Quote:
Originally Posted by DanaC
I generally describe music badly.
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Yeah, me too!!
I ought to be able to give a better answer considering that I got a BA in music history and went to grad school for a couple years in music history.
But the bottom line is, music is made up of patterns--different kinds of patterns depending on the kind of music, but still patterns. People who write music put the patterns together in particular ways. If they're hacks, then they're generally copying what other people have done. If they're good, they'll take existing patterns and add something new and different of their own or, in some cases, create completely new patterns.
So if you listen to enough music by a particular person, you get used to those patterns. And even though you may not be able to sit down and diagram it, you think, "Oh, that sounds like the Beatles" or "that sounds like Mozart." It all fits together--what's different depends on what you're comparing. If you're comparing Louis Armstrong and Mozart, it's enough to hear the different instruments. If you're comparing Mozart and Haydn, or Armstrong and Duke Ellington, that's different--they may be using exactly the same instruments and you have to consider other factors like the use of harmony, rhythm, etc.
It's extremely difficult to answer in general, without reference to specific pieces of music.