Not trying to be arrogant here, but who listens to this?

[Multicore]

What makes music specifically in relation to other arts so powerful, to me, is this primitive and abstract language I mentioned. It is the medium in which aliens can share meanings that would be ineffable in any verbal, discursive language. A curious conjunction that I only just now noticed is that, while music's greatest power is its ability to communicate that which is beyond verbal, sufficiently complex music can, in my experience, only be taken in and expressed while our internal Molly Bloom pipes down. Blather and music seem to exclude each other, hence also the meditative and distraction powers of musical experience and practice. This much seems to support your conception of the limits of that which is "'musically possible' in a cognitive sense". But do we have a capacity to comprehend non-human music, terrestrial or extra? Messaien, origin of this thread, took an expansive view. And to what extent do the limits of the musics thus far derive from the technologies we have applied the art?

 

[bluefuzz]

A curious conjunction that I only just now noticed is that, while music's greatest power is its ability to communicate that which is beyond verbal, sufficiently complex music can, in my experience, only be taken in and expressed while our internal Molly Bloom pipes down.

I certainly find the converse is true: that if I need to concentrate on some cognitively strenuous task or (god forbid) anything resembling work, then anything other than the blandest ambient pap will be an unbearable distraction. My inner Molly is definitely a distraction in all sorts of situations, but yes (yes!) also when listening to music.

But do we have a capacity to comprehend non-human music, terrestrial or extra?

Well, birdsong is bloody annoying at four in the morning. Even at other times I couldn't say I 'comprehend' it as music. Extraterrestrials? We'll probably never know ...

 

[Multicore]

I certainly find the converse is true: that if I need to concentrate on some cognitively strenuous task or (god forbid) anything resembling work, then anything other than the blandest ambient pap will be an unbearable distraction. My inner Molly is definitely a distraction in all sorts of situations, but yes (yes!) also when listening to music.

My firm belief based on modest anecdata is that melody and harmony processing relies on the same brain circuitry as language.

I'm like you, it's hard not to be distracted by music. Evidently a lot of people are able to ignore music enough to do other things demanding concentration but I don't think this contradicts my hypothesis it just means that ignoring something to concentrate on something else is a skill I need to work on if I want to be better at it.