Is some music better than other music?, A vexed question. Options

[wakibaki]

The question is exactly as posed in the thread title. Is some music better than other music?

For myself, I have long been convinced that some music is indeed better than other music. That all music can be ranked on a scale of 'goodness', given that no piece is necessarily of consistent quality from end-to-end.

For example, I might sing a song. I might sing it slightly out of tune in a particular passage. I might sing it again, without singing out of tune.

All other things being equal, I would rate the second rendition better than the first.

I think this applies across the board, that there is an intrinsic quality in music (or: are qualities) which make(s) it possible to say that one piece is better than another.

I know that not everybody agrees with this, some holding that there is no intrinsic quality in either piece, and that the differences are all to do with my perceptions, but I don't feel that this is adequate to explain the cultivation of musical expression and appreciation. I only got the perceptions by comparing good with worse.

Once, in the course of trying to teach a particularly obtuse guitar student, I was confronted with a somewhat existential position. 'You make a sound, I make a sound', I paraphrase his contribution, 'They're both sounds, there's nothing to make the sound you make any more valid than the sound I make.' He never did turn out much of a guitarist, but then maybe if I had been a better teacher I would have had a better answer than to burn him with a cigarette.

Despite that, I understand how some might find it offensive to be told that the music they like is intrinsically inferior to some other music. It could be seen as preferable to put it all down to personal preferences rather than risk confrontation.

I don't see anybody here backing away from a confrontation though. So, is some music better than other music?

[RobWansbeck]

The equal-tempered scale didn't replace the natural scale because it was intrinsically better but because it allowed unlimited key changes; it was a compromise between melody and harmony. Prior to the adoption of the equal-tempered scale there were a multitude of well-tempered scales where individual composers would push notes as far out of tune as they thought they could get away with to allow limited key changes. A feature of this system was that each key had an individual 'colour' due to its intervals being different to other keys.

The natural scale has not gone away. It is still used in vocal music and the blues guitarist will instinctively bend a minor third to produce a note neither minor nor major.

The difficulty in tuning a piano or organ to a non-standard scale had made it practically impossible to experiment with well-tempered scales and experience these 'colours' but electronic instruments make it easy. Set a synth to a natural scale and play a few C chords then go back to equal tempered, the discord should be obvious.

Far from being forgotten there is a renewed interest in these older scales. That the equal-tempered scale is 'better' is a matter of taste or convenience, think of all the non-western music using different scales.