On Representational Music
V. A. Howard · Noûs · 1972
Often the question whether music can be representational is broached as implying that music as an auditory event could become visual synesthesis or substitute for a visual symbol. If, as Goodman argues, Nothing is intrinsically a representation; but rather, status as a representation is relative to a symbol system. ([2], p. 226), then it is misleading to ask whether music can usurp the function of pictures or even whether it is by nature nonrepresentational. The appropriate question is whether music can belong to a representational system as pictures more typically do. However, being a picture is neither necessary nor sufficient to being a representation as amply attested non-representational styles of painting. Objects and events, visual and nonvisual, can be represented either visual or nonvisual symbols. ([2], p. 231) So it seems there is more to representation than meets the eye and may include what meets the ear in some musical contexts. It is the primary purpose of this paper to sketch the special conditions