ABSTRACT
Spoken words can be musical. Patterns of repetition, length of phrase, rhyme, and alliteration all help words come alive, especially when text delivery is performed in a musical way. Perhaps the most famous American speech of the twentieth century is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream,” delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 28, 1963. Think about how Dr. King enhanced textual meaning with musical technique. To draw attention to literary devices such as metaphor and repeated textual passages, Reverend King’s speech featured intensification of selected words within phrases. He purposefully changed the speed at which he spoke, sometimes pausing, and the pitch of his voice traveled into high and low registers. In addition, he listened to the response of the audience gathered around him, and altered his delivery based on their communication back to him.1 The words and the music of his voice worked together to make the
speech an unforgettable experience not only for those who heard it that day but for generations who have heard the recorded version. Imagine the sound in your mind: “I have a dream . . . that . . . I have a dream . . . that . . . I HAVE A DREAM . . .”
