11. This translation is printed with the permission of Walls.12. A famous example of the need for a singer to have a musical instrument as he improvises

is the example of Sulejman Makic, recounted in Lord (1960:26).l3. For a comprehensive ethnomusicological treatment of the subject of improvisation, refer

to Nettl and Russell (1998).14. Stevens (1975:88-90) offers more information on a similar trend to upgrade the literary

and musical standards of Peking Drumsinging.15. Walls (1977) provides more information about the improvisatory performance tradition

of shulaibao. My own book (Lawson 2011) also includes more information about the learning andperforming ofkuaibarshu.

16. Refer to Walls (1977:66-68) for a photograph and description ofthe clappers.17. For more detail about this piece, see Ferguson (1988:105-19).18. While it is hoped that this descriptive transcription will be helpful as an introduction to

those for whom this genre would be otherwise inaccessible, my presence as a foreign transcribershould be recognized. My choice of notation and the elements of performance I highlight clearlyreflect my own training and biases.

19. A fascinating account of a single vocal example with accompaniment, transcribed dif-ferently by four eminent ethnomusicologists, is found in England et al. (1964). The difficultiesin finding an accurate yet accessible mode of transcription for this example underscore my ownpredicament in transcribing the heightened speech with accompaniment. See Nettl (2005:82-85)for an evaluation of this 1964 exercise in transcription.

20. A sampling of the significant prior work in ethnomusicology on the subject of auralityand literacy includes Chambers (1981), Cooke (1986), Feld (1986), Gunji (1986), Tokumaru andYamaguti (1986), Hughes (1989, 1991, 2000), and Brinner (1995). I also cite some ofthe researchon questions of medieval aurality and notation in historical musicology in Lawson (2010).

21. The entire piece is transcribed in my book (Lawson 2011).

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Appendix 1: Glossary of Selected Chinese Characters

DabiirDandiarGuoguor he QuqurHunhediarlibendiarliezibiirKuaibarshuuRunjieQuyiShulaibaoShuangdiarShuochangWusongDdHuZhang Zhikuan

musical and scientific approaches to chinese performance

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