Musical semantics: Dimensions, processes, and neural correlates 109 ment, so to speak, trusting that what follows will clarify the meaning of the unex-pected consequent. (2) If no clari cation takes place, the mind may reject the whole stimulus and irritation will set in. (3) The expected consequent may be seen as a purposeful blunder. Whether the listener responds in the rst or third manner will depend partly on the character of the piece, its mood or designative content. The third response might well be made to continuing music whose character was comic or satirical” (ibid., pp. 29–30). “From this point of view what a musical stimulus or series of stimuli indicate and point to are not extra-musical concepts and objects but other musical events which are about to happen. This is, one musical event (be it a tone, a phrase, or a whole section) has meaning because it points to and makes us expect another musical event” (ibid., p. 35).The structural relations of musical events can also lead to emotional responses (such as surprise, increase in tension, relaxation, etc.; see also Lerdahl, 2001; Bigand et al., 1996; Lerdahl & Krumhansl, 2007), which can, in turn, have meaning for the individual. I will differentiate between these two dimensions (intra-musical mean-ing, and emotional responses to music), and thus deal with the dimension of emo-tional meaning in the following section on musicogenic meaning. 6 Musicogenic meaning The previous sections dealt with meaning emerging from the interpretation of mu-sical information; this section deals with meaning emerging from the interpretation of physical, emotional, and personality-related effects elicited by music. That is, listeners do not only interpret musical information expressed by another individual, but also the effects evoked by the music in themselves. There is scarcity of empirical data on these dimensions of meaning, therefore the following sections on musico-genic meaning mainly provide theoretical considerations that need empirical test-ing.Physical Individuals tend to move to music (singing, playing an instrument, dancing, clap-ping, conducting, head-nodding, tapping, swaying, etc.), that is, individuals tend to show physical activity in response to, and in synchrony with, music. Merely the fact that an individual shows such activity has meaning for the individual; in addition, the way in which the individual moves expresses meaning information: These 6 With regard to the relation of expectancy, emotion, and meaning, Meyer’s basic hypothesis states that affect is aroused when an expectation, a tendency to respond activated by the musical stimulus situ-ation, is temporarily inhibited or permanently blocked. Meyer suggests that in musical experience the same stimulus (the music) activates tendencies, inhibits them, and provides meaningful and relevant resolutions for them. Meyer notes that formalist and expressionist views may see the meaning of mu-sic as being essentially intra-musical (non-referential). His studies are concerned “with an examination and analysis of those aspects of meaning which result from the understanding of and response to rela -tionships inherent in the musical progress rather than with any relationships between the musical or -ganization and the extra-musical world of concepts, actions, characters, and situations. The position adopted admits both formalist and absolute expressionist viewpoints” (Meyer, 1956, p. 3).