Is Music a Language?—part 3

Is Music a Language?—part 3

          It appears that Greensburg believes that music has the ability to communicate meaning because of his statement that it “can encode volumes of…information”.  One of the many definitions of encode is to convert some kind of information into a form suitable for the transmission of a message.  So, I believe that music has the power to transmit various kinds of information and that music’s ability to deliver a message to the performer and the listener is “meta” i.e. self-referential.  Therefore, music’s power to communicate functions more efficiently in some aspects than a spoken (verbal) language. 

          The music part of music (the music without words) does have the power to communicate understandable meaning to the performer and the auditor.  However, it is not always easy to predict with certainty exactly what the music will communicate to the listener.  The reason is that music reaction is always referential.  What this means is that all music performers and listeners music both actively and passively  in the perspective of what they bring from their music knowledge and also what they bring from their spiritual, social, psychological, historical, and philosophical backgrounds.  As I have often said in my music lectures and in my writings, no one musics either actively or passively in a vacuum or in a bubble. 

Thought for the Day

Have you ever thought about why some Christian musicians try so hard to deny that music communicates understandable meaning?  What are they trying to prove?