Sounds beyond our reach.

Episode VI:
Where does speech begin and music end?

We often hear that music and speech are two different sides of a coin – either one thing or the other, the coin never landing on its edge. Instead, picture them as a Mobius Strip, a form with no boundary between its two faces and a shape that doesn’t come comfortably to rest. Vowels and consonants – tones and articulation – dance with each other all along that surface, in both mind and air. Where does speech begin and music end? Perhaps somewhere in poetry. 

Alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm make music of the words in nursery rhymes, in Shakespeare’s sonnets, in all manner of text, even as their authors remained unaware of the ties between music and centers of the brain home to memory, mood, and emotion. As we move away from the languages in which we’re fluent, forms of speech arrive at our ears untethered to understanding, illuminating this point. We hear inflection and cadence instead of meaning, blurring the line between speech and song. 

This thought occurred in a taxi on LaSalle Street, made unexpectedly ethereal by verses from the Quran offered by the radio:

The music of the voice gives us common ground to grow together. We all have so much to learn of each other’s cultures and languages, too much for any one of us to take it all in. But we can all access beauty, and each of us is able to at least experience something beautiful and meaningful to others. It's a step toward understanding. May you find music and peace in it.