I
believe somewhat like Leonard B. Meyer who wrote the book Emotion and Meaning
in Music that the meaning that comes from music will tend to have at least some
connection to meaning which is found outside of the formal properties of the
music. I believe that all musicing i.e.
“doing” and listening to music is affected somewhat by the references one
brings to the great art of music from the world outside of music. I also believe that although some of music’s
meaning is intellectual (cerebral), some of its meaning is emotional (aroused
from the sounds).
Those
who believe that music’s essential nature, its essential meaning, and its real
value are musics and musics alone will most often not admit that any of this
meaning is imported from the world around us, because they believe that music
is a closed system. I do not believe
any of the above theories because, although I am not a strict referentialist by
definition, I do believe that association from the outside world does affect
the music we listen to and perform.
Although a Christian musician can and should learn from the major
schools of music philosophy, he or she does not have to align his or her music
philosophy with any of them. A Christian
musician does not have to swallow the tenants of one or all of the various
schools of music philosophy “hook line and sinker” in order to develop a
congruent Bible based music philosophy.
No comments:
Post a Comment