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Date: | Wed, 12 Jul 2000 18:08:23 -0500 |
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Len Fehskens wrote:
>There is no "dictionary" for music. There is no place one can "look up"
>a musical "word" (whatever that might be -- a note? a phrase? a rhythm?
>a harmony?), and find a "definition" of it expressed in music.
Well actually there have been attempts. Consider the doctrine of
affections for one.
There are many books that provide some definition of gestures and harmonic
vocabularies.
>We learn a language by associating physical things, and later abstractions,
>with words. We do this by experiencing these things and abstractions.
>Only after we have developed a sufficient base of words and concepts can
>we "bootstrap" ourselves up by reading.
Perhaps the use of the word "language" is a poor metaphor in this
context, but I believe it works well. Consider the "language" of the
birds. Try playing some of their tunes at the piano...lots of them are
quite "dissonant." Yet we can appreciate and even enjoy their language
without "knowing the words." When I listen to a work like Milhaud's Les
Choephores, I love the sound of the French, especially as it is intoned
by Vera Zorina on the Bernstein recording.
>So, if music is a "language", what is its grammar? What are its words? What
>do these words mean? How reliably does music communicate these meanings?
Some might suggest that common practice harmony is the grammar of Bach.
Its words are the harmonies and melodies. What do they mean? In the
Baroque, they actually had a notion of specific emotions (that old doctrine
of affections). However I doubt anyone today listens with that dictionary.
How reliably does music communicate these meanings. Well for Stravinsky,
"music expresses itself." Some composers have stated that they prefer
music to express themselves since they find language too ambiguous.
What expresses the notion of love better...the word love, or a theme from
Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet. How about the notion of insanity...was
that not expressed very well in Schoenberg's Erwartung?
I guess I honestly don't see any problem with the use of the term language
in music.
Karl
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