The Big Question

The big question is: What is Music?.

It seems an easy question to answer, because we are all so familiar with music. But being familiar with something is not the same thing as knowing what it is.

When I ask myself this question about music, I ask it as a scientific question. So I want an answer which relates music to our scientific understanding of the world. And I want an answer that makes predictions about music (and for bonus points, it should make predictions about other things besides music).

Other people's attempts to answer the Big Question ...

The question, "What is Music?", and its many answers ...

Current Developments

My ideas and theories about music are currently under very active development.

All the newest developments are being posted to my blog.

The Glial Illusion Hypothesis

Very recently I have developed the hypothesis that music is actually a glial illusion, and more specifically, music may be a super-stimulus for the glial perception of slow speech tempo.

Musical Examples

Some tunes I have written

My Book: What is Music? Solving a Scientific Mystery (2005)

The book that I wrote a while ago can be downloaded here.

Some of the ideas in that book I still consider relevant. For my latest thinking, see my blog.

 Copyright © 2006-2024 Philip Dorrell