The Soundtrack of Life: A Foray into the Ontology of Musical Works

Author: Emilio Kershner

Field of Study: Arts and Humanities

Program Affiliation: Humanities Research Opportunities (HRO)

Faculty Mentors: Daniel Burkett

Easel: 60

Timeslot: Afternoon

Abstract: Historically, classical music has been the domain of compositions and jazz the realm of performance, but the question “what kind of entity is the work in rock music?” has caused some doubt. Strong cases have been made for rock’s claim to recordings, songs, and live performances. This paper will show how disagreements over the ontology of rock give cause to question the very method of constructing higher-order ontologies because of two problems: that of category overlap and that of form/genre conflation. It will be argued that the category overlap problem challenges existing rock ontologies while the form/genre conflation problem gives us a method of constructing a new one. A formal ontology which categorizes musical works based on their form rather than their soundscapes is then posited as the best way to address both issues.