Subjective vs. Objective in Music

Music is simultaneously concrete and abstract. On the one hand, music is definite--it contains objectively discernible rhythms and pitches. At its moment of existence, it has a specific tone and aural character, and it can be written down, so that it can be recreated.

Vladimir Horowitz

At the same time, listening to music is a fundamentally subjective experience. As everyone knows, the joy of music is not (at least not in the larger part) in knowing what pitches or rhythms are played, but in listening to them be played. And, if any joy is gained from, say, reading a piece from sheet music without an instrument, it is in audiation that the joy lies--that is to say, it is in the playing of the music in one's own head.

Truly, music is both subjective and objective. I might love the way that Vladimir Horowitz plays Chopin, and it may really mean something to me, but that doesn't mean that it means the same thing to me that it means to Vladimir Horowitz. In fact, I'd be quite surprised if Horowitz felt the same way about the music of Chopin he plays as I do about the music of Chopin he plays. 

And that right there is really neat.