"There's geometry in the humming of the strings, there's music in the spacing of the spheres." ~ Pythagoras

Music is a universal truth.

The most pleasing musical intervals (the fifth, the fourth, the octave, the tone) are all produced by the simplest mathematical ratios.

If the diatonic system exists mathematically in the natural universe, perhaps this is the ultimate reason why the art itself is so mysterious and powerful to experience, and it is a fact which only makes music itself more beautiful.

For many modern composers, however, music is a social construct. Music is as society decides it to be- and eventually all sound. But this presents a problem - all sounds, even those of war and abuse must then be considered as music - can we really accept this?

Perhaps music is sound that has an emotional appeal. Music can call to mind such feeling. With the surge of a chord, with the utterance of a phrase it can stir and affect to evoke such powerful emotions; the obedient beauty of a Mozart Piano Concerto, the furious passion of a Wagnerian opera, the terrible, heart wrenching tragedy of Barber’s Adagio for Strings. Yet, all the while, there is no obvious reason why we should find the notes Mozart arranged as beautiful, or Wagner’s as furious or Barber’s as tragic.

Mathematical phenomenon, social construct, emotional sound - the only certainty, it seems, is that music necessitates a wealth of questioning.

sound waves

Anything that involves real instruments (not computers) and singing, about things other than air force ones or that crap.

I don't believe music is all sound waves. For somebody to say that a car engine or a smoke detector is music I think is wrong. I think that in some fashion those sounds could be incorporated into music, but I think the thing music must have above all else is some type of organization, even if that organization is chaotic.

Music to everyone is different. I listen to ICP, eminem, slipknot, and many other groups for fun but true music to me is the hum of my welding lead. that is the most soothing music I think I can hear.

Music is anything and everything. It is all around you. Even when i am typing this i am hearing music from the keyboard. As long as your hear a song repeatedly it can be music. It doesn't even have to be repeated. All you have to do is listen for a sound and you hear music. I love music. I can't deal without it or i would go CRAZY.

Well in my music appreciation class we found musics direct definition to be "the movement of sound through time" or something like that. but it's a little different for me haha. and as to what that person who said "not all sounds are music" most of the instrumental composers from the year about 1920 or 1930 to now would disagree. Everything that was taught through the generations were thrown out the window this past century regarding major and minor keys, rhythm, tempo. I personally think it's rediculous and just giving in to the idea that you "can do anything in the world" anyways though MY definition of music would have to be "organized sound through time adding to an ideal or subject to build to a climax." or something like that.

Someone mentioned that the sound of a welding torch is music to them- i like that!! i agree that music is the language of the soul. i've got a musical background, and in listening to everything from symphony pieces to creed to solo piano, i can FEEL the music on a PROFOUND level. but i also find music in forest sounds, and the rhythm of the surf, or soft nightnoises in the mountains, or even in silence- when i'm sitting on top of a mountain looking out over THOUSANDS of miles of alaskan wilderness.....that silence can be the loudest of all, you know? music can be found in anything that delights you.

Music really is nothing more than sound waves causing vibrations in one body part or another. It is your interpretation of them that really ditates definitions.

Then there are those that believe that music is more the silences between the notes than the notes themsleves.

my dad always said “muisc is sound that is soothing to the soul” Do you agree with this? I want opinions…but agreements are fine too i guess….

Phisicaly it is sound waves. Mentaly it is (depending on what type it is) emotion, strength and/or energy in its pure form.