Why?

My last post was about two "bad attitudes" toward a new tuning borrowed
from scientific pursuit, and then a list of questions to ask yourself about
a new tuning - in a sense, scrutinizing your attitude toward it.

After I sent that post, I imagined somebody reading it and asking me,
"Are you suggesting that I need to scientifically PROVE that a tuning is
'valid' before I use it? What's the point? Isn't music supposed to be
fun?!"

If we communicated with each other with nothing but the music itself,
then perhaps there's not a whole lot of point in asking, for example,
whether others' impressions of a tuning match yours. Each performance
would be just what it is to each of us.

But the fact of the matter is that we communicate at the level of
concepts and ideas as well. Concepts and ideas, whether we like it or not,
are based upon generalization. The idea, for example, that an authentic
cadence produces a sense of finality, is a useful generalization based upon
typical usage over many years. It's useful because it can give composers a
possibility to work from.

When you're working at the level of ideas, there is often value in
stepping back and examining your basis for drawing the generalized
conclusion that your ideas are based upon. In one of my Nova videos, a
marine biologist said, "science is a just set of rules we follow to keep us
from lying to each other". To that I add, "to each other, yes, but also to
ourselves as well".

So, no, I'm not suggesting that we need to prove a tuning's validity.
My list of questions was simply to suggest ways to keep from lying to
ourselves and others when we pass on ideas to help guide our fellow tuners
through a new domain.

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