What is language? Language is an odd thing. When you think about it, it is surprising that early primates were able to communicate using the tongue instead of sign language. It is a remarkable invention that we would be able to talk with our mouths and fully develop a language that can be written, spoken, and recorded.
I find language odd because we read and understand a language we are fluent in, but sometimes we can only be partially fluent. I am fluent in speaking Mandarin Chinese, but when I encounter Chinese characters on a menu or a sign, it might as well be gibberish; I can only listen and speak Chinese but not read or write. Another issue is that when I am learning a new language, such as Spanish, I need to translate the Spanish text into English to understand it. Yet, when I speak Chinese, I do not need to translate first. We take these as given facts, but, strangely, we can be only half-fluent in a language.
The same goes for reading music. Many children begin learning music with the piano because it has two clefs, the treble, and bass, for the right and left hands. This can then be transferred to violin, which uses treble, or cello, which uses bass, or most woodwind instruments. However, when we learn to read a new clef, it is similar to learning a new language. Alto and tenor clefs are written differently from treble or bass clef, so musicians have to shift all notes down or up by a certain interval to read the music in a clef they know. Until they can easily read alto music without first transposing to a treble clef, they must first transpose all of the notes.
Music has its own complex language. I can easily read bass and treble clef, but I could not understand alto or tenor clef. Language is a complex human invention with infinite varieties across the globe; there are even imaginary languages created in fictional worlds. Like spoken language, music is translated into sounds to create beautiful or dissonant meaning.
So what do you think about language? Think about what language means to you, and, especially during COVID, about how you can connect to others with language, musical or otherwise.
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