Arts, Faculty of
Music, School of
DSpace
UBCV
Lemire, Chantal
Master of Arts - MA
University of British Columbia
In this study I will analyze the spoken-word song, “Crossroads,” by singer-songwriter Tom Waits. “Crossroads” combines natural speech and metrical music, which highlights the rhythmic similarities and differences between speech and music. My analysis combines analytical tools developed in linguistics and music that can examine the rhythmic sensations created through spoken word. Christopher Hasty’s theory of metric projection represents the rhythmic structure of the musical accompaniment, and Bruce Hayes’s theory of metrical stress represents the rhythmic structure of Waits’s speech. The combination of the two theories explores how the presence of natural speech changes my sensation of the musical accompaniment, and vice versa. In my analysis of “Crossroads,” I propose that combination of speech and metrical music can generate a unique sensation of rhythm and structure akin to an optical illusion. This approach offers one possible way that the analysis of spoken word can prioritize its performance aspects to the same degree as the artists who use the form.
AT THE “CROSSROADS”: THE INTERACTION BETWEEN SPEECH RHYTHM AND MUSICAL RHYTHM IN TOM WAITS’S SPOKEN-WORD SONG by CHANTAL LEMIRE B.Mus, University of British Columbia, 2006 M.Mus, McGill University, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Music) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) October 2013 © Chantal Lemire 2013 ii Abstract In this study I will analyze the spoken-word song, “Crossroads,” by singer-songwriter Tom Waits. “Crossroads” combines natural speech and metrical music, which highlights the rhythmic similarities and differences between speech and music. My analysis combines analytical tools developed in linguistics and music that can examine the rhythmic sensations created through spoken word. Christopher Hasty’s theory of metric projection represents the rhythmic structure of the musical accompaniment, and Bruce Hayes’s theory of metrical stress represents the rhythmic structure of Waits’s speech. The combination of the two theories explores how the presence of natural speech changes my sensation of the musical accompaniment, and vice versa. In my analysis of “Crossroads,” I propose that combination of speech and metrical music can generate a unique sensation of rhythm and structure akin to an optical illusion. This approach offers one possible way that the analysis of spoken word can prioritize its performance aspects to the same degree as the artists who use the form. iii Preface All the work presented hereafter is original, independent work by the author, Chantal D. Lemire. None of the research in this thesis has been previously published. iv Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ......................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................ iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. vii List of Examples ....................................................................................................................... viii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... ix Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... x Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Tom Waits and “Crossroads” ..................................................................................................... 4 1.2 Methodologies ............................................................................................................................. 10 Chapter 2: The Musical Accompaniment ................................................................................ 14 2.1 Rhythm & Meter ........................................................................................................................ 14 2.1.1 Even and Uneven Divisions of a Cycle ................................................................................. 18 2.1.2 Harmonic Rhythm ................................................................................................................. 23 2.2 Formal Structure ........................................................................................................................ 24 2.3 Temporal Measurements ........................................................................................................... 25 2.3.1 Onsets and Inter-onset Intervals ............................................................................................ 27 Chapter 3: The Speech “Rhythm” ............................................................................................ 30 3.1 Formal Structure ........................................................................................................................ 32 3.2 Prosodic Segmentation ............................................................................................................... 35 3.2.1 Phonological Constituents: Syllables and Feet ..................................................................... 35 3.2.3 Prosodic Constituents: Words, Phrases, and Utterances ....................................................... 38 3.3 Normative Prosodic Order ........................................................................................................ 40 3.3.1 Metrical/Phonological Stress Grids ....................................................................................... 41 3.3.2 Basic Rules of Grid Construction .......................................................................................... 42 3.4 Some Examples from “Crossroads” ......................................................................................... 44 3.5 Temporal Measurements ........................................................................................................... 50 v Chapter 4: Relating Speech and Music .................................................................................... 53 4.1 Formal Interactions .................................................................................................................... 55 4.2 Rhythmic Connections ............................................................................................................... 60 4.2.1 Synchronization ..................................................................................................................... 60 4.2.1 Prosodic Influence ................................................................................................................. 63 4.2.2 Metrical Influence ................................................................................................................. 65 4.3 Prosodic Projections of Metricality .......................................................................................... 71 Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion ...................................................................................... 83 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 86 Appendix A: “Crossroads” Transcription ............................................................................... 92 Appendix B: “Crossroads” Beat & Syllable Time Points ..................................................... 102 Appendix C: “Crossroads” Text Segmentation and NPOs .................................................. 112 Appendix D: Crossroads Syllable & Beat Onset Comparisons ........................................... 116 vi List of Tables Table 1: Catalog of Tom Waits's spoken-word songs ..................................................................... 5!Table 2: Formal structure of “Crossroads” musical accompaniment ............................................ 24!Table 3: “Crossroads” utterances in Waits's performance ............................................................ 34!Table 4: Stress rules for English NPO ........................................................................................... 43!Table 5: Construction of NPO for “Crossroads,” line 1 ................................................................ 45!Table 6: Preliminary construction of NPO for “Crossroads,” line 15 ........................................... 47!Table 7: NPO for “Crossroads,” grammatically adjusted line 15 ................................................. 48!Table 8: Normative prosodic order for “Crossroads,” line 15 ...................................................... 48!Table 9: Normative prosodic order for “Crossroads,” line 17 ...................................................... 49!Table 10: Combined formal structure of “Crossroads” ................................................................. 56!Table 11: Alignments of EDI/UDI beat onsets and syllable onsets in “Crossroads” .................... 64!Table 12: Beat subdivisions for “Crossroads” .............................................................................. 69! vii List of Figures Figure 1: A) Hasty's functional symbols B) Butterfield’s additional symbols ............................. 17!Figure 2: Waveform and spectrogram of “Crossroads,” mm. 1–5 ................................................ 27!Figure 3: Waveform and spectrogram of “Crossroads,” mm. 17–21 ............................................ 28!Figure 4: “Crossroads” text from The Black Rider liner notes ...................................................... 33!Figure 5: English syllable structures ............................................................................................. 36!Figure 6: Syllable weight for “Crossroads,” line 1 ....................................................................... 37!Figure 7: English foot structures ................................................................................................... 37!Figure 8: Segmentation of metrical feet for “Crossroads,” line 1 ................................................. 38!Figure 9: Segmentation of phonological words for “Crossroads,” line 1 ..................................... 39!Figure 10: Prosodic segmentation for “Crossroads,” line 1 .......................................................... 40!Figure 11: Waveform of “Crossroads” with syllable onset time points for line 1 ........................ 51!Figure 12: Stress grid and ISIs, Line 4 .......................................................................................... 52!Figure 13: Waveform and onset comparisons for “Crossroads,” line 10 ...................................... 61!Figure 14: Waveform and onset comparisons for “Crossroads,” line 11 and 12 .......................... 62!Figure 15: Shepard's table illusion ................................................................................................ 66!Figure 16: Waveform and onset comparisons for “Crossroads,” line 25 ...................................... 68!Figure 17: Projective analysis of speech and musical durations for “Crossroads,” line 25 .......... 70!Figure 18: a) Stress grid and b) Projective analysis for “Crossroads,” line 18 ............................. 73!Figure 19: Waveform and onset comparison for “Crossroads,” line 18 ....................................... 76!Figure 20: Timing of prosodic projections for “Crossroads,” line 21 ........................................... 79! viii List of Examples Example 1: Kerouac's spoken word vs. Waits's spoken word ......................................................... 8!Example 2: Hasty's projective process .......................................................................................... 16!Example 3: Two projective interpretations of the rhythmic cycle in “Crossroads” ...................... 19!Example 4: “Crossroads” transcription, mm. 16–32 ..................................................................... 22!Example 5: Projective analysis of “Crossroads” harmonic rhythm .............................................. 23!Example 6: Harmonic rhythm and text recitation in “Crossroads,” mm. 1–32 ............................. 58!Example 7: Harmonic rhythm and text recitation in “Crossroads,” mm. 61–72 ........................... 59!Example 8: Metric placement of stressed syllables, line 10 .......................................................... 61!Example 9: Metric placement of stressed syllables, line 11 and 12 .............................................. 62! ix Acknowledgements A number of people helped me put my scattered ideas into order: Dr. John Roeder, and Dr. Alan Dodson, whose patience, guidance, and support means so much to me; Roxi Dykstra, who stayed up with me many nights and insisted I write, re-write, and “just get ’er done”; Jonathan Alexiuk, who so willingly verified all my claims about Tom Waits, and encouraged me along the way; Ruth Langner & Ron Prochot, who opened their home and their hearts to me with such kindness; Christina Treleaven, Sarah Paget, Catherine Lemire, Lily Barrette, Sue Hughson, Elena Dvorakovskaya, The Dowling Girls, Gloria Manca, Nancy Murphy, Becca Lin, Yolanda Bruno, Alex Sia, Erin James, and all my other sisters spanning the globe; and my mother, who will build an office at a moment’s notice if she thinks it would help. I am indebted to her most of all for her love, compassion, and faith. x Dedication To My Great Aunts, Phyllis and Vietta, in Loving Memory 1 Chapter 1: Introduction Spoken word is a performance art that is primarily verbal, but can include collaborations with other forms of performance, such as music and dance. Although spoken word has precedents as far back as the 19th century, it remains largely outside the mainstream of both literature and music.1 In his dissertation on the origins of spoken word, literary critic Corey Frost writes: Spoken word is a phenomenon that demonstrates, showcases and valorizes not-belonging… Not quite “pure” poetry, not quite theatre, not entirely popular but not avant-garde, between art and entertainment, literature and anthropology, spoken word is a form that overlaps with many categories but doesn’t quite belong to any.2 It manifests in a large range of genres, from the jazz poetry of the Beat generation to the slam poetry, dub poetry, rap, and freestyle of today. American writers from the vast catalogue of oral/literate crossovers would include poets associated with the Dada Movement, the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat generation and Fluxus movement, and the new generation of slam poets.3 While spoken word has been studied as a literary genre and as a cultural movement, there has 1 Within the larger concept of oral poetry, spoken word could also be argued to be one of the oldest and most culturally diverse forms of performance. See Meta DuEwa Jones, The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to Spoken word (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011). 2 Corey Frost, “The Omnidirectional Microphone: Performance Literature as Social Project” (PhD diss., City University of New York, 2010), 5. 3 Some examples include American writers like Ezra Pound, Langston Hughes, Sterling Brown, and James Weldon Johnson; Beat poets Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsburg, Ken Nordine, and William S. Burroughs; and contemporary slam poets Mark Smith, Sarah Kaye, Phil Kaye, and Kip Fulbeck. See Frost, “Omnidirectional Microphone,” and Susan B. Anthony Somers-Willett, The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity, and the Performance of Popular Verse in America (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009) for detailed histories of spoken word movements. 2 been little analysis of it from a performance perspective.4 In an article that attempts to integrate the performance aspects of oral poetries into literary analysis, literary critic Kenneth Sherwood writes: Given the general lack of appreciation, within literary criticism, of the oral/textual dynamics relevant to orally produced poetries, it should come as no surprise that little attention has been paid to the analysis of the oral delivery of poems composed on paper. [T]he literary critic who ventures into the terrain of oral tradition and orality frequently finds such exploration discouraged.5 Similarly, Frost writes “for some, spoken word, and especially slam poetry, is the worst travesty of creative writing”.6 Whether or not spoken word is “good” art, and despite the discouragement enthusiastic scholars face, Frost maintains that its multi-disciplinary nature and the “ambiguity surrounding the form, its rules, and its relationship to other forms of writing and performance is one of the most valuable characteristics that spoken word has to offer.”7 In addition to its multi-disciplinary nature, spoken word is frequently inter-disciplinary: an enormous number of artists incorporate some form of music in their spoken word, from ambient sounds to fully-fledged musical accompaniments. 8 The various forms of spoken word 4 Some scholars who integrate performative elements into analytical approaches include John Miles Foley, How to Read an Oral Poem (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002); Kenneth Sherwood, “Elaborate Versionings: Characteristics of Emergent Performance in Three Print/Oral/Aural Poets,” Oral Tradition 21 (2006): 119–147; Dennis Tedlock, The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983); and Charles Burnstein, Close Listening: Poetry and the Performed Word (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998). 5 Sherwood, “Elaborate Versionings,” 120. 6 Frost, “The Omnidirectional Microphone,” 4. 7 Frost suggests that the value of spoken word’s ambiguity allows the genre to both “conform to certain standards, making it recognizable and giving it legitimacy within its field,” yet also “transcend those standards, making it unfamiliar and exciting. Ibid., 165. 8 Tristan Tzara organized the first Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich, February 15, 1916, where he read a newspaper article while Paul Éluard played bells; Kenneth Patchen recorded and released Kenneth Patchen Reads With Jazz in Canada in 1959; Hughes claimed to have been performing poetry with live 3 that are combined with music differ in the degree to which they control metrical and timbral patterning. This paper focuses on one form in particular, namely, spoken-word song, which consists of natural speech performed over a musical accompaniment but not necessarily in time with it.9 The “in-between-ness” of spoken word is exacerbated in spoken-word song: on top of “not-quite-being-poetry/theatre/are/entertainment/etc.,” it is also “not-quite spoken word." A hybrid of spoken word and music, spoken-word song is uniquely suited for a comparison of how speech rhythm and musical rhythm are organized.10 In this thesis, I will establish a broader context for spoken word outside literature, and suggest some combinations of analytical tools that are useful in approaching the issues unique to spoken-word song. By combining theories of linguistic prosody with theories of musical rhythm, this thesis demonstrates the similarities and differences between the two, and shows how the relationship between speech and musical rhythms can contribute to the narrative in Tom Waits’s spoken-word song “Crossroads.” music since the 1920s; Kerouac released Kerouac/Allen in 1957; Waits’s first spoken-word song appears on his 1974 album, Heart of Saturday Night; Allen Ginsberg, Leonard Cohen, Henry Rollins, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and countless more artists combine speech and music. 9 The distinction of spoken-word song from other forms of speech-music combinations is mine. Spoken-word song is distinct from rap, for example, which is performed in time to a musical beat. For a discussion of metrical interactions of (measured) speech and music in rap, see Adam Krims, Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). 10 Aniruddh Patel, Music, Language, and the Brain (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008) 157. Patel suggests that music with verbally improvised speech, accompanied by a rhythmic musical accompaniment, might shed light on the relationship between musical and speech rhythm of a given culture, or on the differences between one artist and another. 4 1.1 Tom Waits and “Crossroads” Among the countless artists performing in this broad genre, American singer-songwriter Tom Waits is one of the most prolific, having recorded over fifty spoken-word songs (see Table 1) that probe the borders between speech and music. Although interest in his music is widespread among active pop musicians and popular music scholars writing in the mainstream, it has yet to find a place within the discourse of music theory and analysis.11 Tom Waits is known primarily for his extraordinary voice, aptly described by one critic as: Marinated in bourbon, and then hung out to dry in a smoke hut for a few months, only to be dragged outside and run over by a car. In other words, it may not be suited for singing at all. It is as far from crystal clear as you can possibly get; but all the same, it is an essential part of his unique musical expression.12 His songs depict the barflies, derelicts, hobos, loners, jailbirds, and hookers that make up the “seedy underbelly of Americana,” in which Waits finds “more beauty […] than most do in the Garden of Eden.”13 11 Neither the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians nor the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music mentions Waits. Scholarly writing on Waits include the following: Corinne Kessel, “Human Oddities, Rain Dogs, and Other Wanderers: Character and Narrative in the Music of Tom Waits,” (MA Thesis, University of Alberta, 2000); J.B. Peterson, “Depth of the Hole: Intertextuality and Tom Waits’s ‘Way Down in the Hole’,” Criticism 52 (2010): 461–485; and G. Solis, “'Workin’ Hard, Hardly Workin’/Hey Man, You Know Me’: Tom Waits, Sound, and the Theatrics of Masculinity,” Journal of Popular Music Studies 19 (2007): 26–58. 12 Gavin Wright, "Everything You Can Think of Is True: The Life and Music of Tom Waits" in Tom Waits Mini Biography, narrated by Marianne Hoff Engesland (Grieg Audio, 2009) Audiobook. 13 Stephen Holden, “Review: Heartattack and Vine,” Rolling Stone 1981/02/05 http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/heartattack-and-vine-19810205. 5 Table 1: Catalog of Tom Waits's spoken-word songs CATALOGUE OF TOM WAITS SPOKEN-WORD SONGS SONG ALBUM YEAR TYPE 1 The Ghost of Saturday Night (After hours at Napoleone’s Pizza House) The Heart of Saturday Night 1974 Spoken-word Song 2 Opening Intro Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 3 Emotional Weather Report Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 4 Intro to On a Foggy Night Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 5 Intro to Eggs and Sausage Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 6 Intro to Better of Without a Wife Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 7 Intro to Warm Beer and a Broken Heart Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 8 Intro to Putnam County Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 9 Nighthawks Postcards (from Easy Street) Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 10 Putnam Country Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 11 Intro to Big Joe and Phantom 309 Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 12 Big Joe and Phantom 309 Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 13 Spare Parts 2 and Closing Nighthawks at the Diner 1975 Spoken-word Song 14 Step Right Up Small Change 1976 Speech Song 15 The One That Got Away Small Change 1976 Speech Song 16 Pasties and A G String Small Change 1976 Rhythmic Speech 17 Small Change (Got Rained on Small Change 1976 Spoken-word Song 18 Jack & Neal Foreign Affairs 1977 Spoken-word Song 19 Potter’s Field Foreign Affairs 1977 Spoken-word Song 20 Barber Shop Foreign Affairs 1977 Speech Song 21 Romeo is Bleeding Blue Valentine 1978 Spoken-word Song 22 Red Shoes By the Drugstore Blue Valentine 1978 Spoken-word Song 23 A Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Little Gun Blue Valentine 1978 Speech Song 24 Til The Money Runs Out Heartattack and Vine 1980 Speech Song 25 Trouble’s Braids Swordfishtrombones 1983 Spoken-word Song 26 Shore Leave Swordfishtrombones 1983 Spoken Word (with sung chorus) 26 9th & Hennipen Rain Dogs 1985 Spoken-word Song 27 Pontiac Smack My Crack 1987 Spoken-word Song 28 Telephone Call from Istanbul Frank’s Wild Years 1987 Speech Song 29 Hang on St. Christopher Frank’s Wild Years 1987 Speech Song 30 A Thousand Big Bangs Ken Nordine’s Devout Catalyst 1991 Spoken-word Song 31 The Movie Ken Nordine’s Devout Catalyst 1991 Spoken Word 32 You Can’t Unring a Bell One From the Heart 1991 Spoken-word Song 33 The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me Bone Machine 1992 Spoken Word 34 Black Wings Bone Machine 1992 Spoken-word Song 35 Crossroads The Black Rider 1993 Spoken-word Song 36 That’s the Way The Black Rider 1993 Spoken-word Song 37 What’s He Building in There Mule Variations 1999 Spoken Word 38 Philipino Box Spring Hog Mule Variations 1999 Speech Song 39 Watch Her Dissappear Alice 2002 Spoken-word Song 40 God’s Away on Business Blood Money 2002 Rhythmic Speech 41 Kommienzuspat Alice 2002 Speech Song 42 Circus Real Gone 2004 Spoken-word Song 43 Top of the Hill Real Gone 2004 Rhythmic Speech 44 Shake It Real Gone 2004 Rhythmic Speech (with sung chorus) 45 Army Ants Bastards/Orphans 2006 Spoken Word 46 Children’s Story Bastards/ Orphans 2006 Spoken Word 47 First Kiss Bastards/Orphans 2006 Spoken Word 48 Pontiac Bastards/Orphans 2006 Spoken Word 49 Nirvana Bastards/Orphans 2006 Spoken Word 50 Spidey’s Wild Ride Bastards/Orphans 2006 Speech Song 51 Heigh Ho Bastards/Orphans 2006 Speech Song 52 Hell Broke Luce Bad as Me 2011 Rhythmic Speech 6 Waits acknowledges the influence of Beat generation poets like Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs, Ken Nordine, and Charles Bukowski on his music, and frequently cites one album in particular as a model for much of his spoken-word songs: There’s a fascinating album that came out in ’57 on Hanover records: Kerouac/Allen. It’s Jack Kerouac telling stories, with Steve Allen playing piano behind him. That album sort of sums ups the whole thing. That’s what gave me the idea to do some spoken piece myself.14 Three albums from the mid-1970s – Nighthawks at the Diner, Blue Valentine, and Small Change – feature numerous spoken-word songs that are unmistakably modeled after Beat generation spoken-word songs. These early examples use musical accompaniments that are metrical, tonal, and in a jazz/blues style, such as “Emotional Weather Report,” “Frank’s Wild Years,” and “Romeo is Bleeding”. After 1980, Waits seems more strategic in his use of spoken-word songs, limiting them to one or two per album and incorporating a eclectic mix of musical styles, including waltzes (“Watch Her Disappear,” “Lucky Day Overture” and “Circus”), rhumbas (“Crossroads,” Telephone call from Istanbul”) tangos or habaneras (“Red Shoes by the Drugstore”), polkas (“Kommienezuspadt”), hymns (“That’s the Way”), vintage rock ‘n’ roll (“Get Lost”) and modern industrial (“Hell Broke Luce”). More experimental songs, such as “What’s He Building in There,” “Children’s Story,” “The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me,” and “Army Ants,” create something akin to a soundscape that supports the text recitation. When he speaks about his music, he demonstrates a keen understanding of the impact rhythm can have on a listener: 14 Todd Everett, “Tom Waits: In Close Touch with the Streets,” Los Angeles Free Press, (1975/10/17) in Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters, ed. Paul Maher, Jr. (Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011), 46. 7 "It's interesting when you take certain rhythms: a mule skinner or a field holler. You lean just a little to the right and you're in Ethiopia, you push it back to the left and you're in Shanghai […] I like all those places in music where things lose their identity and gain a new one. There are riddles and secrets inside rhythms."15 Any song by Tom Waits always sounds like Tom Waits; but Tom Waits hardly ever sounds the same. In his spoken-word songs, the texts and recitations are as diverse as his musical style. Some of his spoken-word songs use rhyming texts, like “The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me,” “Pasties and a G String,” and “Hang on St. Christopher,” while others are more clearly prose, such as “Watch Her Disappear,” “Frank’s Wild Years,” “Big Joe and Phantom 309,” “Shore Leave,” and “Crossroads.” His spoken-word songs combine speech with music in a variety of ways, including “speech song,” with controlled rhythms and occasional identifiable pitch sequences; “rhythmic speech,” comparable to rap music; and “spoken-word song,” with natural, connected speech. In every case, Waits builds an intricate text-music relationship with rhythmic subtleties that distinguish his spoken-word songs from his predecessors. Indeed, Waits makes a distinction between his spoken-word songs and the spoken word of the Beats, saying, I’m considered a songwriter so [doing spoken-word songs] is something I have to watch… I don’t call them poetry, ‘cause there are too many poets I admire; but they are in an oral tradition. I call them ‘metropolitan double-talk’.16 And critics, too, have noted the difference between the Beats spoken-word poetry and what I am calling Waits’s spoken-word songs: 15 Tim Powis, "Tom Waits," Graffiti Magazine (December 1, 1988). Available online at http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/quotes-influences.html 16 Jeff Burger, “Waits: The Beats Go On…,” Melody Maker (1975/06/21) in Tom Waits on Tom Waits, 41. 8 Waits has an advantage over his Beat predecessors, because he is first a songwriter. He makes the words and music fit…Waits is not merely cashing in on nostalgia – he is improving on the form.17 Waits’s spoken-word songs often reflect a greater degree of interaction between speech and music than the work of those who are first and foremost poets. Example 1 juxtaposes transcriptions of the Kerouac spoken-word poem (accompanied by music) “Mexico City Blues – 221. Deadbelly” and one of Waits’s earliest spoken-word songs “Emotional Weather Report.” It demonstrates a notable difference in the relationship between important syllables in the speech and the metrical musical rhythm in the accompaniment: Example 1: Kerouac's spoken word vs. Waits's spoken word The two recitations are both accompanied by slow, jazzy piano in common time. “Deadbelly” consists of complex, irregular rhythms that are difficult to express in musical notation, while the 17 Robert Ward, “Play It Again Tom,” Syracuse New Times (1976/06/11) in Tom Waits on Tom Waits, 55. 9 rhythms in “Ghost of Saturday Night” are easier to notate because the syllables are typical lengths in the context of the musical meter. In addition, every metrical beat in “Ghost of Saturday Night” aligns with a syllable, while several beats in “Deadbelly” have no alignments. Finally, stressed syllables (indicated by boxes) are more evenly spaced in Waits’s text than in Kerouac’s, and more closely related to a common time meter. Four of the six stressed syllables align with a beat, and one of the two unaligned syllables falls on an offbeat. In contrast, of the nine stressed syllables in “Deadbelly,” only three fall on metric beats, and the remaining six are difficult to relate rhythmically to the musical meter.18 In 1990, Waits collaborated with director Robert Wilson and author/poet William S. Burroughs to write The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets, a musical play based on the story of Der Freischütz by August Apel and Friedrich Laun, and its English version, The Fatal Marksman, by Thomas De Quincey. The song “Crossroads” appears in the play as a fable that Bertram, the forester, tells to the main character, Wilhelm, warning him of what can happen when someone makes a deal with the devil. In the story, a fellow named George Schmid tries to mold magic bullets that hit everything he wants, but the bullets belong to the devil (personified by Peg Leg in the play). George finds himself trapped in the devil’s power by his desperation and addiction to bullets (which are a metaphor for drugs). The studio recording of “Crossroads” (from the 1993 album The Black Rider) is an example of one of Tom Waits’s spoken-word songs that juxtaposes a metrical accompaniment with a speech-like oration of the text. The text, written by Burroughs, contains irregular phrase lengths, it does not rhyme, and its stress patterning does not produce any kind of poetic meter. 18 The opening line of “Ghost of Saturday Night” is an example of a relatively metric way of speaking, but the song as a whole weaves in and out of metric time. This thesis provides a way to describe the rhythmic sensations for the rest of the song. 10 Nevertheless, the text recitation can be heard to interact with the musical rhythm, meter, and form. My analysis of “Crossroads” explores how those interactions actually work, and what significance they might have in the context of the text’s narrative. 1.2 Methodologies To analyze such a varied, multi-disciplinary art form requires an approach that is similarly multi-disciplinary in nature. Academic inquiry into spoken word appears almost exclusively in literary criticism and culture studies.19 Both disciplines ardently contend that the spoken word “work” is the performance, yet neither discipline offers much insight on how the performance might be integrated in an analysis of the “work”.20 Linguistics and musicology, on the other hand, are two disciplines that rigorously study the nature and perception of oral speech and sound performance; yet to date neither discipline has considered spoken word analytically.21 This paper proposes a combination of analytical tools developed in linguistics and music that can examine the rhythmic sensations created through spoken word. My approach offers one possible way that scholars of spoken word can prioritize its performance aspects to the same degree as its artists. Rhythm studies in music and linguistics share a long history of mutual influence, dating back to Cooper and Meyer’s 1960 book, The Rhythmic Structure of Music. The authors develop framework for understanding musical rhythm ("the way in which one or more unaccented beats 19 Frost, “Omnidirectional microphone”, 64. 20 One exception is John Miles Foley’s How to Read an Oral Poem. Foley proposes four media categories of oral poetries and presents three analytical approaches to oral poetries: a descriptive approach called performance theory, a transcription approach called ethnopoetics, and a structural view of it as what he calls immanent art. 21 Some examples of research on speech-music relationships include Anirudh Patel et al., “Comparing the Rhythm and Melody of Speech and Music: The Case of British English and French,” Journal of the Acoustic Society of America 119 (2006): 3034–3047; Fred Lerdahl, “The Sounds of Poetry Viewed as Music,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 930a (2001): 337–354; Bruce Hayes and Abigail Kaun, “The Role of Phonological Phrasing in Sung and Chanted Verse,” The Linguistic Review 13 (1996): 243-303. 11 are grouped in relation to an accented one") based on poetic feet, using a hierarchical system of relationships between accented and unaccented notes.22 In their 1977 article, “On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm,” linguists Mark Liberman and Alan Prince propose a framework for understanding speech rhythm that was directly influenced by Cooper and Meyer’s notion of musical rhythm.23 The authors describe the rhythms of speech as perceptually imposed metrical patterns, by which they mean groupings of relative prominences, or “stresses”. They explain: Prominence is projected onto syllables by associating them with a "metrical grid," which can be thought of as a hierarchy of intersecting periodicities (rather than constituents), the structure of which is relevant to phenomena of rhythm and timing.24 The notion of metrical patterns and metrical grids essentially inspired the linguistic field of metrical phonology. In 1983, linguist Ray Jackendoff and music theorist Fred Lerdahl published A Generative Theory of Tonal Music, in which they adopt Liberman and Prince’s metrical grid to express the perception of musical events as related to a regular alternation of strong and weak beats at a number of hierarchical levels.25 Partially in response to Lerdahl and Jackendoff, music theorist Christopher Hasty developed a new way of expressing the notion of musical rhythm and meter in his 1997 book, Meter as Rhythm, abandoning the grid altogether. Hasty proposes a theory of musical rhythm that does not require a distinction of strong and weak beats, but instead expresses rhythm in terms of the process of experiencing and making sense of events in 22 Grosvenor Cooper and Leonard B. Meyer, The Rhythmic Structure of Music (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960), 6. 23 Cooper and Meyer’s influence is described in detail in Liberman’s dissertation, “The International system of English,” (Thesis, MIT, 1975; reproduced by Indiana Linguistics Club, Bloomington, 1978). 24 Mark Liberman and Alan Prince, “On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm,” Linguistic Inquiry 8 (1977): 333. 25 Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983). 12 time.26 In contrast to Hasty’s critique of the concept of musical stress, linguist Bruce Hayes’s Metrical Stress Theory (1995) emphasizes the role of stress in speech rhythm.27 For Hasty, the main factor that determines musical rhythm is duration, while for Hayes, the main factor that determines speech rhythm is stress. My analysis of “Crossroads” uses Hasty’s theory of projection to describe the rhythmic organization of the musical accompaniment and Hayes’s theory of metrical stress to describe the normative prosodic order of the text. My approach begins by examining the music and speech separately, according to analytical tools from music theory and linguistics, respectively. Then, I look at what the relationship is between the two parts, and the effect the combination has on my listening experience. The combination of speech and metrical music affects my sensation of rhythm in both parts, since their rhythms are so fundamentally different, so my analysis examines how the presence of natural speech changes my sensation of the musical accompaniment; how the presence of metrical music influences my sensation of the speech; and whether the combination of the two can produce a uniquely new sensation of rhythm and structure. In Chapter 2: Musical Rhythm I examine the rhythms, meter, and form of the musical accompaniment in the spoken-word song “Crossroads”. Drawing on Christopher Hasty’s theory of metric projection, this chapter demonstrates how projection works in the metrically simple musical accompaniment of “Crossroads,” in order to later apply the theory to the more complicated rhythms in English speech. I also explain the method of measurements adopted for the analysis. In Chapter 3: Speech Rhythm, I give an account of the linguistic organization of 26 Christopher Hasty, Meter as Rhythm (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). 27 Bruce Hayes, Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1995). 13 the text, independent of the music. This chapter uses Hayes’s theory of metrical stress to produce normative prosodic orders for the complete text of “Crossroads”. I also explain the method of measurements adopted for the analysis. Finally, Chapter 4: Relating Speech and Music will examine the interactions between the two parts with respect to formal structure, phrase structure, and surface rhythms. 14 Chapter 2: The Musical Accompaniment The musical accompaniment of “Crossroads” is, in many ways, straightforward and uncomplicated, exhibiting few analytical challenges (a transcription of the recording is in Appendix A). The simplicity of the accompaniment allows me to introduce Christopher Hasty’s process-based theory of rhythm and meter, which will play a more substantial role in the analysis of the interaction between the musical accompaniment and Waits’s delivery of the text (coming up in Chapter 4). Hasty’s theory will be applied to the basic rhythmic cycle of the accompaniment, demonstrating how both even and uneven divisions of that cycle are possible. The chapter describes the harmonic, phrase, and formal structure of the accompaniment as a whole, then concludes with an explanation of how I determined the measurements for the two rhythmic patterns in the recording of “Crossroads”. 2.1 Rhythm & Meter Many music-based theories of rhythm and meter consider rhythm as concrete information and meter as an abstract, hierarchical organization of prominence patterns inferred from the concrete information. In his 2004 book, Hearing in Time, Justin London defends this perspective, but also takes into account human perception, describing meter as “a perceptually emergent property of a musical sound” as it is perceived in time (hence the book’s title).28 A listener infers a meter as (s)he entrains to a rhythmic surface by perceiving, anticipating, and organizing a series of beats abstracted from the surface rhythms. Essentially London argues that 28 Justin London, Hearing in Time (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 4. 15 meter is a highly practiced entrainment behavior with perceptual and cognitive constraints.29 London makes a point to distinguish his notion of meter from the theory proposed in Christopher Hasty’s 1997 book, Meter as Rhythm, arguing that Hasty focuses on the particularity of a rhythmic experience, rather than the “stable, replicable, and learnable” meters that a familiar listener can invoke.30 Hasty rejects the separation of rhythm and meter, and instead proposes that meter is simply a particular kind of rhythm. He argues that meter does not involve a hierarchic organization of pulse layers, and does not always benefit from such representation.31 Instead, he presents a dynamic way to represent the process of perception, anticipation, and abstraction of rhythm as a series of projections. Hasty’s reinterpretation of meter as process, his perspective of duration as a feeling of particularity rather than a span of time, and his mutable distinctions of temporal functions (beginning, continuation, anacrusis, and deferral) make his theory well suited for performance analysis, and especially for the performance of spoken word.32 Hasty makes three general claims: that there is no separation of meter and rhythm, only metrical rhythm and non-metrical rhythm; that reproduction of a duration or series of durations does not necessarily involve the distinction of strong and weak beats; and that meter as a uniform succession of equal beats are a special instance of a larger concept.33 His processual definition of meter is called “projection,” which occurs when a duration becomes the 29 Ibid., 12. London states, “the idea that meter is related to, and may be a complex form of, entrainment behavior is a central hypothesis of this book.” 30 Ibid., 8. 31 Ibid., 118. Hasty does not reject the notion of a hierarchical arrangement altogether, but instead rejects the belief that meter is defined by a hierarchical structure. This point is discussed further in section 4.2.2. 32 Matthew Butterfield has used and built upon Hasty model for purposes of performance analysis, for instance in his article, “Power of Anacrusis: Engendered Feeling in Groove-Based Musics,” Music Theory Online 12.4 (2006), http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.06.12.4/mto.06.12.4.butterfield.html. 33 Hasty, Meter as Rhythm, 102. He elaborates on these three claims in Chapter 10. 16 measurable unit that we expect (or project) to be reproduced by a subsequent duration. If it is reproduced, the projection is “realized.” The diagram in Example 2 represents this process. After a beginning, a, the growing duration is indefinite, indeterminate until its completion at b. Q is an indefinite projective potential that has the capacity to become, upon its completion, a salient measure for a subsequent event, initiated at b. At the same time that b begins a new duration, it also completes (and determines) duration A. Q’ is a definite projected potential, an expectation that the duration A will be reproduced. Example 2: Hasty's projective process The new beginning, c, “makes past” the now determined duration B. This beginning, c, realizes both the definite projected potential Q’, and the projective potential R, and initiates a new duration C, which has a definite projected potential R’, and so on. Thus projection, as the term implies, is an ongoing process where predictions about future events are based on trends in current and past events. Hasty’s projection theory replaces the strong/weak distinction with functional distinctions, namely, beginnings, continuations, anacruses, and deferrals. Figure 1 shows the 17 analytical symbols assigned to the different kinds of durations: Hasty regards “accent” as a beginning and “unaccented” as a continuation – a beginning that “does not end the prior beginning’s potential for the creation of a mensurably determinate duration.”34 A continuation that has become detached from a beginning becomes an anacrusis; and a continuation that continues a continuation is a deferral. Figure 1: Hasty and Butterfield’s functional symbols In addition to Hasty’s functional distinctions, Figure 1 includes a symbol for a “virtual realization of projection in a syncopated context.”35 This symbol indicates a beginning that functions as an anacrusis to its projected arrival point, in effect replacing that point with a syncopated beginning. From this technical description, we gather that Hasty considers meter to be the process through which sensations of just completed durations (definite durations) affect the sensation of future durations (as-yet-indefinite durations). Hasty’s analytical approach does not assume that meter is a typology of stress patterns, and therefore his theory has the potential to yield rewarding findings when applied to music that does not conform the notion of meter as isochronous alternation of strong and weak beats. Using projective fields and functional symbols, the next section applies Hasty’s theory of projection to the musical accompaniment of “Crossroads”. 34 Ibid., 104. 35 Matthew Butterfield, “Power of Anacrusis”, figure 2. 18 2.1.1 Even and Uneven Divisions of a Cycle According to Hasty, a “special sort of determinacy characterizes the durations we call metrical.” 36 The undoubtedly metrical accompaniment of “Crossroads” exemplifies this “special” determinacy through a cyclic rhythm articulated by the guitar and at times reinforced by the percussion. The rhythm, produced by the strumming pattern of the guitar, consists of a repeating pattern of nine durations. The length of the cycle (notated as a whole-note) is consistent throughout and serves as my notated measure in subsequent musical examples. Example 3 shows how these durations (notated in eighth notes and sixteenth notes) can produce two viable projections. The projective analysis in Example 3A suggests an uneven three-beat rhythmic pattern. A projective potential A is realized by the beginning of a projected potential A’. The longer projective potential B does not fulfill the duration of the cycle, and the projected potential B’ is cut short by the repetition of the cycle. The remaining two eighth notes act as a “too short” deferral, and complete a repeated rhythmic pattern that accentuates the first, fourth, and seventh 8th-note onsets. This rhythmic pattern is exceedingly common in pop music, and some theorists refer to it as “diatonic,” which distribute an odd-number of attacks across an even-pulsed cycle.37 36 Hasty, Meter as Rhythm, 78. 37 Mark Butler, Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music (Bloomington: Indiana University Press) 2006, 82–83. First presented in Jay Rahn, “Turning the Analysis Around: Africa-Derived Rhythms and Europe-Derived Music Theory,” Black Music Research Journal 16 (1996), 71-89. 19 Example 3: Two projective interpretations of the rhythmic cycle in “Crossroads” 20 Mark Butler distinguishes diatonic rhythms from even rhythms and syncopated rhythms, arguing that diatonic rhythms are: “not heard as subordinate to an underlying metrical structure. Rather than being measured against an absolutely even, strictly regular norm, they create their own kind of evenness through their distinctive structural properties.38 The diatonic rhythm in “Crossroads” suggests a possible triple meter, but with three beats of unequal length—a non-isochronous meter. But I think it is better understood as participating in a more complex type of meter, namely, a groove that involves the simultaneous projection of equal and unequal durations that conflict with each other (2 eighth-notes against 3) during the first six eighth-notes of each bar. This groove is a structurally significant element in the rhythmic structure of the song, and participates in the rhythmic interactions between music and speech. The projective analysis in Example 3B suggests an even division interpretation (EDI), which seems plausible to the extent that we hear a “virtual beat” at the “?” in the projective field. Hearing a virtual beat would realize the projection C–C’ and the projective potential D. The projection D–D’ is easy to hear because it is realized by the beginning of the next iteration of the rhythmic cycle. This projective field interprets the guitar rhythm as a syncopated rhythm within a more normative, even division of the cycle.39 Neither of these rhythms is itself “the” meter; instead the role of meter (in the old-fashioned sense, corresponding to a single time signature) is greatly diminished at levels smaller than the bar in this kind of music. The vitality of the groove 38 Mark Butler, Unlocking the Groove, 89. Butler gives a projective analysis of 3+3+3+3+4 and of 3+3+2 on pages 102–106. 39 A complete transcription is given in Appendix A, where the durations produced by the even division of the cycle correspond to the half note. 21 hinges on the interaction of these two rhythms–one unequal and explicit, the other equal and mostly, though not always, implicit. As the cycle continues to repeat, this “virtual beat” is replaced by actual attack onsets of the chamberlin40 (indicated by the arrows in Example 4), and the sense of an even division becomes even more salient. As the song progresses, the chamberlin attacks the half-note beat more frequently, and often plays straight quarter-note durations. The concurrence of the even divisions of the cycle-measure in the chamberlin and uneven divisions of the cycle-measure in the guitar creates a groove that is both driven in some ways and laid back in others: The syncopated rhythmic group in the guitar increases the attentional energy directed towards the cycle beginning; meanwhile the half-note attacks in the chamberlin strengthen a sense of continuation. 40 A chamberlin is an electro-mechanical keyboard instrument, developed by Harry Chamberlin from 1949 to 1956, that was a precursor to the mellotron. 22 Example 4: “Crossroads” transcription, mm. 16–32 23 2.1.2 Harmonic Rhythm In addition to the accents of the even and uneven divisions within the cycle, the cycle-measure also has a duration that holds projective potential. Each cycle-measure has a single harmony, and those harmonies group together in twos. Example 5 shows the opening four cycle-measures of “Crossroads” with a projective field suggesting that while the first change of harmony realizes the whole note, the onset of the first harmony also projects a breve duration that is continued by the second harmony. The projection of a breve duration is realized by the beginning of the third cycle (and the arrival back on I), which initiates a definite durational potential that spans two rhythmic cycles in the guitar. The onset of the dominant harmony functions as a continuation of the opening cycle-measure, and also prolongation of tonic harmony. The majority of breve durations (which continue throughout the whole piece) do not change harmony and the second measures in those cases where the harmonies do change are very clearly continuations. Example 5: Projective analysis of “Crossroads” harmonic rhythm 24 2.2 Formal Structure Six very long phrases emerge out of the two measure harmonies. Each adds an instrument, and each additional instrument reinforces either the equal-division interpretation (EDI) or the unequal-division interpretation (UDI) of the basic rhythm (Table 2).41 Table 2: Formal structure of “Crossroads” musical accompaniment The first phrase (mm. 1-16) of the accompaniment contains hardly any more than the guitar rhythm, with bass attacks and intermittent percussive attacks reinforcing the beginning of each cycle, but not adding to the rhythms within the cycle itself. In the second phrase (mm. 17-32) the chamberlin begins a simple melody that reinforces the UDI by replacing the “virtual” half-note beat with a real attack. The third phrase (mm. 33-40) adds a counter-melody in the chamberlin that also projects the UDI. In the fourth and fifth phrases (mm. 41-72) the percussion enters in full, playing a snare rhythm that accents the UDI. Finally, the viola enters in 41 Robin Attas refers to this process as “the build up” in “Meter as Process in Groove-based Popular Music” (Ph.D. diss., University of British Columbia, 2011), 189. 25 the sixth phrase (mm. 73-84) and accents the UDI with a new, triplet rhythm. The six long phrases join together to produce a rounded binary form with a 32-measure, antecedent-consequent A section in a minor, an 8 measure B section, temporarily in the relative major, followed by a restatement of the opening 32 measures and a 12-measure coda. The teleological build-up towards the final phrase of the song – the only phrase in which Waits actually sings – is in some ways reflective of the teleological journey that the central character in the text, George Schmid, experiences. The concluding line of text states: “The fit was on him and it carried him right to the crossroads”. 2.3 Temporal Measurements In music research where recordings are the primary documents rather than notated scores, many scholars use time-point and time-span measurements to discuss rhythmic properties of the music they study.42 To analyze a recorded song like “Crossroads,” these kinds of measurements are essential in order understand how the musical accompaniment and the speech relate to each other. Ideally, examining the interaction between the rhythmic structure of the text recitation and the rhythmic structure of the musical accompaniment would begin by separating the two parts into isolated vocal and instrumental tracks, evaluating them 42 An introductory article on performance analysis methodology is Eric Clarke, “Empirical Methods in the Study of Performance,” in Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects, ed. Eric Clarke and Nicholas Cook (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 77–102. Examples of performance analyses that focus on expressive timing include Alan Dodson, “Solutions to the ‘Great Nineteenth-Century Rhythm Problem’ in Horowitz’s Recording of the Theme from Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16, No. 2,” and Mitch Obriner, “Grouping Hierarchy and Trajectories of Pacing in Performances of Chopin’s Mazurkas,” in Music Theory Online 18.1 (2012). For timing analysis methodologies used specifically in popular music studies, see Matthew Butterfield, “Power of Anacrusis” and Fernando Benadon, “A Circular Plot for Rhythm Visualization and Analysis,” Music Theory Online 13.3 (2007). In research on language typology and speech rhythm, scholars will also measure the temporal patterning of orally produced utterances to test with theories of linguistic stress patterning. Empirical speech analysis is a long-standing approach in linguistics and an overview can be found in Fred Cummins, “Looking for Rhythm in Speech,” Empirical Musicology Review 7, 1-2 (2012): 28–35. 26 independently, and then as a unit. Isolating the vocal track would assist in locating changes in pitch, which significantly informs the durational measurements of speech. Isolating the musical track would guarantee that the vocal track is not responsible for, or crucial to, the perception of metric regularity. To remove a vocal track from a recording using software like Audacity involves splitting the stereo track, inverting one of the two tracks, changing both tracks to mono. In the case of “Crossroads” this standard process does not work, so it is not possible to isolate either a vocal track or an instrumental track from the recording.43 Without access to separate vocal and instrumental tracks, the two parts must be separated by ear, distinguishing the speech from the musical accompaniment by timbre. I consider Waits’s performance of the text to be all sounds that have the timbre “voice,” and “music” is everything else remaining. The musical accompaniment consists of several different instruments, and they are also distinguished by timbre as guitar, bass, chamberlin, viola, and percussion.44 To identify rhythmic time-points in “Crossroads” involves knowing what musical cues contribute to a sense of rhythm, and which rhythms are most important. The discussion of rhythm, meter, and form in the previous sections explained that the primary musical cue in “Crossroads” is the guitar’s strumming pattern, which is open to two distinct metric interpretations (the EDI and the UDI) that are reinforced in a variety of ways. In the analysis that follows, I will explore some of the ways in which the EDI and UDI are brought into focus, and I will illustrate my observations by identifying event onsets and inter-onset intervals that correspond to my projective experience of the music. 43 Despite efforts to contact Waits, I could not get access to a studio version of the instrumental track. 44 Both the percussion and the chamberlin have internally distinguishable timbres. For the purposes of this study, however, it’s not necessary to make these distinctions, and so both chamberlin and percussion parts are evaluated without reference to internal timbres. 27 2.3.1 Onsets and Inter-onset Intervals The software program Sonic Visualiser can produce a spectrogram of “Crossroads” and allow the analyst to reduce the playback speed by half for better accuracy.45 The spectrogram represents the spectrum of frequencies in a sound (from lowest to highest) as a visual image. Figure 2 shows a spectrogram (and waveform) example of the opening eight seconds of the song (mm. 1-5). Figure 2: Waveform and spectrogram of “Crossroads,” mm. 1–5 The arrows below the spectrogram point to the visual cues produced by the accent pattern in the guitar, which strongly project the UDI. Arrows with longer tails indicate cycle 45 Thanks to Alan Dodson for his instruction on using Sonic Visualiser. 28 beginnings. The accent pattern in the guitar consistently projects the UDI throughout the song, occasionally omitting an attack on the 2nd dotted quarter. As other instruments that project the EDI join in the texture, they produce visual cues as well. Figure 3 shows a spectrogram and waveform of mm. 17–21 (00:30–00:39). Figure 3: Waveform and spectrogram of “Crossroads,” mm. 17–21 The arrows point to the visual cues that contribute to the EDI in “Crossroads”. Arrows with longer stems indicate cycle beginnings. Through careful listening at reduced playback speeds I measured and marked the onset times for both the EDI and the UDI on the spectrogram of “Crossroads”. Appendix B lists a comprehensive data set of the projected onset time points for both the EDI and UDI. The first and last onset time points in the UDI correspond to the first and last onset time points in the EDI, so taken together, each cycle measure has five onset time 29 points. Without intending to privilege the EDI, but in the interest of clarity, simplicity, and practicality, these time points are labeled 1, 2, 2.5 (interchangeably called “the and of 2”), 3, and 4. An inter-onset interval (IOI) is the duration from one event onset to the next, calculated as the difference in time between subsequent onsets. The IOIs for the EDI in mm. 17–21, shown on Figure 3 as a series of line segments, are effectively isochronous, creating a steady pulse against which the speech may be evaluated. The average IOI is 462 ms, which corresponds the a tempo of 130 beats per minute. The IOIs of the UDI are (naturally) uneven, yet consistent from cycle to cycle. Again, in the interest of clarity, simplicity, and practicality, the EDI IOIs are hereafter referred to as EDI beats, while the UDI IOIs are referred to as UDI beats. I will use the time point and IOI measurements, along with the harmonic rhythm and formal structure of the music when I examine how Waits’s performance of the text relates to the musical accompaniment. 30 Chapter 3: The Speech “Rhythm” The significant difference between musical rhythm and speech rhythm becomes clear when we juxtapose the basis of their organizations. Metrical music creates a hierarchy of layers that consist of proportionately related, regularly recurring durations, and this hierarchy results in patterns of stress. Natural speech also creates a hierarchy of layers, but these layers consist of patterns of stresses, which may or may not produce isochronous durations. Waits’s text recitation in “Crossroads” sounds like normal speech because he uses proper English speech “rhythm” and prosody – that is, he puts the “emphasis” on the right “syllables”. Any native English speaker intuitively knows where the appropriate emphases in a string of words goes without any awareness of why some syllables must have emphasis and others must not. The particular kind of emphasis that native English speakers naturally assign to some syllables (and not others) is called stress and the stress pattern of a word or a sentence is what constitutes its rhythm. Unlike the musical term, speech rhythm is not understood to be a product of specific durational time spans. Instead, rhythm in speech refers to the specific patterns of stresses inherent in an utterance, regardless of the durations that result from an oral delivery. For example, the normative rhythm of the utterance, “thirteen ladies turned thirteen” is the same no matter who says it, how fast or slow they say it, or how long they dwell on the word “turned”.46 I call the pattern of stresses inherent in an utterance its normative prosodic order (NPO) because it constitutes the speech prosody that native speakers intuitively know. An NPO determines the speech rhythm of an utterance, but not the timing of its delivery by any given speaker. To analyze the text delivery in “Crossroads,” measurements of the 46 This example shows how the stress pattern of the word “thirteen” changes depending on the stress pattern of neighboring words. Known as the “Rhythm Rule,” or “Thirteen men” rule, the example comes from Liberman and Prince, “On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm,” 309–310. 31 performance durations must supplement the NPO. That is, while an NPO describes the rhythm of an utterance, it cannot determine whether that utterance, when uttered, will be metrical or not. Hayes and Kaun articulate the difference between inherent stress patterns and meter most clearly, saying: The metricality of a line is not generally determinable simply from an inspection of its linguistic form. Rather, in order to establish metricality, one must know its actual rhythmic alignment with the grid; what in traditional terms is called text-setting. Strictly speaking, it is only text-setting that may be counted as metrical or unmetrical.47 Hayes and Kaun count an utterance as metrical when stressed syllables in its linguistic form (what I call the NPO) are isochronously spaced. In a way, the musical accompaniment in “Crossroads” provides a sound “grid” against which the rhythms of speech can be compared. It may seem counterintuitive that my analytical method relies on abstract stress patterns when the subject of my analysis is a sound recording; but to study only the sonic elements of a text recitation can be misleading: It is possible (and common) for unstressed syllables to receive lengthier durations than neighboring stressed syllables.48 Musically, it makes more sense to attach a stress to the onset of a longer duration, but in speech, duration is not relevant to stress patterns. Without an awareness of the NPO, lengthy durations extracted from a sounded utterance can be misconstrued as creating phonological stress. This chapter presents the formal structure of the text for “Crossroads,” and then explains how to segment each utterance and determine its normative prosodic orders. A complete set of NPOs for “Crossroads” is in Appendix C. The final section in this chapter returns to the 47 Hayes and Kaun, “The Role of Phonological Phrasing,” 4. By “rhythmic alignment with the grid”, Hayes and Kaun mean the actual durations given to a text that has been set. 48 The word “bullet” is given as an example in section 3.4. 32 recording of “Crossroads” to explain how I measured the durations in Waits’s performance of the text. A complete set of measurements for Waits’s recitation is in Appendix B. 3.1 Formal Structure There appear to be parallels between Waits’s recitation and the written structure of the text: his first twelve lines form the first section; lines 13–20 form the second section; and lines 21–25 form the third section. After the recitation is complete, Waits sings (or more accurately, howls) three short phrases that act as a kind of coda. My analysis of “Crossroads” relies primarily on the studio version recorded for the 1993 album The Black Rider. However, the album’s liner notes include a written version of the song’s text with its own, visual, structure. The spatial layout, reproduced in Figure 4, divides the text into seven “paragraphs” and arranges those paragraphs into three distinct groups by indenting paragraphs 4 and 5. In performance, Waits breaks the text into twenty-five discrete utterances of varying length, ranging from three words (line 11) to thirty words long (line 18). Table 3 accounts for some discrepancies between the text in the liner notes and Waits’s performance. Occasionally, Waits adds, omits, or changes a word or syllable. In my transcription and examples I indicate additions with square brackets, omissions with round parentheses; and changes with both parentheses around the original word and square brackets around the sounding word. 33 Figure 4: “Crossroads” text from The Black Rider liner notes49 49 "Crossroads" Written by Tom Waits © 1993 Jalma Music and William S. Burroughs © 1993 Nova Lark Music. Artwork © 1993 Universal Music. All Rights Reserved. Used with permission. 34 Table 3: “Crossroads” utterances in Waits's performance 1" Now"George"was"a"good"straight"boy"to"begin"with"" !!!!!Break,!2.24!seconds!2" But"there"(was)"bad"blood"in"him"someway"[and]"he"got"into"the"magic"bullets"that"lead"straight"to"[the]"Devil’s"work"" !!!!!Break,!0.815!seconds!3" just"like"marywanna"leads"to"heroin"" !!!!!Break,!1.454!seconds!4" You"think"you"can"take"them"bullets"and"leave"’em,"do"you?"" !!!!!Break,!0.885!seconds!5" Just"save"a"few"for"your"bad"days,"[well]"" !!!!!Break,!0.914!seconds!6" Well,"(now)"we"all"have"those"bad"days"when"you"can’t"hit"for"shit"" !!!!!Break,!1.123!seconds!7" [and]"The"more"(of)"them"magics"you"use"the"more"bad"days"you"have"without"them."" !!!!!Break,!!0.909!seconds!8" So"it"comes"down"[to]"fin(a)lly,"(to)"" !!!!!Break,!0.858!seconds!9" all"your"days"being"bad"without"the"bullets."It’s"magics"or"nothing.""" !!!!!Break,!!0.829!seconds!10" Time"to"stop"chippying"around"and"kidding"yourself,"" !!!!!Break,!1.870!seconds!11" kid,"you’re"hooked,"" !!!!!Break,!1.152!seconds!12" heavy"as"lead."" !!!!!Break,'3.764'seconds'13" And"that’s"where"old"George"found"himself,"out"there"at"the"crossroads,"" !!!!!Break,!1.327!seconds!14" molding"the"Devil’s"bullets."" !!!!!Break,!1.371!seconds!15" Now"a"man"figures"it’s"his"bullets."" !!!!!Break,!0.607!seconds!16" So"it’ll"(hit)"[take]"what"he"wants"(to"hit),"" !!!!!Break,!0.898!seconds!17" but"it"don’t"always"work"out"that"way."" !!!!!Break,!0.784!seconds!18" You"see,"some"bullets"(is)"[are]"special"for"a"single"(aim)"[target]"a"certain"stag"or"a"certain"person."And"no"matter"where"you"aim,"that’s"where"the"bullet"will"end"up"" !!!!!Break,!0.925!seconds!19" And"in"the"moment"of"aiming"the"gun"turns"into"a"dowser’s"wand,"" !!!!!Break,!0.539!seconds!20" and"point[s]"where"the"bullet"wants"to"go."" '''''Break,'4.182'seconds'21" (George"Schmid"was"moving"in"[a]"series"of"convulsive"spasms,"like"someone"(with)"in"an"epileptic"fit,"with"his"face"(distorted)"[contorted]"and"his"eyes"wild,"like"a"lassoed"horse,"" !!!!!Break,!0.861!seconds!22" bracing"his"legs"but"something"kept"pulling"him"on."" !!!!!Break,!0.574!seconds!23" (And)"now"he[’s]"(is)"picking"up"the"skulls"and"making"(the)"[a]"circle."" !!!!!Break,!1.287!seconds!24" I"guess"old"George"didn’t"rightly"know"what"he’s"getting"himself"into."" !!!!!Break,!1.177!seconds!25" the"fit"was"on"him"and"it"carried"him"right"to"the"crossroads." 35 Each utterance is separated by a pause in the recitation, typically about one second long. Two significantly longer pauses occur between lines 12 and 13, and lines 20 and 21 – roughly 4 seconds long – and their placement in the recitation reflects the spatial layout of the text in the liner notes. The two extended silences distinguish lines 13-20 from the surrounding utterances, just as paragraphs 4 and 5 are made distinct from the rest of the written text by indentation. 3.2 Prosodic Segmentation My method for understanding the internal structure of the utterances in “Crossroads” comes from metrical phonology, the branch of linguistics concerned with speech rhythm. Metrical phonology offers a grid-based theory of stress that can express the normative prosodic order of each utterance, determined in part by the prosodic and phonological segments of an utterance. The phonological and prosodic segments of English speech, from smallest to largest, that contribute to the rhythmic structure of an utterance include the syllable, metrical foot, phonological word, phonological phrase, and intonational phrase. These segments serve as domains, or layers, for stress in a metrical theory of English speech rhythm. In Appendix C, I show the segmentation of all twenty-five utterances of “Crossroads” according to these six domains and show the results for all twenty-five utterances alongside their NPOs. In what follows I define each domain and explain how the segmentation in Appendix C was done. 3.2.1 Phonological Constituents: Syllables and Feet The syllable is formally defined as “a phonological constituent composed of zero or more consonants, followed by a vowel, and ending with a shorter string of zero or more consonants.”50 Figure 6 shows how these three parts, referred to as the onset, nucleus, and coda, 50 John Goldsmith, Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1990), 108. 36 come together to form a single syllable. The onset of a syllable stands independently, while the nucleus and the coda form a unit called the rhyme. When the rhyme has both a nucleus and a coda – as in the word “scrub” – the syllable is called a branching syllable, and when it has no coda – as in the word “Three” – the syllable is considered non-branching. A syllable whose vowel is a diphthong (requiring the tongue to move during pronunciation) has a branching nucleus, as in the word “cow”. Figure 5: English syllable structures English syllables are assigned weights. Heavy syllables will have long vowels (usually diphthongs) and/or branching rhymes, while light syllables have short vowels and non-branching rhymes. The distinction of syllable weight is crucial in English speech rhythm because it is a quantity-sensitive grammar in which heavy syllables generally demand stress while light syllables are generally unstressed. Syllables with short vowels and codas can be either light or heavy, depending on whether reductions are made to any part of the coda.51 Figure 51 For example, if C=consonant and V=vowel, then “Scrub” (CCCVC), “three” (CCV) and “cow” (CVV) in Figure 6 are all heavy syllables, while syllables like “a” (V), “to” (CV), and “the” (CV) are light. CV syllables are light in all contexts; CVC syllables are heavy in non-final contexts, but light finally; CVV and CVVC syllables are heavy in all contexts. See Hayes, Metrical Stress Theory, 56–57. 37 7 shows the eleven syllables in the first utterance of “Crossroads,” and their respective syllable weights, where H stands for heavy and L for light. Figure 6: Syllable weight for “Crossroads,” line 1 Syllable' Now' George' was' a' good' straight' boy' to' be' gin' with'Weight' H' H' H' L' H! H' H' L' L' H! H! The next-higher phonological constituent after the syllable, the metrical foot, contains, at minimum, one stressed syllable.52 An English metrical foot is equal to or smaller than a lexical word and has a maximum of two syllables. Figure 7 illustrates the two kinds of feet that occur in the English language.53 The left-headed foot (a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable) produces a strong-weak rhythm, such as the word “courage”.54 The degenerate foot (a single, stressed syllable) is non-branching, consisting of a single, heavy syllable, such as the word “brick”. Figure 7: English foot structures 52 The metrical foot in linguistics should not be confused with the poetic foot: where poetic feet represent resultant rhythmic patterns regardless of lexical word boundaries, metrical feet represent the stress of a word’s internal structure. English uses left-headed feet and degenerate feet. 53 Carlos Gussenhoven and Haike Jacobs, Understanding Phonology, 1st ed. (London: Hodder Arnold, 1998), 207–208. 54 While both syllables in the word appear heavy, noun rhymes are extrametrical in English, so the syllable “age” becomes light. 38 Figure 8 shows the first utterance of “Crossroads,” segmented by red brackets into metrical feet. Figure 8: Segmentation of metrical feet for “Crossroads,” line 1 The foot boundaries are nearly identical to the syllable boundaries, owing to the predominance of monosyllabic lexical words, following the definition that feet cannot cross lexical boundaries. The two words, “a” and “to” are un-footed because they do not have a stressed syllable. Rather than forming a right-headed foot, the syllable “be-” of the bi-syllabic word “begin” is called extrametrical.55 3.2.3 Prosodic Constituents: Words, Phrases, and Utterances Just as syllables can group together to form feet, feet can group together to form longer segments within an utterance called prosodic constituents, or prosodic domains. The smallest prosodic constituent is the phonological word. Phonological words are sometimes the same size as lexical words, often larger than lexical words when an utterance contains primarily monosyllabic words, but never smaller. 56 For example, in the utterance [thirteen]ω [ladies]ω [turned]ω [thirteen]ω 55 Right-headed feet (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable) do not occur in the English language; instead, English employs extrametricality to account for words that appear right headed. Although this may seem somewhat contrived, the notion that English feet are exclusively left-headed is an important distinction for more complex and detailed analyses because it accounts for the specific types of reductions within specific domains. See Bruce Hayes, “Extrametricality and English Stress,” Linguistic Inquiry 13/2 (1982): 227–276. 56 Elizabeth Selkirk refers to the phonological word as the “prosodic word” in Phonology and Syntax: The Relation Between Sound and Structure (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984) 42–43; Liberman and Prince refer to the phonological word as the “mot,” in “On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm,” 269. 39 each lexical word is also a phonological word, indicated by the square brackets. When a phonological word contains more than one lexical word, it is usually grouping un-footed syllables with adjacent feet. For example, in the utterance [the boy]ω [will go]ω [to jail]ω the six lexical words form three phonological words. Figure 9 segments the first utterance of “Crossroads” into phonological words, indicated by the top level of red brackets. Each heavy, monosyllabic word is its own phonological word, while the un-footed “a-,” “to,” and “be-” create phonological words with the foot that follows. Figure 9: Segmentation of phonological words for “Crossroads,” line 1 Phrases, as defined in this linguistic theory, are formed out of grouping of one or more phonological words together. A phonological phrase corresponds to a syntactic phrase; thus, each verb-phrase (VP), noun-phrase (NP), prepositional phrase (PP), etc., is a discrete phonological phrase.57 For example, in the utterance [the boy]NP [will go]VP [to jail]PP each phonological word is also a phonological phrase; but in the utterance [thirteen ladies]NP [turned thirteen]VP the four phonological words form two phonological phrases. 57 Different languages vary in the degree to which phonological phrase boundaries align with syntactic phrases, but the correspondence typically holds for English. See Gussenhoven and Jacobs, Understanding Phonology, 240–241. 40 Intonational phrases, which consist of one or more phonological phrases, are determined by pitch contour. In English, pitch contour will frequently correspond to the root sentence, or a single [Noun-phrase + Verb-phrase] structure, without interruptions. 58. Finally, the phonological utterance is the highest and largest prosodic constituent, consisting of one or more intonational phrases, and delineated by silence on either end.59 Figure 10 includes the boundaries for both phonological and intonational phrases in the first utterance of “Crossroads”. Syllables, feet, words, phonological phrases, and intonational phrases serve as domains for stress in a metrical theory of English rhythm. Figure 10: Prosodic segmentation for “Crossroads,” line 1 3.3 Normative Prosodic Order A normative prosodic order (NPO) is a representation of the stress pattern inherent in an utterance, regardless of the particular oral delivery; determining the NPO of an utterance does not require the utterance to actually sound. The NPO of an utterance explains why stress occurs and indicates varying degrees of stress. While it cannot show how (e.g. by pitch, loudness, or duration) or when a stress will occur in a performed utterance, it can show the order positions of stresses – that is, which syllables will be stressed. For a spoken-word song, such as 58 It is not always the case that intonational phrase boundaries are determined syntactically. When a subject is significantly longer than a single lexical word there will tend to be an IP boundary between the noun-phrase and the verb-phrase. See Gussenhoven and Jacobs, Understanding Phonology, 243–244. 59 For example, the utterances “thirteen girls turned thirteen” and “the boy will go to jail” are both intonational phrases as well as phonological utterances. 41 “Crossroads,” we need to know the stress patterns of its utterances in order to appropriately organize its resultant durations.60 3.3.1 Metrical/Phonological Stress Grids One method for generating the NPO of an utterance, initially developed by Liberman, is a “metrical grid,” which represents the rhythmic structure of an utterance as hierarchically organized layers.61 Simply put, a metrical grid represents the patterns of relative stress inherent in an utterance by segmenting it into its constituent units, then assigning stress within each layer. Stresses, represented by “X,” are assigned according to language-specific, tiered, and violable constraints that, according to Hayes, “can be thought of as relatively ad hoc ways of insuring that the representations obey the well-formedness conditions”.62 A well-formed grid must satisfy three criteria: 1) The Principle of Rhythmic Alternation, which stipulates that stresses in the same layer must have at least one, and at most two, intervening stresses in the immediately lower layer. Not-Well-Formed Well-Formed Word X X Foot X* X → X X Syllable X X X X X X X X σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ 60 Of course, as English speakers, we already know intuitively what the stress pattern of each utterance is. The purpose of using a phonological stress grid and its associated rules is to avoid relying on intuition alone. 61 Liberman, “Intonational System of English,” 70–89. Recent scholarship (Patel, Music Language and the Brain, and references there within) has developed Liberman’s work with the understanding that these grids are more accurately “stress grids” (interchangeably called “phonological grids” or “linguistic grids”), since their “metrical” nature is not metric in a musical sense. 62 Hayes, Metrical Stress Theory, 114. 42 2) The Continuous Column Constraint, which stipulates that a mark on layer n + 1 requires a mark on layer n.63 Not-Well-Formed Well-Formed Word X* X Foot X X → X X Syllable X X X X X X X X σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ 3) The Faithfulness Condition, which stipulates that grid marks must be in a one-to-one correspondence with the domains that contain them.64 This means that only one grid mark is allowed in each constituent unit. Not-Well-Formed Well-Formed Word X X Foot X X → X X Syllable X X* X X X X X X σ σ σ σ σ σ σ σ 3.3.2 Basic Rules of Grid Construction Using Hayes’s approach to grid construction, there are three basic rules for grid construction: Quantity-Sensitivity, Extrametricality, and End Rule (Table 4). The rule of Quantity Sensitivity ensures that heavy syllables receive stress over light syllables. Extrametricality allows a prosodic constituent (a segment, syllable, foot, word, etc.) at the edge of a domain to be ignored by stress rules, so long as it does not render the entire domain unstressable. Extrametricality will overlook word-final consonants, noun rhymes, adjective suffixes, and initial syllables in verbs, turning otherwise stressed syllables into unstressed 63 Ibid., 34. 64 Ibid., 41. 43 syllables.65 End Rule applies above the word level and places a grid mark on the extreme right (ER-final) of its specified prosodic domain.66 Table 4: Stress rules for English NPO Quantity Sensitivity Heavy syllables (CVV, CVVC) demand stress. CV is light in all contexts; CVC is heavy in non-final context, but light finally. Extrametricality Allow phonological constituents (X) to be ignored by stress rules ([+ext]) in a specified domain (___]D). X → [+ext] / ___]D Consonant Extrametricality: [+cons] → [+ext] / __]WD Long Vowel Stressing Noun Extrametricality Rhyme → [+ext] / __]N Adjective Extrametricality [X]Suffix → [+ext] / __]ADJ Stray Syllable Adjunction Adjoin a stray syllable as a weak member of an adjacent foot. End Rule (Left/Right) Place a stress in the leftmost/rightmost available position of the specified domain: ER-RightPP XaXb →[+stress] / ___]PP ER-RightW XaXb →[+stress] / ___]W ER-LeftF XaXb →[stress+] / ___]FT Stress Shift Move clashing stresses leftwards, on the condition that there is an appropriate landing site. It is often the case that, in combination, these rules violate the three well-formedness constraints and result in two adjacent stresses on the same layer, with no intervening mark on the layer immediately lower, called stress clash. To resolve a stress clash, one of the clashing stresses shifts one place to the left according to the Stress Shift Rule.67 Effectively, stress shift corrects the application of stress rules when they conflict with a well-formed grid structure. 65 To account for extrametric syllables in segmentations, the principle of stray syllable adjunction (SSA) adjoins an extrametric syllable to the nearest maximal foot, respecting word boundaries. For example, SSA joins the syllable “va” [to?] in the word “vanilla”. SSA is first presented in Liberman and Prince, “On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm”, 294. 66 End Rule may be ER-final or ER-initial, depending on the language. See Alan Prince, “Relating to the Grid,” Linguistic Inquiry 14/1 (1983): 19-100. 67 Variously known as the “Thirteen men” Rule, Rhythm Rule, or Stress Retraction. 44 3.4 Some Examples from “Crossroads” This section demonstrates how a stress grid is constructed, and examines the resultant NPOs of three utterances from “Crossroads”. Table 5 shows each step in the process of marking stress, using the first utterance of “Crossroads”. At the syllable level, there need not be stress alternation. In Table 5a, all the syllables in an utterance receive an initial stress mark, except for one extrametrical syllable, “be-”. At the foot level (Table 5b), foot heads receive a mark of stress. The light syllables “a” and “to” do not receive foot stress, while the stresses on the remaining monosyllabic words result in three instances of stress clash. The Stress Shift Rule corrects the stress clash between “-gin” and “with” by shifting “with” to the left, because the stress on “-gin” cannot shift to the left without violating the Continuous Column Constraint (Table 5c). The same Stress Shift Rule corrects the three-syllable clash of “good straight boy” by shifting the stress on “straight” over to “good,” since the stress on “boy” cannot shift left without violating the Principle of Rhythmic Alternation. Finally, the Stress Shift Rule corrects the three-syllable clash of “Now George was” by shifting the stress on “was” over to “George,” and the stress on “now” off the grid. 45 Table 5: Construction of NPO for “Crossroads,” line 1 a) Syllable Stress Phonological Phrase Phonological Word Metrical Foot Syllable X X X X X X X X / X X Now George was a good straight boy to be gin with b) Foot Stress (*Stress Clashes) Phonological Phrase Phonological Word Metrical Foot X* X X* X X* X X X* Syllable X X X X X X X X / X X Now George was a good straight boy to be gin with c) Foot Stress Phonological Phrase Phonological Word Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X / X X Now George was a good straight boy to be gin with d) Word Stress (*Stress Clashes) Phonological Phrase Phonological Word X X* X X* Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X / X X Now George was a good straight boy to be gin with e) Word Stress Phonological Phrase Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X / X X Now George was a good straight boy to be gin with f) Phonological Phrase Stress (*Stress Clashes) Phonological Phrase X* X Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X / X X Now George was a good straight boy to be gin with g) Phonological Phrase Stress Phonological Phrase X Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X / X X Now George was a good straight boy to be gin with 46 At the phonological word level, (Table 5d), the End Rule marks a stress to the rightmost eligible syllable in each word. Even though “now,” “was,” “a,” “straight,” “to,” and “with” are all phonological-word segments, none can receive word stress without violating the Continuous Column Constraint. The End Rule marks the syllables “George,” “good,” “boy,” and “-gin” with word stress, causing them all to clash. The Stress Shift Rule corrects the stress clash between “boy” and “-gin” by shifting the stress on “-gin” to the left (Table 5e). The Stress Shift Rule also corrects the clash between “George” and “good” by shifting the stress on “good” to the left, onto “George”. At the phonological phrase level (Table 5f), the two remaining eligible syllables, “George” and “boy,” both take on a phonological phrase stress, resulting in stress clash. The Stress Shift Rule cannot correct the clash by shifting the stress on “boy” without violating the Continuous Column Constraint, so the stress on “George” shifts left off the grid (Table 5g). Additional stress to the intonational phrase results in the same structure, which is the normative prosodic order for the utterance. Utterances that are grammatically incorrect frequently occur in the text of “Crossroads,” posing a particular challenge for Hayes’s theory of English stress assignment. For example, line 15, "Now a man figures it’s his bullets," poses some problems for retaining a well-formed grid because of its grammatical structure. Table 6 walks through the process of assigning stress to the utterance in its original order. All syllables are assigned a basic stress, and then heavy syllables are marked within foot boundaries. In order to resolve the resultant stress clashes and retain a well-formed grid, the word “it's” must be stressed, even though it feels unnatural to do so. The reason it feels unnatural has to do with which words receive stress if the sentence were properly constructed. 47 Table 6: Preliminary construction of NPO for “Crossroads,” line 15 A) Syllable Stress Phonological Phrase Phonological Word Metrical Foot Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures its his bul lets B) Foot Stress (*Stress Clash) Phonological Phrase Phonological Word Metrical Foot X X* X X* X* X Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures its his bul lets C) Foots Stress Phonological Phrase Phonological Word Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures its his bul lets D) Word Stress (*Stress Clashes) Phonological Phrase Phonological Word X* X X* X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures its his bul lets E) Word Stress Phonological Phrase Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures its his bul lets F) Phonological Phrase stress (*Stress Clashes) Phonological Phrase X X* Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures its his bu lets G) Phonological Phrase stress Phonological Phrase X Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures its his bu lets 48 Table 7 shows a more grammatically correct structure for the utterance, and a well-formed NPO. In this phrase, the word “his” receives the greatest stress. Returning to the original utterance, the stress on “it’s,” and the lack of stress on “his” both feel unnatural because of how the utterance should go. Table 7: NPO for “Crossroads,” grammatically adjusted line 15 Phonological Phrase X Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures the bul lets are his It may be that the best way to represent the NPO of line 15 is to retain the stress levels of the properly constructed sentence, and place them over the same syllables in the actual sentence (Table 8). Table 8: Normative prosodic order for “Crossroads,” line 15 Phonological Phrase X Phonological Word X X Metrical Foot X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X Now a man fi gures it’s his bul lets Occasionally, a text can allow more that one possible NPO. 68 In particular, grammatically flawed utterances often allow more than one possible NPO, such as line 17 in Waits’s recitation of “Crossroads.” Table 9 shows two possible NPOs for line 17. 68 Hayes and Kaun, “The Role of Phonological Phrasing”, 5, uses Line 6.160 of Paradise Lost, “Before thy fellows, ambitious to win,” as an example that permits two imaginable prosodic orders. 49 Table 9: Normative prosodic order for “Crossroads,” line 17 Syllable Stress Phrase Word Foot Syllable X X X X X X X X X But it don’t al ways work out that way Foot Stress (*Stress Clash) Phrase Word Foot X* X X* X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X But it don’t al ways work out that way Two options a) b) Foot Stress Foot Stress Phrase Word Foot X X X X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X But it don’t al ways work out that way But it don’t al ways work out that way Word Stress Word Stress Phrase Word X X X X Foot X X X X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X But it don’t al ways work out that way But it don’t al ways work out that way Phonological Phrase Stress P.Phrase Stress Phrase X X Word X X X X Foot X X X X X X X Syllable X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X But it don’t al ways work out that way But it don’t al ways work out that way In this utterance, the syllables that want to be stressed are “don’t,” “al-,” “out,” and “way;” however, there is no way to stress all of those syllables without causing stress clash. If “don’t” is stressed, as in Table 9a, then “al” cannot receive a stress, which forces a stress onto “work,” clashing with the desired stress on “out.” Table 9b manages to retain stress on three of the four syllables that should be stressed by shifting the clashing stress on “don’t” backwards to “it,” and in that way is it a better choice for the normative prosodic order. But neither are perfect: the 50 stress in “work” is slightly unnatural in a), and the stress on “it” also feels unnatural in b). As a general rule for utterances such as line 17, I choose to prefer the NPO that best reflects the stress pattern I hear in Waits’s recitation because that is ultimately the source I want to compare with the musical accompaniment; in this case, a) more closely reflects Waits’s speech. When my analysis refers to specific utterances, I will reproduce their NPO in the body of the paper. The stress patterns represented by the normative prosodic order of an utterance serve as a template for organizing the durations that Waits performs in his recitation of the text. The following section discusses how I determined those durations. 3.5 Temporal Measurements Taking the syllable as my basic unit of measurement, I used Sonic Visualiser to identify the points in time when syllables change (their onsets) and measured the time-spans between those points (their inter-onset intervals).69 Since this study is interested in the whole duration of a syllable, syllable onset is considered to be the first sound of a new syllable, whether or not the syllable begins with a consonant. This allows me to measure the cumulative duration of both vocalic (vowel nucleus) and intervocalic (onset and coda) parts of the syllable, producing a continuous series of durations from the start of an utterance to its end. I identified the onset of each syllable in the text using a waveform representation of the recording and reducing the playback speed by three times. “Offsets” are marked only for those syllables that end an utterance.70 The vertical lines in Figure 11 that segment a waveform of the 69 Linguistic theories of prominence consider syllable duration to be the basic unit of speech rhythm for two reasons: the smaller units contained within the syllable (phonemes) move at such a rapid rate that they are difficult to consider “rhythmic”; and the syllable is considered the fundamental acoustic parameter for detecting syllable stress, the organizing parameter for speech rhythm. See Patel, Music, Language and the Brain, 52. 70 Offsets are determined by timbre, so that the “onset” of “no voice” is considered an “offset”. 51 first utterance in “Crossroads” represent the time points for each syllable onset (and one offset) for the first utterance in “Crossroads,” measured in cumulative seconds (vertical orientation).71 Figure 11: Waveform of “Crossroads” with syllable onset time points for line 1 The inter-onset interval (IOI) is the duration of each syllable from its onset to the onset of the next syllable. In Figure 11, the onset times are shown at the bottom in seconds, and the IOIs are shown in milliseconds at the top. While the IOIs that project the basic rhythm’s EDI are essentially isochronous, as we have seen in section 2.3.1 above, it is clear from this Figure that syllable durations are not. Indeed, syllable durations in English speech vary significantly from syllable to syllable, depending on many factors, such as syllable construction, syllable stress, and the particular speaker. Some linguists have suggested that grouped together, the seemingly irregular patterns of syllable durations form larger, more isochronous time spans between the onsets of stressed syllables.72 71 The waveform is of the entire recording. It was unnecessary to remove the vocal part from the instrumental part to accurately identify EDI/UDI beat onsets, and there was no way to remove the instrumental part from the vocal part without distorting its accuracy, as discussed on pp. 23–24 above. 72 Most notably, Kenneth L. Pike, who first suggested two typologies of language based on isochrony, namely, syllable- and stress-timed languages. See Patel, Music, Language, and the Brain, 119–125. 52 Just as an inter-onset interval is the time span between onsets, what I will call an inter-stress interval (ISI) is the time span between two stresses. For example, Figure 12 removes the basic syllable stress domain from the normative prosodic order in line 4 of the text, and what remains are the stressed syllables. Figure 12: Stress grid and ISIs, Line 4 The syllable timing in Waits’s delivery is shown below the stress grid as a series of line segments, with time spans in milliseconds. The ISIs are the sum of the syllable durations between successive stresses. Since there are five stresses in line 4, there are four inter-stress intervals, marked by brackets underneath a time line of syllable onsets. Of the ISIs in line 4, two are roughly equivalent: the successive time spans for “bullets or” and “leave ’em”. Appendix B presents the complete data set for syllable onsets and inter-onset intervals, alongside the data set for the music. ISIs play a significant role in Chapter 4, which looks at how Wait’s delivery of the text relates to the meter of the music, as well as the “metricality” of the delivery itself. 53 Chapter 4: Relating Speech and Music Spoken-word songs take some form of music and combine it with some form of performed speech. “Crossroads” is an example of a spoken-word song that uses metrical music and combines it with naturally spoken prose. I have explicated and demonstrated some general theoretical accounts of stress patterns in music and text. To a certain extent, the projective theory explained in chapter 2 is not necessary simply to determine the beats in “Crossroads,” for any musically inclined person could, without knowledge of projection, tap along to the song with impressive accuracy. In the same way, theories from metrical phonology explained in Chapter 3 are not necessary to determine the stress patterns in a text, for any native speaker already knows the answer before the words are even spoken. When we go beyond mere identification, however, these theories are useful and necessary. Comparing the results of the two approaches side by side helps to show some relationships between speech and music as well as between the stressed syllables and metrical beats in “Crossroads”. The combination of the two theories also helps demonstrate a possibility why the music's meter has such as significant impact on my perception of the speech. The crucial difference between speech rhythm and metrical musical rhythm is that while the former is based on stress patterns, the latter is based on recurring durations. Hasty’s theory of meter as process emphasizes durational projection as the fundamental element of musical rhythm. A musically inclined person who taps along to a metrical song is projecting when the next tap should go. Speech rhythm differs from musical rhythm primarily because stress is the fundamental element that is predicted, perceived, and arranged, regardless of the durations that 54 result from an oral delivery.73 A native English speaker who perceives proper English speech rhythm predicts where the next stress should go, not when it will be. By highlighting this difference, the similarities between the two kinds of rhythm become clearer. First, both speech rhythm and musical rhythm involve similar processes of projection or prediction, they simply process and organize different kinds of elements (stress and duration, respectively). 74 Second, speech rhythm and musical rhythm both form hierarchical arrangements. The notion that musical rhythm has a hierarchical arrangement may seem to contradict Hasty’s theory, but in fact Hasty does not disavow the notion of temporal hierarchies altogether. Instead he specifies that meter as process has the potential to form a hierarchical arrangement rather than being determined by one. Hasty writes, Although the [hierarchical] arrangement is not a process, the formation of the hierarchy or the formation of hierarchic relations among the objects (or elements) can be interpreted as a process or transformation—a process of analysis or division or a process of synthesis or multiplication.75 Thus a hierarchical conception of musical meter does not conflict with Hasty’s theory as long as the hierarchically related elements are clearly defined as durational potentials. In contrast, the hierarchically related element of speech rhythm is not durational potentials but stress expectation. Speech rhythm hierarchies are constrained by the expectation that a stress will neither be too close to, or too far from, another stress. Essentially, speech rhythm and musical rhythm are comparable arrangements of contrasting elements. Theorist David Temperley 73 Hayes and Kaun, “The Role of Phonological Phrasing,” 5. 74 Patel suggests that similar neural resources are involved in syntactic processing of music and language, resulting in the same kind of psychological experience. Aniruddh Patel, “Syntactic Processing in Language and Music: Different Cognitive Operations, Same Neural Resources?” Music Perception 16 (1998): 27–42. 75 Hasty, Meter as Rhythm, 118. 55 touches on the relationship between metrical beats and syllable stress in rock songs, noting that text-settings historically match the text stresses with metrical beats, and that a listeners “understand certain syllables as ‘belonging’” on certain beats.76 Temperley indirectly hints at the similar cognitive processes involved in speech rhythm and musical rhythm evidenced by the connection between metrical beats and syllable stress.77 It follows that the coordination of the metrical rhythm and the English speech rhythm in “Crossroads” can be assessed by looking for alignments between stressed syllable onsets in the speech, and EDI/UDI beat onsets in the music. In this study, I am interested in how speech rhythm and metrical musical rhythm combine and interact in the spoken-word song “Crossroads”. How does the presence of natural speech influence my sensation of the musical accompaniment? How does the presence of metrical music influence my sensation of the speech? Can the combination of the two produce a uniquely new sensation of rhythm and structure? This chapter addresses these questions by comparing the temporal measurements of the metrically organized music from chapter 2 with the temporal measurements of the speech prosody from chapter 3. 4.1 Formal Interactions The formal structure of “Crossroads” segments the whole song, from start to finish, into sections, its largest temporal domain. The section boundaries for the musical accompaniment and the text, evaluated independently in chapters 2 and 3, interact in intriguing ways. Essentially, the music and the speech have the same formal structure, consisting of three main sections followed by a coda. However, the respective section boundaries do not all coincide, as 76 David Temperley, “Syncopation in Rock: A Perceptual Perspective,” Popular Music 16 (1999): 22. 77 Ibid. 56 is clear in Table 10, which marks both the three sections of text and the three sections of music with red lines. Table 10: Combined formal structure of “Crossroads” Although section 2 of the text and the B section of music begin at the same time, the B section is significantly shorter than its surrounding sections, and so the opening material returns well before text section 2 is completed, indeed, closer to its midpoint.78 This incongruity perhaps also expresses the central point of the story: that “it don’t always work out” as we might hope. Both speech sections and musical sections also segment into smaller domains, but the domains that make up a section of music are not the same kinds of domains that make up a section of speech. This disparity is manifested most obviously in the fact that the timespans of speech do not correspond to those of music. We have already seen an example of disparity of section duration, and at a smaller scale it is also the case: the musical phrases and the text utterances begin and end at different times, and do not correspond in duration.79 Instead, there seems to be a closer relationship between the harmonic rhythm in the music and the utterances in the speech. The instrumental parts’ chord changes segment into 78 It is not clear whether the structure of the text from the liner notes was the choice of Burroughs, Waits, or someone else. 79 The incongruity between musical phrase lengths and utterance lengths is evident in Appendix A, a transcription of the whole song. The transcription includes a rough approximation of the syllable placements in Waits’s recitation, and labels each musical phrase. 57 cycle-measures, which in turn segment into surface durations, just as an utterance segments into phrases, words, feet, and syllables. Specifically, this song features a 32-measure harmonic cycle articulated into two-measure timespans by harmonic changes, making the beginnings of odd-numbered measures hypermetrically strong. In Waits’s recitation, significant syllable stresses within utterances are often in close proximity to the start of each new chord. This is most evident in the A section (mm. 1–32). Most of the utterances are the same length as a single harmony, and nearly every harmony change coincides with either a prominent syllable or the end of an utterance. That is, nearly every hyperdownbeat has a strong syllable close by. Example 6 shows the harmonies and text delivery in Section A, with a circle around the stressed syllables placed near the harmony changes. Brackets indicate utterances that span a single hyperdownbeats. There are only four odd-numbered measures in the A section without strong syllables in proximity to the downbeats (m. 3, 15, 21, and 29) and all these occur during a break in the recitation. 58 Example 6: Harmonic rhythm and text recitation in “Crossroads,” mm. 1–32 59 As the song continues, the utterances grow longer and the coincidence of strong syllable onsets and hyperdownbeats are less regular, but nevertheless still present. Towards the close of the song the utterances shorten again and the earlier relationship between text stress and harmonic rhythm returns. This relationship is evident in Example 7. Example 7: Harmonic rhythm and text recitation in “Crossroads,” mm. 61–72 The last four utterances occupy two–measure time spans, but begin on the even bars rather than the odd. Still, measures 65, 67, and 69 all have significantly stressed syllables at the moment of harmonic change. As I look more closely at the temporal relationship between syllables and beats, I will return to the first two questions posed at the outset of this chapter, and demonstrate some ways that my sense of “rhythm,” in both the speech and the music, changes as a result of their superimposition. 60 4.2 Rhythmic Connections 4.2.1 Synchronization A series of alignments between the speech and the music suggest a synchronization of the two parts, where time spans between stressed syllable onsets seem to match the periodicities in the music. According to research on human perception of simultaneities, listeners are prone to perceive onsets within 20-30ms as simultaneous, although the threshold for onset discrepancies seems to depend on a number of factors, including repertoire.80 I am unaware of any research that explores the perception of simultaneities between speech accents and beat (EDI) onsets, but judging from my perception of simultaneities between the speech and musical meter in “Crossroads,” spoken-word song seems to allow for a much wider range of acceptable time discrepancies between syllable onsets and musical EDI/UDI beat onsets. In some lines, the 3+3+2 rhythmic pattern coordinates with a rhythmic pattern in the speech. For example, Figure 13 shows a comparison of syllable onsets to EDI/UDI beat onsets in line 10. 80 Matthew Butterfield, “Participatory Discrepancies and the Perception of Beats in Jazz,” Music Perception 27 (2010): 158. Butterfield notes that earlier perception studies identify an approximate 20ms window for imperceptible onset time differences, while Butterfield’s experiment suggests that window extends to 30ms. 61 Figure 13: Waveform and onset comparisons for “Crossroads,” line 10 Blue arrows indicate the discrepancies between onsets in milliseconds. The onset discrepancies between syllable and EDI/UDI beat onsets are very small for this line, with the largest at 46 ms, slightly shorter than a thirty-second note at the tempo of “Crossroads”. Each stressed syllable synchronizes with an attack in the accompaniment, but not always an EDI beat onset. Taking just the durations of stresses, and allowing the small discrepancies to be expressive timing, this line is easily understandable in musical notation, shown in Example 8. Example 8: Metric placement of stressed syllables, line 10 The first three syllables synchronize with EDI beat onsets, but the last three stressed syllables synchronize with UDI beat onsets. Similarly, lines 11 and 12 have a close alignment of stressed syllables and EDI/UDI beats, shown in Figure 14: 62 Figure 14: Waveform and onset comparisons for “Crossroads,” line 11 and 12 In line 11, the stressed syllables in “Kid, you’re hooked” synchronize with UDI beat onsets. In line 12, the syllable “Hea-” appears to be a large discrepancy, but its distance from EDI/UDI beat 4 in the accompaniment is the length of an 8th-note. If we only look at the durations between stresses, these lines are easily understandable in musical notation, shown in Example 9. Example 9: Metric placement of stressed syllables, line 11 and 12 63 These lines represent the end of the first section of text, and occur at mm. 29-32, the end of the A section of music. The increased relationship between the speech and the musical accompaniment emphasizes this important structural moment. 4.2.1 Prosodic Influence The presence of natural speech influences my sensation of alignments between Waits’s recitation and the musical accompaniment in a particular way. I am inclined to attribute alignments between stressed syllables in the voice part and EDI/UDI beats onsets in the instrumental parts, even when an unstressed syllable onset has a closer alignment. Table 11 lists every pair of beat and syllable onsets that occur within 30ms of each other – that is, alignments that are perceptually simultaneous – and highlights those alignments that involve linguistically stressed syllables. Each row contains a syllable and a beat that are within 30ms of each other. From left to right, the columns list the utterance number the syllable is from, the EDI/UDI beats (where 2.5 refers to the 2nd UDI beat), the beat onset time points (in seconds), the syllable, the syllable onset time point (in seconds), and the discrepancy (in milliseconds) between syllable and EDI/UDI beat onsets. 64 Table 11: Alignments of EDI/UDI beat onsets and syllable onsets in “Crossroads” LINE Music Speech DISCREPANCY BEAT TIME POINT SYLLABLE TIME POINT 1 1 1.103 George 1.108 -5 2.5 1.812 was 1.792 20 3 2.032 a 2.007 25 4 2.496 straight 2.501 -5 2.5 3.669 be 3.673 -4 2 2 7.117 there's 7.147 -30 3 7.593 bad 7.596 -3 2 8.986 some 8.986 0 2.5 12.939 to 12.944 -5 3 13.131 the 13.113 18 3 2.5 16.604 a 16.584 20 1 17.705 in 17.715 -10 4 2.5 20.286 take 20.303 -17 1 21.397 leave 21.406 -9 2.5 22.114 ya? 22.132 -18 5 1 23.243 Just 23.249 -6 4 24.613 your 24.609 4 6 1 28.816 those 28.833 -17 2 31.173 for 31.171 2 2.5 31.392 shit 31.367 25 7 2 33.007 And 33.005 2 2.5 33.241 the 33.269 -28 4 33.948 ma 33.92 28 2.5 35.102 the 35.12 -18 3 35.352 more 35.331 21 3 37.164 'em 37.14 24 9 2.5 44.396 the 44.394 2 25.1 45.523 its 45.546 -23 2 46.034 gics 46.028 6 2.5 46.249 or 46.237 12 10 3 48.251 Time 48.226 25 4 48.704 stop 48.727 -23 1 49.191 chip 49.184 7 4 50.585 kid 50.559 26 11 2.5 53.6 Kid 53.571 29 12 4 56.088 vy 56.086 2 1 56.529 lead 56.548 -19 13 3 61.196 that's 61.185 11 2.5 64.678 cross 64.678 0 14 1 67.675 the 67.688 -13 2.5 68.402 bul 68.405 -3 15 3 72.272 his 72.257 15 16 2.5 73.891 So 73.88 11 3 74.153 will 74.153 0 1 75.082 wants 75.096 -14 17 1 76.939 don't 76.939 0 2.5 77.58 work 77.556 24 18 1 80.515 are 80.539 -24 2.5 81.212 cial 81.213 -1 2.5 83.053 tain 83.069 -16 1 84.207 cer 84.229 -22 2 84.683 per 84.678 5 2.5 84.89 son 84.898 -8 4 85.589 mat 85.607 -18 1 86.03 where 86.042 -12 2.5 86.786 that's 86.795 -9 4 87.4 bul 87.412 -12 1 87.864 end 87.894 -30 19 1 89.699 the 89.715 -16 2 90.151 ment 90.124 27 4 91.092 the 91.114 -22 2.5 92.259 in 92.288 -29 1 93.472 wand 93.464 8 20 2 95.829 bul 95.823 6 21 1 102.83 mov 102.8 30 2 105.14 spa 105.161 -21 4 106.069 some 106.065 4 1 108.356 his 108.367 -11 2 110.631 wild 110.651 -20 22 1 113.847 Brac 113.829 18 2 114.312 his 114.286 26 2.5 114.582 legs 114.567 15 4 115.252 but 115.228 24 23 3 118.457 he's 118.427 30 24 2.5 123.82 did 123.817 3 3 124.006 n't 123.976 30 4 124.471 ly 124.464 7 1 124.935 what 124.931 4 2.5 125.626 ing 125.617 9 4 126.305 in 126.319 -14 25 4 130.009 right 130.02 -11 1 130.473 the 130.487 -14 65 Eighty-two syllables align with the onset of an EDI or UDI beat in the accompaniment, and the forty-three alignments not highlighted in Table 11 involve unstressed syllables. To my ears these alignments are not particularly salient, and the syllables remain unstressed. For example, the second half of line 9, “it’s magics or nothing” aligns the onsets of “it’s” and “-gics” with the onsets of beats 1 and 2 of measure 25, respectively. If this synchronization were audible, we might hear, “It’s magics,” de-emphasizing the normative linguistic stress of “ma-.” However, to my ears Waits’s delivery of the text retains a normative stress pattern. The remaining thirty-nine alignments in Table 11 involve stressed syllables. Eleven stressed syllable onsets align with cycle downbeats (highlighted in blue); six align with beat 2 (highlighted in green); four with beat 3 (highlighted in purple); nine with beat 4 (highlighted in yellow); and nine with UDI beat 2.5, or the “and of 2” (highlighted in pink).81 The eleven downbeat alignments are spaced throughout the text, so that there are four in the first section of text, three in the second section of text, and four in the final section of text. Since the text boundaries are not the same as the musical boundaries, one alignment from the second section of text occurs in the A’ section of music. In line 17, “it don’t always work out that way,” the onset of the syllable “don’t” (in bold on the table) aligns with the downbeat of measure 42 and the beginning of the musical A’ section. Coincidentally, this is the only cycle downbeat alignment that is exact (the discrepancy between onsets is 0 ms). 4.2.2 Metrical Influence The unwavering regularity of pulse in “Crossroads” indicates that the musical rhythm is minimally affected by the irregularity of the speech rhythm, while the many moments in Waits’s 81 The predominance of alignments with cycle downbeats, upbeats, and the “and of 2” reinforces the significance of the UDI beats in the musical accompaniment. 66 recitation cited above suggest that his timing in the speech is more easily swayed. More often, however, it seems that my perception of the timing in Waits’s speech is significantly influenced by the presence of the EDI/UDI beats in the music. There are many utterances in which I perceive every stressed syllable as associated in some way to an EDI or UDI beat, despite large onset discrepancies. These “perceptual alignments” can be thought of as aural analogs to optical illusions.82 Take, for example, Roger Shepard’s table illusion, shown in Figure 15.83 [[[[Figure 15: Shepard's table illusion The table on the left appears longer and thinner than the one on the right, but they actually only differ in their corner angles. The two blue lines are the same length, as are the two yellow lines, 82 Temperley addresses a closely related phenomenon where syncopation shifts are understood to “belong” to a beat despite their misalignment. He calls this “normalization” a “psychological reality”. Temperley, “Syncopation in Rock,” 27. 83 Figure 15 is based on Roger Shepard’s “Turning the Tables” in Mind Sights: Original Visual Illusions, Ambiguities, and other Anomalies, with a commentary on the play of mind in perception and art (New York: W.H. Freeman & co, 1990), 127–128. 67 and only appear different because the brain interprets the image on the retina according to the brain's past experience of interacting with the world. The angles at the table corners suggest depth and perspective, so the table on the left appears longer while the table on the right appears squarer. How we see what we see depends significantly on context, even when we see the simplest qualities of the world. The same can be said for an “aural illusion,” such as those that occur in “Crossroads”. In the context of a metrically organized musical background, the text recitation sounds more regular than it is. Temperley describes a similar phenomenon within rock songs: It seems reasonable to suggest, therefore, that, in the internal representation we form when listening to rock music, we are understanding the metric grid and the stress pattern as coinciding. We retain, on principle, the assumption that stressed syllables should occur on strong beats, but we understand certain syllables as 'belonging' on beats other than the ones they fall on.84 For example, line 25, “the fit was on him and it carried him right to the crossroads,” sounds synchronized with the musical rhythm when in reality its durations are highly irregular, and the discrepancies between stressed syllable onsets and EDI/UDI beat onsets stretch the limits of what can be considered “aligned”.85 Figure 16 shows the waveform for the utterance with syllable onset time-points marked in the upper half and EDI/UDI beat onset time points in the 84 Temperley posits the syncopation shift rule, which states: “In inferring the deep structure of a melody from the surface structure, any event may be shifted forward by one beat at a low metrical level”. Temperley, “Syncopation in Rock,” 26. 85 Technically, any onset discrepancy between “simultaneous” events is a kind of illusion. I am talking about audible discrepancies that are not meaningful as subdivisions, similar to “on-top” and “behind the beat” categories of expressive timing in Butterfield, “Power of Anacrusis,” [24]. 68 lower half. Above the syllable onsets is the stress grid, indicating the stressed syllables in the utterance.86 Figure 16: Waveform and onset comparisons for “Crossroads,” line 25 The blue descending arrows indicate the time discrepancy in milliseconds between the onsets of the six stressed syllables and the closest EDI or UDI beat onset. The syllable “right” is well within a reasonable time span from beat 4 of measure 40 and is acceptably aligned. The syllables “fit” and “and” are so close to 30ms from the nearest EDI beat that they are also safely acceptable as aligned. But to hear alignment of the remaining three syllables, “on,” “car-” and “cross-” requires some justification. 86 The foot stress on “and” is in brackets because although the syllable has the potential for stress, it is not actually stressed in Waits’s recitation. This stress is marked in order to satisfy the principle of Rhythmic Alternation. 69 The onset discrepancies for each of these syllables can be understood in terms of a musical duration, relative to the tempo of the beat in “Crossroads”. Table 12 shows five different subdivisions of the quarter note in the left column, and their time span in the tempo of “Crossroads”. Table 12: Beat subdivisions for “Crossroads” Note Value (q =132 bpm) Duration Length (ms) q 460 e! 230 e3 153 x! 115 x3 77 y 58 The onset of the syllable “on” occurs 45 milliseconds (slightly shorter than a 32nd note) after the onset of the downbeat in measure 70. The discrepancy between the downbeat onset and the onset of “on” is just audible at this tempo, but it is unlikely to be heard as an actual 32nd note. It is far more likely to hear (as I do) an expressively timed, “behind the beat” alignment. 87 The onset of the word “carried” occurs 93 milliseconds (somewhere between a sixteenth note and a triplet sixteenth note) before the onset of beat 3 in measure 70. The onset of “carried“ seems like an anticipated syncopation – an attack onset that comes shortly before a beat onset). That is, the onset of the stressed syllable “car-“ can be understood as, in Temperley’s words, “belonging” on a beat other than where it falls. Similarly, the onset of the word “crossroads,” 87See Example 8, PDs and category perception in Butterfield, “Power of Anacrusis.” 70 which occurs 157 ms (a triplet 8th note) after beat 1 of measure 71 seems as though it “belongs” to the downbeat, but it is problematic to hear it as syncopated because I still experience a sensation of alignment. I believe this arises from my simultaneous tracking of durational repetition in the two separate streams, textual and musical. Figure 17 shows a projective analysis of both the speech (regulated by stress) and the music (regulated by durations) of line 25. Figure 17: Projective analysis of speech and musical durations for “Crossroads,” line 25 The two parallel streams of expectation are closely coordinated at three points: the red arrows above the text recitation point to the onsets of the three most prominent syllables in the utterance, while the red arrows below point to the beginnings of the three strongest EDI projections. The two streams of expectation are structured and perceived in surprisingly similar ways, and the brain concurrently anticipates where the next stress will be and when the next beat will be. Within a song that superimposes speech and musical meter, the possibility exists that my expectations of when a pulse will be, and where a stress will be, could conflate. The “aural 71 illusion” of alignment occurs when the two different projections merge together; their similarities enable the merger, but their differences produce a distorted impression of what actually sounds. 4.3 Prosodic Projections of Metricality At times, the combination of the recitation and musical meter produces a distinctive sensation of rhythm and metric structure, particularly when the performance deviates from the stress pattern, in order to create a sensation of metrical regularity, or for expressive reasons. What I call prosodic projections of metricality occurs when, under the constraints of English speech rhythm, the stresses of an utterance project and realize perceptually equal durations. The following sections presents two utterances from “Crossroads” with repeating durations and examines the significance these moments of metricality have in the context of the song’s narrative. In line 18, the recitation projects a series of equal durations that are independent from the EDI/UDI beats in the accompaniment. Figure 18a shows the normative prosodic order for line 18, and Figure 18b shows a projective analysis of the syllabic durations as Waits performs them. In keeping with the principles of speech rhythm, it seems to me that linguistically unstressed syllables, such as the syllable “-lets” in the word “bullets,” should not begin a projective time span. Thus, I hear the syllable “-lets” in Figure 18b as a continuation of the time span begun by the previously stressed syllable “bul-.” Similarly, the syllables “for a” in the phrase “special for a single target” continue the duration begun by the stressed syllable “spe-.” The smaller arrows in Figure 18b shows one exception, however, where an unstressed syllable seems to initiate a projective time span: a projective analysis of the voiced-text 72 durations suggests that the syllable “cial” is, at one level, a beginning. The word “some” begins a duration (439 ms) that is determined by the beginning of “bullets are”. In turn, “bullets are” projects a duration (448 ms) that is determined by the beginning of “spe” (487 ms). Yet again, the duration of “spe” is determined by the beginning of the syllable “-cial,” and so on. In total, seven effectively isochronous durations (marked A, A1, A2,…, A6) occur in the first half of line 18, if “cial” is accepted as a beginning. At a higher level, indicated by the larger arrows in Figure 18b, “cial” becomes a continuation. The onset of the syllable “some-” also begins a projective duration (887 ms) that is determined by the onset of the syllable “spe-”. Similarly, “spe-” begins a projective duration (974 ms) that is determined by the onset of “sin-”. Finally, “sin-” begins a projected duration (987 ms) that is determined by the syllable “cer-”. Through these projections, the problem that arose from the syllable “cial” is in some ways addressed, since at this level it becomes a continuation. 73 Figure 18: a) Stress grid and b) Projective analysis for “Crossroads,” line 18 A) B) 74 However, these larger level projections create another discrepancy between the phonological stress patterns and the voiced-text durations,where, on the one hand, the onset of the syllable “tar” is a dominant beginning, while on the other, it continues the duration begun by “sin-”. It seems that although the durations in the first half of line 18 exhibit metric regularity, they are not entirely consistent with the phonological stress pattern inherent in the utterance. The seemingly incongruous relationship between stress and duration demonstrates the distinction in speech between stress and emphasis. Take, for example, the syllables “see” and “some” at the outset of line 18. A comparison of these syllables in Figure 18a and 18b also shows a discrepancy between the NPO and a projective analysis of line 18’s performance durations. “You see” is a discrete prosodic unit, and as a result, “see” is a relatively stressed syllable. The syllable “some,” on the other hand, is part of a prosodic unit along with “bullets,” where the primary stress belongs to the syllable “bul-.” Consequently, in my final reading, “some” appears as an anacrusis. In performance, however, the stressed syllable “see” receives a very short duration compared to the duration of relatively unstressed syllable “some.” To express his own unique reading, Waits deviates from the stress pattern inherent in the utterance. The emphasis on “some” implies that not all bullets will focus in on a fated target, but the Devil’s bullets are a different story. Similarly, the higher-level projective durations that subjugate the phonologically significant word “target” allow for a repeated emphasis on the word “certain,” accentuating the specificity with which the Devil’s bullets choose to aim. The difference between stress and emphasis highlights the difference between sentence construction and sentence delivery: A sentence may be constructed in way that creates a regular stress pattern, as in verse poetry, but a sensitive delivery often subjugates that pattern in order to express its meaning. 75 Whether one hears this subjugation of the primary stress on the word “target” depends upon whether one hears the metric regularity that is objectively measurable in the musical accompaniment. To examine the relationship between the speech rhythms and the musical rhythms, Figure 19 combines the projective analysis for line 18 with a comparison of syllable and EDI/UDI beat onsets. While the isochronous time spans in the first half of the sentence are approximately the length of the pulse in the accompaniment (460 ms), their onsets rarely align with EDI/UDI beat onsets. 76 Figure 19: Waveform and onset comparison for “Crossroads,” line 18 77 For instance, the syllable “see” occurs 112 milliseconds after beat 3 in measure 43, while the syllable “some” occurs 255 milliseconds after beat 3. Although the syllable “see” is closer to beat 3, and receives a relatively stronger phonological stress, the durational emphasis on the syllable “some” suggests that its relationship to the musical meter might be more audible. But the placement of syllable “some” 255 milliseconds after beat 3 is about as far away from a beat as possible. As the series of isochronous time span projections initiated by the syllable “some” unfolds, each successive onset appears progressively closer to the beat so that by the time the syllable “stag” occurs, it is only 43 milliseconds ahead of beat 3 in measure 45, effectively synchronizing the phonological stress patterns with the metrical pulse. That is, beginning out of sync with the music, the speech gradually moves towards synchrony. Accordingly, from the syllable “stag” onwards, the utterance aligns almost all its accents with the musical accompaniment, but the second half of the utterance cannot convincingly establish a hierarchy of regularly recurring time spans between phonological stresses. From word stress to word stress, projected time spans fail to be realized. However, a new series of projections does emerge at the phrase level. The onset of the syllable “stag” begins a duration that is too long to realize either projection A6 or B2, so it begins a new duration, realized by onset of the syllable “per”. The projection of this duration is realized by the onset of the syllable “where,” and the duration begun by the syllable “where” is realized by the onset of the syllable “bul-.” The length of each of these three isochronous time spans are almost exactly three quarter notes in the accompaniment. For a moment, the possibility emerges for a polymetric relationship between the speech and the musical accompaniment, where the speech projects a triple meter and the accompaniment, quadruple meter. But the possibility quickly fades when the duration begun by the onset of the syllable doesn’t realize the three quarter note 78 projection. I hear instead the onset of the syllable “bul-” beginning a new projection (481 ms) that is completed by the onset of the syllable “end,” and corresponds to a quarter note in the accompaniment (464 ms), thus synchronizing the syllable “end” with the downbeat of measure 48. Although syllable “end” is linguistically less prominent than the syllable “up,” its alignment with a downbeat shifts emphasis from “up” to “end” and redirects our focus back to the musical meter. The syllable “up” remains synchronized with the meter, anticipating beat 2 slightly. In summary, the durations of Waits’s delivery of line 18 begin in a way that suggests an independent metricality that is out of alignment with the musical meter. As the performed durations of line 18 becomes less and less metric, the alignment between stressed syllables and beats increases. As the utterances come to an end, any sense of independent metricality in the recitation disappears, but the stressed syllables of the text are completely synchronized to the musical beat. In a way, the listening experience of line 18 reflects the sentiment expressed by the text: just as the Devil’s bullets will inevitably find their intended target, the speech itself seems to inevitably focus in on metrical targets, controlled by forces in the accompaniment that are external to its own prosodic construction. If the interaction between the speech and the musical meter in line 18 expresses the nature of the bullets, then in a similar way, their interaction in line 21 expresses the effect the bullets have on their user. Figure 20 shows a waveform of the utterance, with syllable onset and metrical beat onset time-points and a projective analysis of the voiced-text durations. 79 Figure 20: Timing of prosodic projections for “Crossroads,” line 21 80 In contrast with the teleological structure of line 18, this utterance consists of several failed attempts to project and realize durations between linguistic stresses, where each attempt is slightly more successful than the last. The arrows in Figure 20 represent how this process unfolds, with each new projected potential labeled alphabetically. First, the onset of the syllable “George” begins a duration, A (550 ms), whose projection is realized by the duration of the syllable “Schmid,” but this duration does not have projective potential. Instead, the syllables “Schmid was” together project a new duration (724 ms) that is realized by the duration of the syllables “moving in a.” The syllables “series of” are roughly the same length as the previous projections, but the subsequent syllable “con-” is unstressed, and consequently cannot function as a beginning. A new time span consisting of “series of con-” (1029 ms) is immediately thwarted by the short time span of the syllables “-vulsive,” also left unrealized, and any ground gained is lost. At the word “spasms”, another attempt to establish a series of isochronous durations emerges. Although it cannot realize the duration projected by the syllables “-vulsive,” the word “spasms” projects a new duration (903 ms) that is realized by the syllable “some-.” The syllable “some-” projects forward an equivalent duration (870 ms), realized by the syllable “e-” of the word “epileptic.” At this point, the series of isochronous durations ends: the onset of the word “epileptic” projects an equivalent duration (910 ms), completed by the syllable “fit,” but the duration begun by the onset of “fit” is cut short by the arrival of stressed syllable “face.” Back to the drawing board, the onset of the syllabic group “face con-” projects a new duration (715 ms) that initiates a hierarchy of isochronous time spans. At the onset of “eyes”, the higher-level projections continue the sense of isochronous pulses when the lower level pulses fail. At the onset of the word “lassoed,” the regularity breaks down one final time. 81 The timing of Waits’s text delivery, as it repeatedly builds up and abandons a series of isochronous time spans, creates an effect that has a significant relationship to the sentiments of the words. The reason why George is moving in “convulsive spasms” is because he is trying to stop himself from going in a direction he knows he doesn’t want to go, but he cannot control his body. In trying to resist the inevitable, his movements become a series of spastic twists and jerks that still take him to the crossroads, despite his efforts. In the same way, the durations of the speech twist and jerk from one isochronous series to the next before any series can become too strong, thus preventing any pulse from taking control—except, of course, for the musical meter. Each series of isochronous time spans interacts with the metrical accompaniment in a unique way. The syllable “George” arrives slightly behind beat 2 of measure 55, while the syllable “Schmid” approximately falls on the “and” of 3. The durations of the second series approximate dotted-quarter notes, synchronizing the syllable “mo” with the downbeat of measure 56. The durations of the third series approximate half notes, beginning on beat 2 of measure 57 and articulating beats 2 and 4 of measures 57 and 58. The first three durations of the fourth series effectively produce a polyrhythm, where three isochronous pulses in the voiced-text span the length of five beats in the musical accompaniment, with the two streams aligning on the downbeat of measure 60. The next three stressed syllables in the text recitation also span five EDI beats, but not equally. The syllable “eyes” spans the first beat of measure 60, and the syllable “wild” falls on beat 2, bringing the text delivery back into alignment with beats 2 and 4 for the remainder of the utterance. The timing of the text recitation, as it relates to the EDI/UDI beat onsets, also reflects George’s current plight. A tension emerges between the speech and the musical accompaniment, as Waits’s performance of the text seems to try a number of ways to circumvent dependency on the 82 EDI/UDI beats. Every time the speech rhythms pull away from the musical rhythm, they are yanked back, just as George, despite his valiant efforts, is dragged to the crossroads. 83 Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion The interactions between the musical rhythm and Waits’s particular delivery of the text suggest that “Crossroads” is not merely a song where someone is speaking over an unrelated musical background; instead it is a convincing example of how “Waits makes the words and music fit,” as one critic so aptly put it.88 The musical and linguistic methodologies presented in this paper are potential analytical methods that engage with the spoken word as first and foremost a performance. By focusing my analysis on the perception of rhythmic elements in the performance, my intention is to broaden the limited context of spoken word studies to include disciplines outside literary and culture studies, particularly those concerned with perception and cognition of text and sound events in time, such as linguistics and music theory. Several interactions between the speech and the music are coordinated with the musical accompaniment, and many reflect the sentiments of the narrative. In fact, the concurrence of speech and music in “Crossroads” places the listener at a metaphorical crossroads where a decision must be made to either 1) hear a relationship between the two rhythms by normalizing the irregular speech rhythms or 2) hear the two rhythms as unconnected. While I cannot deny that the latter is entirely possible, it is far more interesting (and in keeping with the song’s narrative) to project a rhythmic relationship between the speech and the music – especially one fraught with tension, conflict, and distorted realities. The process of “normalization” rests on the notion that stressed syllable onsets should align with EDI or UDI beat onsets and when they don’t, the listener simply imagines the desired alignment, accepting a distorted impression of what sounds actually occur, or an “aural illusion”. In reality, the two projections are determined at different times; the “psychological 88 Robert Ward, “Play It Again Tom,” 55. 84 reality,” in Temperley’s words, is that the two projections occur together. While aural illusions occur frequently in “Crossroads,” I expect the phenomenon is not uncommon in any spoken word work. The combination of Hasty’s projective theory and Hayes’s theory of metrical stress could be applied to other spoken word songs by Tom Waits, and may be useful to describe the rhythmic differences that contribute to my distinctions between spoken-word song, rhythmic speech, and speech-song (recall Table 1). This study is in some ways incomplete, and serves as a prototype for modified or novel analytical approaches to spoken word. Some refinements and additions to the methodology are worth considering. It would benefit the accuracy of the analysis to have separate vocal and instrumental tracks for the song at hand. It would be worth considering whether there is a measurable difference between determining syllable onsets, regardless of whether they have an initial consonant, versus consistently measuring vowel onset; finally, an analysis of spoken word would profit from evaluating pitch interactions alongside rhythmic interactions. English phrase stress is produced by intonation, so it would be interesting to see how the speech intonation relates to the musical tones, especially in Waits’s “speech-song” works such as “A Sweet Little Bullet from a Pretty Little Gun” or “A Telephone Call from Istanbul.” This method of analysis is also appropriate for the study of spoken-word songs by other artists such as Ken Nordine, whose style of spoken-word connects the rhythms of natural speech with the rhythms one might find in an instrumental jazz solo. Similarly, Quincy Troupe Jr.’s spoken-word song “Chicago” evokes through its rhythms a sense of the blues. The flexibility of Hasty’s projective theory would also lend itself to the analysis of spoken word accompanied by music that is not necessarily metrical, as well as unaccompanied spoken word such as dub 85 poetry, which evolved out of Jamaican speaking rhythms and is distinct from other kinds of spoken word by its rhythmic style of performance. For me, spoken word is a fascinating form of performance. In my own experiences listening, watching, and performing spoken word, I am challenged to examine why some performances or artists strike me as more musical than others. Often, the answer involves rhythm, and those performances that are most musical involve what Waits describes as the “riddles and secrets inside rhythms."89 I believe that many spoken word works, whether accompanied by music or not, exhibit highly complex and deliberate rhythmic structures. These works are more than just performance poetry – they are musical performances. 89 Tim Powis, "Tom Waits," Graffiti Magazine (December 1, 1988). Available online at http://www.tomwaitsfan.com/tom%20waits%20library/www.tomwaitslibrary.com/quotes-influences.html 86 Bibliography Adams, Kyle. "Aspects of the music/text relationship in Rap." Music Theory Online 14, no. 2 (May 2008). Adams, Kyle. "On the Metrical Techniques of Flow in Rap." 2009. Attas, Robin. "Meter as Process in Groove-based Popular Music." University of British Columbia, 2011. Attridge, D. and Carper, T. Meter and Meaning: An Introduction to Rhythm in Poetry. New York: Routledge, 2003. Benadon, Fernando. "A Circular Plot for Rhythm Visualization and Analysis." Music Theory Online 13, no. 3 (September 2007). Bernstein, Charles. Close Listening: Poetry and the Performed Word. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Bickford, Tyler. "Music of Poetry and Poetry of Song: Expressivity and Grammar in Vocal Performance." Ethnomusicology 51, no. 3 (2007): 439-476. Brown, Fahamisha. Performing the Word: African-American Poetry as Vernacular Culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1999. Burns, Jim. "Jazz and the Beats." 1971: 17-22. Butler, Mark. Unlocking the Groove: Rhythm, Meter, and Musical Design in Electronic Dance Music . Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006. Butterfield, Matthew. "Participatory Discrepancies and the Perception of Beats in Jazz." Music Perception 27, no. 3 (2010): 157-175. Butterfield, Matthew. "Power of Anacrusis: Engendered Feeling in Groove-Based Musics." Music Theory Online 12, no. 4 (December 2006). Butterfield, Matthew. "Variant Time-Keeping Patterns and Their Effect in Jazz Drumming." Music Theory Online 16, no. 2 (December 2010). Butterfield, Matthew. "Why Do Jazz Musicians Swing Their Eighth Notes?" Music Theory Spectrum 33, no. 1 (2011): 3-26. Clarke, Eric. "Empirical Methods in the Study of Performance." In Empirical Musicology: Aims, Methods, Prospects, edited by Eric Clarke and Nicholas Cook, 77-102. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. Cooper, G. and Meyer, L. The Rhythmic Structure of Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960. 87 Cooper, G. Burns. Mysterious Music: Rhythm and Free Verse. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998. Cummins, Fred. "Looking for Rhythm in Speech." Empirical Musicology Review 12 (2012): 1-2. Deutsch, Diana. "The Tritone Paradox: A Link Between Music and Speech." Durrent Directions in Psychological Science 6 (1997): 175-180. Dodson, Alan. "Solutions to the “Great Nineteenth-Century Rhythm Problem” in Horowitz’s Recording of the Theme from Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Op. 16, No. 2." Music Theory Online 18, no. 1 (April 2012). Eleveld, Mark. The Spoken Word Revolution. New York: Sourcebooks MediaFusion, 2003. Fernandez, R. and Ricard, R. "Recognizing affect from Speech Prosody Using Hierarchical Graphical Models." Speech Communication 53 (2011): 1088-1103. Foley, John Miles. How to Read an Oral Poem. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2002. Frost, Corey. "Omnidirectional Microphone: Performance Literature as Social ." Dissertation, City University of New York, 2010. Giergerich, H. J. Metrical Phonology and Phonological Structure: German and English. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1985. Goldsmith, J. Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology. Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1990. Grabe, E. and Low, E.L. "Durational Variability in Speech and the Rhythm Class Hypothesis." In Laboratory Phonology 7, edited by C. and Warner, N. Gussenhoven, 515-546. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2002. Gregory, H. "(Re)presenting Ourselves: Art, Identity, and Status in UK Poetry Slam." Oral Tradition 23, no. 2 (2008): 201-217. Gussenhoven, C. and Jacobs, H. Understanding Phonology. 1st edition. London: Hodder Arnold, 1998. Hall, A. and Kleinhenz, U., ed. Studies on the Phonological Word. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1999. Halle, Morris. "The Stress of Engish Words." Linguistic Inquiry 29 (1998): 539-568. Hasty, Christopher. Meter as Rhythm. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Hayes, Bruce and Kaun, Abigail. "The Role of Phonological Phrasing in Sung and Chanted Verse." The Linguistic Review 13 (1996): 243-303. 88 Hayes, Bruce. "Extrametricality and English Stress." Linguistic Inquiry (1982) 13, no. 2: 227-276. —. Metrical Stress Theory: Principles and Case Studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Hopkins, B. Gravikords, Whirlies & Pyrophones: Experimental Musical Instruments. Roslyn, New York: Ellipsis Arts, 1996. Hopkins, D. "To Be or not to Bop: Jack Kerouac's 'On the Road' and the Culture of Bebop and Rhythm 'n Blues." Popular Music 24, no. 2 (2005): 279-286. Hoskyns, Barney. Lowside of the Road: A Life and Times of Tom Waits. New York: Broadway Books, 2009. Humphries, Patrick. Small Change: THe Life of Tom Waits. London: Omnibus, 1989. —. The Many Lives of Tom Waits. London: Omnibus, 2007. Jackendoff, Ray. "Parallels and Nonparallels Between Language and Music." Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26 (2009): 195-204. Jacobs, J.S. Wild Years: The Music and Myth of Tom Waits. Toronto: ECW Press, 2000. Jones, M.E. "African-American Jazz Poetry: Orality, Prosody and Performance." Stanford University, 2001. Jones, Meta DuEwa. The Muse is Music: Jazz Poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to Spoken Word. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2011. Kaun, D. Syllable-based Generalizations in English Phonology. New York: Garland Publishing, 1980. Kerouac, Steve Allen, Al Cohn, Zoot Simms. The Jack Kerouac Colletion. Comp. Jack Kerouac. 1990. CD. Kessel, Corinne. "Human Oddities, Rain Dogs, and Other Wanderers: Character and Narrative in the Music of Tom Waits." MA Thesis, University of Alberta, 2000. Krims, Adam. Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Lerdahl, Fred and Jackendoff, Ray. A Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1983. Lerdahl, Fred. "The Sounds of Poetry Viewed as Music." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 930 (2001): 337-354. 89 Liberman, Mark and Prince, Alan. "On Stress and Linguistic Rhythm." Linguistic Inquiry 8, no. 2 (1977): 249-336. Liberman, Mark. "The Intonational System of English." MIT, 1975. London, J. and Jones, K. "Rhythmic Refinements to the nPVI Measure: A Reanalysis of Patel & Daniele (2003a)." Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 29, no. 1 (2012): 112-120. London, Justin. Hearing in Time: Psychological Aspects of Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004. London, Justin. "Three Things Linguists Need to Know about Rhythm and Time in Music." Empirical Musicology Review 7, no. 1-2 (2012): 5-12. Maher, P. Tom Waits on Tom Waits: Interviews and Encounters. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2011. Malin, Y. Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in German Lied. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. McGowan, R. and Levitt, A. "A Comparison of Rhythm in English Dialects and Music." Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 28, no. 3 (2011): 307-314. Montandon, Mac. Innocent When you Dream: The Tom Waits Reader. New York: Thunder Mouth's Press, 2005. Negus, K. "Living, Breathing Songs: Singing Along with Bob Dylan." Oral Tradition 22, no. 1 (2007): 71-83. Nespor, M. Prosodic Phonology. Dordrecht: Foris, 1986. Obriner, Mitch. "Grouping Hierarchy and Trajectories of Pacing in Performances of Chopin’s Mazurkas." Music Theory Online 18, no. 1 (April 2012). Overy, K. "Musical Rhythm for Linguists: A Response to Justin London." Empirical Musicological Review 7, no. 1-2 (2012): 12-16. Patel, A. and Daniele J. "Stress-timed vs. Syllable-timed Music? A Comment on Huron and Ollen (2003)." Music Perception 21 (2003): 273-276. Patel, A., Iverson, J. and Rosenberg, J. "Comparing the Rhythm and Melody of Speech and Music: The Case of British English and French." Journal of Acoustic Society of America 119 (2006): 3034-3047. Patel, Anirudh. Music, Language and the Brain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. Patel, Anirudh. "Musical Rhythm, Linguistical Rhythm, and Human Evolution." Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 24, no. 1 (2006): 99-104. 90 Patel, Anirudh. "Syntactic Processing in Language and Music: Different Cognitive Operations, Similar Neural Resources?" Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 16 (1998): 26-42. Peterson, J.B. "Depth in the Hole: Intertextuality and Tom Waits's 'Way Down in the Hole'." Criticism 52, no. 3-4 (2010): 461-485. Prince, Alan. "Relating to the Grid." Linguistic Inquiry 14, no. 1 (1983): 19-100. Rahn, Jay. "Turning the Analysis Around: Africa-Derived Rhythms and Europe-Derived Music Theory." Black Music Research Journal 16 (1996): 71-89. Repp, B. Iverson, J. and Patel, A. "Tracking an Imposed Beat with a Metrical Grid." Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal 26, no. 1 (2008): 1-18. Rothstein, W. Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music. New York: Schirmer Books, 1989. Salley, K. "On The Interaction of Alliteration with Rhythm and Meter in Popular Music." Popular Music 33, no. 3 (2011): 409-432. Schane, S. "Understanding English Word Accentuation." Language Sciences 29 (2007): 372-384. Selkirk, Elizabeth. Phonology and Syntax: Relation Between Sound and Structure. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1984. Shepard, Roger. Mind Sights: Original Visual Illusions, Ambiguities and Other Anomalies, with a commentary on the play of mind in perception and art. New York: W.H. Freeman & co., 1990. Sherwood, Kenneth. "Elaborate Versionings: Characteristics of Emergent Performance in Three Print/Oral/Aural Poets." Oral Tradition 21, no. 1 (2006): 119-147. Solis, G. "Workin' Hard, Hardly Workin'/Hey Man, You Know Me: Tom Waits, Sound, and the Theatrics of Masculinity." Journal of Popular Music Studies 19, no. 1 (2007): 26-58. Somers-Willett, Susan B. Anthony. The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity, and the Performance of Popular Verse in America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009. Tedlock, Dennis. The Spoken Word and the Work of Interpretation. Philadelphia: University of Pensylvania Press, 1983. Temperely, David. Cognition of Basic Musical Structures. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2001. Temperely, David. "Syncopation in Rock: A Perceptual Perspective." Popular Music 18, no. 1 (1999): 19-40. 91 Tout, M. Rhythm, Music, and the Brain: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Applications. New York: Routledge, 2005. Waits, Tom. Closing Time. Comp. Tom Waits. 7559-60836-2. 1973. CD. Waits, Tom. Nighthawks at the Diner. Comp. Tom Waits. 1975. CD. Waits, Tom. Heart of Saturday Night. Comp. Tom Waits. 7559-60597-2. 1974. CD. Waits, Tom. Small Change. Comp. Tom Waits. 1976. CD. Waits, Tom. Foreign Affairs. Comp. Tom Waits. 1977. CD. Waits, Tom. Blue Valentine. Comp. Tom Waits. 1978. CD. Waits, Tom. Heartattack and Vine. Comp. Tom Waits. X6E295. 1980. LP. Waits, Tom. Swordfishtrombones. Comp. Tom Waits. LSM95. 1983. LP. Waits, Tom. Frank's Wild Years. Comp. Tom Waits. ISL1129. 1987. LP. Waits, Tom. Bone Machine. Comp. Tom Waits. 12 12580. 1992. CD. Waits, Tom. The Black Rider. Comp. Tom Waits. CID8021-518559-2. 1993. CD. Waits, Tom. Mule Variations. Comp. Tom Waits. 86547-2. 1999. CD. Waits, Tom. Blood Money. Comp. Tom Waits. 86629-2. 2002. CD. Waits, Tom. Alice. Comp. Tom Waits. 86632-2. 2002. CD. Waits, Tom. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards. Comp. Tom Waits. 86677-2. 2006. CD. Waits, Tom. Rain Dogs. Comp. Tom Waits. ISL1065. 1985. LP. Wallenstein, B. "The Jazz-Poetry Connection." Performing Arts Journal 4, no. 1-2 (1979): 142-151. Wheeldon, L. and Lahiri, A. . "Prosodic Units in Speech Production." Journal of Memory and Language 37 (1997): 356-381. Wheeler, Leslie. Voicing American Poetry: Sound and Performance from the 1920s to the Present. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. Wright, Gavin. "Everything You Can Think of Is True: The Life and Music of Tom Waits." Tom Waits Mini Biography. Comp. Marianne Hoff Engesland. 2009. Audiobook. 92 Appendix A: “Crossroads” Transcription 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 Appendix B: “Crossroads” Beat & Syllable Time Points BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 1.1 1.103 0.461 130.012 Now 0.508 0.6 2 1.544 0.47 127.604 George 1.108 0.684 2.5 1.812 0.464 129.231 was 1.792 0.215 3 2.032 0.464 129.199 a 2.007 0.172 4 2.496 0.461 130.012 good 2.179 0.322 2.1 2.949 0.464 129.199 straight 2.501 0.48 2 3.425 0.461 130.012 boy 2.981 0.567 2.5 3.669 0.449 133.636 to 3.548 0.124 3 3.889 0.461 130.012 be 3.673 0.159 4 4.342 0.461 130.012 gin 3.831 0.277 3.1 4.807 0.459 130.835 with 4.109 0.691 2 5.271 0.461 130.012 N/A 4.8 2.24 2.5 5.465 0.471 127.270 But 7.04 0.107 3 5.735 0.464 129.200 there's 7.147 0.449 4 6.188 0.467 128.400 bad 7.596 0.711 4.1 6.641 0.473 126.821 blood 8.307 0.274 2 7.117 0.467 128.397 in 8.581 0.096 2.5 7.351 0.457 131.250 him 8.678 0.309 3 7.593 0.464 129.199 some 8.986 0.372 4 8.057 0.464 129.199 way 9.358 0.353 5.1 8.533 0.459 130.835 and 9.711 0.057 2 8.986 0.459 130.835 he 9.768 0.179 2.5 9.18 0.477 125.910 got 9.946 0.229 3 9.451 0.459 130.835 in 10.175 0.247 4 9.915 0.459 130.835 to 10.422 0.088 6.1 10.368 0.461 130.012 the 10.509 0.193 2 10.82 0.461 130.012 ma 10.703 0.33 2.5 11.086 0.463 129.515 gic 11.033 0.35 3 11.285 0.461 130.012 bul 11.383 0.156 4 11.749 0.461 130.012 lets 11.539 0.251 7.1 12.214 0.461 130.012 that 11.79 0.285 2 12.666 0.461 130.012 lead 12.075 0.32 2.5 12.939 0.451 133.032 straight 12.395 0.549 3 13.131 0.459 130.835 to 12.944 0.169 4 13.595 0.456 131.668 the 13.113 0.175 8.1 14.06 0.456 131.668 de(v) 13.288 0.182 2 14.512 0.459 130.835 (v)il's 13.469 0.395 103 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 2.5 14.743 0.465 128.947 work 13.864 0.438 3 14.965 0.461 130.012 N/A 14.302 0.816 4 15.418 0.461 130.012 Just 15.118 0.416 9.1 15.882 0.456 131.668 like 15.534 0.383 2 16.347 0.453 132.512 mar 15.918 0.242 2.5 16.604 0.449 133.502 i 16.159 0.148 3 16.811 0.453 132.512 juan 16.307 0.278 4 17.264 0.453 132.512 a 16.584 0.14 10.1 17.705 0.461 130.012 leads 16.725 0.359 2 18.158 0.464 129.199 to 17.084 0.137 2.5 18.402 0.471 127.395 her 17.221 0.309 3 18.622 0.464 129.199 o 17.53 0.185 4 19.075 0.464 129.199 in 17.715 0.318 11.1 19.551 0.461 130.012 N/A 18.033 1.454 2 20.016 0.464 129.199 You 19.487 0.098 2.5 20.286 0.457 131.250 think 19.585 0.33 3 20.48 0.461 130.012 you 19.914 0.177 4 20.933 0.464 129.199 can 20.091 0.211 12.1 21.397 0.461 130.012 take 20.303 0.289 2 21.873 0.456 131.668 them 20.592 0.301 2.5 22.114 0.46 130.377 bul 20.893 0.147 3 22.326 0.459 130.835 lets 21.04 0.252 4 22.79 0.456 131.668 and 21.291 0.114 13.1 23.243 0.456 131.668 leave 21.406 0.276 2 23.696 0.456 131.668 'em 21.682 0.26 2.5 23.955 0.469 127.826 do 21.941 0.19 3 24.16 0.459 130.835 ya? 22.132 0.233 4 24.613 0.467 128.397 N/A 22.364 0.885 14.1 25.066 0.467 128.397 Just 23.249 0.307 2 25.519 0.482 124.529 save 23.556 0.344 2.5 25.833 0.463 129.515 a 23.9 0.161 3 25.995 0.473 126.821 few 24.061 0.394 4 26.482 0.459 130.835 for 24.455 0.154 15.1 26.935 0.47 127.604 your 24.609 0.206 2 27.446 0.464 129.199 bad 24.815 0.445 2.5 27.686 0.463 129.725 days 25.26 0.816 3 27.887 0.47 127.604 well 26.077 0.859 4 28.317 0.473 126.821 N/A 26.935 0.914 16.1 28.816 0.473 126.821 Well 27.849 0.129 104 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 2 29.304 0.467 128.397 we 27.978 0.126 2.5 29.536 0.464 129.307 all 28.104 0.46 3 29.768 0.464 129.199 have 28.564 0.269 4 30.209 0.47 127.604 those 28.833 0.379 17.1 30.708 0.459 130.835 bad 29.211 0.414 2 31.173 0.459 130.835 days 29.626 0.638 2.5 31.392 0.462 129.801 when 30.264 0.169 3 31.626 0.461 130.012 we 30.433 0.151 4 32.09 0.464 129.199 can't 30.584 0.339 18.1 32.543 0.47 127.604 hit 30.923 0.248 2 33.007 0.47 127.604 for 31.171 0.196 2.5 33.241 0.465 128.947 shit 31.367 0.516 3 33.472 0.47 127.604 N/A 31.882 1.123 4 33.948 0.461 130.012 And 33.005 0.264 19.1 34.424 0.456 131.668 the 33.269 0.124 2 34.888 0.453 132.512 more 33.393 0.305 2.5 35.102 0.462 129.961 them 33.698 0.222 3 35.352 0.453 132.512 ma 33.92 0.338 4 35.794 0.459 130.835 gics 34.258 0.183 20.1 36.246 0.461 130.012 you 34.441 0.243 2 36.699 0.464 129.199 use 34.684 0.436 2.5 36.949 0.462 129.929 the 35.12 0.21 3 37.164 0.482 124.529 more 35.331 0.324 4 37.628 0.47 127.604 bad 35.654 0.348 21.1 38.092 0.47 127.604 days 36.003 0.389 2 38.557 0.467 128.397 you 36.391 0.115 2.5 38.796 0.477 125.897 have 36.506 0.238 3 39.091 0.456 131.668 with 36.744 0.128 4 39.509 0.467 128.397 out 36.872 0.268 22.1 39.973 0.467 128.397 'em 37.14 0.47 2 40.426 0.45 133.367 N/A 37.611 0.909 2.5 40.702 0.457 131.265 So 38.52 0.162 3 40.914 0.447 134.233 it 38.682 0.167 4 41.378 0.45 133.368 comes 38.849 0.392 23.1 41.842 0.453 132.512 down 39.24 0.331 2 42.225 0.47 127.604 to 39.571 0.223 2.5 42.531 0.466 128.665 fin 39.795 0.384 3 42.701 0.459 130.835 ly 40.179 0.484 4 43.178 0.464 129.199 N/A 40.663 0.858 105 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 24.1 43.654 0.467 128.397 All 41.522 0.502 2 44.106 0.482 124.529 your 42.024 0.279 2.5 44.396 0.463 129.515 days 42.303 0.572 3 44.536 0.485 123.784 be 42.874 0.182 4 45.035 0.47 127.604 in' 43.056 0.281 25.1 45.523 0.459 130.835 bad 43.337 0.538 2 46.034 0.441 135.999 with 43.876 0.154 2.5 46.249 0.441 136.048 out 44.03 0.364 3 46.475 0.444 135.110 the 44.394 0.099 4 46.916 0.447 134.233 bul 44.493 0.17 26.1 47.357 0.459 130.835 lets 44.663 0.883 2 47.798 0.464 129.199 its 45.546 0.253 2.5 48.013 0.47 127.604 ma 45.799 0.229 3 48.251 0.467 128.397 gics 46.028 0.209 4 48.704 0.47 127.604 or 46.237 0.313 27.1 49.191 0.461 130.012 no 46.55 0.272 2 49.656 0.459 130.835 thin 46.822 0.574 2.5 49.894 0.451 133.032 N/A 47.396 0.829 3 50.12 0.456 131.668 Time 48.226 0.375 4 50.585 0.456 131.668 to 48.601 0.126 28.1 51.037 0.459 130.835 stop 48.727 0.457 2 51.49 0.461 130.012 chip 49.184 0.274 2.5 51.698 0.476 126.180 py 49.458 0.136 3 51.943 0.464 129.199 in' 49.593 0.15 4 52.407 0.461 130.012 a 49.744 0.104 29.1 52.872 0.459 130.835 round 49.848 0.503 2 53.336 0.459 130.835 and 50.351 0.208 2.5 53.6 0.459 130.667 kid 50.559 0.11 3 53.801 0.456 131.668 din' 50.669 0.201 4 54.253 0.459 130.835 your 50.87 0.175 30.1 54.706 0.456 131.668 self 51.044 0.657 2 55.171 0.45 133.367 N/A 51.701 1.87 2.5 55.437 0.442 135.797 Kid 53.571 0.355 3 55.623 0.45 133.367 you're 53.926 0.282 4 56.088 0.45 133.367 hooked 54.208 0.494 31.1 56.529 0.456 131.668 N/A 54.701 1.152 2 56.97 0.461 130.012 hea 55.853 0.233 2.5 57.204 0.464 129.231 vy 56.086 0.182 3 57.423 0.467 128.397 as 56.268 0.28 106 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 4 57.887 0.47 127.604 lead 56.548 0.66 32.1 58.352 0.473 126.821 N/A 57.208 3.764 2 58.816 0.476 126.048 And 60.972 0.212 2.5 59.061 0.467 128.384 that's 61.185 0.381 3 59.292 0.476 126.048 where 61.566 0.146 4 59.768 0.476 126.048 old 61.713 0.36 33.1 60.244 0.473 126.821 George 62.072 0.691 2 60.72 0.47 127.604 found 62.763 0.451 2.5 60.931 0.482 124.610 him 63.214 0.17 3 61.196 0.467 128.397 self 63.384 0.423 4 61.672 0.461 130.012 out 63.807 0.367 34.1 62.137 0.456 131.668 there 64.174 0.169 2 62.601 0.456 131.668 at 64.343 0.188 2.5 62.857 0.455 131.801 the 64.531 0.147 3 63.065 0.456 131.668 cross 64.678 0.522 4 63.518 0.456 131.668 roads 65.2 0.624 35.1 63.959 0.461 130.012 N/A 65.824 1.327 2 64.424 0.461 130.012 Mol 67.151 0.295 2.5 64.678 0.457 131.284 din' 67.446 0.241 3 64.888 0.464 129.199 the 67.688 0.186 4 65.341 0.467 128.397 De(v) 67.873 0.2 36.1 65.805 0.467 128.397 (v)il's 68.073 0.331 2 66.27 0.464 129.199 bul 68.405 0.222 2.5 66.506 0.474 126.588 lets 68.627 0.647 3 66.746 0.459 130.835 N/A 69.274 1.371 4 67.21 0.461 130.010 Now 70.645 0.278 37.1 67.675 0.464 129.199 a 70.922 0.09 2 68.127 0.461 130.012 man 71.012 0.729 2.5 68.402 0.458 130.992 fi(g) 71.741 0.145 3 68.58 0.461 130.012 (g)ures 71.886 0.176 4 69.056 0.456 131.668 its 72.061 0.196 38.1 69.532 0.453 132.512 his 72.257 0.444 2 69.973 0.456 131.668 bul 72.701 0.18 2.5 70.234 0.444 135.048 lets 72.882 0.392 3 70.426 0.461 130.012 N/A 73.273 0.607 4 70.879 0.464 129.199 So 73.88 0.131 39.1 71.343 0.464 129.199 it 74.011 0.142 2 71.796 0.47 127.604 will 74.153 0.222 2.5 72.011 0.47 127.659 take 74.375 0.379 107 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 3 72.272 0.47 127.604 what 74.754 0.107 4 72.737 0.47 127.604 he 74.861 0.235 40.1 73.201 0.47 127.604 wants 75.096 0.724 2 73.677 0.464 129.199 N/A 75.82 0.898 2.5 73.891 0.484 124.068 But 76.718 0.061 3 74.153 0.459 130.835 it 76.78 0.159 4 74.617 0.453 132.512 don't 76.939 0.185 41.1 75.082 0.464 129.199 al 77.124 0.164 2 75.535 0.467 128.397 ways 77.287 0.269 2.5 75.825 0.439 136.762 work 77.556 0.285 3 75.987 0.473 126.821 out 77.841 0.229 4 76.428 0.479 125.284 that 78.069 0.224 42.1 76.939 0.441 135.999 way 78.294 0.465 2 77.404 0.435 137.813 N/A 78.759 0.784 2.5 77.58 0.454 132.252 You 79.543 0.155 3 77.88 0.427 140.625 see 79.698 0.143 4 78.344 0.424 141.588 some 79.841 0.439 43.1 78.704 0.453 132.512 bul 80.28 0.133 2 79.145 0.456 131.668 lets 80.412 0.127 2.5 79.395 0.454 132.061 are 80.539 0.188 3 79.586 0.459 130.835 spe 80.727 0.487 4 80.039 0.464 129.199 cial 81.213 0.268 44.1 80.515 0.461 130.012 for 81.482 0.114 2 80.968 0.461 130.012 a 81.596 0.105 2.5 81.212 0.46 130.377 sin(g) 81.701 0.329 3 81.421 0.461 130.012 (g)le 82.03 0.18 4 81.897 0.456 131.668 tar 82.21 0.3 45.1 82.361 0.461 130.012 get 82.51 0.178 2 82.814 0.467 128.397 a 82.688 0.079 2.5 83.053 0.459 130.678 cer 82.767 0.302 3 83.267 0.467 128.397 tain 83.069 0.155 4 83.72 0.467 128.397 stag 83.224 0.799 46.1 84.207 0.456 131.668 or 84.024 0.103 2 84.683 0.453 132.512 a 84.127 0.102 2.5 84.89 0.474 126.580 cer 84.229 0.251 3 85.136 0.453 132.512 tain 84.48 0.198 4 85.589 0.453 132.512 per 84.678 0.22 47.1 86.03 0.459 130.835 son 84.898 0.423 2 86.494 0.456 131.668 and 85.321 0.123 108 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 2.5 86.786 0.445 134.704 no 85.443 0.163 3 86.947 0.456 131.668 mat 85.607 0.202 4 87.4 0.456 131.668 ter 85.808 0.234 48.1 87.864 0.459 130.835 where 86.042 0.162 2 88.317 0.459 130.835 you 86.204 0.098 2.5 88.567 0.469 127.798 aim 86.302 0.493 3 88.77 0.461 130.012 that's 86.795 0.217 4 89.223 0.467 128.397 where 87.012 0.155 49.1 89.699 0.464 129.199 the 87.167 0.245 2 90.151 0.47 127.604 bul 87.412 0.232 2.5 90.445 0.453 132.350 let 87.645 0.102 3 90.616 0.476 126.048 will 87.747 0.147 4 91.092 0.476 126.048 end 87.894 0.34 50.1 91.556 0.479 125.284 up 88.234 0.322 2 92.032 0.476 126.048 N/A 88.556 0.925 2.5 92.259 0.486 123.342 And 89.481 0.093 3 92.52 0.47 127.604 in 89.574 0.141 4 92.996 0.467 128.397 the 89.715 0.107 51.1 93.472 0.467 128.397 mo 89.823 0.302 2 93.936 0.473 126.821 ment 90.124 0.121 2.5 94.204 0.469 127.845 of 90.245 0.122 3 94.401 0.473 126.821 aim 90.367 0.344 4 94.865 0.473 126.821 ing 90.711 0.404 52.1 95.341 0.47 127.604 the 91.114 0.255 2 95.829 0.467 128.397 gun 91.369 0.477 2.5 96.082 0.472 127.181 turns 91.847 0.441 3 96.293 0.467 128.397 in 92.288 0.194 4 96.758 0.467 128.397 to 92.482 0.118 53.1 97.222 0.467 128.397 a 92.6 0.162 2 97.698 0.467 128.397 dow 92.762 0.193 2.5 97.969 0.448 133.814 ser's 92.955 0.509 3 98.162 0.47 127.604 wand 93.464 0.769 4 98.627 0.473 126.821 N/A 94.234 0.539 54.1 99.091 0.473 126.821 and 94.772 0.186 2 99.567 0.47 127.604 points 94.958 0.575 2.5 99.762 0.486 123.411 where 95.533 0.122 3 100.043 0.467 128.397 the 95.655 0.169 4 100.519 0.461 130.012 bul 95.823 0.185 55.1 100.984 0.461 130.012 let 96.009 0.236 109 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 2 101.448 0.459 130.835 wants 96.245 0.473 2.5 101.707 0.456 131.612 to 96.718 0.131 3 101.912 0.459 130.835 go 96.849 0.384 4 102.365 0.464 129.199 N/A 97.233 4.182 56.1 102.83 0.461 130.012 well 101.415 0.112 2 103.282 0.464 129.199 George 101.526 0.55 2.5 103.531 0.464 129.245 Schmid 102.076 0.522 3 103.747 0.464 129.199 was 102.598 0.202 4 104.223 0.461 130.012 mov 102.8 0.286 57.1 104.676 0.464 129.199 ing 103.086 0.091 2 105.14 0.464 129.199 in 103.177 0.181 2.5 105.388 0.454 132.122 a 103.358 0.206 3 105.604 0.461 130.012 ser 103.564 0.248 4 106.069 0.456 131.668 ies 103.812 0.274 58.1 106.533 0.456 131.668 of 104.086 0.182 2 106.998 0.453 132.512 con 104.269 0.325 2.5 107.204 0.456 131.491 vul 104.594 0.187 3 107.45 0.45 133.367 sive 104.781 0.38 4 107.892 0.453 132.512 spa 105.161 0.477 59.1 108.356 0.453 132.512 sms 105.638 0.205 2 108.809 0.456 131.668 like 105.844 0.221 2.5 109.029 0.462 129.886 some 106.065 0.429 3 109.25 0.459 130.835 one 106.494 0.224 4 109.703 0.459 130.835 in 106.717 0.094 60.1 110.167 0.459 130.835 an 106.812 0.123 2 110.631 0.456 131.668 ep 106.935 0.305 2.5 110.877 0.457 131.227 il 107.24 0.117 3 111.084 0.459 130.835 ep 107.357 0.212 4 111.537 0.461 130.012 tic 107.57 0.276 61.1 112.001 0.461 130.012 fit 107.846 0.319 2 112.454 0.464 129.199 with 108.165 0.202 2.5 112.706 0.469 127.937 his 108.367 0.291 3 112.919 0.464 129.199 face 108.658 0.454 4 113.383 0.467 128.397 con 109.112 0.261 62.1 113.847 0.467 128.397 tor 109.373 0.243 2 114.312 0.464 129.199 ted 109.616 0.216 2.5 114.582 0.457 131.193 and 109.833 0.127 3 114.776 0.461 130.012 hid 109.96 0.172 4 115.252 0.456 131.668 eyes 110.132 0.519 110 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 63.1 115.717 0.453 132.512 wild 110.651 0.653 2 116.169 0.456 131.668 like 111.304 0.169 2.5 116.411 0.446 134.607 a 111.473 0.141 3 116.622 0.459 130.835 las 111.615 0.259 4 117.075 0.459 130.835 sooed 111.873 0.648 64.1 117.528 0.461 130.012 horse 112.522 0.446 2 117.992 0.461 130.012 N/A 112.967 0.861 2.5 118.194 0.47 127.726 Brac 113.829 0.294 3 118.457 0.461 130.012 ing 114.122 0.163 4 118.909 0.464 129.199 his 114.286 0.281 65.1 119.374 0.464 129.199 legs 114.567 0.661 2 119.838 0.461 130.012 but 115.228 0.151 2.5 120.073 0.465 128.995 some 115.379 0.239 3 120.303 0.459 130.835 thing 115.618 0.235 4 120.767 0.459 130.835 kept 115.853 0.366 66.1 121.231 0.461 130.012 pul 116.219 0.118 2 121.684 0.467 128.397 ling 116.336 0.157 2.5 121.934 0.472 127.251 him 116.493 0.178 3 122.137 0.467 128.397 on 116.672 0.88 4 122.601 0.467 128.397 N/A 117.551 0.574 67.1 123.077 0.464 129.199 Now 118.126 0.301 2 123.553 0.459 130.835 he's 118.427 0.256 2.5 123.82 0.452 132.841 pick 118.683 0.193 3 124.006 0.459 130.835 ing 118.876 0.124 4 124.471 0.459 130.835 up 119.001 0.163 68.1 124.935 0.459 130.835 the 119.164 0.113 2 125.388 0.464 129.199 skulls 119.278 0.747 2.5 125.626 0.451 133.124 and 120.024 0.131 3 125.841 0.467 128.397 mak 120.155 0.18 4 126.305 0.464 129.199 ing 120.335 0.114 69.1 126.769 0.464 129.199 a 120.449 0.114 2 127.245 0.459 130.835 cir 120.563 0.453 2.5 127.429 0.479 125.247 cle 121.016 0.257 3 127.71 0.459 130.835 N/A 121.273 1.287 4 128.163 0.461 130.012 I 122.56 0.15 70.1 128.627 0.461 130.012 guess 122.71 0.275 2 129.08 0.461 130.012 old 122.985 0.319 2.5 129.346 0.456 131.580 George 123.304 0.512 3 129.544 0.461 130.012 did 123.817 0.159 111 BEAT TIME POINTS (s) IOI (s) TEMPO (BPM) SYLLABLE TIME POINTS (s) Syllable IOI (s) 4 130.009 0.459 130.835 n't 123.976 0.184 71.1 130.473 0.456 131.668 right 124.161 0.304 2 130.926 ly 124.464 0.145 2.5 131.17 know 124.609 0.321 3 131.39 what 124.931 0.28 4 131.843 he's 125.211 0.216 72.1 132.296 get 125.427 0.19 ing 125.617 0.123 him 125.74 0.168 self 125.909 0.41 in 126.319 0.223 to 126.542 0.209 N/A 126.751 1.177 the 127.928 0.202 fit 128.131 0.407 was 128.538 0.134 on 128.672 0.295 him 128.967 0.152 and 129.118 0.102 it 129.22 0.229 car 129.449 0.33 ried 129.779 0.138 him 129.917 0.103 right 130.02 0.363 to 130.383 0.104 the 130.487 0.143 cross 130.63 0.415 roads 131.045 0.679 N/A 131.724 112 Appendix C: “Crossroads” Text Segmentation and NPOs Line%1% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % X% % % % %Phonological%Word% % X% % % % % X% % % % %Metrical%Foot% % X% % % X% % X% % % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% Now% George% was% a% good% straight% boy% to% be%=%% gin% with% Line%2% Intonational%Phrase% % % % X% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % X% % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % X% % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % % X% % % % % %Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % % X% % % % X% % % % % X% % % % X% % % % % X%Metrical%Foot% % X% % X% % X% % X% % X% % X% % % X% % X% % X% % X% % % X% % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% But% there[‘s]% bad% blood% in% him%% some=% way% [and]% he% got% in%=%% to% the% ma% gic% bul%=%% lets% that% lead% straight% to% the% De%=%% vil’s% work% Line%3% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Word% % % X% % % % X% % % % %Metrical%Foot% X% % X% % X% % X% % X% % %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% just% like% mar%=%% y=%% wan%=%% na% leads% to% her%=%% o%=%% in.% Line%4% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % X% % % %Phonological%Word% % % % % X% % % % % X% % % %Metrical%Foot% % X% % % X% % X% % % X% % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% You% think%% you%% can%% take%% them% bul%=%% lets% and% leave% ‘em% do% you% Line%5% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % X% % %Phonological%Word% % X% % % % % X% % %Metrical%Foot% % X% % X% % % X% % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% just% save% a% few% for% your% bad% days,% [well]% Line%6% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % X% % % %Phonological%Word% % % % % % X% % % % X% % % %Metrical%Foot% % % X% % % X% % X% % X% % % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% Well,% we% all% have% those% bad% days% when% we% can’t% hit% for% shit% 113 Line%7% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % X% %Phonological%Word% % % X% % % % % X% % % % X% % % % X% %Metrical%Foot% % % X% % X% % % X% % X% % X% % X% % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% [and]% the% more% them% ma%=%% gics% you% use% the% more% bad% days% you% have% with%=%% out% them% Line%8% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % %Phonological%Word% % % % % % X% %Metrical%Foot% % % X% % % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% So%% it% comes% down% [to]% fin%=%% (a)lly% Line%9% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % X% % % % % % % % % % X% %Phonological%Word% X% % % % % X% % % % X% % % % % % X% %Metrical%Foot% X% % X% % % X% % X% % X% % % X% % % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% all%% your%% days% be%=%% ing% bad% with%=%% out% the%% bul%=%% lets% it’s% ma%=% gics% or% no%=% thing.% Line%10% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % X% % % % % X%Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % % X% % % % % X%Metrical%Foot% X% % % X% % X% % X% % X% % % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% Time% to% stop% chip%=% py%=% ing% a%=% round% and%% kid%=% ding% your%=% self,% Line%11% Intonational%Phrase% % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % %Phonological%Word% % % X%Metrical%Foot% X% % X%Syllable% X% X% X%% kid,%% you’re% hooked% Line%12% Intonational%Phrase% % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % %Phonological%Word% % % % X%Metrical%Foot% X% % % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X%% hea%=% vy% as% lead.% Line%13% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % X% %Phonological%Word% % X% % % % % % X%%%’% X% % % % X% %Metrical%Foot% % X% % % X% % % X% X% % X% % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% And% that’s% where% old% George% found% him%=%% self% out% there% at% the% cross=% roads,% 114 Line%14% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % %Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % %Metrical%Foot% X% % % X% % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% mol%=%% ding% the% De%=% vil’s% bul%=% lets% Line%15% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % X% % %Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % X% % %Metrical%Foot% X% % % X% % % X% X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% Now% a% man% fi%=% gures% it’s% his% bul%=% lets% Line%16% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % %Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % %Metrical%Foot% % X% % X% % % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% So% it% ‘ll% [take]% what% he% wants% Line%17% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % % X%Phonological%Word% % % X% % % % % % X%Metrical%Foot% % % X% % % X% % % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% but% it% don’t% al%=% ways% work% out% that% way% Line%18% Int.%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % " % % % % % % %Phon.Phrase% % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % %Phon.%Word% % X% % % % % X% % % % % % X% % % % % X% % % % % X% % % % X% % % % X% % % % X% % % % %Met.%Foot% % X% % X% % % X% % % % X% % X% % % X% % X% % % X% % X% % (X)% % X% % X% % X% X% % % X% % % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% You% see% some% bul=% lets% [are]% spe=% cial% for% a% sin=% gle% [tar=% get]% a% cer=% tain% stag% or% a% cer=% tain% per=%% son% and% no%% mat=% ter% where% you% aim% that’s% where% the% bul=% let% will% end% up.% Line%19%% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % X%Phonological%Phrase% % % % X% % % % % % % % % % % % % X%Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % % % % X% % % % % % % X%Metrical%Foot% % X% % X% % % X% % % X% % X% % % X% % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% And% in% the% mo%=% ment% of% aim%=% ing% the% gun% turns% in%=% to% a% dow%=% ser’s% wand,% Line%20% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % % X%Phonological%Word% % % % % X% % % % X%Metrical%Foot% % X% % % X% % X% % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% And% points% where% the% bul%=% let% wants% to% go.% 115 Line%21% Int.Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %Ph.Phrase% % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % X% % % % % % % % % % X% % % % % %Ph.Word% % % % X% % % % X% % % % X% % % % % X% % % % X% % % % X% % % % % X% % % % % X% % % % % X%Met.%Foot% % X% % X% % (X)% % X% % (X)% % X% % X% % % X% % (X)% % X% % X% % X% % % X% % X% % (X)% % X% X% % % X% % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% George% Schmid% was% mo=% ving% in% a% ser=% ies% of% con=% vul=% sive% spa=% sms% like% some=% one% in% an% ep=% il=%% ep=% tic% fit% with% his% face% con=% tor=% ted% and% his% eyes% wild% like% a% las=% soed% horse.% Line%22% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % % % X% % % %Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % % % X% % % %Metrical%Foot% X% % % X% % X% % % X% % % X%Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% brac%=% ing% his% legs% but% some%=% thing% kept% pul%=% ling% him% on.% Line%23% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % % % % X% % % % % % %Phonological%Word% % % X% % % % X% % % % % X% %Metrical%Foot% X% % X% % X% % X% % X% % % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% Now% he’s% pick%=% ing% up% the% skulls% and% ma%=% king% [a]% cir%=% cle% Line%24% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % % %Phonological%Phrase% % % % X% % % % % % % % % % % % X% %Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % % % X% % % % % % % X% %Metrical%Foot% % X% % X% % % X% % X% % % X% % X% % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% I% guess% old% George% did%=% n’t% right%=% ly% know% what% he’s% get%=% ting% him%=% self% in%=% to% Line%25% Intonational%Phrase% % % % % % % % % % % % % % X% %Phonological%Phrase% % % % X% % % % % % % % % % X% %Phonological%Word% % % % X% % % % X% % % % % % X% %Metrical%Foot% % X% % X% % (X)% % X% % % X% % % X% %Syllable% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X% X%% the% fit% was% on% him% and% it% car%=% ried% him% right% to% the% cross%=% roads% 116 Appendix D: Crossroads Syllable & Beat Onset Comparisons 113 Appendix D: Crossroads Syllable & Beat Onset Comparisons 117 114 118 115 119 116
Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Music
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada
Graduate
At the "Crossroads” : the interaction between speech rhythm and musical rhythm in Tom Waits's spoken-word song
Text