Musical Sound Communicates Meaning Part 16

Musical Sound Communicates Meaning Part 16     

             If musical sound was incapable of communicating understanding, then the music part of music would not have any value as a ministering tool.  However, there is entirely too much evidence that music has the power to communicate “knowing” to the performer and the auditor for me to ever be convinced that musical sound is impotent and incapable of having any positive or negative influence.

            Perhaps Roger Scruton’s statement should be considered at this point in our discussion of musical “knowing’ and “meaning”.  He stated, “If music has meaning, then that meaning must be understood by the one who understands the music.  Hence the concept of musical understanding displaces that of musical meaning: we have no idea what musical meaning might be, until we have some grasp of the distinction between the one who hears with understanding and the one who merely hears.” Understanding Music by Roger Scruton, p.34.  He prefaced this statement by explaining, “The meaning of a sentence is what we understand when we understand it.  Constraints on understanding are therefore constraints on meaning.” Ibid. p.34 It is a very dangerous thing to take one or two isolated statements of a music philosopher’s writings and suggest exactly what is meant by these statements.  So, I will not attempt to lock down exactly all that he meant, but merely use these famous quotes as a springboard for discussion.   

Scripture for the Day-   

1Cointhians 14:15 “What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.”