ABSTRACT
This chapter assumes that a ‘language’ is a symbolic medium through which knowledge is held, understood and articulated. The arts have a problematical relationship with language and knowledge which apparently rests on their non-discursive nature. Thus the arts are not regarded as languages at all, except in a very special sense, and therefore cannot be regarded as ‘ways of knowing’. Past attempts at making a case for music as a language (and thereby comparing it with spoken and written language) have failed because it has been assumed that there needs to exist a foundational link between word/sounds (signifier) and the object of meaning (signified). This ‘logical’ view of language has also been a cosy partner for a ‘scientific’, mind-independent vision of knowledge. The consequence for music and the arts has been an epistemological barrier to them being regarded as forms of knowledge. If music (and the other arts) cannot show that meanings are somehow ‘objective’ and testable against logic or observation, they cannot be taken seriously as media in which knowledge can be held and expressed. In any case, it is argued, the arts are part of the subjective realm which is an essential counterbalance to the objectivity of the sciences. In a culture, society and education system which promotes and trusts ‘objectivity’ above ‘subjectivity’, music is seen at best as being equal (but different), and at worst a less valid form of knowledge than the sciences. However, a careful analysis of the assumptions upon which the music—language comparison has been made, calls into question the ‘logical’ view as an adequate account of knowledge, meaning and understanding. Recent work in semiotics and literary theory can help to reformulate what constitutes a language. For example, some semioticians suggest that the relationship between signifier and signified is an ever shifting, unstable horizon and consequently any signifier is open to many interpretations of its meaningful significance. Such research into alternative visions of language might provide a more fruitful account of human knowledge, where many more symbolic modes are regarded as epistemologically sound, and also an interesting basis for the music—language comparison.
