VOL.

56,

NO.1

ETHNOMUSICOLOGY

WINTER

2012

Call and Response Consilience Revisited: Musical and Scientific Approaches to Chinese Performance
FRANCESCA

R.

SBORGI LAWSON

Brigham Young University

Introduction

rustrated by the increasing fragmentation and specialization of knowledge in academia, biologist, environmentalist, and Pulitzer Prize-winning author E. O. Wilson issued a call for "consilience"-the synthesis of all branches of human knowledge through the adoption of the scientific method (1998:64-65). Ten years later, Wilson's student Aniruddh Patel issued his own version of a call for consilience: In Music, Language, and the Brain, Patel makes a plea for interdisciplinary collaboration in the area of language-music studies. Representing the culmination of years of research into the neuro-scientific study of music, Patel's work is both a formidable review of the literature and a compelling presentation of his own research on the differences and possible relationships between language and music. Patel explains,
The study of music-language relations is one area in which scientific and humanistic studies can meaningfully intertwine, and in which interactions across traditional boundaries can bear fruit in the form of new ideas and discoveries that neither side can accomplish alone. (2008:417)

Judith Becker's bold exploration into the possible relationships between ethnomusicological research and empiricism, recently highlighted in Ethnomusicology, concludes that such cross-disciplinary research is still "a work in progress" (2009b:495). How might one approach the musical-scientific divide to enable a fruitful continuation of the work that has just begun?' If consilience (as global academic synthesis) may be premature at this point in time, is Patel's

2012 by the Society for Ethnomusicology

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suggestion about interdisciplinary cooperation in language-music studies a viable direction for both ethnomusicology and empirically-based research? This paper offers a humanistic perspective on selected topics raised by two scholars in the neuroscientific community. Additionally, it raises a specific question about the feasibility of a musicological topic for empirical research. Before proceeding, however, a brief review of the encounters that prompted this paper sets the stage for continuing the conversation about music, language, and cognition. Becker's Experiment Becker's foray across disciplinary boundaries provides a springboard for a discussion of Patel's call for interdisciplinarity. The recent publication of her article "Ethnomusicology and Empiricism in the Twenty-First Century" in Ethnomusicology (Becker 2009b) coincided with the publication of her companion article in the Empirical Musicology Review (2009a), "Crossing Boundaries: An Introductory Essay:' Both articles were followed by responses from members of the two societies who commented on her experimental research that had been submitted to the journal Psychology of Music. Becker should be applauded not only for her intellectual curiousity in engaging in experimental research and her bravery in submitting her work to a journal outside her customary field of expertise, but also for her perseverance in continuing the dialogue between practitioners in the respective disciplines of ethnomusicology and music psychology. Publishing the results of her experiment and the review process prompted several candid responses from both humanists and empiricists. Clearly, Becker's articles are meant to broach further possibilities for interdisciplinarity. Even before these latest publications, however, members of the neuroscientific community were aware of her research on "deep Iisteners.? For example, Patel cites her as an example of one of the "prominent minds" on both sides of the divide (2008:417) and argues, as mentioned above, that the area of language- music research is one that is particularly fertile for potential collaboration between neuroscience and musicology. Additionally, some of the conclusions reached by cognitive archeologist Steven Mithen in The Singing Neanderthals (2006) are also pertinent to language-music research. A brief summary of selected views about music and language proposed by Patel and Mithen underscores the potential interest of this research for ethnomusicologists. Contrastive Views about Music in Current Scientific Inquiry Patel discusses research in linguistics, neuropsychology, archaeology, anthropology' musicology, and neuroscience to provide the background and comparative perspective for his own work on the deep neural connections between

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the domains of music and language in the brain. Although Patel argues that the current state of research provides only weak evidence to suggest that music is a biological adaptation, he does counter Pinker's argument that music is merely a kind of "auditory cheesecake"-a frill that confers no survival advantage (Pinker 1997:534).3Instead, Patel feels that "the choice between adaptation and frill is a false dichotomy" (2008:400). In his view, music is a technology invented by humans that has been integrated, transformed, and re-integrated in a neverending cycle. As a "transformative technology;' music is universal in all human cultures and has the capacity to "change the very structure of our brains, enlarging certain areas due to motor or perceptual experience" (ibid.:401). In contrast to Patel'sconclusion that music is a transformational technology rather than a biological adaptation, Steven Mithen argues that "there was a single precursor for both music and language: a communication system that had the characteristics that are now shared by music and language, but that split into two systems at some date in our evolutionary history" (2006:26). As a cognitive archaeologist and professor of early prehistory, Mithen advocates a view that language and music co-evolved and our immediate evolutionary predecessors, the Neanderthals, used a kind of proto-language that was holistic, manipulative, multimodal, musical and mimetic-a phenomenon that he refers to by the acronym "Hmmmm" (ibid.:27). Because pre-linguistic human infants are interested in a speech that exaggerates the usual melodic and rhythmic features of language, he concludes that infant -directed speech suggests that music may have a developmental priority over language (ibid.:69). Consequently, Mithen believes that "the neural networks for language are built upon or replicate those for music" (ibid.). This is a fascinating thesis that places musical communication before language in the evolutionary scheme, offering a contrast to Patel's view that music is a transformational technology rather than a biological adaptation. As a humanistic scholar interested in language- music relationships, I am intrigued by Patel's suggestion that the study of music-language relations is one area in which scientific and humanistic studies can interconnect (2008:417) and by Mithen's views that music is so deeply embedded in our biology that music and language are best studied in conjunction with each other (2006:2). Both authors emphasize the critical importance of music, a subject that has been neglected in scientific research in their respective fields of neuroscience and cognitive archaeology. An important subtext in both Mithen's and Patel's works is a refutation of Pinker's dismissal of music (Pinker 1997:534), although Mithen and Patel reach different conclusions about the evolutionary role of music. While one might argue that addressing the roles of differing epistemologies in ethnographic versus scientific studies is a necessary first step in considering potential interdisciplinarity, that discussion is not the focus of this paper. Rather, this essay is a response to Patel's call for interdisicplinarity, with the

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hope that mutually agreeable topics might emerge from the conversation and prompt rewarding epistemological exchanges. Hence, my purpose is twofold: first, to outline areas where humanistic research might provide both historical and ethnographic knowledge to round out Patel's and Mithen's conclusions, and second, to respond tentatively to Patel's call for interdisciplinarity with a question emerging from my own research about the cognitive differences between aural and visual learning-a question that might be ultimately addressed by empirical research."

Historical Gaps
In her article "Crossing Boundaries: An Introductory Essay;' Becker lists several barriers to communication between traditional humanistic approaches and, in this case, psychological approaches to the study of music (2009a:45-46). I would also like to address one issue that was not raised by Becker. While I wholeheartedly agree with her first point that psychological studies involving music overwhelmingly deal with Western art music (ibid.), I would also argue that even when addressing examples from Western art music, empirically-oriented scholars tend to ignore the vast historiographic literature. Of even greater concern, I have yet to come across any reference to the historical contributions of classical Asian cultures to the study of music in empirically-based studies." Although the potential link between cognitive research and ethnomusicology (as the study of living traditions) may appear to be particularly fruitful because of the possibility of engaging in empirical research with living subjects, the weight of musical evidence from historical sources also constitutes an important yet neglected part of the potential material to be considered in the study of music, language, and the brain-the title of Patel's book. I argue that ignoring the historical dimension of human musical experience denies the scholar important evidence in evidence-based research. Mithen spends a good deal of his book studying the fossil record to determine the potential for making music among our evolutionary predecessors, so why would scholars ignore the actual historical record of music making that complements and elucidates current research on the cognitive processing of living musicians? In order to demonstrate the way in which historical evidence can contribute to empirical research on music, I will focus first on the theory of social cohesion-one of the many ideas raised in Patel's discussions about the possible adaptive value of music.
Patel's Social Cohesion Theory

While reviewing evidence for the possible role of natural selection in shaping human musical abilities, Patel describes a few adaptationist hypotheses about music. The one he terms "social cohesion" concerns the way music ap-

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pears to promote social bonding. Patel explains that "according to this hypothesis' music helped cement social bonds between members of ancestral human groups via its role in ritual and in group music making" (2008:370). While Patel recognizes that this is a potentially appealing hypothesis, he also raises some concerns about it.
[T]he premise that music is primarily a social activity in small-scale cultures deserves critical scrutiny. It may be that most of the obvious music in these cultures is social, but there also may be a great deal of "covert music" as well ... By covert music, I mean music composed and performed discreetly for a very select audience (perhaps even only for oneself), because it represents an intimate statement oflove, memory, loss, and so forth. (Ibid.:371; emphasis in original)

Although Patel makes reference to social cohesion only in small-scale societies' one could certainly make the case for the viability of this hypothesis by looking beyond small-scale societies, particularly by considering the historical and contemporary role of music in promoting social cohesion in China.
Social Cohesion and Chinese Music

In no other culture is the link between music and social cohesion more clearly articulated than in China. Early Chinese history is replete with archaeological evidence of music making, scientific experimentation on musical topics, and textual sources about music, many of which are now accessible in English language publications (Needham [1962] 2009; Kaufmann 1976; DeWoskin 1982, 1985,2002; Kuttner 1990; Von Falkenhausen 1993; Lam 2002; Wu 2002). The earliest written records about musical practices are found on oracle bones dating back to the Shang dynasty (1600-1045 BCE), providing information about musical instruments and the ritualistic use of music. Toward the middle of the succeeding Zhou dynasty (1045-221 BCE), one encounters rich textual sources expounding the role of music in human society and in the heavens: "music was seen as part of a grand cosmological scheme designed to correlate nature, human society, and the cosmos through careful experimentation and mathematical calculation" (DeWoskin 1982:156). Discussions of the vital role of music in personal and social governance continued during the succeeding Han dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE) and beyond, but for this paper it will suffice to address a few specific musical issues from the middle of the Zhou period-the classical period of Chinese thought-as they relate to the social cohesion hypothesis raised by Patel. Throughout the Zhou period, music was believed to have a regulatory and bonding function for members of society (DeWoskin 1985:36-39). Reflecting the current thinking of the time, Confucius not only espoused the idea that music had a significant role in schooling the feelings and behavior of people,

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but also taught that it was incumbent upon the ruler to utilize music wisely through proper ritualistic practices in order to ensure good government and a harmonious society. Recognizing that music is an instrument for directing education, social control, political rectitude, and personal behavior, Confucius promoted music that he considered to be proper and edifying. Confucius also denounced certain musics as lewd, inferior, and decadent (Kaufmann 1976:60. Consequently, proper music was both an outward manifestation of and a reason for the moral success of the kingdom; the corollary view was that improper music was the emblem of and a reason for social failure. The ancient notion that proper music is a potent tool for promoting social cohesion has continued to influence Chinese society (Wong 1991; Wu 1994; Tuohy 200 O. Tuohy reminds us that musical performances have galvanized the Chinese people throughout the country's history, from performances on the ancient (fifth century BCE) set of sixty-four bells that displayed the power of the state of Zeng, to the Han dynasty's imperial assessment of the political and social inclinations of its citizens through its collection and analysis of folk songs, to the rousing urban songs that students and intellectuals in the 1930s directed against foreign invaders (2001:107-08). She continues:
Are these random musical incidents connected only by their geographic coincidence? I argue they form a piece, a monumental piece composed through the discourse and practices of twentieth -century musical nationalism that link them to each other within the organizational form of the Chinese nation ... temporally spanning from the ancient past through the future and from morning through night. The sonic dimensions are at once vernacular, traditional, modern, and international, and they come together in a national soundtrack of epic proportions. (Ibid.)

The persistent belief in the power of music as a means for creating social cohesion was most dramatically demonstrated to the rest of the world by the elaborate ritual performances of the 2008 Beijing Olympic ceremonies, where some fifteen thousand performers moved in perfect ritualized musical synchrony in a series of ceremonies that took nearly two hours to perform (The Games 2008). The carefully choreographed performances were designed to exemplify as well as promote the importance of social cohesion -a social, cultural, and political goal endorsed vigorously by Premier Hu Jintao (ibid.). Covert Music Making in China Patel also argues that one of the weaknesses of the social cohesion hypothesis is that music is indeed "composed and performed discreetly for a very select audience (perhaps even only for oneself) because it represents an intimate statement of love, memory, loss, and so forth" (2008:370. Ancient Daoist philosophers would agree completely with the viability of covert music

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making, considering solitary music performance and an increased emphasis on being audient as the highest form of intelligence. Daoism offered a complementary perspective to Confucianism, and they played against each other like two competing-yet-balancing contrapuntal themes throughout Chinese history. DeWoskin explains that Daoist philosophers
explore music and its relation to individual perception and individual expression apart from a social context. The context for [D] aoist comments on music is an enlarged sphere, nature itself. Among Chinese mythological accounts, music and musical systems are derived from nature. They have a kind of non-arbitrary provenance, having been learned by man through careful attention to the sounds around. (1985:40)

One of the distinguishing qualities of a sage was the ability to hear sounds that are inaudible to others, suggesting that wisdom implies being fully engaged with and highly sensitive to the natural world. Early Chinese philosophers not only highlighted music in their philosophical and historical writings, but also "attached a special importance ... to hearing as the central link between the mind and the outside world and the exploitation of hearing and aural sensitivity as a metaphor for perspicacity in general" (DeWoskin 1982:7). These elegantly articulated Daoist views about musical performance provide fascinating historical evidence for the phenomenon of covert music making raised by Patel. In addition, the complementarity of the two seemingly oppositional Confucian and Daoist views about music reflects the apparent differences between the social cohesion and the covert music making hypotheses as articulated by Patel. In other words, the distinctions between the power of music to promote social bonding and the tendency of music to encourage introversion have already been argued since the latter part of the Zhou dynasty (sixth through third centuries BCE). Hence, Confucian views about music in ritual strongly support the social cohesion hypothesis, while Daoist views about music as a highly intimate form of communication reinforce the covert music hypothesis. In the ancient Chinese mind these two notions were not mutually exclusive, as Patel seems to imply. Why, then, must the social cohesion hypothesis be negated by the existence of covert music? Perhaps the problem lies in our inability to distinguish between the vastly different functions of music in its roles as a group activity and as a solitary pursuit. If Peretz has concluded that the brain exhibits a modularity of music and language, with musical and linguistic information flowing along their respective pathways of information (Mithen 2006:63), might there also be a variety of pathways for different music modules? In other words, might ritualized musical performance involve movement along different musical pathways than solitary musical performance?

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In addition to Patel's concern about excluding the importance of covert music making in the social cohesion hypothesis, he also raises what he feels is a more serious question:
If music were an adaptation to promote social bonding, then one would predict that biologically based social impairments would curtail responsiveness to music. Yet autistic children, who have pronounced deficits in social cognition, are sensitive to musical affect ... Music thus does not appear to have an obligatory relationship to brain mechanisms involved in social behavior, as one might predict from the social cohesion hypothesis. (2008:371)

Even if all autistic children were sensitive to musical affect, they represent a relatively small percentage of the human population. Using the small number of musically sensitive autistic individuals as one of the main criteria for discrediting the social cohesion hypothesis is to discount an entire theory that appears to have validity for virtually every human society. As mentioned previously, the Daoist view of music as a type of audient introversion also suggests that music does not always have a requisite relationship to social behavior. In his review of the Daoist writings on music in the Six Dynasties period (220-589 CE), DeWoskin elaborates on this point:
In the Chinese view, all parties to the aesthetic act are inherently participants in a validation of cosmic patterning ... Cosmic order is omnipresent, and, when the mind is there as well, any of the common components of the aesthetic event can be eliminated - the performer, the sound, the instrument, the audience-as long as formal correspondence between the mind and nature is achieved. Vastly reduced in importance is the responsibility of the performer to "express:' the burden of the music to "affect:' and the need for a listener to "respond:' (1982: 179-80)

Hence, DeWoskin's description of this Chinese concept points to a possible explanation for Patel's notion of covert music. Consequently, my point is this: while Patel raises two seemingly conflicting ideas-musical cohesion and musical introversion-and implies that they are mutually exclusive,I argue that by including heretofore neglected historical information that is relevant to the apparent incongruities implied by Patel's explanations of the two hypotheses, one gains additional insight as to how both of Patel'stheories might exist simultaneously. Thus, historical data can be a useful form of evidence in empirical research on music, language, and the brain, shedding light on topics that may appear to be otherwise unrelated. If there are discrepancies among empirically, historically, and ethnographically-derived data, then explanations for these inconsistencies should be an important focus for scientists, ethnographers, and historians. Attempting to reconcile the general discrepancies in scientificand humanistic approaches will either lead to mutually profitable engagement or continued disciplinary estrangement.

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The Study of Music and Language: A Humanistic Perspective

In his desire to engage specificallyin language- music research as an area of potential interdisciplinary collaboration, Patel describes one of his major goals as exploring the underlying processing mechanisms of music and language, and thus avoiding the "distraction of superficial analogies between music and language" (2008:5). To this end, he focuses on "the relationship between ordinary spoken language and purely instrumental music" and explains his choice by saying:
initially it may seem more appropriate to compare instrumental music to an artistic form of language such as poetry, or to focus on vocal music, where music and language intertwine. The basic motivation is a cognitive one: To what extent does the making and perceiving of instrumental music draw on cognitive and neural mechanisms used in our everyday communication system? Comparing ordinary language to instrumental music forces us to search for the hidden connections that unify obviously different phenomena (ibid.).

I can readily see the reasoning behind wanting to avoid superficial analogies, and concentrating instead on the deep, neural connections between music and language by looking at music and language individually-devoid of any interconnection. Music and language do occur separately in cultural communication. I wonder, however, about the continued feasibility of looking at these communicative domains as individual cognitive entities. At what point will neuroscientists look at language and music as they mutually interrelate in real-world situations? As a scholar in the humanities, one of my pressing questions is how music relates to language in the myriad ways encountered in musical ethnography. Indeed, it is rare to find examples where music and language do not interact in some profound way, particularly in the Chinese performing arts. Since the ethnographical evidence of the interconnections between language and music is overwhelming, the collaborative opportunities that Patel seeks to have with humanistic scholars will be severely restricted if the study of language and music is restricted to separate manifestations.
The Chinese Speaking-Singing Genres

My own research interests stem from the intriguing way music and language interrelate in the northern Chinese narrative arts traditionally known as shuochangf which literally means "speaking-singing" -in China, the inextricability oflanguage and music is reflected in the very name of these genres. With

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over 150 documented narrative styles throughout the country, China has the largest and most diverse narrative tradition in the world (Zhang 1983: 11-13). Representing virtually every dialect and region and appealing to members of all social classes, the Chinese narrative arts are particularly interesting in the way the linguistic message of the story is rendered musically. Since all Chinese dialects are tonal and a large percentage of narrative performances are sung, communicating a story that is linguistically comprehensible as well as musically satisfying is both the challenge and the reason for the popularity of narrative performance (Rebollo-Sborgi 2002:247-48). Chinese aficionados consider narrative forms as musical without being considered music and as literary without being considered literature, agreeing that certain genres emphasize musical delivery to the point where linguistic messages are obscured, while others underscore linguistic meaning, using music primarily as a means for linguistic delivery (ibid.). Given the fluidity between linguistic and musical concerns, Chinese narratives might provide a tantalizing subject for potential empirical analysis. After engaging in field work and musical analysis, I have been amazed by the cognitive complexity of music-language constructs in human vocality." Improvised vocality is one of the great examples of human intelligence that has scarcely been appreciated, let alone understood. I wonder, therefore, if there might be ways to document and analyze the neural complexities of human vocal creativity. In other words, how might empirical studies both contribute to and benefit from looking at evidence of vocality in actual-rather than laboratory-simulated -human communication? Assuming for the moment that the various permutations oflanguage and music in Chinese narratives may be of interest to neuroscientific inquiry, I propose one of the most intriguing questions arising from my work: What is the influence of written orthographies on musical and linguistic performance? In conducting fieldwork among narrative singers, I was struck by the different ways they learned their material. With some genres, a form of text was used as the prescription for constructing a musical performance; other genres favored a more oral/aural approach to learning new pieces. The influence of written texts on aural learning adds a wrinkle to the already confusing interconnectedness of language and music, but I wonder if studying the effect of visual orthographies on aural learning may be an area of inquiry that lends itself to neuroscientific research. In order to demonstrate the significance of the aurality question, I will briefly explain two examples of northern Chinese narrative forms in which written orthography appears to affect the cognitive processes involved in musical and linguistic improvisation.

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Aural Paradigms

One of the most fascinating aspects of these genres is the way material is transmitted from teacher to disciple. In order to explain the fundamental aurality of these forms, I will use a concept explained by Treitler (1991).8 He introduces the notion of the aural paradigm as the basis for a discussion about performances that do not rely solely on texts:
The differentiation that I am suggesting here is interestingly reflected in a differentiation of cognitive faculties that we make when we speak of performing music without the use of a score: "by heart" and "by ear:' The former is easily translated as "from memory:' The sense of playing by ear is more elusive ... In the context of musical performance, we usually speak of the ability to "play by ear" as the ability to perform something from an internalized sense of how it goes ... or to repeat something right after hearing it, based not only on a good memory but also on a good knowledge of the style or idiom. I shall call such a basis for a performance an aural paradigm. (Ibid.:78)

Treitler'sdescription of an aural paradigm is a useful point from which to begin a discussion about performances of two genres that exemplify the constrastive practices of performing by heart and by ear. These genres underscore the importance of recognizing the different cognitive processes involved in the aurality of musical performance due to the very different cognitive archetypes on which these performances are created.
Aural Paradigms and Orthography

In addition to the need to understand the notion of aural paradigms, a comparison of prescriptive and descriptive notations is also pertinent to a discussion about aural learning. Charles Seeger was one of the first musicologists to address the hazards of using musical notation as a text for performance (1977b). He suggests that every music scholar faces a quandary when using a visual representation (notation) to study the full auditory parameter of music (1977a:23). In discussing the risks associated with writing music, he cites one of the problems as "our failure to distinguish between prescriptive and descriptive uses of music writing-between a blueprint of how a specific piece of music shall be made to sound and a report of how a specific performance of any music actually did sound" (1977b:168). This is an important distinction because it clarifies the two primary ways notations are used in academic scholarship-prescriptively and descriptively-and the different kinds of hazards associated with each type. While Seeger considers the very act of notating or writing music as a potential misrepresentation, he concedes the performative potential for pre-

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scriptive notation. Most musical notations, including the one used in Western music, are prescriptive in nature, meaning that the notation represents a blueprint designed for a trained musician to interpret. Although Western notation is a fairly detailed prescription for performance, it has meaning only to those who are skilled enough to interpret it. Only great performers are capable of fully rendering all the nuances implied by the prescription, and each musician offers his or her own interpretation within culturally acceptable bounds established by the performance tradition. The very partiality of the prescription is the reason for the variance in performance possibilities among great interpreters, whose individually performed interpretations become the key to aesthetic listening pleasure. I also submit that the more detail prescribed in the written notation, the less reliance on aural paradigms in learning and performing, as suggested by the following examples. From Aural to Written Paradigms One of the beloved forms in northern Chinese narrative performance is kuaibarshu (Fast Clappertales),? in which a performer rapidly recites memorized verse-nowadays learned from a printed source-by heart to the accompaniment of bamboo clappers. The clappers are two castanet-like instruments held in each hand that provide a rhythmically virtuosic display before the narrative begins and a steady beat throughout the performance. From the perspective of this paper, however, the immediate predecessor of this genre, a form known as shulaibao (Rhyming in the Money), is particularly interesting because of the exclusively aural paradigm used in performance, a paradigm that initially did not rely on notation of any kind. Shulaibao was an early twentieth -century performance genre in which beggars would improvise verse (by ear) while accompanying themselves with bamboo clappers. A beggar would approach the home of a rich person and improvise a verse to earn money. The more clever the verse and the better the performance, the more money the performer could earn. If he were sufficiently rewarded, he would move on.'? If not, he would begin to recite unfavorable rhymes until the unwilling patron remunerated the performer to his satisfaction. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, any form of begging was seen as a poor reflection on the new country, so this particular genre could not continue in its original incarnation. It should be noted, however, that in its pre-1949 form, shulaibao utilized solely aural paradigms as the basis for performance. Walls translates the following printed example of a pre1949 Chinese beggar's extemporaneous versification into English (1977:61-63). Since witnessing such a performance has not been possible for about seventy

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years, this translation (Figure 1) of a printed excerpt represents a rare trace of an extinct performance tradition. The original transcription of the Chinese lyrics lacks the virtuosic introduction (usually played on ox bones) that provided the rhythmic accompaniment to the verse-a key factor that not only enhanced the beggar's performance but, more importantly, also demonstrated the rhythmic basis of the aural paradigm on which the words of the performance were improvised. 12 Hence, even the best descriptive translations oflyrics do not do justice to the complexity of the whole performance event, and thus provide few clues to the cognitive processes used in extemporizing verse. Finnegan describes a similar type of improvised performance among the Hausa in Northern Nigeria:
The wandering singer arrives at a village and carefully finds out the names ofleading personages in the area. Then he takes up his stand in a conspicuous place, and produces a praise song to the individual he has decided to apostrophise. It is punctuated by frequent demands for gifts. If he gets what he wants, he announces the amount and sings his thanks in further praise. But if he does not, his delivery becomes harsher and the song becomes interlaced with innuendo about the "patron's" birth and status. Sooner or later the victim gives in, and buys the singer's silence with a cash payment or valuable gift. (1977:55)

The Chinese and Hausa descriptions demonstrate some ways in which performances may be improvised based on the responses of the unwitting patron' the audience, and the internalized rhythmic patterns that, depending on the context, shape the creation of the verse by ear. This type of vocal improvisation, then, relies on aural paradigms whose realization is context -specific, with no visual notations or texts used in such performances." Eventually, however, the best shulaibao performers were invited to perform in teahouses. Some of the lyrics of those first teahouse performances were eventually transcribed, becoming descriptive notations of shulaibao performances. In due course, authors came to specialize in composing new lyrics based on the transcriptions of improvised performances by exceptionally talented shulaibao performers such as the legendary Li Runjie (interview, Zhang Zhikuan, Nankai University, Tianjin, 3 June 1986). Li was especially interested in upgrading his art form in keeping with trends among many narrative performers in the rapidly modernizing Republic of China {1912-1949 on the Chinese mainland). 14 Keenly aware of his role in modernizing the art form and disavowing previous associations with begging, Li codified certain rhythmic motifs (demonstrated below) that had been used in shulaibao, using these motifs as the basis for instructing students in the newly -created, updated genre of kuaibarshu -a genre that was recited from memory rather than improvised. 15

Figure 1. Descriptive transcription of the lyrics of a Shulaibao performance

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Today, kuaibarshu performers are salaried professionals who recite composed texts according to rhythmic patterns similar to vestigial aural paradigms used in shulaibao, while accompanying themselves with a large bamboo clapper in the right hand (dabar) and a smaller bamboo clapper in the left tjiezibars:" Zhang Zhikuan, eminent kuaibarshu artist and student of Li Runjie, explained that the kuaibarshu performer showcases his technical skill in the introduction in a way that is similar to the beggar's introduction using ox bones, slowing down right before the story begins (ibid.). Figure 2 is my description of a rhythmic introduction to a kuaibarshu piece titled Wu Song Kills a Tiger (Wu Song Dahu), played just before the lyrics begin. The top line is a transcription of the smaller of the two bamboo clappers (jiezibar), and the second line transcribed just underneath is the larger clapper (dabar), playing the slower part; the relative, indefinite pitches of the two clappers are arbitrarily placed on a modified Western staff for the sake of convenience in visualizing the rhythmic introduction. In the first two measures of the clapper introduction, the dabar plays a syncopated pattern against the more straightforward pulse created by the jiezibar. The most interesting visual and aural pattern is notated in measures twelve through fourteen. Here the dabar scrapes the top of the jiezibar and then briefly hits the bottom of the jiezibar in a kind of circular motion, creating an exciting visual display for the audience." Not only is the introduction still considered a lure for potential audiences, but Zhang explained that the introduction also introduces the four fundamental rhythmic motifs that undergird the subsequent performance of the text, all of which were codified by Li Runjie as part of his efforts to modernize and upgrade the genre (ibid.)." Since these performances are never musically notated, and only the performers and aficionados of the genre are consciously aware of the rhythmic motifs, descriptive notation is useful for demonstrating to the uninitiated listener the rhythmic complexity of the introduction as well as all the rhythmic motifs used throughout the piece." Figure 3 illustrates the four rhythmic motifs used by performers to set their texts: basic pattern (jibendiar), single pattern (dandiar), double pattern (shuangdiar), and mixed pattern (hunhediar). Each of the four motifs is also found throughout the introduction (Figure 2). The following list indicates the first time each motif occurs in Figure 2: basic (measure 1), single (measure 8), double (measure 1), and mixed (measure 5). After the voice enters, both clapper parts become simpler, softer, and less obtrusive, allowing the vocal part to dominate, with the basic and double rhythmic motifs prevailing. Figure 4 is a notated excerpt of the first five lines of the story The Grasshopper and the Cricket (Guoguor gen Ququr), illustrating how the vocal syllables fit into the rhythmic pattern of the delivery. While

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Figure 2: Kuaibarshu clapper introduction to Wu Song Kills a Tiger

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this notation indicates the way the rhythm undergirds the lyrics, it does not indicate the heightened speech, which is not quite "melodic" enough to be musically notated-a type of speech that is also ill served by simply transcribing the lyrics. These subtle aspects of performance are features of the aural paradigms that defy visual notation of any kind." The Grasshopper and the Cricket (with the author's English translation) is

Figure 3: Four rhythmic motifs of Kuaibarshu

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Figure 4: Excerpt from The Grasshopper and the Cricket

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a favorite piece usually taught to beginning students ofkuaibarshu, an excerpt of which is transcribed in Figure 5. Although the following example of the text is short and relatively simple, it demonstrates the kind of prescriptive text a novice might encounter when beginning to study kuaibarshu." Hence, what began as an improvised performance completely based on aural paradigms has metamorphosed into a genre that uses a textual prescription for performance with the rhythmic style embedded in the lyrics, whose "melodic" delivery eludes any easily accessible form of transcription. Kuaibarshu texts have become a minimal prescription that presupposes years of knowledge and training with a master performer in order to perform the complex rhythms associated with different textual patterns. The exclusively aural paradigm of shulaibao has shifted to a partially written paradigm with aural information encoded within the kuaibarshu lyrics. Although kuaibarshu is a favorite genre for modern audiences, the remarkable ability of shulaibao performers to improvise in any context has been lost in the genre'snewer incarnation. Transcribed lyrics from a shulaibao performance represent a trace of a lost oral-aural tradition that survives only in textual patterns written according to an older aural paradigm. While the realization of a prescriptive kuaibarshu text in performance is exciting, it probably pales in comparison to the thrill of hearing a shulaibao performer compose verse on the spot, in front of a possibly adversarial patron and onlookers.
The Effects of Written Orthography

Patel makes an interesting point regarding the way in which parts of the brain can actually be changed because of certain motor or perceptual experiences' particularly with regard to written orthography (2008:401). He says that "the specialization of certain human brain regions for reading written orthography demonstrates that learning can lead to neural specialization during development. Thus the human process of invention, internalization, and transformation can change the very organ that makes this process possible" (ibid.). If the brain adapts to different perceptual experiences, is there a difference between a brain that improvises vocally according to aural paradigms learned solely by listening and one that learns by studying printed textual cues? According to this passage, one might suppose that changes from aural to visual cues in learning music or language would result in different kinds of cognitive processes. As a student and researcher of oral traditions, this is a key question for me. In the case of the shift from shulaibao to kuaibarshu, it is too late to study changes in brain activity. But how might one approach the differences between aurally-based and text-based learning in music, language, and in

(' "HmlJL all creatures that 11y in Ill ...

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Figure 5: Chinese text (prescription for performance) with English translation

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genres that feature both music and language (since it is nearly impossible to separate the two)? McLuhan speaks to the issue of text -based vs. aurally-based learning when he states that a new medium typically does not displace or replace another as much as it complicates its operation:
It is precisely such interaction that obscures media effects. Early mankind's technology-the one from which writing, print, and telegraph all derived-was speech. Transformed into writing, speech acquired a powerful visual basis, producing effects in social and cultural organization that endure to the present. But the gain in power came with a loss, for writing separated speech from the other physical senses. (2003:xv)

Similarly, the original performance of shulaibao involved performing by ear without any reference to a visual text. On the other hand, performers of kuaibarshu have to learn the visual texts by heart, although the ultimate performance involves the rendering of verse according to rhythms still learned by ear. As McLuhan states, the visual medium complicates the auditory sensorium' and this phenomenon gives rise to a different kind of paradigm for performance in kuaibarshu. Hence, one could argue that the technological nature of the musical speech in shulaibao changes when a visual medium is used to communicate information that had been previously communciated aurally. I wonder if empirical research might explore questions like the shift from aural to textual communication. To be sure, the shift from aural to textual learning is complicated by being musical as well as linguistic. But complicated musical and linguistic forms are precisely what one encounters in ethnographic and historical research. The age-old epistemological question is how to design empirically-rigorous experiments that will speak to real-world problems in which it is impossible to isolate musical and linguistic elements.
Precursor for Music and Language

The difficulty in separating music and language in real-world ethnography makes Steven Mithen's theory about the origin of music intriguing, because he posits that music and language originate from a single precursor (2006:260-66). Influenced by Wray'swork on formulaic language (see Wray 2002,2008), Mithen argues that "the formulaic aspects of language suggest a greater similarity with music than might initially be apparent" (2006:19). He concludes that formulaic language reflects an evolutionary history oflanguage that was based on holistic phrases, and that "we can't rid ourselves of the habit" (ibid.:277). The continuous, ubiquitous presence oflanguage- music constructs in virtually every world culture would seem to validate a theory that claims the origin of music and language was a communication that involved aspects of both.

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Consequently, if Mithen's theory about music and language stemming from a single precursor were true, and if formulaic language implies a similarity to music, his theory might then help to explain the prevalence of oral performance in human society from early historical records to the present day (Lord 1960; Finnegan 1979)-performance that freely uses both formulaic language and musical delivery. And, more specifically, his theory might also explain how music and language are deeply, intextricably embedded in the northern Chinese narrative traditions precisely because our brains seem to be hard-wired for communication that involves both language and music. While the research indicates that the neural networks that process language and music exhibit some degree of independence from each other (Mithen 2006:62), "the separation of the modular music and language systems ... is not complete, as several modules ... appear to be shared between the two systems" (ibid.). Furthermore, when one considers that songs establish a more extensive and elaborate network of information in the brain because both speech memory and melody memory systems are involved, it leads to the conclusion that the recognition of a song melody is easier "because more neural circuits are stimulated when the music is played than is the case when a melody is purely instrumental in nature:' (ibid.:55). Mithen goes on to suggest that
Song can be considered as the recombination of the two products of"Hmmmm" [the protolanguage] into a single communication system once again. But the two products, music and language, are only being recombined after a period of independent evolution into their fully evolved forms. Consequently, song benefits from a superior means of information transmission, compositional language in the form of lyrics, than ever existed in "Hrnrnrnm," combined with a degree of emotional expression, from music, that cannot be found in compositional language alone (ibid.:273).

Although it is impossible to prove the validity of the "Hmmmm' theory, I find Mithen's views credible given the historic and ethnographic evidence that I see in the Chinese narrative arts. Music and the art of listening are accorded great importance in Chinese historical writings, and the prevalence of narrative traditions from at least the seventh century (from when we have textual and pictorial evidence of narrative arts in Buddhist storytelling) indicate the presence of music and music-language constructs early in Chinese history. Like archaeological evidence, historical and ethnographic evidence should be considered in explaining the cognitive functions of music and language.

Areas for Collaboration

While revisiting the idea of interdisciplinary cooperation between ethnography and empiricism-as a precursor to Wilson's notion of consilience-I wonder about the next step after the initial call for increased efforts in inter-

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disciplinary exchange. Becker's courageous move into uncharted territory resulted in a disappointment, and the responses of scholars from both sides of the divide did not necessarily indicate a willingness to move beyond the stumbling blocks that have separated disciplines in the first place. As a humanistic scholar considering Patel's and Mithen's works, I have addressed one general issue-the need to consider both historical and ethnographic data that come from real-world musical phenomena (not simply laboratoryinduced phenomena or fossilevidence) in evidence-based research-and one specificissue-the desire to study the differencesin human cognition between learning music and language by using aural paradigms, visual notations, or a combination of the two. Perhaps by working collaboratively in isolating areas of mutual interest and in designing empirically significant, historically informed, and culturally appropriate experiments, humanists and scientists can move beyond the scholastically-imposed barriers and plan projects that will utilize the expertise of empiricism, ethnography, and historiography.

Notes
1. The "musical-scientific divide" is Patel's term (2008:417). Scholars who can comfortably work in both an empirical and humanistic setting might not perceive such a divide; however, given Becker's experiences, one could argue that there is indeed a gulf that divides these two realms of scholarship. The test is whether or not scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds can pose questions of mutual interest that will lead to interdisciplinary collaboration. 2. Becker explains that "Deep Listeners' is a term I have adapted from the composer Pauline Oliveros ... In my own definition, deep listeners is a descriptive term for persons who are profoundly moved, perhaps even to tears, by simply listening to a piece of music" (2004:2). 3. Pinker argues that music is "an exquisite confection crafted to tickle the sensitive spots of at least six of our mental faculties" (1997:534). He asserts that music is clearly not an adaptation but rather a "frill" -something that humans have invented for mere entertainment. 4. Given the response to Becker's submission to Psychology of Music, I am wary of entering into uncharted territory without some initial validation from scholars coming from a neuroscientific perspective. Is my question (articulated in the first full paragraph on page 24) a viable one for empirical research? If so, I would be interested in hearing from empirically-trained scholars to consider possibility of collaborative research. If not, why is my question not viable? Positive or negative answers these questions may help to determine the feasibility of future collaboration. 5. Patel does cite several contemporary ethnographic studies on cross-cultural similarities and differences between musical and affective categories (2008:3l3-14). 6. Other narrative traditions in different parts of the country have different traditional names. For example, pingtan is the term for narratives in the Shanghai-Suzhou area and nanyin is the corresponding term in Guangzhou. Since 1953, all narrative forms have been called quyi in order to link them together under a single, government -approved rubric. 7. I am borrowing the term vocality from Paul Zumthor, who feels that orality does not convey the importance of the voice in performance and reception-particularly in the textually-oriented research of medieval poetics (Zumthor 1987: 20-31). I use vocalityto refer to the kind ofimprovised Chinese verbal performance discussed later in this paper. While this Chinese genre is not sung, it nonetheless represents a kind of vocal performance for which we do not have a suitable term in English.

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8. Treitler's work in medieval song is an example of the fascinating work historical musicologists have undertaken in considering the relationship between written orthographies and musical performance. The existence of this scholarship reinforces my point that historical evidence is important in the study of music and cognition. See Lawson 2010: 1-2 for a summary of some of the research conducted by historical musicologists on this subject. 9. All consultants refer to this genre as kuaibarshu, rather than Kuaibanshu, which is the way it would be written. Given the folk origins of this genre, I have chosen to refer to it the way native performers and audience members do. 10. To my knowledge, all shulaibao singers were male. 11. This translation is printed with the permission of Walls. 12. A famous example of the need for a singer to have a musical instrument as he improvises is the example of Sulejman Makic, recounted in Lord (1960:26). l3. For a comprehensive ethnomusicological treatment of the subject of improvisation, refer to Nettl and Russell (1998). 14. Stevens (1975:88-90) offers more information on a similar trend to upgrade the literary and musical standards of Peking Drumsinging. 15. Walls (1977) provides more information about the improvisatory performance tradition of shulaibao. My own book (Lawson 2011) also includes more information about the learning and performing ofkuaibarshu. 16. Refer to Walls (1977:66-68) for a photograph and description ofthe clappers. 17. For more detail about this piece, see Ferguson (1988:105-19). 18. While it is hoped that this descriptive transcription will be helpful as an introduction to those for whom this genre would be otherwise inaccessible, my presence as a foreign transcriber should be recognized. My choice of notation and the elements of performance I highlight clearly reflect my own training and biases. 19. A fascinating account of a single vocal example with accompaniment, transcribed differently by four eminent ethnomusicologists, is found in England et al. (1964). The difficulties in finding an accurate yet accessible mode of transcription for this example underscore my own predicament in transcribing the heightened speech with accompaniment. See Nettl (2005:82-85) for an evaluation of this 1964 exercise in transcription. 20. A sampling of the significant prior work in ethnomusicology on the subject of aurality and literacy includes Chambers (1981), Cooke (1986), Feld (1986), Gunji (1986), Tokumaru and Yamaguti (1986), Hughes (1989, 1991, 2000), and Brinner (1995). I also cite some ofthe research on questions of medieval aurality and notation in historical musicology in Lawson (2010). 21. The entire piece is transcribed in my book (Lawson 2011).

References
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Appendix 1: Glossary of Selected Chinese Characters

Dabiir

Dandiar Guoguor he Ququr Hunhediar

libendiar liezibiir Kuaibarshu Runjie Quyi Shulaibao Shuangdiar Shuochang WusongDdHu

Zhang Zhikuan