Have you ever listened to a cd of ambient noises, such as rushing water or a crackling fire?  The answer may be “yes” or “no”, but the real question is this:  Do you consider sounds such as these ‘music’ ?  I never really gave that question much thought until I read this article about the music of Oneohtrix Point Never — a musician named Daniel Lopatin who generates all of his sounds from a synthesizer using a number of different pedals. Fans gathered around the stage to hear the music of Oneohtrix Point Never at a concert last Friday, and were mesmerized by the relaxing sounds.
Check out the article here.

I guess the answer to the above question is ultimately up to the listener. For myself, the answer is yes!
Here is a song by Oneohtrix Point Never.

About four years ago, I had the privilege of witnessing a live performance of pieces by Bernstein, Beethoven, and a couple other classical composers as performed on a set of musical glasses.

What are musical glasses you may ask?

Musical glasses, also sometimes collectively referred to as a “glass harp”, are a series of stem glasses of many different sizes tuned by adjusting the water level within each individual glass.

The sound of musical glasses inspired Ben Franklin to invent his glass armonica, and also inspired one former guitarist named Robert Tiso to begin to play glass music.

Enjoy Tiso’s performance (below) of the Theme from Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky:

This is an appearance of John Cage on a TV show. He presented a piece of his called Water Works, which is a musical composition made entirely of sounds of water.

Here is a link to a site that is all about John Cage’s “As Slow as Possible.” As Slow as Possible is a piece by John Cage which challenges the notion of the meaning of performance. This piece is being “performed” in a church in Halberstadt, Germany, and will take 639 years to complete.

click here.

Here is an article about another performance, which is at the far end of the spectrum from the Cage piece:
article.

One of the pieces he played was by Jason Eckert:
Eckert