Abstract

This paper explores a model of the musical experience based on the work of Jacques Lacan and Julia Kristeva. The topics dealt with herein include: Lacan's mirror stage theory, the entrance into language, and the constitution of the human psyche ; Kristeva's theory of the semiotic, the symbolic , and modern poetry; music as a fundamentally semiotic system of signification; a comparison of modern poetry with music and the perception of connotative or multiple meanings in each; a three-tiered model of the musical experience; the relation between music, language and the concept of imaginary equation; music and emotion; the function of music as a signifying system and form of art; the relation between musical languages and the imaginary