Jim Tobin:

>And finally, who is to say that birds do not delight in the beautiful
>sounds they make and hear it as what we would call music?

I know so little about animals that I hesitate to write anything.  However,
here's a favorite quote from Ralph Vaughan Williams (from The Making of
Music):

   Why do we make music? There can be no doubt that at certain emotional
   moments most people want to make particular kinds of noises.  Indeed,
   we may say with Carlyle that if we search deep enough there is music
   everywhere.  But why? Neither I, nor anyone else, has been able to
   solve that problem.  Neither I, nor anyone else, has been able to
   solve that prolbem.  But one thing we can be certain of: we do not
   compose, sing, or play music for any useful purpose.  It is not so
   with the other arts: Milton had to use the medium of words whether
   he was writing Paradise Lost or making out his laundry list; Velasquez
   had to use paint both for his Venus and to cover up the dirty marks
   on his front door.  But music is just music, and that is, to my mind,
   its great glory.  How then do I justify music? There is no need to
   justify it, it is its own justification; that is all I know and all
   I need to know.

I particularly like the bit about non-utility.  In other words, music has
only an aesthetic function, unlike other media.  I'm not sure this is true,
if I just consider musical signalling.  But non-utility strikes me as basic
to any art, if not every media.  The question for me is: Do birds sing
just for the hell of it?

Steve Schwartz