In every society, in every period of history, men and women have made music. They have sung it and danced to it; they have used it in solemn rituals and in light-hearted entertainments; they have listened to it in fields and forests, in temples, in bars, in concert halls and opera houses; they have used it to generate collective emotion-to excite, to calm, to inspire action, to draw tears. What, then, is music? Music is not a fringe activity or a luxury one: it is a central and necessary part of human existence.