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Musical Meaning and its Social Determinants

Two types of musical meaning are distinguished: purely musical meaning which can be grasped only by experiencing a piece of music as it unfolds through time, and extra-musical meaning which relates music to non-musical concepts such as emotions, ideas, etc. It is argued that neither types of meaning are intrinsic to a musical object but depend upon an individual's interpretation of that object. The way an object is interpreted is largely determined by the individual's musical culture. Following Schutz, musical culture is defined as the individual's collected musical experiences, socially derived and socially sanctioned, and the ways in which it determines the individual's understanding of music are discussed. The concept of musical culture is expanded, in particular to include the idea of value (one type of extra-musical meaning). Musical objects do not have the same value or worth for everyone: differences exist both across different societies and within the same society. This is to say that because groups have different musical cultures they will also have different musical tastes, reflected in their understanding of, and their approval or disapproval of, certain types of music. An example of the type of research that this approach to musical meaning can generate is given.