In Response to Brandon's Question

Brandon’s question “What do you think about the significance of lyrics and songs?” is subjective granted that each listener has a different opinion on the significance of lyrics. Personally, I believe that song lyrics can be very helpful in interpretation to individuals who are not as educated in music and what it represents, means, or is intended to be used for. Lyrics are capable of adding a direct meaning to a song. The intended meaning of the song or emotion that the artist was attempting to evoke in the listener is often stated in lyrics themselves so listeners do not have to search for the meaning or make wrong assumptions about what the song could mean and what emotions it could be trying to convey granted that it is stated directly in the lyrics instead of being open to interpretation. Often times it is difficult to know what emotion an artist is trying to convey via instrumentals unless personal interviews with the artist are conducted, but with songs with lyrics the clarity of the emotion or meaning allows for less incorrect assumptions. It could understandably be argued by those who are well educated in the philosophy of music that lyrics do not provide anything additional to a musical work granted that most theories of music focus solely around instrumental works. Do you think it is possible for lyrics to take away from a work of music (i.e. hinder the listener’s ability to hear, comprehend, and interpret the instrumental component of the work)?

In Response to Stephen's Question

Stephen’s question “Do musical-emotional associations vary across cultures?” is difficult to address. As discussed in class, there are six distinct universal emotions. These emotions are happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger. Each of these universal emotions are expressed in the same way physically by each individual experiencing it. For example, happiness is usually expressed by means of a smile and sadness is usually expressed by means of a frown. Seeing these expressions on people’s faces is universally understood regardless of culture and language which tend to be barriers for some understandings. Taking on Stephen’s question about musical-emotional associations from Kivy’s perspective, I believe that the answer would be no, musical-emotional associations do not vary across cultures because every culture physically manifests the emotions in the same way. Kivy’s main argument in the essay we read most recently in class addressed the ability for music to portray specific emotions by possessing qualities which are similar to those that humans possess when they are experience the particular emotion. From this perspective, the emotional music comparison is based solely off of observable characteristics such as body language. Body language of individuals expressing a particular emotion tends to be the same for all cultures because the emotions themselves are universal. What are some arguments for the opposing perspective where musical-emotional associations do vary across cultures? Also, how would emotions which are not considered to be universal be expressed differently from culture to culture?