M. Ted, amen.

I suppose I should be embarrassed to have taken part at all, given how ridiculous some of the assertions have been and, more to the point, how completely unimportant the outcome could possibly be (if there ever is an outcome ~ that is, if anyone at all ever changes their mind!)

It just annoys me no end when anyone asserts, with such certainty, how the human race, since time immemorial, always and everywhere, did NOT express themselves musically.

But you're right, expressing my frustration at this kind of pedantry is nothing more than a waste of my time and yours, and in the grand scheme of things, matters not at all.

In my own defense, I have studiously avoided this thread for days at a time, but since it never seems to disappear off the bottom of the page, I have been periodiclly tempted to weigh in again and again, as though there were any possibility that, by rephrasing my arguments, I could actually have an impact on anyone's understanding