Philosophy Now Forum

Is music a primarily, inductive science?

Is there a way to become an excellent composer, solely based on deductive reasoning? While having zero experience listening or composing music?

Can a scientist deduce that a minor chord sounds sad, by simply reading the frequency numbers, without ever actually hearing a minor chord before in hisher life, and before ever knowing any emotions associated with minor chords?

Are all musical motifs either the result of accidental experimentation, or clonings of other accidental experimentation?

Or is there an actual, deductive way a scientist, never hearing music before in hisher life, can compose a great song, based only on a couple of data points, logics, wisdoms and algorithms?

Is music mostly illogical, and mostly unmappable, except through experiment and recording, documenting and rating the successes and failures? Is it an emotional rollercoaster with no real equation other than it's own goodness?

I think music is based on the qualia of the sound. If we didn't have ears, sound, or sound-waves, then we wouldn't comprehend music, much like we cannot comprehend what it's like to be a tetrachromat if we already aren't. To ask if we would know if a chord sounds sad without ever having heard of it has an obvious answer: if we don't have the sound, then we wouldn't know if it sounds a certain way.

if you play what is written on the sheet, it is deductive

if you improvise, it is inductive

-Imp