A1 Journal article (refereed)
Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower and higher and use more stable pitches than speech : A Registered Report (2024)

Ozaki, Y., Tierney, A., Pfordresher, P. Q., McBride, J. M., Benetos, E., Proutskova, P., Chiba, G., Liu, F., Jacoby, N., Purdy, S. C., Opondo, P., Fitch, W. T., Hegde, S., Rocamora, M., Thorne, R., Nweke, F., Sadaphal, D. P., Sadaphal, P. M., Hadavi, S., . . . Savage, P. E. (2024). Globally, songs and instrumental melodies are slower and higher and use more stable pitches than speech : A Registered Report. Science Advances, 10(20), Article eadm9797. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adm9797

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Ozaki, Yuto; Tierney, Adam; Pfordresher, Peter Q.; McBride, John M.; Benetos, Emmanouil; Proutskova, Polina; Chiba, Gakuto; Liu, Fang; Jacoby, Nori; Purdy, Suzanne C.; et al.

Journal or series: Science Advances

eISSN: 2375-2548

Publication year: 2024

Publication date: 17/05/2024

Volume: 10

Issue number: 20

Article number: eadm9797

Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Publication country: United States

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adm9797

Publication open access: Openly available

Publication channel open access: Open Access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/94981

Abstract

Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conversational speech, and instrumental melodies from our 75 coauthors speaking 55 languages; and (ii) 418 previously published adult-directed song and speech recordings from 209 individuals speaking 16 languages. Of our six preregistered predictions, five were strongly supported: Relative to speech, songs use (i) higher pitch, (ii) slower temporal rate, and (iii) more stable pitches, while both songs and speech used similar (iv) pitch interval size and (v) timbral brightness. Exploratory analyses suggest that features vary along a “musi-linguistic” continuum when including instrumental melodies and recited lyrics. Our study provides strong empirical evidence of cross-cultural regularities in music and speech.

Keywords: music; lyrics; songs; singing; languages

Contributing organizations

Related projects

Ministry reporting: Yes

Preliminary JUFO rating: 3