. . . art, our main design, is nothing but one of the many forms of the ever-present urge for free communication.

A number of specific means of expression and understanding, which are called languages, have been developed. Man expresses himself in various ways: words are the means of literary language; numbers, of mathematical language; sounds, of musical language; and so on. Each one is specific and corresponds to equally specific needs.

The fact that we need varied means of expression is a clear indication that they are not equivalent to one another. Each one appeals to different sensory, intellectual, and emotional receptors, from which it follows that there exists a real impossibility of translating one of these languages into another. Furthermore, what would be the use of translating music into logical thoughts? In music, says Combarieu, the expression is obtained by means of sound-feelings (sensations musicales) and not by means of concepts.

Music is a language that speaks, in musical terms, of a specific musical thought, to the specifically musical sensitivity of man.

This does not mean that music has no meaning whatsoever, as has been said by some: it only means that music has a musical meaning, and not a literary meaning. Music finds a response only in those persons possessing a musical sense in a greater or lesser degree. It is just as impossible to translate music into words as to translate Cervantes into mathematical equations.

Carlos Chávez