Musical Meaning as a Multilevel Interpretation Within Cultural Communication

Research into the processes of meaning formation in music should focus on the communicative basis of this type of art. A person comes to the fore as a perceived subject whose consciousness constructs meanings in the process of cultural interaction with the external environment. It is necessary to study how musical meanings are formed in human consciousness when composing and listening to various kinds of musical works. The concepts of three major semiotic traditions were used to divide the complex process of interpretation in musical art into separate levels and to study it in more detail in this article. The logical-philosophical semiotic tradition explores meaning at the level of a single sign in terms of subject-object relations. The key point here is the connection of human mind with the outside world, the perception of reality through a set of signals that affect feelings and cause certain reactions. At the single sign level, it is possible to investigate the primary association of musical sounds as signal-index means with a human body and the creation of basic synesthetic associative images. The linguo-centrist semiotic tradition links the formation of meanings to the structural features of the language system adopted for communication in a social group. At this level, it is impossible to study musical syntax as a way to organize primary sound material. The information semiotic tradition proposes to consider musical meaning as a product of the action of various cultural codes in communication. Attention is focused on the perceiving subject, the impact of the cultural environment on their consciousness, and the availability of certain codes to interpret musical messages. By graded analysis of musical works of different complexity levels, the formation of a field of meanings attributed to these compositions can be traced more accurately. This will allow a better understanding of the nature of musical meaning as a multiple interpretation.

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