Abstract

Music signification can encompass two things: signification in music and signification of music. Neither is given in our biological inheritance nor cast in stone in the cultural forms of notations, performances, or aesthetic ideals. Instead, the shades of meanings suggested by in and of music are dynamically learned and grown into. The goal of this essay is to present a synoptic outline of these interrelated aspects of music signification. More emphasis is given to signification in music, since that aspect provides the basis for the meanings that musics—as multifaceted phenomena—have in the lives of individual people, their societies, and cultures.