Absolutists
believe that musical meaning lies exclusively within the work of music
itself. In other words, to most
absolutists music is not about anything because its meaning is its own and
thereby it is a “closed system”.
Remember that these absolutists believe that music’s meaning lies in the
perception and understanding or the musical outside influence.
Another school of absolute music
philosophy called absolute expressionism disagrees with the main stream of
absolutism and teaches that music’s relationships are capable or exciting
feelings and emotions in the listener and performer. This belief has become known as “arousal
theory”. Some music philosophers believe
that these feelings and emotional meanings are actually embodied (found in the
music) or are designated or referential (assigned) to the music.
Still
another school of music philosophy called formalism teaches that music has no
meaning at all. These philosophers
believe that music is enjoyed simply by appreciation of its formal properties
or structure and technical construction.
These strict formalists believe that music does not have a subject or
meaning beyond the combinations of notes we hear and that music only speaks or
means nothing but else but its sounds and that these sounds have no
relationship to life outside of the music.
This philosophical belief is what I call the “music sound is benign and
in a bubble” theory.
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