Can we understand music's meaning?--part 1

       For today's discussion, I would like to use a portion of  I Corinthians 14:15, which says, "...I will sing with the understanding also." This portion of Scripture is small  but its meaning is huge. Absolute formalists and absolute expressionists believe that all of music's meaning is to be found in the music.  They contend that there is no understanding of music outside of the music itself.  The absolutists claim that music is a closed system with its own esoteric meaning.  The hard core formalists purport that music understanding i.e. meaning is an intellectual experience with the formal properties of the  music.  Most of them deduce a sort of humanistic self-meaning as an end to this understanding.
       I contend that music has meaning both inside and outside of itself, i.e. its formal properties. My belief is somewhat like Leonard B. meyer's concept of "embodied" and "designated" meaning. That sort of makes me a hybrid referentialist that got kicked out of "Formalist" school.  Maybe Kivy would call me an" Enhanced Referentialist"--or maybe not..  I believe that it is an oversight to contend that all musicing is incapable of saying anything at all.  Music with words or without words says something.  I believe that music not only has a message but that  as Dr. Frank Garlock has said for years, the music is the message.
       Music always has a purpose and it always says something.  It always has meaning both inside and outside of itself. If we fail to understand this philosophical concept, then we can erroneously say that it does not have  real life meaning and that it is futile to try to understand it--especially in reference to the world outside of the music.