If, Monsieur Stravinsky, music carries meaning

Contrary to what the famous Russian composer claimed, the fifth art does express something, even without words. How this is achieved, however, is open to debate. Here's the beginning of a hypothesis.

In his Chronicles of My Life, Igor Stravinsky claimed that music «[is] powerless to express anything: a feeling, an attitude, a psychological state, a phenomenon of nature, etc.» He added: «Expression has never been the immanent property of music.» In so doing, the Russian composer was confusing himself with a formulation that was as imprecise as it was provocative. In other words, if music expresses nothing, it has no meaning.

Un désaccord paraît cependant justifié pour qui est convaincu que la musique n’est pas un art abstrait en soi, bien que certaines partitions puissent parfois l’être. Et c’est là toute la question qui incite lâ€