Would Music Exist Without Humans?
Whether or not music would exist if humans didnot exist is rather equivocal due to the vagueness of 'the meaning of music'. Any attempt to critically discuss this question would therefore be greatly ameliorated by the predefining of apposite terminology and by the establishment of a perspective in which one could offer an argument.
Unlike a preponderant portion of philosophical writings on music that relevantly employ sociological or physiological perspectives in discussing their particular topic, the following discussion is to be alternatively based on physical and mathematical exegeses of music. It is anticipated that such an approach will support simple ratiocinated argument development based on objective premises, diminishing the potential for any subjective analysis. An aspect of the question to be considered is the distinction between the hypothetical situations of pre and post nonexistence of humankind, which may provide a dual perspective.
It is quite apparent that term �music� is extremely broad and ambiguous and that there exists no definitive classification system for what is music and what is not, as the appreciation of music is a totally relative concept to humans. A distinction though, between what forms of sound are music and what are not is to be established by a viable objective analysis of patterns occurring within appreciated forms of sound. The experience of listening to music is the result of vibrating of matter, which consequently vibrates human receptor cells, sending impulses to the brain, which interprets the sensation that is called sound. This initial definition advances the question of whether sound would exist if humans did not. Clearly if people did not exist the sensory experience of sound would not. However, a more conceptual perspective fundamentally required for this philosophical analysis is the hypothetical envisaging of sound vibrations existing in a world devoid of human existence. An initial axiom from which to develop an argument is that sound hence music, must have existence in time and as a material object in space.
There are two central aspects of musical sounds, which are to be considered in an attempt to derive a definition. The first, although perhaps psychological, is considered briefly and in a general perspective. This perspective offers the broad statement that something, which is classified as music, must be sound meaningfully interpreted by someone. Music is the meaningful combination of sounds to express feelings and ideas, a form of communication found in all cultures that evokes an emotive response from listeners. This psychological relationship between humans and particular forms of sound is evidently diverse. An analysis of why this diverse relationship in music appreciation exists is not of great importance to this discussion. More crucial is the presence of a generally consistent aspect that seems be within this variation of appreciated sounds. This consistent aspect in forms of sound that are appreciated as music is that they appear to inherently comprise either solitary or combined rhythmic, melodic and harmonic properties. Furthermore, these formal properties of music can be mathematically interpreted. Quite simply, rhythm is the continued occurrence of sound within consistent intervals of time. Melody is the variation of mathematically related tones, which are composed in a time relative to each other, and consonant harmony is the amalgamation of mathematically congruous wavelengths. The crux of this particular interpretation is to consider music as being the mathematically ordered vibration of matter, the organised movement of particular sounds through a continuum of time.
It is established that humans compose sounds to provide them with a unique form of expressive communication, though more importantly, the formal properties of these sound forms seem to intrinsically possess mathematical order. For patterned sound to exist as music, some may say it must be meaningfully utilised and interpreted by human beings. However, creation and meaningful interpretation of orderly patterned sounds is not confined to the psychological framework of human beings. This psychological relationship between humans and patterned sound can be considered analogous to relationships between patterned sounds and members of the animal kingdom.
Obvious examples of an animal that uses structured sound for communicational purposes are birds. The sounds produced by birds are considered by many to be both pleasant to the ear and a source of fascination. This fascination has resulted in the conducting of considerable scientific research into the structure and purpose of birdsong. This research has provided much insight into communicational purposes and sonogram analysis of these sounds has provided graphical representations, allowing mathematical interpretations of structural properties.
Information gathered strongly validates the belief that birdsong can be regarded as being musical in nature because it provides similar functional purposes and shares the same mathematically patterned structural properties of human defined music. Within this particular biological field it is generally accepted that birdsong is primarily either concerned with obtaining either a territory or a mate, or perhaps both. These particular communicational uses of birdsong may not be as developed as ideas and feelings expressed within human song, yet however basically instinctive they are, they do rely on the employment of created sounds for communication purposes. The structural properties of birdsong also share the same mathematically ordered structural properties related to human defined music. It may be melodic; exhibiting an organised succession of musical tones of varied pitch and related duration. There may at times be a consistent rhythmic pattern within the sounds and the repetitive use of melodies is another technique associated with music. Harmoniously textured timbre exists within the individual bird�s song and in duet the contributions of two individual birds is so well coordinated and harmoniously integrated that to the listener it seems to be produced by only one bird. This particular harmonising is perhaps similar to human interpreted harmonising relationships between unison notes or unisons and fifths. Perhaps intricate in itself, though not as complex and eclectic in source of sounds as human created music, the purpose of birdsong and its structural properties, justifies its classification as music. Although not as exemplary as birdsong, there may be other examples of musical animal communication, such as insect communication or whale communication. Upon consideration of such animal behavioral characteristics, particularly the relation between bird and song, defined music would still exist in a world without human beings, as created and interpreted ordered sounds of significant communicational purposes for beings other than human.
Music as interpreted sound is necessarily dependent upon the existence of beings to interpret the ordered sounds, which they are hearing and make sense of its evocative and communicational purposes. The characteristics of these amalgamated sounds are distinct from other forms of sound not classified as music based on comprehensible nature. Secondly, that what is emotionally interpreted as music intrinsically contains mathematical patterns, though vibrating matter could still naturally occur without people or animals, as long as it exists in time and space. Sound may therefore exist, however to what degree sounds of nature would be able to be compared to ordered musical sound is a crucial question. It is quite true that existence of many ordered sounds is largely the result of human or animal compositional structuring. Although a trivial example, I suppose that with the usage of electronic reproduction the recording of musical sounds can still enable it to exist within the technically hypothetical situation of space and time devoid of being existence.
If though there never had existed creative and interpretive beings, would there still be natural ordered patterns of sound within the world. This is indeed an abstract question, perhaps similar to asking if mathematics would exist if human beings did not. There is a significant distinction though. Mathematics is an interpretation of patterns and logical relationships occurring in nature, though this interpretable order would still exist without humans. The patterned and ordered nature of musical sounds though is generally existent in forms that are composed by beings that can meaningfully relate to these ordered sounds. Is it possible to give examples of the existence of musically ordered sounds purely in nature, that is, are there considerable examples of defined rhythmic, melodic or harmonised sound existing within nature without being creation. Extent of depth is dependent on how thorough analysis is.
Firstly, it is pertinent to analyse patterns that occur within sounds in nature. However, more specifically, are there any sounds of nature that humans can psychologically relate to beyond the mere scientific analysis and mathematical comprehension of these naturally ordered sounds? Mathematical order can be found in what some people may classify as agreeable sounds, such as the whistling wind and crashing waves. Perhaps there may be a degree of related stimulus to these natural sounds, but whether this response is tantamount to the response humans have to sounds they interpret as music is probably is uncertain. For reasons of simplified categorisation, it is necessary to draw a distinction between what we perceive as music and what we consider pleasant sounds. I regard music to be a combination of pleasant, hence ordered sounds, so complex that even in basic instances of human or animal musical creation, the chances of similar ordered sound with such intent occurring in nature are negligible. The chances of it repeating itself consistently are even more remote as are the chances of these natural sounds existing as a well-defined combination of rhythm, melody, and harmony.
Therefore, music must exist as a pleasant timbre or harmonious combination of sounds, which invariably means it must exist in a state of ordered matter vibration. The existence of this ordered sound very much can be isolated to instances resulting from human or animal instinctive use of sounds to create forms of ordered sounds that serves their emotional and communicational needs. Although sounds of an orderly structure may exist within nature, pleasant sounds exist musically only with a degree of purpose inspired complexity and essence. This complexity and essence only being achieved through the purposeful manipulation of sound by comprehending beings, that although are most obviously humans, do not have to necessarily be so.>