“Facts” and “Alternative Facts” are very much in the news these days. The conversation is simultaneously fascinating and horrifying. I gave up on the idea of objective facts a long time ago, but seeing American and global politics doing the same and finally being called out for doing so– that’s disconcerting. There are plenty of reasons to question the premise that there is such a thing as objective fact, but going there requires a kind of nobility of spirit and intention that seems missing. There’s also a power component here. The implications of a single private citizen acknowledging that what we consider facts are more often than not interpretations is one thing. It’s another when the most powerful people on earth start to do it.
Which brings me to a fact about music. Music isn’t a discourse of facts. When I listen to a song, write a song, or play a song, the whole question of fact never really enters the equation. Sure there’s a facticity to music. You can hold a score in your hand and look at the notes written on the page. But seldom do I find myself thinking about music factually.
The truth of music resides somewhere other than in the discourse of facts. As for where the truth of music resides, that’s an open question that I have to think about more deeply.