Is there an objective standard to evaluate music?

…or is beauty in the ‘ear’ of the beholder?

T. David Gordon, author of “Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns” answers thusly:

Yes, and there are objective criteria for what makes some music better than other music.

Sacred music has special demands beyond aesthetic demands. Some musicologists argue that hymnody is actually a subcategory of folk music—distinguished from classical music because classical music is performance music, beyond the capacity of the average person to produce. But folk music, by name, suggests music produced by the people. It’s the way a people join their heritage, and it’s participatory in its very nature.

Therefore, I don’t think hymns should strive to compete with Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem or the solos in Handel’s Messiah, because a congregation wouldn’t be able to sing them. A hymn shouldn’t be beyond the capacities of a good, intelligent church to sing.

Agree?  No?  Post your comment below.