Connecting Musical Styles using Musical Elements

Meaning

Textual Meaning

• Baroque and Renaissance  music- Word Painting
• Blues/ Jazz singing - Expressive Improvisation
• Polynesian region (Pacific Ocean) -Logogenic
• Religious Music e.g. Gospel
• Opera

Many styles of music also have meaning, but it is not expressed/communicated with words, rather with emotions caused by the music, sometimes based on previous experiences. Some alternative non-textual styles are:

• Yodelling
• In some countries, styles used for healing (without words)
• Communal music making
• Sometimes in religious music, the text is not understood by many people (e.g. Hebrew, Latin etc.) but the meaning is still conveyed

Sometimes the words are used not for their meaning, but through the meaning created through the sound of the words.