music , mind , thought and emotion

I second the malt. Another note, to repeat what I have written elsewhere; I astart enjoying music the most when my cognitive part intervenes the least. Then, I listen to the music rather than pondering on HOW am I perceiving/listening to the music (the "HOW" includes the system, the recording...).

Strange: As an art, music is particular in that it requires TWO types of musicians in order to be experienced: the composer AND the performer. Cheers!

The ear is a physical interface between the external and the internal; the internal mind "interprets", not the ear. So, what does it "interpret" and what is the nature of that process? Just because what is interpreted is physical/material (sound wave) doesn't mean that that nature determines the interpretation. Those attached to materialism believe this and default to that, er, interpretation; namely, that the material is first in time in the process and therefore determitive of the result of that process in the mind.

So, what is the process/nature of interpretation? I'm not sure Ohn if you meant to say this ("take music to the level of thought only"), but the mind does not percieve only through thinking; that is another Cartesian/materialist bias that keeps us from looking at what might be the nature of our trans-thinking ways of percieving.

The place in the mind where we percieve trans-thinking is absent thinking. And, since language is based on thinking, its very hard to talk about it - but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. The nature of that space is open-ness and receptivity to that which is external; the process is a movement from thinking about sound to experiencing music; the way we describe it is to talk about its effects in ourselves and to share that experience.

You like the initial effects of single malt (a dram or two) because it makes the thinking mind "let go" of its thinking (the calm feeling). Its not a coincidence that we sometimes combine it with music listening. We turn of the lights for the same reason during listening; because it detaches the visual and the thinking mind is very visually orientated (having to do with our evolutionary predator past)

The "soul" is open to interpretation, but not by mechanical means because those means (technology) are a product of thinking and the experience of one's sole is beyond thinking's ability to encompass it (since thinking arises from it, this would even make logical sense; like the man who goes out his front door to see if he's at home...).

Love to hear you talk about it though, Oz. You too, ohn.

If music is "soul satisfying" then what is it satisfying?

I liked your ear-definition, Onhwy61!
speach, screams, thuds, winds or ANY sounds including music represent a data for ear to be transfered to the brain. A musical instrument can be called a transmitter of music if operated by musician into our brains and certainly musician's as well.
There are even some exceptions that took place in our history: for example Beethoven is considered to be a composer and musician who later-on became deaf and was only receiving very very little information from ear to the brain or let's say through vibrations occured in the piano cover to his head.
Nowdays not only musicians exist with musical instruments or voices as primary sources, but there are secondary as well: recording and reproducing equipment...

No tickets...! (Indiana Jones - The last Crusade). Hahaha... Sorry, can't help it. Hahaha...Hahaha... HAHAHA...HAHAHA...

I think of the mind as a pattern recognition/recall device. External sensory stimulation is filtered, manipulated, discarded and/or saved. Music is not the air fluctuation picked up by our senses, but instead is the patterns constructed within our minds. Whether it's listening to a live performance, sitting in front of your hi-end system, reading a score from sheet music or simply recalling a particular song from memory, the music can only take place within the mind. The external, or in the case of memory, internal stimulus triggers the pattern recognition/recall appartus into operation and the relationships between pitch and rhythm over time is created/discerned.

One conclusion of this way of thinking is that you don't need audiophile grade equipment to fully enjoy music. There's no reason that for any given person that a Bose Wave radio could not excite the same mind patterns as a vinyl driven Sound Lab system. The link between the stimulus and the mental patterns generated is arbitrary.