Radiohead and Philosophy - Brandon W. Forbes [25]
There have been many attempts to answer the problem of the ontology of music. One approach, called nominalism, holds that a musical piece exists as, or is instantiated by, particular performances of that piece, or written scores or recordings of the music. There are many problems with this theory, though, such as those songs, symphonies, or other musical pieces, that are conceived by a composer but are never written down. Does a song, thought up by a song writer, fail to be a song if never actually performed or written down? That seems unintuitive, since most people would likely judge that it is still music, indeed, it is still a song, despite the lack of a performance or a written score. Another theory, idealism, holds that music is indeed a mental entity, that is, something that only exists in the mind (like an idea). But, if a Radiohead song, say, “All I Need,” only exists as an idea in Thom Yorke’s mind, then how do we know if the band’s recording of that song successfully communicated that idea to us? Since we can’t get into Thom’s head to check, we can’t be sure, and how do the other members of the band know if they’ve got the right idea (song) from Thom, too! Obviously, this is a bigger problem for those composers who are no longer alive, since we can’t ask them (but even living composers might forget what idea they had earlier held). In addition, for an idealist, it almost seems as if the performance of the song is just a cumbersome method of transmitting ideas—but that demeans or underplays the sound or auditory experience of the music, which is an odd view of music, to say the least.
On the whole, the most common theory on the ontology of music is realism, which regards music as an abstract object similar to mathematics or concepts, but without requiring that they only exist in the mind (as does the idealist). Mathematical objects, such as numbers, are not physical objects: you won’t bump into the number “9” while out taking a walk. But, most philosophers also reject the view that numbers are only mental entities: that is, if no people existed in our world, such that there were no minds, it still seems that numbers would exist (for instance, there would still be a particular number of trees, or oceans, and other objects in existence, although we’re not there to count them). What’s nice about the realist theory is that it avoids many of the problems of both the nominalist, since music isn’t confined to only existing things, as well as the idealist, since music isn’t only a mental thing. Yet, is the song “Optimistic” really like a number? And do we really know what a number is, anyway? The difficulty with stating that music is an abstract object, as the realist believes, is that we really don’t understand abstract objects. So, while realism may have some advantages over the other two theories outlined above, it still possesses many deep philosophical puzzles of its own.
Music: Emotion or Form?
In trying to answer the question, “What is music?,” one of the important related issues involves how music, to put it bluntly, works or functions. When a person listens to “15 Step,” or enjoys any type of art form, what is happening? How do artistic experiences, called “aesthetic” experiences, differ from other kinds of experiences, like a sports or work experiences? What’s the purpose or role of music in our lives?
When reflecting upon the experience of art, it’s likely that most people would find our emotional responses to art to be the most significant or obvious factor. Music, in particular, can bring about powerful emotions. The “emotion (or expression)” theory of music is based on this insight, since most people find music to be happy, sad, or any number of other emotions. Turning to the music of Radiohead, many music critics and fans have linked their songs with a host of dark or anguished emotions,