The Quest For The Origin of Music ...

     Throughout the generations, there have been many musicologist and philosophers who claimed to have the theory or explanation of the Origin of Music. However, they never had a concrete answer that was accepted by all. When I say accepted by all, I mean that the explanation was so compelling that even the doubters struggled to doubt it. I'm not going to get into the other theories or explanations out there; so you can call me a doubter of their explanations. They mainly focus on theories around the origin of the concept of music, rather than the origin of the material needed to create the music.

Before we go further, we need to define what a theory is. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines Theory as:

• “A plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena.”
• “A belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action.”
• “A hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation.”
• “An unproved assumption.”

      You see, theories of themselves aren't facts. Theories are simply assumptions made to try and explain facts. Their purpose is to provide an explanation of why something is the way it is. However, any explanation needs to be tested to be proven True or False; making it a True Fact or False Theory. Science is a subject with many Theories; and in many ways, music is scientific in its underlying principles. They both have Theories. But remember, Theories have to be tested and not just accepted.

      With what you'll be presented with in this book, some of you will believe that it takes faith to accept it. Others will downright reject the very concept before I even begin. All I ask is that you treat it like a Science Theory and put it through the same validation process. Meaning, test it.

SCIENCE vs FAITH

      I once heard a Neuroscience Atheist Professor, who I'll call Professor D., say it like this;

      “Science says Faith relies on historical writings about events that do not appear to have conformed to the expectations we have of how the universe works. And which cannot now be verified. Thus the truth claims they make are untestable. And so belief in those claims relies exclusively on faith.

      Science starts with observations of the universe that we have made and can be verified by others and then uses those observations to make hypotheses about the underlying natural principles that govern the universe, and ultimately to test those hypotheses and see if they’re correct. We do this through experiments. If the universe acts in predictable ways, we support these hypotheses, if not we let them go.  Science has testability and ability to show falsibility … Science has to be verifiable. Science can measure these things, make predictions and see if they can conform to our hypotheses. If we’re wrong, we will let it go...”

      I agree with Professor D. on the fact that Theories and Hypotheses need to be tested for predictable results. But it should go like this:

      You see, music is the obvious concept. Whoever was the first to label music as the combining of sounds made from natural means like the human voice, hand clapping, sounds of animals, nature, or instruments, was simply the one who discovered something that already existed. I hope that person had a good patent on it and is enjoying their royalty payments. But let's be clear, that is not the Origin of Music.

      It's like a wooden chair. There can be an obvious theory that the chair was made of wood. That can be tested to show a predictable True or False result. After the experiments, you would conclude that the wooden chair came from wood. Therefore this theory can be considered to be “True” and can graduate to a “Fact”. But that's not the real origin.

     The next obvious theory could be that the wood came from a tree. That can be tested to show a predictable True or False result. Therefore when you find that tree, you can claim that you basically found where the wooden chair came from. After some experiments, you would conclude that the wooden chair came from tree “X”. Therefore this theory can be considered to be “True” and can graduate to a “Fact”. But that's not the real origin.

     The next obvious theory could be that the tree came from a planted seed. That can be tested to show a predictable True or False result. Therefore you could find out who planted the seed and where they got that seed from. Then you can plant the same seed for yourself to see if it grows into the same tree over time. After that experiment, you would conclude that the wooden chair came from that seed. Therefore this theory can be considered to be “True” and can graduate to a “Fact”. But that's not the real origin.

The answer to the Origin Question is in the answer to the following question. Who made the first seed?

In a musical context, the answer would come from a few questions:

• Who created the sounds?
• Why do we associate the sounds we hear as music?
• Why are we programmed to know that the combination of specific sounds, sound good enough for us to label it as music?

      Those are the real questions; and that's what I'll be covering in the pages of this book. The Testability, Predictability and Validity of the concept that God created Music.