The aim of this paper was to define the musical elements of the neo-Hellenic language by studying the nature and structure of is sounding aspect in the speech as well as in the folk songs. The “musicality” of this language was found to be determined mainly by the musical properties of its vowels: the clear timbre, the pitch, the intensity and the duration, which are activated even more by the particular function of the accent in the language.This “euphonic” character of the neo-Hellenic language was treated sensitively and constructively in the folk songs. More concretely, one can observe in this type of song:
- The turn of certain sounding elements of the verses into motives.
- The transformation of the dialogic schemes of the speech into musical ones.
- The emergence in the songs of a changing tempo, analogous to that of the speech, which is the main means to stress the timbre of the vowel material.
© Musicology