Significado musical y significado lingüistico

Abstract

The present paper deals with the problem of meaning in the field of Music from the perspective of the Theory of Language. In the author’s view, there has been an excessive use of the term “meaning” within the area of Musical Semantics, which may lead not only to a terminological lack of precision but also to a confusion of concepts which are more precise in Linguistics than in Musical Theory. Starting from the analysis of the different trends on the presence of meaning in music, as well as its similarities with the linguistic meaning, the author states that both music and language are abilities for the human being to express himself. Nonetheless, language, through its representative meaning, is able to code the experience a person may have of the world. Even though the semantic representation has nothing to do with the musical expression, the latter shares with language a modal meaning connected with the experience the subject has of himself.