This is a very difficult term to define — which may be why we’ve been reticent to tackle it for the Word for the Day. The problem is, everyone has their own subjective answer to the question “What is music?” In the broadest sense, we define “music” as “organized sound.” (Before anyone yells about aleatoric music being based on random parameters or events, in our opinion, the process of “performing” or capturing aleatoric music organizes it to a certain extent…)

In a more populist sense, most music consists of repeatable sound events organized by rhythm, pitch, articulation, dynamics, small- and large-scale form, and other parameters.