In tone languages, alteration of lexical tone changes the intended meaning. This implies that composers should equally match lexical tone in their music for intelligible communication of the intended textual messages, a compositional approach termed Lexical Tone Determinants (LTD) in this study. Yet, in the Ìgbò language setting, some composers creatively disregard/mismatch lexical tone, which is branded as Musical/Creative Determinants (M/CD). It is believed that mismatched lexical tone in Ìgbò music alters listeners’ comprehension of the intended messages; on the other hand, it is argued that thorough match of lexical tone constrains musical creativity. Listeners’ perception of textual messages in LTD and M/CD music has not been empirically tested (side-by-side) to verify whether comprehension is lost or not, at least, in the Ìgbò language context. This empirical void gap is verified in this particular study to substantiate the propositions/findings using comparative measures to collect data through listeners’ perception in live-performance of newly composed LTD and M/CD pieces. Specifically, it examines whether mismatched lexical tone in Ìgbò music alters message comprehension or not. The data were collated, presented, and analyzed statistically with chi-square deployed to evaluate their difference in message comprehension.
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April 2022
Research Article|
April 01 2022
Can the Intended Messages of Mismatched Lexical Tone in Igbo Music Be Understood? A Test for Listeners’ Perception of the Matched Versus Mismatched Compositions Available to Purchase
Sunday Ofuani
Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria
Sunday Ofuani, Department of Music, Delta State University, Abraka, P.M.B. 1, Abraka, Nigeria. E-mails: [email protected] [email protected]
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Sunday Ofuani, Department of Music, Delta State University, Abraka, P.M.B. 1, Abraka, Nigeria. E-mails: [email protected] [email protected]
Music Perception (2022) 39 (4): 371–385.
Article history
Received:
May 03 2020
Accepted:
February 03 2022
Citation
Sunday Ofuani; Can the Intended Messages of Mismatched Lexical Tone in Igbo Music Be Understood? A Test for Listeners’ Perception of the Matched Versus Mismatched Compositions. Music Perception 1 April 2022; 39 (4): 371–385. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/mp.2022.39.4.371
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