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I have searched and asked others for the answer to this but have come up dry: what is the name or technique in music where musical notes approximate/imitate speech? Note that I am not talking about vocoders where speech is modulated by tones or notes, but rather the technique of arranging notes so they sound similar in pitch/length to spoken syllables. An example is the intro to "Hot Blooded" by Foreigner.

Onomatopoeia is really the reverse of the term or idea I'm after.

I asked in the music.stackexchange.com site and while there was no consensus one of the users suggested that I ask the question here. "Rhetoric in music" and "lyrical melody" were suggested as starting points, but I find them vague and not accurate enough to the topic at hand.

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Do you mean this (YouTube)? – Andrew Leach Jan 1 at 15:45
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Yes @AndrewLeach, that's what I mean. – OxC0FFEE Jan 1 at 16:59
Thanks @tchrist. That's really interesting. The general category of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_language is interesting. – OxC0FFEE Jan 1 at 17:02
Question: Is it that the guitar imitates the notes of the singer, or is the singer mimicking the melody played by the guitar? (I guess I like the "lyrical melody" answer.) – J.R. Jan 1 at 17:37
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4 Answers

up vote 9 down vote

The word "mimesis" is used in numerous articles (found via Google) describing music composed and performed to imitate the sounds of nature, including bird songs and hunting calls. It is synonomous with mimicry, which makes sense.

Definition of "mimesis" from the FreeDictionary.com:

  1. The imitation or representation of aspects of the sensible world, especially human actions, in literature and art.
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That would work, although mimesis is not limited to music, and certainly not to speech. To indicate music that mimics speech, you'd need compound, like speech-mimetic music. – John Lawler Jan 1 at 16:36
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@JohnLawler, you're right, and that is actually what I found intriguing about this word - that human spoken words are part of the collective "sounds of nature". – Kristina Lopez Jan 1 at 16:41
up vote 7 down vote

The term cantabile is used (usually in classical music) to refer to pieces or passages which are "song-like":

Cantabile is a musical term meaning literally "singable" or "songlike" (Italian). It has several meanings in different contexts. In instrumental music, it indicates a particular style of playing designed to imitate the human voice. For 18th century composers, the term is often used synonymously with "cantando" (singing), and indicates a measured tempo and flexible, legato playing. For later composers, particularly in piano music, cantabile indicates the drawing out of one particular musical line against the accompaniment (compare counterpoint).

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up vote 2 down vote

Did the musicians not offer the term recitative? M-W defines it as follows:

"a rhythmically free vocal style that imitates the natural inflections of speech and that is used for dialogue and narrative in operas and oratorios; also : a passage to be delivered in this style"

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up vote 0 down vote

Scatting

A jazz musician who uses their voice instead of a horn (or whatever), to do the thing!

Louis Armstrong

Traditionally that rhapsodic bing-bang-boing jazz randomness vs. traditional Western scales.

(I know it’s not reproducing “imitate speech” – but I had to mention it for posterity! ; )

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