Re: (OT) Music

John Cowan
> Michael Poxon scripsit:
>
> > You only need your ears and heart to appreciate music, but rather more than
> > that to appreciate maths!
>
> Well, it depends what kind of music it is: some need plenty of training
> before you can appreciate them, if ever.
Which kinds of music? I, sans training, appreciate some music that to
others is mere cacophony. (And vice bloody versa when my wife goes on
a Wagner binge!)

But my fading recollection of Jackendoff & Lerdahl's _A generative
theory of tonal music_ (which book Dirk is far more able than me to
appreciate) is that they contend that tonal music is like a language
that has to be acquired: we do need 'training', but it is the sort
of training that we are all biologically predisposed to acquire without
effort during early youth.

--And.

Reply