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The Philosophy of Music

The philosophy of music has been a topic that has fascinated philosophers and music lovers since cavemen first banged on the cave walls with rhythm. It has an unparalleled ability to touch the soul of a human because of its unique ability to speak the language of humanity – it is a universal language. There is no art form can access the soul of all humanity as accurately as music.

Philosophers have strained to concretely define music because of its fluidity and versatility. Merriam-Webster takes a great attempt at this task: “the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” The main idea in this definition is that of organized sound. The birds chirping, commonplace speech, and random banging are not music because the is not organized. Peter Kivy, a philosopher from Rutgers University, adds to this definition by stating that music is organized sound and a universal language such as love. This is a wonderfully accurate cavoite; regardless of language or region a human would understand a sad song to be sad and a happy song to be happy on an intuitive level. From this, I draw the definition of music to be organized sound that intentionally communicates to a person’s emotions.

This ability to communicate allows music to serve a meaningful purpose in existence. It aids in a person’s understanding of the world. An MIT student wrote that, “Most adults have some childlike fascination for making and arranging larger structures out of smaller ones. One kind of musical understanding involves building large mental structures out of smaller, musical parts. Perhaps the drive to build those mental music structures is the same one that makes us try to understand the world.” Music gives us a sense of understanding which is soothing. Secondly, music can be used to create a mental state. An athlete listens to exciting music before competing. A student listens to Bach while studying. A person with a broken heart has a song that they play on repeat to soothe their emotions. All these are examples of music creating a desired mental state. Lastly, music is a great distraction. We are all running from our idle mind, and music keeps the wheels busy.

            Although music has served the same purposes for the soul throughout its existence, it has continuously evolved and grown. In the past forty years, there has been a profound transition from lyrics accompanying instrumentation created by instruments to instrumentation created by computers. This has lowered its ability to touch the soul. Secondly, music is growing in diversity. It used to be reserved for lullabies and church hymns, but it has grown increasingly difficult to put music into a genre. Lastly, music is becoming more and more accessible through technology. Our phones and computers make music easier to listen to and create.

           

“Music … stands quite apart from all the [other arts]. In it we do not recognize the copy, the repetition, of any Idea of the inner nature of the world. Yet it is such a great and exceedingly fine art, its effect on man’s innermost nature is so powerful, and it is so completely and profoundly understood by him in his innermost being as an entirely universal language, whose distinctness surpasses even that of the world of perception itself, that in it we certainly have to look for more than that exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi [“an unconscious exercise in arithmetic in which the mind does not know it is counting”] which Leibniz took it to be… We must attribute to music a far more serious and profound significance that refers to the innermost being of the world and of our own self.”

Arthur Schopenhauer