Musical Sound Communicates Meaning Part 8

Musical Sound Communicates Meaning Part 8   

            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.   

Thought for the Day-    

 When a Christian musician is making a choice concerning whether or not to listen to and perform a style of music, he or she must first consider the particular nature of that music before assessing its value to one’s whole-life.