Bernard Chasan writes:

>Nothing is more simple to demonstrate than that music cannot transmit
>objective meanings, and it is remarkable that people cannot let go of the
>fallacy.  Music simply does not pretend to convey the specific details
>which can be communicated by language.  This is no put-down of music- it is
>a different mode of communication.  And of course to set words to the music
>is simply to use language.

As Bernard Chasan states correctly, as correctly as Denis Fodor averred
before him, music is a different mode of communication from language.  But
then to insist that therefore music cannot be objective is the same as
saying that only langauge can be objective.  Not so.  In the sense of its
own conventions and systematization- -4"33" has come a long way from the
caveman's grunt, as has,e.g., the Vienna sonata form--music can convey an
objective meaning.  And it's not as difficult to apperceive as the meanings
conveyed by languages.

Denis Fodor