Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

What Are Scale-degree Qualia?

2017; Oxford University Press; Volume: 39; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/mts/mtx014

1533-8339

Benjamin Hansberry,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

Nearly every kind of tonal theory invokes some notion of scale degrees. One way to describe the experience of scale-degree perception is as “qualia,” introspectively available aspects of experience that give what it is like to undergo that experience. This article examines the nature of scale-degree qualia on the basis of their phenomenology and, drawing on thought experiments from philosophy of mind, presents an inflationary account of scale-degree qualia, separating them from other types of musical qualia and other concepts related to scale degrees. I argue that the attribution of scale-degree qualia is a kind of interpretive judgment that can be unconscious or, if the qualia are tied to musical concepts, conscious, thereby giving the listener a degree of control over the qualitative content of their experience.