With regards to most of the music which we hear this is probably so. However, there exists another dimension to music in which none of this is relevant. The music of this dimension exists prior to our feelings, experiences or indeed any of our relationships with anything whatsoever. It is with this music that "our" lives begin and end, and with its sound we pass from the realm of individual existence that of the infinite in each and every moment, usually without being in any way consciously aware of such a cycle. This music does not belong to any given civilization, every sound of it simultaneously contains and transcends all of the civilisations of all peoples, of all places, of all times. Civilisation belongs to the realm of lived experience. Inspiration and initiation (which are our sole points of entry to the dimension I am discussing) do not belong to this realm. Instead, they merely leave imprints in the world of experience which serve as catalysts for the awakening of the search and the longing for the source of inspiration, of music, of experience.
It is through the awakening of this longing that we can see the primary and indeed fundamental difference between this music and any other expressive arts which utilize the medium of sound.

The music being discussed here is not any man's creation, it is not even the creation of mankind as a whole, rather it is a gift to mankind. Perhaps we don't really "know" anything about its source, but if ever we hear it, even for a fraction of a second, we want only to go there.
For this to happen, however, we must become instruments of this music. We must see the necessity of resigning from our "positions" as artists, creators, indeed as individuals, giving way to a re-defining and a re-discovery of ourselves as silent, still, and even given to the movement and sound
of the music.

This silence, however, is not to be found in external manifestations. It is rather an internal state of being which removes all distance between the "musician" and the "listener", thus dissolving any false perceptions of the music belonging to the one or the other. It is this silence and stillness which ultimately show us its true source.