music is not an application of mathematics

Sure it is! Well, music came first, and the reason for why it works like it does was discovered later, but it's full of math! You measure frequency in cycles per second, what you call an octave is just a doubling of the frequency, equal temperament is when the adjacent notes have a frequency ratio of 2^(1/12), musical instruments resonate because their dimensions are carefully chosen to do so, the timbre of an instrument is related to its frequency content (overtones), which can be worked out using Fourier transforms...it's all math! Then you have physics...the sound moving through the air to your ears, room reflections, electronic pickups, acoustics of your performance hall...the list goes on...

What I meant was the reason why a musical instrument does what it does is entirely math and physics - I wasn't referring to meter/tempo at all!