Music and Interpretation

Music and Interpretation

The most humbling take away from listening to music is its unique interaction with language. It is unlike regular language in that it can utilize it (as in vocal music) or imply it (as in instrumental music). While there are many metaphors saying that 'music is a language', I would like to offer a different approach to thinking about music. For there are many who say music is a language and that it 'speaks' to you but this metaphor, I hope to show, only scratches the surface. I will argue that music is a kind of 'skillful coping', a term coined by philosopher Hubert Dreyfus to describe Heidegger's philosophy of authentically being-in-the-world. 

To "be in the world", for Heidegger, is a concept in his description of human being's existence that primarily posits that the human being and the world are connected and inseparable. To be in the world is to be born into a culture, this is the history of all human beings. To be in the world is to always be projecting oneself forward towards a "for the sake of which"– I build a house for the sake of sheltering myself. To be in the world is to care about the world and those that one lives amongst in the world. To be in the world is to interpret one's world so that there is always meaning.

This brings me to music– how does music showcase a unique form of being-in-the-world? Music is a humbling phenomenon; while we hear these sounds, we interpret them, and, in doing so, evoke different feelings about them, most of the time without the explicit use of language. And music is this organized form of sounds, presented with intention by an composer, himself an interpreter, for the listener to make sense of what may as well be noise without context. It is of no surprise that context delineates whether sound becomes music or noise, for the greatest piece of music ever made being played on the elevator will still be elevator music. 

The context of music is key to showcasing its privilege as a unique form of "being-in-the-world", as a kind of skillful coping. When the context fits the music appropriately, we do not assume anything else. We do not question whether the music is appropriate because we have already made space for it in our world. When we welcome music, we feel at home in the world and engage in it. This is why unfamiliar music to us, especially those that do not match our taste, feels uncanny and sometimes unlistenable.