The Importance of Good Questions
One thing that encouraged me to write the article for Jack's project was the list of questions he asked:
- Why do we make music?
- What function does it serve?
- Is there an absolute concept of music - an ideal form?
- If there is should we [be], or are we, forever striving towards that goal?
- And if so, is it ever attainable?
- Does music pre-exist, i.e. is there something called "Music" that we merely tap into when writing or performing?
- What is the value of music?
- How should we judge whether music is good or bad, or of greater or lesser importance?
- Can music be considered Art?
- What, if anything, differentiates Music from Sound?
- Does sound have to be culturally processed for it to become music, in the same way as flint must be processed for it to become a tool?
- What is it about music that makes us feel the way we do about it?
- Where did the musical behaviour come from?
- Is Music purely for entertainment?
If you've read some of my previous blog articles, such as this one, this one and this one, you will suspect that I sometimes get frustrated by the failure of music academics and music "scientists" to even ask the right questions, let alone provide any plausible answers. So seeing someone asking a series of questions, all of which made sense to me, and most of which my theory had something to say about, I took the opportunity to answer them.