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Music As A Universal Language?

Date : 11/10/2011

Author Information

Rafael

Uploaded by : Rafael
Uploaded on : 11/10/2011
Subject : Violin

"Some writters suggest that music conveys the same meaning to different listeners more accurately than verbal message; music is less likely to be misentrepreted or variously interpreted than words". Anthony Storr, Music and the Mind Harpers CollinsPublishers, London 1997, 70.

Over the years music has been regarded as a universal language, but this view has changed. Currently music is instead considered a universal phenomenon that is a vital part in every culture. Umberto Ecco was one of the first to comment on this, saying that music is not a universal language because of its lack of semantic content. With no concrete meaning music can not be understood by everyone in the same way, each listener interprets it differently.

No one can deny that music is a language, it is a form of communication and expression, and it has its specific codes of representation and interpretation. It is a language more expressive if possible, than language itself. It is created by a composer, transmitted by an interpreter, heard and recreated by the listeners in many different ways, even attributing meanings that the author had not even imagined.The ineffable nature of music echoes Aldous Huxley in his famous phrase: "Music expresses the inexpressible".

Through music we can describe situations, express feelings, emotions, or purely musical ideas. We can find examples of all of those in the music of innumerable traditions and cultures. For these reasons music is a language that has more meaning than the spoken language. Is undeniable that music and speech share some forms of organization and expression. These two forms of communication have in common rhythm, intonation, dynamics and agogic.

Both need of these elements to maintain the interest in the listener or receiver. We express ourselves in many different ways, depending on what we want to communicate. In music it is exactly the same, music also has its pauses, its accents and cadences. They can also share the form, a clear example can be found in both, written and musical stories. The two forms of expression need an exposition, development, middle and end

Therefore it is undeniable that music is an unquestionable means of expression. As Aristotle said, the music expresses the soul`s movements. Through music it has been captured ideas, feelings and ideologies. Music springs from the ways of life of a nation thus through it we can understand, appreciate and respect the cultural diversity that we live in today.

This information could be, as I said earlier, interpreted in different ways, but does not leave anyone impassible. Music might not be experimented or understood equally by each listener, but the point is that it does not leave anyone impassible.

Sometimes the reaction is collective. When interpreted in Vienna, the first day of the year, the March Radeztky of Johann Strauss the audience reacts spontaneously by clapping when the chorus is been played. Also happened when the Hallelujah Chorus from Messiah by Georg F. Handel was played for the first time in England. The emotion felt by the king and the court made them stand up as a tribute to the magnificence expressed in this fragment. One musical form that expresses a collective ideology is hymns. In the cathedral of Turin San Ambrosio composed hundreds of these with the consent of St. Augustine. The hymns have a very strong rhythmic and harmonic structure so that the listener is carried away by the music even though they could not understand the text.

Same thing can occur if we attend the representation of an opera that is sung in another language than ours and we happened not to know this language. The message that the music carries will be enough for us to understand what is going on in every scene. Contrary to all of this if we were to watch a theater play that it is represented is in another language than ours, it will practically imposible to understand.

Keep in mind also that while a piece or fragment can transmit to the viewer "something" that "something" will be understood differently by each individual, depending on his personality, social and life experiences. In some cases the meaning of a piece of music is made explicit by the author. Composers could use the narration of a story or tale as part of the work. The perfect example is "Peter and the Wolf "by Sergey Prokofiev in wich music plays the role of soundtrack to the traditional tale. Prokofiev also assigned each character a theme in which rhythm, melody and the specific instrument that represents the characteristics of each character. Sometimes composers incorporate the poems, texts or books that they use for inspiration, in the final printed version of their work. In "The Four Seasons" the Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi not only included the poems that inspired his famous concertos, but wrote on the corresponding staves what the music is suppose to evoque or imitate.

Music has so much power transmitting feelings and ideas that nowadays is used in all kinds of media like films. These would not be the same without music. A film has to tell a story in an specific time, and on that time it has to capture the viewers attention and imagination. Although some viewers would not think music is helping and facilitating the understanding of the film, it is used to enhance what the scene is not capable of expressing by itself. Therefore music is used as a means of expression and communication. It can be the message itself, reinforcing the message or simply a punctuation mark such as those commonly use on radio an television. Music is a global medium that knows no social or linguistic barriers. It is important to promote the importance of music in human life as an art that develops our cognitive, psychomotor and affective social sensitivity to the aesthetic in general and the particular sound phenomenon. It is not, to my understanding, a universal language but a phenomenon that can express ideas and feelings no other art form can.

This resource was uploaded by: Rafael