Nowadays nobody would claim that music without vocals and lyrics does not make sense. the average listener seems to be able to refer to musical parameters like rhythm, melody or sound and
harmony, if he wants to listen to any kind of music without words. But how is it possible, that a rhythm-pattern or a melody phrase is "under-standable"? Our
perception has learned to summarize different acoustical sounds, which have appeared to us in almost any kind of special and regular ways, forming "somehow sensible and rational" shapes and
patterns to a graspable allover-sound. What we understand of
this allover-sound, consists in its structure: repetitions, sym-metries, similarities, contrasts etc..
Can that be all? Are we supposed to be satisfied with nothing else then (mostly) simple-planned-structures, which are unfolding in the musical process of time? Like being satisfied with a
simple meal of roast potatos with bacon?
The truth is: There is no meaning in music. The meaning is created in our mind. And our mind is communicating with the structure it perceives, while comparing it with all the stored treasures of
emotional sound experience. This communication is a process of matching the previous musical memories with the actuality of the offered sound of music. A matching, which
is almost always interesting enough as a procedure for our mind. Of course, music should match our taste and, most notably, bring us back to good memories of our former emotional experience.
Once, if this thing happened, music is just the wellness-key to
our psyche. Its meaning is a memory-turn to brain areas of good feelings. Music is an acoustical trigger software, a "little helper" for our emotions. No more, no less.
