Communicate: to express thoughts, feelings, or information easily or effectively.¹
Much has been written in debate on the topic music as language: is music a “universal language”, is it really a language at all? If so, what does it communicate, does it communicate the same message to everyone, is its message representative of emotions or life? Philosophical arguments on the nature of music date back to the recorded history of Western philosophy and while I intend to join in on those discussions in future essays, this introduction starts the process by addressing a most basic question “does music communicate?”
Consider this example: does how do we communicate in our language of words the feeling of pride – the pride we feel when a daughter graduates, the pride we have when we see our son hold his newborn child, the pride we have for our country – even come close to how those various sensations of pride actually feel? But music – music can arouse those very kinds of emotions so easily, and accurately, and powerfully.
The philosophical problem some have with acknowledging music as a language stems from a very restrictive concept they hold of what language is, something along the lines of: a verbal or written system of communicating information. Does music fit this description? Linguists will tell you that, strictly speaking, it does not.
As I write this introduction, I’m also preparing lessons for a community college, continuing education course, The History of Western Classical Music. The course is intended for non-music majors – for those with a desire to learn about classical music but without much of a formal education in music. My intent is to lean heavily on listening; focusing on how the music sounds and how the sounds changed throughout music’s history. The key to this approach is to carefully select examples that are clearly representative of a period as well as interesting to hear. I was cycling through my listening library in search of just the right Brahms example for the course and I happened upon his Symphony No. 4. Once again, I was struck by the emotional “message” it conveys. There is a heft, a significance, a profoundness to the music that is, in my mind, undeniable. I can’t say what it is that Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 communicates. None of those words – heft, significance, profoundness – describe what the music says to me. But is it really necessary that I be able to verbalize what the music communicates? Isn’t it enough to be able to honestly know that it communicates, that it resonates emotionally within me?
The difficulty describing the what reminds me of something my German teacher would often say about phrases that were idiomatic, “there’s no direct translation in English.” Isn’t that really the central problem at hand here? However real and potent music’s communication channel might be, there’s no direct translation for music into the language of words.
Next topic in the series: Vocabulary & Syntax in Music
Note: I hold a distinction between the phrases Music As Language and The Language of Music. The Language of Music is a subject that addresses the elements of music, the aspects of music a composer uses to construct a musical composition. Music As Language is concerned with the philosophical issues surrounding if, how and what music communicates.
¹ communicate. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved November 07, 2014, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/communicate