Sounding Intentions: The Definition of Music and the Intention to Produce Sound
G. Giacosa · Utrecht University Repository (Utrecht University) · 2017
Music is often described as a universal phenomenon. Nonetheless, it still lacks a precise and consistent definition – whence derive issues and misunderstandings in interdisciplinary research. The goal of this thesis is to achieve a new definition of music, considering both philosophical and empirical analyses. Borrowing concepts from several fields (semiotics, cognitive sciences, and neurosciences), I take the lead from the acknowledgement of the innateness of musicality in humans. In order to separate the subjective and objective elements of music, I employ the perception of an acoustic event as music by a human as the main means of evaluation. Going through traditional definitions of music, and focusing on the concept of order, I detect two unavoidable elements: the intention to produce sound and the intelligibility of such sound. Acknowledging the possibility for music to respond to several functions simultaneously, I define music as “sound produced with the main intention to produce sound, the transmission of which allows for the identification of such intention and its preeminence (over other eventual functions).” Searching for a confirmation of my definition (and hypotheses), I focus on empirical information relevant to the perceptive process, musical meaning, and musicality – also considering the issue of non-human music.