The Meaning of Song

Paper Summary:

This paper takes a look at the exploration of Victor Zuckerkandl into the meaning of song. According to this paper, Zuckerkandl makes it clear he is not seeking a physical explanation involving muscles and voice box, but a spiritual explanation for the human activity of singing.

Contents:
The Meaning of Song
Words and Tones in Song
"High Time" and Ambiguous Harmonic Function

From the Paper:

"Zuckerkandl's explanation immediately brought to my mind an experience I had a few years ago. I was driving on a road through a thick Michigan forest at night when my car broke down. I had to walk back to a nearby town about three miles in the dark. There was no moon or stars to shed light; in fact, I couldn't even see the road beneath my feet or where I was stepping. I began to sing (like the soldiers Zuckerkandl mentions who sing to overcome their fear). As I walked along singing, I became aware of an animal in the woods only a few feet to my left. It seemed a large animal and made quite a noise with each movement it made. It began to walk alongside me, crashing and crunching the brush under its feet and snorting. I continued singing, this time a hymn, and hoped the creature was not a bear or an aggressive animal that might attack. Suddenly, as I sang "Lead Kindly Light amid the encircling gloom, lead Thou me on..." I connected to the animal's consciousness! It was most extraordinary. I believe it was a deer. Its consciousness was very innocent, and it wondered curiously what I was (but not what I was doing there in the middle of the night). I tried to convey the message mentally that I was harmless. Then it realized I was a human being and thought better of coming so close."

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