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. . . there is but one kind
of language, one
kind of method for the verbal formulation of “concepts”
and the verbal
analysis of such formulations: “scientific” language
and “scientific” method.
Without even engaging oneself in disposing of that easily disposable, if
persistent, dichotomy of “arts” and “sciences”
(or, relatedly, “humanities”
and “sciences”)—that historical remnant of a colloquial
distinction—it only need be
insisted here that our concern is not whether music has
been, is, can be, will be, or should be a “science,”
whatever that may
be assumed to mean, but simply that statements about music must conform
to those verbal and methodological requirements which attend the possibility
of meaningful discourse in any domain. . . .
Milton Babbitt
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