"Linguistic philosophers continue to argue that probably music is not a language, that is in the philosophical debate. Another point of view is to say that music is a very profound language"
About this Quote
Fripp sounds like he’s rolling his eyes at the seminar room while still borrowing its vocabulary. By framing “music is (not) a language” as something “linguistic philosophers continue to argue,” he politely quarantines the debate: interesting, maybe, but ultimately beside the point for people who actually make and feel music. The phrase “probably music is not a language” lands as a half-concession to academic precision (no agreed grammar, no stable dictionary, no propositional truth conditions), then he pivots with the more revealing move: “another point of view” that doesn’t need to win the definition war to be true in practice.
The subtext is a defense of music’s authority against a culture that often treats it as decorative or secondary to “real” meaning. Calling music a “very profound language” is Fripp reclaiming seriousness without reducing sound to a code. He’s not saying a C minor chord “means” betrayal the way a sentence does; he’s arguing that music communicates in a different register, one that hits the nervous system before it hits the intellect.
Context matters: Fripp’s career sits at the intersection of high-concept composition, rock spectacle, and disciplined practice. For someone who has built intricate structures that still aim for visceral impact, the line reads like a manifesto: stop asking music to behave like speech, then notice what it can do that speech can’t. The irony is that he uses language to insist music exceeds it - a neat, Frippian reminder that the deepest experiences often resist neat categories.
The subtext is a defense of music’s authority against a culture that often treats it as decorative or secondary to “real” meaning. Calling music a “very profound language” is Fripp reclaiming seriousness without reducing sound to a code. He’s not saying a C minor chord “means” betrayal the way a sentence does; he’s arguing that music communicates in a different register, one that hits the nervous system before it hits the intellect.
Context matters: Fripp’s career sits at the intersection of high-concept composition, rock spectacle, and disciplined practice. For someone who has built intricate structures that still aim for visceral impact, the line reads like a manifesto: stop asking music to behave like speech, then notice what it can do that speech can’t. The irony is that he uses language to insist music exceeds it - a neat, Frippian reminder that the deepest experiences often resist neat categories.
Quote Details
| Topic | Music |
|---|
More Quotes by Robert
Add to List
