Walter Meyer writes:

>Like you, I'm not particularly convinced by Pater's statement.  I prefer:
>
>"The science of Pure Mathematics, in its modern developments,
>may claim to be the most original creation of the human spirit.
>Another claimant for this position is music."
>
>Alfred N. Whitehead, *Science and the Modern World*

Deference to Prof. Whitehead aside, I would dispute this assertion.
One could argue that any intelligent species will eventually develop
mathematics, but it is not all clear that that would be the case for
music.  And evne though the particular focus of an alien mathematics
might be different, it would stiull be very likely to be intelligible
to human mathematicians.  Again, I would not expect that if an alien
music.  The difference is that pure mathematics has little "subjective"
content; it follows from observations of physical reality (e.g., counting
things).  Music, on the other hand is quite subjective in origin.

len.