Metacommunication, Metalanguage, and Paralanguage’s Connection to Musicing-Part 1

Metacommunication, Metalanguage, and Paralanguage’s Connection to Musicing-Part 1

When one considers how music communicates understandable meaning there are several ways that real-life meaning is conveyed to the listener.  In the early 1970s, Gregory Bateson coined the term metacommunication to describe the underlying messages in what we say and do. Understandable real-life meaning is conveyed partially through metacommunication.  Components of metacommunication include body language, tone of voice, hand gestures, expressions on the musicer’s face, which are all the nonverbal communicators that carry meaning that either enhance or disallow the meaning of the words sung.

When one musics, the music part of music such as pitch, volume, intonation etc. combine to become a paralanguage. This paralanguage is a component of meta-communication that has the propensity to modify the nuance of meaning of what is being musiced by the musicer. Musical paralanguage communication is a very important component of the communication of understandable meaning of the metacommunication of the music that Christian musicians use in the context of worship.