Toward an epistemology of composition

Abstract

The text is in four parts. In the first, I state reasons for why a theory of composition, when elaborated on the knowledge level of mental representations (in contrast to the level of information processing), is of benefit to systematic musicology, and why it is an integral part of that science. In the second, I focus on the goals and requirements of the theory and, in part three, comment on the limits of the enterprise entitled “Artificial Intelligence and Music.” Then, in part four, I introduce an epistemology of ‘rule‐based’ composition, a term that for me encompasses constraint‐and criteria‐based approaches. I consider composition a variety of design, and outline three approaches to compositional design, emphasizing music. The thesis overall is that as long as musicology does not also adopt Composition as a paradigm and topic of research, basing itself entirely on assumptions about Listening (an activity that is poorely understood), the chances for musicology to mature as a science are not very good.

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