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International Workshop on Language, Music, and Computing

LMAC 2015: Language, Music, and Computing pp 127–139Cite as

Structural Interaction of Poetry and Music Components in Songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff

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Part of the book series: Communications in Computer and Information Science ((CCIS,volume 561))

Abstract

The songs by Rachmaninoff represent the superlative manifestation of Russian vocal lyrics, making these songs a perfect material to research interrelations between music and poetry. Structural interaction between poetry and musical components in Rachmaninoff’s songs is studied by time series analysis. Time dynamics of two indices are compared. Stress index is used for describing poetry component of the song and pitch/duration index is used for describing its musical part. The methodology of comparative study is demonstrated on three songs: All was Taken from Me, The Fountain and What Happiness. Time dynamics of the pitch/duration index has turned out to be a complex phenomenon. It combines a general trend with cyclical fluctuations, for description of which the notion of a poetry-musical period (strophe) was introduced. As a rule, a whole period corresponds to four lines. The intonational contrasts are more explicitly expressed in musical components of the songs than in poetry ones.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Gregory Martynenko

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  1. Gregory Martynenko
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Correspondence to Gregory Martynenko .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Saint Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, St. Petersburg, Russia

    Polina Eismont

  2. University of Wolverhampton, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

    Natalia Konstantinova

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Martynenko, G. (2015). Structural Interaction of Poetry and Music Components in Songs by Sergei Rachmaninoff. In: Eismont, P., Konstantinova, N. (eds) Language, Music, and Computing. LMAC 2015. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 561. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27498-0_11

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27497-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27498-0

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