Many music dictionaries published in Europe and North America avoid the definition of music in its most fundamental sense. Wisely, perhaps, their authors assume that the readers know what they, and the people with whom they associate, think music is. The editors of the 1980 edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians omitted it, but thought better of it in the 2001 (i.e., second) edition, presenting an article that looks at the concept from the perspective of different cultures but begins somewhat lamely by just designating music as “the principal subject of this [encyclopedia].” The old Harvard Dictionary (Apel 1969: 548) under “Music” discusses the phenomenon without giving a definition, and the 1986 edition, maybe to avoid a can of worms, dropped it again.