# The "Idea" of Music



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

For someone with good ears, there is 'tonal' music all the time. 

When I hear noises such as a ceiling fan whirring, motors, any sound - I can choose to hear it as several possible notes, by will. What I'm doing is tuning-in to particular harmonics, which are perceived as pitch within otherwise harmonically ambiguous noises. 

"Noise" is simply the presence of many harmonics. Drummers who have good ears tune drums in a similar way, by "tuning-in" to certain harmonics.

Classical music is not necessarily the haven of people who are actually engaged intimately with sound as sound, and hearing sound. Often people are drawn to it for cognitive reasons, as an offshoot of being literate or cultured. The sound "represents" something, rather than (or in addition to) being just sound. 

In this way, old Furtwangler recordings are admired for reasons other than fidelity, as in reading a book. In this sense, music is not sound for these, but a system of semiotics, interpretation of symbols. I suppose this is "art" in that sense, but it seems to take all the color and life out of sound itself. It's like a black-and-white reproduction of the Mona Lisa: the Platonic idea is there, the symbol is there, but much is missing or discarded as inessential.

In this sense, many are in love with the idea of music, as long as it fits their conception of what music is; but in the end, music is sound.


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