Is The Way We Listen To Music Hard-Wired In Our Brains?

“Why is it that we hear the E-flat major of Beethoven’s “Eroica” symphony as heroic (and not just because of the symphony’s name)? Are such judgments inherent in the frequencies of the sound itself–in the way our brains process the wavelengths? Is our emotional reaction hard-wired or is it a matter of convention, a set of responses that are learned and that differ from one musical culture to another?”