Music is Analogous to Language-part 2

 

Music is Analogous to Language-part 2

Since there are several ways in which music communicates  understandable meaning, I am drawn to the conclusion that instrumental music does often refer outside of itself.  It may refer by implication, association, emotional previous connection, by what the sounds mean in the context of community, and by the specific emotional states that the music part of the music arouses in the performer and listener.  When I refer to specific emotions, I mean that the complex emotions aroused have real life meaning—not that music’s “meaning is in a bubble” that does not have any real life meaning.  I reject the notion that musical meaning is part of a closed system unrelated to real life.