ABSTRACT
We are used to 'the sound of music' {after all, it is what the hills are supposedto be alive with), but recent research suggests that a more appropriate phrase would be 'the music of sound', because music is the result of our imposing an organisation on the sounds, rather than being inherent in the sounds. This helps explain, for example, why westerners find it hard to follow the melody in some Indian and oriental music and inay dislike avantgarde music of their own culture. Indeed in all areas of perception an important consideration is the organisation we impose on stimuli. Deutsch's {1975) musical scale illusion is another example of the listener's role in organising sounds, in this case to produce illusory melodies.
