La trahison des images, by René Magritte — *La trahison des images*, by René Magritte

In 1929, a Belgian painter crafted an image of a smoking pipe with text on the canvas that translates as "this is not a pipe." What? It sure looks like a pipe, but it sure isn't. It's just paint on canvas.

Similarly, the sheet music is not the music. Yes, we rely on the paper to know what the composer intended. We pull ideas out of it. We even call it "the music," but the true music is not what's on the paper. The paper music's job is to launch us into the art of music, which happens as moments -- moments in time informed by the notations on the page.

But the notation is not the music, even if we call it the music. And the painting is not a pipe, even though it is intended to look like it. The page and the painting both help us to arrive at ideas and moments and thoughts and feelings and maybe even truth and beauty. You know -- art.