Genotype

Biologists use the term genotype to refer to all the hereditary programmes that can be realised in different apparent forms or phenotypes. I have used this terminology, but with a slight twist. I call a musical genotype a particular programme, and not a general one, by adopting the hypothesis that in many cases where musical traits offer strong resemblances and are accessible to listening or analysis, one can see in them the result of patterns operating in a similar or comparable way. Such generating programmes might likely lead to diverse musical realisations according to cultural contexts. Besides the lesser semantic extension, the difference with the meaning of the same term among geneticists lies of course in the character of much fewer constraining incentives in the world of culture than in strictly biological determinisms. But the resemblance supposes that at least several of these genotypes are also embedded in our neural circuits, and that they determine related musical phenotypes at least partially and through various cultures.