Last night, in a late-night discussion about the impact of music on body, mind, and soul, my brother and I argued the pros and cons of “classical” and “folk” music. Let me start with definitions:

“Classical” – instrumental music that utilizes stringed instruments or brass and sounds like it could have been written in the late 1700’s. (Bear with me. This is really quite a terrible definition. But it probably works just fine for the average person.)

“Fok” – any music written “of the people” or sounds like it was written by them or sounds like you can have a gay ole time partying to it.

So who won? It’s not that simple. At the end of the day, we both felt that lyrics are often integral to the communication of music. But nearly every great lyrical song also has some sort of a musical “set-up” section, where the song wouldn’t be the same without the bed of music upon which these words sit.

Conclusion: it might be worth one’s effort to try to write lyrics and a melody for Copland’s Appalachian Spring.