(69) Beauty is certainly more than skin-deep. However ou mi ht define it beaut extends farbeyond the visual to that which pleases other senses and even the mind. The most important amongthese other routes for the observation of beauty is the sense of hearing. Music is routinely recognizedas beautiful. So are other sounds, like the whispering of wind through pines or the gentle purring ofa cat.
Just as philosophers and scientists have struggled to define visual beauty, they have attemptedto analyze the appeal of pleasant sounds as well. Ultimately, sonic beauty is in the ear of the behold-er. Research and intuition can, however, suggest reasons why one person considers a musical piecegorgeous while another considers it a bucketful of noise.
The existence of noise is a clue in itself. A conventional definition of noise would include ad-jectives like unwanted, annoying, disorganized, or meaningless. Sounds that have no discerniblepattern to them or that intrude on mental order are not generally considered beautiful. The relation-ship of sound to the situation is crucial. An assertive orchestral piece like Copland's "Fanfare for theCommon Man" could be strikingly beautiful at a Fourth of July celebration yet decidedly annoyingwhen it blares from someone else's apartment while you are trying to concentrate on a difficult task.
But it is the quest to discover the role of pattern that takes as beyond such intuitive judgmentsabout the beauty of sound. In the 1930s, a mathematician named George Birkhoff proposed formulasthat would place a given work score higher than less beautiful art. He proposed different specifics foranalyzing painting, or geometric figures, or poetry, or music, but his central formula is M = OZC.The symbol M stands for beauty, O for organization, and C for complexity. (70) In other words awork of music that is ve well or anized and not very complicated scores higher than a work withanization but a high degree of com Organization is good, complexity is bad.
This aspect of Birkhoff's approach clearly oversimplifies the case. Organization and complexitycontribute to the perceived beauty of a musical piece, but not as mere opposites. They entwine andinfluence the piece in combination with each other and with other factors. To illustrate this, let'sconsider one of those other factors, the musical experience and knowledge that a listener brings to apiece of music.
