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I think it's an interesting but potentially flawed contention that music is a language. Obviously music can be used to convey emotion, or meaning and in this sense has language-like properties. However, there are an unbelievable number of different genres. Not just Classical, and Rock, but ambient, even aleatoric music. I have a record in my collection (the name of which escapes me) of music by a 14th century composer written entirely in quarter notes, not one sound of which you will find in modern music.

Assigning lingual properties to music is one thing; it would be impossible to argue against. But the claim that music is a language is much much more difficult to defend. Consider, anyone can listen to a piece and appreciate it, but the meaning behind the piece may not be readily apparent. Even more, a person may not even be able to appreciate some music. It is clear to me that while my parents would be able to absorb punk through their ear-holes, the small riffs and drum lines that stand out to me above the raucus of the rest of the rest of the music would be lost on them. They would hear, but they would not even begin to understand.

I mentioned aleatoric music earlier. Aleatoric music is music composed using random sounds. A fine example of this genre is The Books. The Books use a little of everything you've ever heard to create music defined more by the gaps and silences than by the sounds themselves. It is a hollow sound that is hauntingly beautiful and playful if you know what you're listening for. My father's only comment was it sounded like I was flipping around on the radio. Music does have an ability to communicate, but this ability is based on the listener's social context. Our individual exposure to different types of music and to different types of art and writing largely shape the aesthetics we can appreciate. We develop a conceptual language for understanding art and music that is defined not in words or chords but in the shape the object of our study takes on. I realize that this isn't a very cogent explanation here, but it may not be that accurate either. I'll try to post again about it later.