Don Satz:

>I don't see music as inhabiting some kind of special dysfunctional area
>concerning communication, and I still consider music to be a language
>in that it communicates to the listener.

As long as we all realize that music as a language has metaphorical
meaning, there is no problem.  But music does not communicate in the same
detailed and specific way that language does, and there is no reason to
assume that listeners receive the same message.  What is perhaps remarkable
is that more often than not they receive the same general emotional
message.

language can of course be ambiguous in meaning and interpretation.  I
recently looked into Helen Vendler's poem by poem detailed interpretation
of the Shakespeare's Sonnets and it was fascinating to see the alternate
interpretations which were possible readings of the words.  The words
themselves could have varying meanings.  But that is part of the richness
of the language, and I suspect that poets love to play with it.

Bernard Chasan