Modeling the relationship between scientific and bibliographic classification for music

Scientific classification is an important topic in contemporary knowledge organization discourse, yet the nature of the relationships between scientific and bibliographic classifications has not been fully studied. This article considers the connections between scientific and bibliographic classifications for music, taking general discourse about scientific classification and domain analysis as its starting point. Three relationship characteristics are posited: similarity, causation, and time. In discussions about similarity, “accords” and “discords” are analyzed. Further, the idea of a scale of accord is introduced, and issues with assuming a univocal scientific or bibliographic classification of music are discussed. Causation and the idea of influence between scientific and bibliographic classifications for music are unpicked. The connections between accordance and influence are explored, and the concept of differing purposes for different classification approaches is analyzed. A temporal dimension is considered, and the dynamic nature of connections between music scientific and bibliographic classifications is established. The idea of bifurcation is introduced—a change of accordance over time—which is prominent for musical instrument classification. The concluding model visualizes similarity, causation and temporal aspects as three dimensions, showing how scientific and bibliographic classifications for music are connected through a set of interconnected and complex relationships.