Does
It Matter Whether Music is a Language or Not?
At
this point in our discussion one may legitimately ask, “Why does it matter if
music is or is not a language?”
Certainly all serious music philosophers are greatly concerned about
whether music is a language, a meta-language, or no language at all. Depending on whether a music philosopher is a
formalist, referentialist, or symbolist, different
conclusions will be drawn, but they are all deeply concerned about whether or
not music has meaning and how and what,
if anything, it communicates in either a closed, symbolic or referential
manner.
It seems that it is mostly contemporary
Christian musicians who do not seem to struggle with music’s meaning. Many of them seem to be able to function
without a clear understanding of the nature of the music part of music in
relationship to what it is or is not capable of communicating. When one does not have a clear understanding
of the nature of music, the simplest philosophical praxis is to ignore music’s
power to communicate anything at all. So
they choose to blindly ignore the efficacy of the music part of music by
denying that it is a language, a meta-language, or that it has any power to
communicate meaning and understanding. If it does communicate what that communication does to the whole-life of
the perform and listener?
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