Noise and Music

There once lived an engineer. He would listen to machines for noisy gears and there he knew the problem lay. Then he would fix them, ending the noise.

One day he met a musician. "Play me some music," he said. The musician played a short tune on his violin.

"That is not music, that is noise," the engineer said. "I know noise very well. I work with noise every day. That is noise. I can fix it for you. The problem is that the string of the baton is rubbing against the strings of the violin."

"That certainly is music and not noise. I know music very well. I work with music every day. That is music." insisted the musician.

"Then you are a charlatan. You claim that you work with music but all that you can show me is noise. Perhaps music doesn't exist at all. You have made it up."

"But I have shown music."

"What you have shown me is not music but noise, and I can prove it."

"How?"

"Play one note on your violin repeatedly." The musician did as instructed. Soon, people nearby called out, "Stop that dreadfull noise!"

"I have proven to you that it is noise," the engineer said.

"To the contrary, when I played a tune, everyone enjoyed it and did not complain, but when I played as you instructed they all complained. This shows the difference between noise and music very clearly," said the musician.

"You are a liar. You made up this story about music youself just to fool people," the engineer said.

"You are a fool. You can't even see what is right in front of your own face," the musician said. They both walked away in disgust.