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From the Archives
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Music and language: musical alexia and agraphia. By John C. M. Brust (From the Department of Neurology, Harlem Hospital Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons). Brain 1980; 103: 367–392.
‘Music is ... non-propositional, yet appreciation of music may be more intellectual than emotional’. Whilst many enjoy the experience, the majority of people are not musically literate. Many can recognize a melody but without any appreciation of the elements of music—pitch, timbre, duration, loudness, rhythm and the construction of a chord. Few can fathom musical notation, which includes both verbal and non-verbal elements and indicates both simultaneous and serial events. Music, ‘the art or science of arranging sounds in notes and rhythms to give a desired pattern or effect’ joins language differently in song, poetry and the prosody of speech; and the appreciation and expression of each may become dissociated. Since some patients speak but are amusic, and
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