Machine Songs III: Music in the Service of Science-Science in the Service of Music
Jon Appleton · Computer Music Journal · 1992
come from? Let me suggest that it is a by-product of self-conscious, rational thought, which we call science-the idea that everything can and should be explained. As our civilization develops and evolves, an increasing tension can be observed between disciplines that lend themselves to scientific inquiry (such as acoustics) and those, like music, that seem to constantly evade satisfactory explanation. Who among us today, aware of the recent advances in the study of cognitive processes, would attempt to account for the power of music? Leonard B. Meyer (1967) has written that,