So the C scale is sort of the “first” scale because it has no sharps or flats. Middle C is an important note on pianos. So why didn’t it get the first letter of the alphabet? While we are at it, where did these letter names even come from?
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As an engineer with some background in signal processing, music theory drives me nuts! Notes are just frequencies and the division is largely artificial. Octaves make sense — a doubling of frequency, but the division of octaves into 8 unequal notes just feels unexplainable.
I gather it is what the western world has gotten used to, so now it is set in stone and unchangeable. Our ears are used to it, and different divisions and note combinations just feel weird. We’ve come to the point that we develop entire theories and stories about why they are correct — i.e. music theory.
**ETA:** you all have confirmed that musicians are as opinionated as engineers and double down as to what is “correct”. While there are measureable mathematical parts of music I really believe that it is far more complex and artistic than can be readily explained by the math. By accepting it as Art rather than Science, I think it allows one to be far more open and enjoy the incredible expressions of sound that just can’t be adequately explained mathematically.
If you break an oil painting down into the chemical composition of of the paint you have something scientific. If you break music down into measurable frequencies, you have math. In neither of those cases can it come near to encompassing the beauty that is made that is beyond the math and science.
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