Out of Logos: A Semiotic Approach of Music Education

This research explains the incompatibility of European epistemological and ontological views of with traditional Japanese views of sound, as follows: (a)The concept or meaning or value of each musical unit in European tonal is established only in relationship to all other units. (b)Thus, it is internal to the system in Europe, rather than being an inherently determined phenomenon external to music, (c) In as in language, there are only differences. (d)The arbitrary relationship comes from culture in which music is produced. Saussurean linguistics is used as a tool to investigate these issues mentioned above. We, therefore, cannot define what is about except contextually nor do we yet know the existence ofuniversals in music. However, many teachers in Japan, for example, still believe that European classical is absolute and universal. Today we urgently need to bring contemporary discourse to the analysis of education. This paper attempts to contribute to that discourse.