Linguistic Anthropology

instrumentation: soprano, bassoon, vibraphone, violoncello, and double bass
duration: c. 7’30”
dedication: no dedication
premiere: June 21st, 2018 by Hillary LaBonte, Brad Balliett, Louise King, Will Yager, and Niki Johnson; 2018 New Music on the Point-Leicester, VT

 Linguistic Anthropology
is the study of how language influences culture and social life. Studies in this discipline help comment on identity, social ideologies, and socialization in general. Understanding the total implications of language in these scenarios is daunting and, at times, arguably subjective. Music takes a similar space in our cultural makeup. We frequently claim that music is communicative or even a language without acknowledging that this communication more realistically comes from a combination of history and metaphor. 

 Linguistic Anthropology
sifts through this combination through a circuital collage of musical and textual associations with a single source; Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life and Others. This collection of stories includes Story of Your Life and Tower of Babylon, both of which discuss the acquisition of language. With this starting off point, Linguistic Anthropology makes textual connections from Kafka to The Simpsons as well as musical connections from Phil Spector to Luciano Berio. We are not supposed to discretely hear this through-line of associations, rather this should serve as a meditation on accrued culture over time. 