Summarize the main points of the author's argumentIn "Emotion and Meaning in Music," Leonard Meyer explains how meaning is communicated in music through emotion. Its aim is to show the relationship between two different ways of understanding the meaning of music. The first is the formalist position which takes an intellectual approach and maintains that the meaning of music lies in the perception and understanding of musical relationships. The second is the absolutist expressionist position which focuses more on the emotions aroused by these musical relationships. Meyer argues that these two positions are simply different ways of experiencing the same process because "both depend on the same perceptual processes, the same modes of mental organization, and the same musical processes give rise to and shape both types of experience." . (39) Neither approach has explained how perceived sound patterns become meaningful or elicit emotional responses. Meyer's answer is that a musical stimulus brings about certain expectations. When these expectations are not met, it elicits an emotional response. This process can be interpreted both emotionally and intellectually depending on the listener's training. A more intellectual or technical approach "waits for the expected resolution of a dominant seventh chord." (40) For others, musical processes are experienced emotionally without conscious consideration. What principle underlies the author's ability to elicit emotional responses from listeners? For a stimulus to elicit an emotional response, it must first produce a tendency in an individual to act or act. think in a certain way. Emotion is then aroused if this tendency to respond is inhibited. “When instinctive reactions are stimulated, this... middle of paper... sical stimulus, the musical event to which it refers, and the individual. He argues that “observed meanings are not subjective” (34) and are “real connections existing objectively in culture.” (34) He recognizes, however, that they are the product of cultural experience. This seems to suggest that one must be familiar with a particular style of music for it to make sense. Because meaning and emotion depend on our expectations, "a stimulus or gesture that does not indicate or arouse expectations about a musical event or subsequent conclusion has no meaning." Because expectations are largely a product or stylistic experience, music in a style that is completely unfamiliar to us makes no sense. (35) Meaningless is too strong a word. Do we need to completely understand the relationships between each musical stimulus in order to derive some sort of meaning from it? ??