Twice in recent days I’ve come across the notion that music is a form of communication. One was on an interesting thread over on this website, the other was in the new Uk national curriculum for music.

I know what people mean when they say this, but I don’t think it’s quite right, or at least, I think that’s only one use for music.

Communication is deliberately passing on an idea to someone else. By making music, can I communicate? Well, obviously if there are words I can pass on whatever those words are, and the mood of the song will dictate how those words are percieved. An earnest piece of music and the lyrics will be taken literally, a light hearted mood and they might be taken with a pinch of salt.

But if all I was doing was communicating the message of the words, why bother with the music?

Music allows me to add an emotional element in a visceral and moving way. It has an emotional language that anyone bought up in the same musical culture can understand. It can be used to communicate an emotion to others.

But we all know that not everyone takes the same message from every piece of music. We’ve all known people who would agree on the basic meaning of various musical gestures but who violently disagree on the meaning of one particular piece. If music is just communication, it surely isn’t very good at getting it’s message across.

And why do people listen to the same music over and over, when they don’t feel the need to watch the same communicative news bulletin more than once. Why do you listen again, when you’ve already got it? Why is it necessary for some fans to proclaim their fanhood to the world, why can a musician be hugely moved and entertained by their own music making even when no-one else in the world can hear them?

Music is art, and art is not communication. It can be communicative, but often it is obscure, indeterminate, obtuse, vague, indecipherable, open to interpretation. Art is the mind at play, a wonderful by-product of our evolution.

Music is playing with patterns of sound, sometimes without saying a thing. Sometimes it communicates, but more often not, and almost always listeners disagree over what it says.

At least, that’s what I think on the subject. If you have an opinion, especially if you have a different opinion, let me know.

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