Stapledon on music/noise

 From near the end of Chapter 15 of /First and Last Men/ by Olaf Stapledon
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"Actual music is a pattern of intertwining themes which evolve and die; and 
these again are woven of simpler members, which again are spun of chords 
and unitary tones.  But the music of the spheres is of a complexity almost 
infinitely more subtle, and its themes rank above and below one other in 
hierarchy beyond hierarchy.  None but a God, none but a mind subtle as the 
music itself, could hear the whole in all its detail, and grasp in one act 
its close-knit individuality, if such it has.  Not for any human mind to 
say authoritatively, "This is music, wholly," or to say, "This is mere 
noise, flecked now and then by shreds of significance."
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--
Sean M. Burke    http://search.cpan.org/~sburke/