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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 9629518">I am not so sure we understand this better than Mozart did. He understood differently but you can teach someone music theory and they won't be able to replicate Mozart. I think people are still trying to understand Mozart because he had such a strong command of that style of music. Also while I definitely think Music theory is a good thing. It can be blinding too. You see this if you watch youtube videos of classical musicians listening to modern music and then playing it by ear on a piano (often times their mind fills in the blanks based on music theory and they play notes that aren't actually present on the recording: it is a completely understandable error but ends up producing something that actually sounds different). I am only modestly proficient in music theory and it can sometimes steer me wrong or blind me too. And to be clear I am not complaining about it. I think music theory has value. I also think music theory isn't for everyone. Some composers are well served by it, some aren't. And for some composers, a little music theory goes a long way, while too much music theory ruins a good thing. It is really individual. I will say though again on this point: music theory is generally expanding its ability to describe different styles of music. But when it is used to limit other styles or play favorites it doesn't illuminate. Western music theory is based on 12 tones, but some forms of music, like middle eastern have microtones and have 24 tones. So if you learned a 'middle eastern' scale when you were a kid that used western music theory it was usually a very reductive understanding of middle eastern music that tried to compress those 24 tones into the 12 tone system (and there isn't anything wrong with that, Slayer got a lot of mileage out of it and it sounds great, but it misses the nuances of real middle eastern music)</blockquote>

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