Satoshi Akima writes:

>This in fact raises the crux of the issue.  It relates to the usefulness
>of notion of music as a language. [stuff about utility of pre-Copernican
>astronomical model deleted]  The question in our case is this:
>is the notion of music as a language also just a useful fiction?

What would this utility be? In what follows [deleted for brevity's sake]
Satoshi makes a case for music's value in addressing the human condition,
but is this a measure of utility? Pre-Copernican astronomical models serve
a rather different form of utility.  And, as I asked earlier, is this
useful fiction of music as language consistently experienced by all, or
even most, listeners? If it is not, what kind of language is it? When one
stretches the metaphor this far, what value does the metaphor have beyond
its poetic imagery? I must confess, for me that's enough; the music I love
"says" enough to me personally that I don't really care if it says the same
to others only approximately.  Even as a "private", if not quite secret,
language, it has value to me, and apparently to many others.  I suspect
for me is the sharing of that valuation, rather than the sharing of any
consistently transmitted "meaning", that forges the bonds between me and
this community.

len.