The Foundation of Musical Action Cannot be Music Theory

1. We consider that A is the conceptual ground or foundation of B when the cognition of B is impossible without the cognition of A, and A is immediately certain for our intuition. We say that A gives a semantical self-image, for it does not need further explanation, but B cannot produce a semantical self-image.

2. Music Theory has developed since Antiquity with the aid of mathematics, reaching today a fully mathematical status.

3. Mathematics is a formalized symbolic language.

4. Tarski’s theorem states that a formalized language cannot produce a semantical self-image.

Therefore, music theory could not be the ground of musical action or of anything else.

In fact, music theory -as well as musical action- are based on the social life of the human group, which in turn are based on the homeostatic protocols for survival: emotions.