listening experiments

Paul H. Erlich wrote,

> I think the best way to resolve these kinds of issues is with
listening experiments . . . if we make sure we are listening to the
exact same sounds, and everyone else can hear them too, then everyone
can decide on the possible merits of various points on the basis of
what their own ears tell them . . .

I think this might be somewhat misleading, at least in the sense that
actual music sets into motion so many things that isolated listening
experiments do not (well, at least not for me anyway). I remember all
the times that I would read that this or that tuning was unbearably
discordant (13-tET for example) or whatnot, and perhaps only good for
this or that limited application, only to later find that this seemed
to be much more the case in the somewhat 'amusically' distorted vacuum
of isolated listening... I'm all for listening experiments, and trying
to learn and decipher what we can learn and decipher from them, but I
guess I for one am much more comfortable with the idea of letting
actual music resolve these kinds of issues.

Dan