This is a most interesting thread and fits in with a very recent
scientific report by some behavioral psychologist dealing with learning
music by rhesus monkeys.  These monkeys were taught to press a button for
food when they heard a song that they had been taught.  They performed
perfectly with simple children's tunes.  They did just as well with other
simple tunes that the experimenters composed, but only with tunes that had
a "well defined tonal center." Obviously atonal (but equally simple) tunes
were total failures.  The authors were loathe to speculate much on the
meaning of these results and noted that there was no scientific, objective
way to measure a degree of atonality.  Is this really true? Any thoughts on
the philosphical implications for our struggles with atonality in classical
music?

Bill Walsh in Auburn, Alabama