Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Is Music a Language?—part 1


Is Music a Language?—part 1
          In a recent ad for the Book How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition by Robert Greenburg this statement was made, “Music is a non-verbal language that can encode volumes of social, historical, and even philosophical information, provided you know how to understand it.”  Greenburg seems to have a modified theory about music being a language.  Some believe that music is a language; others consider it to be a universal language; while still others believe music to be no language at all.
          Greenburg touches on another major argument that questions whether or not we can understand music’s meaning at all.  Some summerly dismiss the question of understanding music’s meaning by simply asserting that music does not have any meaning at all.  Still others believe that music has meaning but that its meaning is an isolated meaning that is not related to life or any understanding that is related in any way to life outside of music’s little bubble.
Thought for the Day
The argument over music being a language in no way settles the question of music’s affect on all who experience it.

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