There can be no authentic music where there is no ear for hearing. But let us beware of the unfortunate ambiguity of the word "ear". I do not mean simply to repeat the truism that music presupposes the existence of a particular organ of hearing. The word "ear" in its aesthetic sense means something infinitely more subtle, a certain faculty for appreciating relationships, or perhaps again a certain attitude of consciousness in the presence of what is given for hearing. For a person lacking ear in this sense there is no difference between a noise and a sound, and what we call a melody may seem to be just a succession of noises.
The philosophical attitude is perhaps not all that different from "ear" understood in this way.
Gabriel Marcel, Tragic Wisdom and Beyond, p. 6.
