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Generally a musician is not too fond of sciences,
especially of those that in his opinion have no connection with music.
Physics he perhaps allows to have its say, since he is well aware of the
acoustical conditions of his art. At mathematics, however, he looks with
scorn, because in his opinion the obvious exactitude of this science cannot
be reconciled with the artistic liberty of musical creation. Yet in former
times the scientific roots of music were embedded in mathematics. With
the continuous increase of technical knowledge in music, notably the widening
aspects of harmony and tonality, mathematics proved insufficient as a foundation.
Physical facts became a more reliable scientific basis, and nowadays we
are on the verge of entering with our research that innermost field in
which the very actions of music take place: the human mind. Thus psychology,
supplementing—in due time perhaps replacing—former mathematical,
physical,
and physiological scientiae, will become the science that eventually
illuminates the background before which the musical figures move in a state
of meaningful clarity. But this science is, as a foundation for musical
speculation and technique, even more suspect to the musician than was mathematics.
Now it is not only the sounding form of music that is violated by nonmusical
intrusion, it is the musician’s own artistic self that is attacked. The
sacred circle which he himself does not dare penetrate, save in a state
of divine delirium, seems to be blasphemed by rude-minded ignoramuses.
Something has been touched that only music itself can touch: his most personal
musical feelings.
Paul Hindemith
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