As to what distinguishes music from other sound, some investigators in both
philosophy and cognitive scientists have answered “tonality.” It seems subservient even
to rhythm. Tonality is considered to be the central factor around which the piece is
oriented; it gives a sense of home, expectation, and completeness. Most important, much
of this inquiry builds on naturalistic, evolutionary explanation to account for human nature
and behavior. The conclusion of such line of thought is that sounds missing tonality or
tonal focus cannot be music. This article challenges such sort of naturalistic criteria
distinguishing music from nonmusic. Permitting certain sets of sounds to be considered
music does not necessitate denial or approval of naturalistic explanations but does allow
nontonal music to serve a part of human and musical evolution
