Definition of Beauty
The following is a characterization of the concept of “beauty” via OMS:
Primary characteristics of musical works or passages that are considered beautiful:
[a] They impart significant pleasure
[b] The pleasure is intense or rich
[c] The pleasure is the the result of multi-stimulation: Not a single stimulation, but many kinds [melody, harmony, big structure, fine structure, sonic effects, “emotion”, “narrative”, “color”, “spatiality”, memory, … A complete high-level list could number over 100 kinds of stimulation]
[d] The above stimuli are organized or coordinated
[e] For the most part, [d] is “transparent” - i.e. the various stimuli can be be enumerated, described.
[f] However the is also an element of subtlety: Some elements of the stimuli are not easily described.
[g] Possibly some qualifications on the “kind” of pleasure. If conditions [a]-[f] are satisfied, but the pleasure is “crude” or “lower-level”, the music may not be considered beautiful. (Not sure about this)