pitch levels do not stay absolute but are relative. In short, our contour model is highly
idealized. Even so, it generates plausible shapes derived from musical principles.
The stress analysis in Figure 27.3b and c assigns three xs for the most stressed syllable in
each phonological phrase and four xs for the most stressed syllable in each intonational
phrase, the latter occurring at the end of the line. Hence, as shown in Figure 27.12a, the
intonational contours for the first two lines of the poem fall in the pattern of Figure 27.11b.
The two lines together, however, form an utterance, leading to the assignment in Figure
27.12b of high and low to four xs at this level, at ‘gold’and ‘hold’, respectively. The assign-
ment for ‘gold’is thereby reversed from low in Figure 27.12a, to high in Figure 27.12b. This
step does not yet determine whether ‘gold’or ‘hold’dominates; for reasons beyond the
present purview,‘gold’is chosen. The next step is to combine the shapes at the utterance
and intonational levels. In Figure 27.12a,‘green’was realized as high, an assignment that is
no longer preferred because it would conflict with the high ‘gold’in Figure 27.12b.
Therefore ‘green’receives a low position within its intonational phrase, as shown in Figure
27.12c; the eighth-note value signifies its subordinate status. In the next line,‘hue’remains
high, for it combines at the intonational level with the superordinate low ‘hold’, although it
too receives a subordinate eighth-note value. This is the scaffolding within which more
local contour shapes take place.
A two-place categorization of high and low does not provide enough distinctions as
more syllables come into play. Four levels appear to be optimal: three do not afford suf-
ficient variety, and more than four would be fussy in view of the limited ability to categorize
degrees of stress. In the musical notation, there are now two lines with spaces above and
below, so that the highest position is placed above the top line, the second highest on the
top line, the second lowest between the lines, and the lowest on the bottom line. On
the basis of the salience of registral extremes, the two most prominent syllables, again
represented by half and quarter notes, are placed in the top and bottom positions.422 Figure 27.12Global contour assignments for the first couplet.
ABC