The Language of Music

Cooke, Deryck. The Language of Music. Oxford University Press, 1959.

This is a good study on the thesis of all music is meant to convey emotion. Suitable for the emotions that music can bring in time of war, for soldiers. For civilians.

Chapters include: 1. What Kind of an Art Is Music? 2. The Elements of Musical Expression. 3. Some Basic Terms of Musical Vocabulary. 4. The Process of Musical Communication. 5. The Large-Scale Functioning of Musical Language. There are 3 indices titled “Index of Subjects,” Index of Names and Works,” and “Index of Music Examples.”

“We may say then that, whatever else the mysterious art known as music may eventually be found to express, it is primarily and basically a language of the emotions, through which we directly experience the fundamental urges that move mankind, without the need of falsifying ideas and images – words or pictures. A dangerous art, in fact, as was realized by Plato, the fathers of the medieval church, and Tolstoy, all of whom wished to control and confine the use of it. But under the guidance of the intellect and the enlightened moral sense, it is surely as safe as anything human can be – as safe at least, shall we say, as religion or science” (272).