Analysing the relationship between tone and melody in Chaozhou songs. Issue 4 (8th August 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhang, Xi; Cross, Ian
• Is Part Of: Journal of new music research. Volume 50:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 299
• Page End: 311
• Publication Date: 2021-08-08
• Subjects: Chaozhou dialect -- Chaozhou songs -- corpus analysis -- tone-melody correspondence -- tone sandhi -- categorisation of tones -- transition of notes; Music -- Periodicals; Musicology -- Periodicals; 780.72
• DOI: 10.1080/09298215.2021.1974490
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0929-8215

Abstract

Abstract : This paper uses corpus analysis to explore relationships between tone and melody in folk and contemporary songs in Chaozhou, a Chinese dialect with eight lexical tones and a wealth of tone sandhi. Results suggest that: (1) there is a high degree of correspondence between tone and melody in Chaozhou song; (2) tone sandhi influences tone-melody correspondence; (3) tones realised in context can be categorised into high-, mid-, and low-pitch groups according to the tone-pitch extreme rather than final pitch; (4) when single tones are performed melismatically across groups of notes, relationships between initial notes of successive groups shapes tone-melody matching.