Speech and music rhythm

A pilot study on English and Italian songs

Abstract

Instrumental and vocal compositions agree with the mother tongue rhythm of the composer, proving that the same rhythmic categorization operates on both linguistic and music levels. In this study we aimed to verify how strong the mother tongue rhythm of the singers is in relation to the mother tongue rhythm of the composers, and if this is also able to influence the music rhythm of their songs. The results of the analysis of original English and Italian songs along with their foreign versions suggest that on the music level the stress-timed rhythm exerted a greater influence than the syllable-timed one, being able to influence the music rhythm of the Italian version of the English songs. On the contrary, on sung level both timing categories seem to be equally strong.