George Melillo wrote:

>I used to vex my music teachers by "swinging" Chopin.

And

>What the Taps example suggests to me is that even beginning to get a
>sense of what one putative intrinsic musical factor in one specific
>culture would be is harder then it looks.

I am reminded of a bit of pop-music trivia: When George & Ira Gershwin
were working on "Someone to Watch Over Me," the original concept was
up-tempo.  So the next time you hear a recording of Ella singing that
soulful, tender ballad, think how it would sound at triple the speed,
with a Louis Armstrong/Dixie swing.  Whether it's a cultural (learned)
way of hearing or intrinsic, it's quite astounding to see how little it
takes to change our view of the "meaning" of a given piece of music.
Now imagine "Taps" treated the same way.

Dave Wolf