Why do music key signatures work? Is there science behind why music scales sound good only with the correct notes?

Question

Title

In: 263

Answer 1

Some people will justify this with frequencies and their ratios, but that preference isn’t actually universal so that doesn’t really make sense. There are cultures that don’t use the western classical system of keys, and even western pop music doesn’t treat keys the same as Mozart did (a lot more ambiguity over what the key is nowadays)

So the “why” is just culture, but there is music theory that describes what’s going on and can be somewhat scientific

I’m alsowilling to bet that you like the sound of “wrong” notes if they’re used well, and they can really bring beauty to a piece of music