Music, Sense and Aesthetic Education

Musical sense is examined at two levels; in relation to human experiences or activity, and by virtue of its ‘form’. Reference in music to experience and activity is discussed in terms of its relationship to musical form. From an analysis of sense in language it is suggested that the social understandings of which music is a part are a source of sense. The origins of this social understanding are examined. How does this sensible quality come to have aesthetic significance? Music may achieve significance from the way in which it refers to experience. Music that achieves sense by virtue of form is examined in terms of the way that it relates to intellectual needs.