Music and Language

Tony Belanger • 2022年2月1日

皆さんこんにちは！Power Englishです☺

今日はトニー先生のコラムを読みながら、一緒に英語を学びましょう！✐

皆さんご存知かと思いますが、トニー先生は大学で音楽・映像を専攻し、現在ではバンド活動もされたり、自分で曲を作られたりとっても才能に溢れた先生です。The Jerksという名のバンドで活躍されており、Shooters Sports Bar & Grillでもたまにライブされています。

今回のコラムはそんなトニー先生の音楽とコミュニケーションの関連性について書かれていますので一緒に読んでいきましょう！

When the state of emergency was lifted this past October, my daughter started attending school weekday mornings. That change in her schedule yielded a change in my own: with no child to watch, I finally had some free time to myself - for the first time in almost a half-year.

I'd been waiting for that time. For months, I'd been writing myself music notes. I finally had a chance to record and bring those notes to sonic life.

I graduated undergrad with a degree in music and film. Specifically, I studied how to write in both arts: composition. I enjoy the concept of "composition"; etymology shows us that the roots of the word, "co-/com-" meaning "together" and "pos-/posit" meaning "place/put". When you compose, you're simply "putting together".

In music, you might imagine putting together different parts, motifs, rhythms and lyrics. What a fun activity, to design a listening experience!

Believe it or not, you do this every time you form a sentence, every time you communicate using sound. With a string of words and sounds, you convey a message, an expression, for the listener, your conversation partner.

Do your words tend to be quick, monotone, and to the point? Do you "dance" around topics with dynamic pitches, adding aural color to your message just like emoji or font? Or perhaps it's relative silence that people feel from you, a non-invasive and inviting atmosphere that allows for your partner to express themselves?

If you had someone's attention, what would you use it for? What idea or message would you bring to them? What idea or message do you want the world to hear?

These are the questions I ask myself when I approach music.
What am I hearing and feeling?
Is that worth sharing?

... Oh yes.

-Tony

単語訳：

yielded 　もたらす、生じる

composition 　構成、構造

concept 　概念

etymology 　語源、語源学

convey a message 　チクチクする

monotone 　単調

non-invasive and inviting atmosphere 　非侵襲的で居心地の良い雰囲気

トニー先生は普段している会話はまるで音楽の構造のようだということを伝えてくれました。音楽では自分の気持ちを表現しやすく、共感を得やすくなってますが、普段の会話ではどうでしょうか？家族や友達としている何気ない会話を思い返してみたら、新しい発見が見つかるかもしれませんね。