Can the Intended Messages of Mismatched Lexical Tone in Igbo Music Be Understood? A Test for Listeners’ Perception of the Matched Versus Mismatched Compositions

Abstract

In tone languages, alteration of lexical tone changes the intended meaning. This implies that composers should equally match lexical tone in their music for intelligible communication of the intended textual messages, a compositional approach termed Lexical Tone Determinants (LTD) in this study. Yet, in the Ìgbò language setting, some composers creatively disregard/mismatch lexical tone, which is branded as Musical/Creative Determinants (M/CD). It is believed that mismatched lexical tone in Ìgbò music alters listeners’ comprehension of the intended messages; on the other hand, it is argued that thorough match of lexical tone constrains musical creativity. Listeners’ perception of textual messages in LTD and M/CD music has not been empirically tested (side-by-side) to verify whether comprehension is lost or not, at least, in the Ìgbò language context. This empirical void gap is verified in this particular study to substantiate the propositions/findings using comparative measures to collect data through listeners’ perception in live-performance of newly composed LTD and M/CD pieces. Specifically, it examines whether mismatched lexical tone in Ìgbò music alters message comprehension or not. The data were collated, presented, and analyzed statistically with chi-square deployed to evaluate their difference in message comprehension.