Tolkien fans know this story pretty well, but the same idea we are talking about is expressed quite beautifully in the Silmarillion.. Order integrating disorder, Harmony integrating disharmony. Not everyone is affected by Music equally, but certain music brings with it it’s own harmony and order. It Transends time, language and culture. it is universal.
Music can be Highest of Highs, or the lowest of lows, and it is not created equally.
Beauty has it’s own intrinsic value, independent of the beholder.
The Music of the Ainur was the great song of the Ainur that took place before Time began, from which Eä, the material Universe, was created.
Eru Ilúvatar conceived the Ainur from his thought and taught each of them how to make music. At first the Ainur would only sing alone or in small groups while the others listened. The observance of their brethren singing taught each Ainu more about the others and the mind of Ilúvatar. Their "unity and harmony" thus increased, and eventually, Eru brought all the Ainur together and declared that they would play a song greater and more complex than they had ever sung before. He told them that they would be allowed to weave their own thoughts and ideas into this Music, since they had been kindled with the Flame Imperishable and thus had the power of creativity. The Ainur were so overwhelmed by Eru’s description of this Music that they bowed before him in silence.
The First Theme
After Ilúvatar told them about the Music, the Ainur began to fashion it. Their voices, like the sound of harps and trumpets and choirs, passed "beyond hearing" into the depths and heights of sound. The great Music filled the Timeless Halls and passed beyond them even into the Void, so that it "was not void". The Ainur’s flawless Music satisfied even Ilúvatar during this early stage.
Ainulindale by Alystraea
But soon, faults entered into the great Theme as a result of the discords of Melkor, an Ainu whose thoughts had become strange and unlike those of his brethren due to his wanderings in the Void. Ilúvatar had given the Ainur permission to weave their own ideas into the Music, but Melkor’s thoughts actually clashed against Eru’s Themes, because Melkor wanted to "increase the power and glory of the part assigned to himself". Melkor’s desire to bring into being creatures of his own with the Flame Imperishable and fill the emptiness of the Void put him at odds with Ilúvatar’s vision. These discords of Melkor that became evident in his music dismayed those around him, and many faltered in their singing or else attuned their song to his.
The original harmony of the Music was thus consumed by a "sea of turbulent sound" until it became like a "raging storm". At that point, Eru responded by rising from his seat and raising his left hand. It seemed to the Ainur that he then smiled. After his reaction to the Music, a new Theme began amid the chaos.
The Second Theme
The Second Theme was "like and yet unlike" the First; it gathered new power and beauty. Soon, however, Melkor’s discord rose up against it, and there was a "war of sound more violent than before", with Manwë taking the leadership of the Theme against the discord. This time, Melkor’s Theme triumphed over that of the others; many of the Ainur stopped singing entirely out of dismay. Ilúvatar then rose from his seat again, his expression stern this time. He raised his right hand, and yet another Theme unfolded.
The Third Theme
Melkor weaves opposing Music
The next Theme had a sound unlike the others before it. It began quietly amid the confusion of the Second Theme, and sounded like the rippling of soft and sweet notes. It gained power and depth over time, until two completely different songs were being made. One was filled with "immeasurable sorrow", which gave it tremendous beauty, while the other was a loud, pompous theme playing in violent opposition to it. Nevertheless, this repetitive theme could not overcome the sorrowful one, and the latter merely took the former’s greatest notes and "[wove them] into its own solemn pattern". The strife between the two themes caused the dwelling of Ilúvatar and even the Void beyond it to shake. At this point, Eru stood once more and raised both his arms, "and in one chord, deeper than the Abyss, higher than the firmament... the Music ceased".
Aftermath
Ilúvatar then spoke to the Ainur about the Music and the consequences that would arise from any attempts to bring discord into it, as Melkor had done. To show them the result of their actions, he led them into the Void and spoke, "Behold your Music!". The Ainur saw a Vision of what their song had created— "a World that was globed amid the Void... but was not of it". They saw the history of this World as it unfolded, and witnessed the part each had played in its making. Even the discords of Melkor contributed to the glory of this creation.
The Ainur were amazed when the Children of Ilúvatar came into this vision, for they were a part of Eru’s plan that had not been revealed to them before the Music was played. The Children were sung into being by Ilúvatar during the Third Theme, and none of the Ainur had dared contribute to their making.
Ilúvatar suddenly took away the vision, and the Ainur did not get to see how it would end. Some say that they only saw the history of the Universe until the Dominion of Men. The abrupt ending of the vision caused restlessness among the Ainur, and Ilúvatar perceived that they wanted the vision to be given true being, so that—even despite the terrible flaws that had been introduced into it—the Universe would be as real as they themselves were.
Therefore Eru said, "Eä! Let these things Be!". He sent the Flame Imperishable into the Universe, and far off in the Void a light appeared—the beginning of the achievement of the Music of the Ainur.
Legacy
The Universe still operates according to the design declared in the Music, and the flaws within it come from the discords of Melkor, which have been part of it since its beginning. Nevertheless, Ilúvatar insisted that these faults would but bring forth new and greater things in the Music’s achievement.
