Excellent essay! Music is also very subjective. For example, I can't stand rock music, yet love the bagpipes (even if Dr. Samuel Johnson did think they sounded best when "just out of earshot"). I like what Shakespeare said, speaking through Shylock in _Merchant of Venice_: "Some men there are . . . when the bagpipe sings . . . cannot contain their urine; for affection, mistress of passion, sways it to the mood of what it likes or loathes." As to marching to war, I like what Napoleon allegedly said at Waterloo when first seeing a highland regiment in kilts, accompanied by bagpipes, advancing toward his lines: "Are these Amazons the best Wellington has to offer me?"
Excellent essay! Music is also very subjective. For example, I can't stand rock music, yet love the bagpipes (even if Dr. Samuel Johnson did think they sounded best when "just out of earshot"). I like what Shakespeare said, speaking through Shylock in _Merchant of Venice_: "Some men there are . . . when the bagpipe sings . . . cannot contain their urine; for affection, mistress of passion, sways it to the mood of what it likes or loathes." As to marching to war, I like what Napoleon allegedly said at Waterloo when first seeing a highland regiment in kilts, accompanied by bagpipes, advancing toward his lines: "Are these Amazons the best Wellington has to offer me?"
Jim below asks about the banjo. I like it if accompanied by a washboard.
LOL See <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlOdV1o8SpY>