New Music Old Music Non Musical Music

I am quite intrigued at this moment in my life with regards to the nature of music. Not of how music sounds or how music is or how music is played or how music is presented (by way of virtuosity or non-virtuosity: classically trained tubists vs. Jandek) but with the nature of nature of music as a phenomenon. And music as a phenomenon seems to me to be able to be learned and unlearned. This is not merely the unlearning or learning of habits by musicians but also by listeners. Today I tuned into the local public radio spring fund drive. The DJ's, in between their aspirations toward cash as received from the listeners were quite keen on the explication of the modulation of a particular Rachmaninov orchestra composition. The piece began to play. And I couldn't understand it at all. Not because of any unfamiliarity with Rachmaninov, but because I have subjected my listener-skills to a whole other set of practices. The music seemed foreign and strange....almost ugly.