Don Satz throws down the gauntlet:

>a.  Will any list member provide a definition of music that excludes
>Stockhausen's works as music? Somebody must be willing to tackle this
>one, and you don't even have to believe in the premise.

Don, I had to read the question twice:  I at first thought you wanted a
definition that *included* Stockhausen.  After a bit of thought I came to
the conclusion that an exclusive definition is going to be harder than an
inclusive one, but...

I will try.  I don't fancy myself a Stockhausen 'expert' or anything [can
you imagine?] but I'll give it a shot or two, with some disclaimers...As
Don says, I'm arguing, but not necessarily believing what I say.  A good
exercise.  I think I have the answer at the end, but first, an oldie but
goodie:

1.  Music is organized sound.

Of course this is the obvious answer, but tough.  Stockhausen of course
'organized' his sounds [read:music] to a certain extent, AFAIK to a greater
or lesser degree in different works.

However, this definition if taken very strictly could easily exclude
anything aleatory or otherwise improvised, depending on how you take
'organized'.  The argument goes:  why call yourself a composer if the
performers get to play what they want anyway?

Perhaps this is a stretch (or a deliberately bad reading of 'aleatory'),
but I think it is a good point of departure.  This conservative reading
would probably better serve to disqualify Cage than Stockhausen AFAIK.
I think this is not exactly what we're looking for.  We're looking for (I
think) something to disqualify those pesky avant-garde noisemakers from
the same club as Mahler and Beethoven.  Or something else?

2.  Music should communicate something from the composer to the listener,
perhaps something specific.  Not just shock.

Besides noisy chaos and/or nausea, and an acutely uncomfortable feeling.
Or helicopters.  Or screaming.  Something more like a Schubert melody, or
a sweeping bombastic passage from the Elgar Cello Concerto.  Or even a
Handel aria [sic].

And my final answer:

3.  Music should be written by people who *believe* that they are from
the planet on which they were brought into the world.  Not too tough, eh?

Now we gotta work on Nono...

'Nuf said.

Bob K.