Donald Satz wrote:

>>I've been on the list over two years and have never noticed any consensus
>>on a definition of music.  Yet, we keep posting on the subject of music
>>every day.  And, I submit that each of us knows what we're talking about
>>and what others are talking about.

David Stewart replied.
>Because everyone consciously or unconsciously knows that you mean organised
>sounds when you say music.  If you were to say, 'I can hear music coming
>from the street' when someone was starting up their car, THEN no-one would
>know what you were talking about.  Of course, you don't really think that
>that is music, do you.

What does it mean organised sounds? Chiming clocks produce organised sound
but they are not music in my view.  I have stood in the street and heard
a car starting and been reminded of a piece of music.  Likewise when
a workman bangs a nail into wood or a bird chirps.

This whole question of what is music is utterly inponderable.  We can
never agree on a suitable definition.

I hope that most people will accept that music is in the ear of the
beholder.  So, given this we find that the foundations of many of our
discussions here are insecure.

Thus, we cannot hope to arrive at an acceptible definition of a
composer's/conductors greatness or arrive at a concensus about
over/underrated works.

Bob Draper
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