Conceptual Meaning in Music

I'm wondering about the capabilities that music has to express meaning. Neurologists have observed brain activity that is a direct response from musical perception. If one considers this brain activity to be the same thing as an emotional response, then music can directly express emotion. But does this allow one to consider music meaningful, or maybe even a language?

The definition of “meaning” is crucial. I'd split “meaning” into two parts. Meaning can be either conceptual or emotional in nature. Both temporal and spacial objects can express either type of meaning, and can be experienced through any mode of sensation. Objects that express conceptual meaning make reference to specific non-subjective information (for example, comprehensive text, speech, braille, and images). Objects that express emotional meaning do not refer to anything specific, but directly cause a subjective emotional experience. The vast majority of perceivable objects and events fall into this category (including music). Emotional responses can include moods, physical experiences like pain and pleasure, and everything on this list. It is not necessary to divide out all the types of emotions that music can express. It may in fact prove to be all types.

It seems true that perception of emotional meaning triggers conceptual responses, and visa-versa. These secondary responses are an indirect result of perceiving an object. They are subjective, and do not represent objective features of the object. Davies argues that a proper evaluation of music only describes features of the music itself, and not the listener's subjective response. I agree with Davies, but disagree with the implied notion the listener must ignore the concepts that she subjectively experiences as a result of perceiving music.

When I listen to music that causes conceptual responses (see my descriptions of Philip Glass's Metamorphosis and Bon Iver's The Wolves), I value the music for its ability to cause those responses. These conceptual responses are certainly found indirectly through direct emotional responses to the music. However, I feel like “I got it right” in the two examples mentioned above. I am pretty certain that the artists intended to evoke certain conceptual responses by expressing specific emotional meaning. But doesn't this suggest that music can contain in some significant way conceptual information?

Epistemological Theory of Forms (Plato)

Here's a link to my essay. I created a new blog as to not clutter up this one.

http://platoessay.blogspot.com/

Signficance of intentional silence

I'm still bothered by the idea that silence as the absence of intentional sound has less significance than intentional sound. It is certainly the case that artists often intentionally incorporate silence between sounds, not just to emphasize the sounds, but for the sake of the silence itself.

I've been wanting to play Bon Iver's "The Wolves" in class for a while to emphasize this point. The silence in this song has special significance. The album which this song is on was recorded (for the most part) in solitude when the artist Justin Vernon retreated to a cabin in Wisconsin. Many of his songs include random sounds of the environment around him, which makes the listener feel like he/she is there with him. In the case of "The Wolves", the silence serves to emphasize his solitude. I'd even argue that the build up in sounds near the end serves to emphasize the silence, not the other way around. This might be why he chose to make it chaotic and unpleasant sounding; he didn't intend the listener to focus on the sounds but instead the silence.

Here's the song. It's not my favorite on the album but is interesting nonetheless:

Response to "Subject-of-a-life"

I had a rather different idea of what characterizes a “subject-of-a-life” when Professor Johnson first mentioned it in class than what is described in the Blackwell Reference Online. I first thought that a subject-of-a-life is an entity that has a meaningful story to it. Things that have a long history, like an old church, an old ship, a favorite pair of shoes, or a heavily played and worn out guitar all seem to have a sentimental value to it simply because of its history. This is the reason I can place significant value on my instruments; for their capacity to have an especially rich history.

It seems to me that Reagan's subject of a life doesn't have much to do with honorary persons. Certainly honorary persons are to be valued for the same reason as regular persons, or else they would be given a different title.