I attended Monday's section with Francesco Turrisi, which compared music and noise. Just looking through the list, this topic sparked my eye because I never considered what actually was defined as music. Personally, I have played clarinet and my own experience with music was very structured. Music involved sheet music, where I produce a series of notes that together make a harmonious sound. I would classify that as music, but the whole band playing different things together is definitely music. It's safe to say that the more I thought about what music was, the more confused I got.
Turrisi gave a much more ambiguous answer than I anticipated, talking about how subjective the very definition of music is. For one person, making an everyday sound like stomping their feet could be music while another person could require a series of notes together to be music. Really, it is up to the individual to create their own definition of music, and their own experiences and circumstances shape those definitions. In the end, I didn't leave with a clear line drawn between sound and music, but instead felt like it was up to me to determine the difference. Despite this, I thoroughly enjoyed the session and I felt like I learned a lot, helping reform my own thoughts on what constitutes music along the way.
It's interesting too how cultural the definition is: one culture's music could be another culture's noise. (This also seems generational, now that I think about it!)
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