Stemmens «korn» som utgangspunkt for en relasjon mellom musikk og språk

Where music sounds, words are silenced, and where words sound, music is silenced. Since the romantic era the relationship between music and language has been characterized by a deep division. In this article I argue for the relationship between music and language based on what I call the sensory materiality of sound, which music and language have in common. Roland Barthes’ understanding of some voices having a specific «grain» which he explores in the essay named «The Grain of the Voice» (1977), demonstrates what I mean by such a term. The «grain» of the voice as a common source for the distribution of language and music, makes it possible for language to be part of music without making music mean specific things. And on the other hand, language, even a theoretical and non-poetic language, can be heard and experienced as musical, as a special kind of musicality in theory.