In the un­der­stand­ing of this book, the ecol­ogy of mu­sic en­com­passes the en­tire range of what is called “mu­sic” in con­ven­tional mu­sic the­ory.

The ecol­ogy of mu­sic con­cerns the sound­ing mu­si­cal event – the mu­sic sur­veyed from out­side by the sense of hear­ing on the level of the mind, and much more even, the mu­si­cal per­form­ance in the con­cert hall.

So, the ecol­ogy of mu­sic be­gins where the com­po­si­tion is al­ready com­pleted, i.e. where the fin­ished mu­si­cal event re­sounds on the level of the mind and is per­ceiv­able to the in­ner ear.

The ecol­ogy of mu­sic also con­cerns the in­flu­ence of mu­sic on its en­tire outer sur­round­ings, par­ticu­larly the mu­si­cal in­flu­ence of the mind on its en­vi­ron­ment.

The ecol­ogy of mu­sic con­cerns eve­ry­thing that sur­rounds the fin­ished piece of mu­sic.

And the as­pects of the en­vi­ron­ment of the fin­ished piece of mu­sic are: the in­ner ear of the com­poser, of the mu­si­cian, and of the lis­tener, their nerv­ous sys­tem, their body, and even­tu­ally the whole en­vi­ron­ment of the mu­si­cian – the field of ma­te­rial ecol­ogy.