From Similarity to Distance; From Simplicity to Complexity; From Pitches to Intervals; From Description to Causal Explanation

Music Theory Online (0.9):1-9 (1994)
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Abstract

Words and phrases specifying similarity and distance abound in musical discourse. This essay explores such pitch-predicates as "matches", "is in the vicinity of, and "is closer to ... than to". Sought here are ways in which pitch and pitch-interval predicates might be inter-connected logically. Within a nominalist framework, an orderly progression from pitch- to pitch-interval-predicates can be proven and interpreted in terms of simplicity. Also indicated are connections between the present formulation and issues of (i) dimensionality and explanation in psychoacoustics, Gestalt psychology, and behaviorism, and (ii) nominalism and the "numerological fallacy" in music theory.

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Jay Rahn
York University

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References found in this work

Science Without Numbers: A Defence of Nominalism.Hartry H. Field - 1980 - Princeton, NJ, USA: Princeton University Press.
The Structure of Appearance.Nelson Goodman - 1951 - Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University Press.
The Structure of Appearance.Nelson Goodman - 1956 - Studia Logica 4:255-261.
Science without numbers, A Defence of Nominalism.Hartry Field - 1980 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 171 (4):502-503.

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