"What is "Truth" in music?

Away from the music scene I lead another life as a university lecturer/
researcher. One of the subjects I teach is epistemology ("epis-ta-
what?" I hear you say...). To cut a long story short, this subject is
taught to anyone seeking a doctorate. Why? To earn the title 'Dr'
requires that a person makes a 'contribution to knowledge' (i.e.
establishes as 'true' something that no other person has previously
established as true). It helps to know what "truth" is, how it is
established, why some claims of truth are reliable and some not, when
you are trying to establish something as true.

It struck me, considering events over the last month, that such a
discussion is quite revealing about music. For me - as a music
publisher - what information should I believe and what should I
disregard? Should I take the number of track plays as the most
important measure of a developing market? Should I perhaps be more
interested in the number of downloads? Or are sales the 'true'
measure of consumer interest?...."

To read the full article see http://www.newhorizonsmusic.co.uk

Dear all,

The link should have been http://www.newhorizonsmusic.co.uk/news.htm
but this new system does not allow editing after posting (so far as I
can tell). I stress that this article link is posted for the purposes
of philosophical discussion, not for the purposes of advertising.

Best wishes
Rory

Truth in music seems different than truth in music-publishing. Sales
statistics are germane for the later, perhaps less so to a music
composer.

If there is truth in music perhaps it is less in how many copies of a
piece are sold than in how much of an emotional impact it has on each
listener. In my, admittedly biased, view there is more "truth" in a
Bach fugue than in an advertising jingle even if the jingle gets more
plays per day.

Ed

On Mar 4, 2:35 pm, "Dr Ridley-Duff" tiscali.co.uk>
wrote:

On Mar 4, 11:35 am, "Dr Ridley-Duff" tiscali.co.uk>
wrote: