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The Benefits of Music and the Meaning of a Work of Art
A great piece of musical art provides society with benefits every bit as useful as the benefits derived from a scientific finding. Success in musical art means modeling possible human situations or experiences.
Just as science illuminates some aspects of reality using torches of reason, art illuminates other aspects using torches of emotion. Humans learn from both.
A work of art must in some way model or demonstrate a possible human situation or experience. Otherwise it will not evoke a response. Great art, whether musical, literary, or visual, reflects human universals. If a work of art reaches you emotionally, it teaches you something about survival. You may not be able to put it into words, but you remember it.
A work of art is to emotional life what a scientific paper is to intellectual life. Songs and paintings and novels serve as emotional “lab demonstrations,” so to speak. They teach us how to survive.