THE ELUSIVE NATURE OF MUSICAL TRUTH

ABSTRACT. Music cannot represent things in the way painting can; when music attempts to depict sounds, it becomes what it is depicting, by virtue of being a sound itself. Even if music can represent things in some way, the representational element is irrelevant to the appreciation of the work. All tonal music, regardless of its expressive content, builds on the harmonic principles of tension and release. The truth-value we may speak of in music lies not in its musical value, but rather within its capacity to break away from musical convention and shopworn form.