Music theory for nerds
I've skimmed a lot of articles on music "theory" but none of them provide anything like what I'm looking for. A music theory should explain:<p>1. Why do we like pieces when played forward but not backward or inverted?<p>2. Why do certain sounds evoke certain emotions?<p>3. How could you write a program to pick out music that people find especially good (versus music that has surface similarities)?<p>In other words, why does a particular sequence of sounds A, B, C lead to a mental state M that has particular internal qualities?