Steve Schwartz writes:

>If music were a language (and I mean human music, not what birds do),
>then it must have a grammar, which is simply a description of how
>language means.  This leads to all kinds of trouble in the case of
>music, particularly with avant-garde and even not-so-avant-garde music.

This leaves me feling a little uneasy.  Why? Just pondering the meaning of
the word "grammar" suggests an affinity to the ways of music.  Grammar, a
branch of linguistics, deals with the inflexion of language, its phonetic
system, and with the arrangement of words in a sentence.  Music deals with
notation, inflexion of sound, and the arrangement of orderly passages.
Following this spoor, avant garde music, then, could be found to be a
dialect of orthodox classical music.

Denis Fodor