When Robert Levin, looking sternly at his masterclass audience at the Manhattan School last spring, asked: "Do you know what is missing in Classical music?" He literally roared the answer: "HUMOR!!!"

I believe we have lost the sense of how funny notes can be. Okay, B-flat is not in itself funny. But...it is possible to imagine it as a source of hilarity. Why not? If you play a passage that does not sport one single black key and suddenly, out of nowhere, B-flat! Isn't that reason enough to break out in peals of laughter?

If not, why not? Have we become so conditioned to theoretical explanations for sounds that we no longer hear them?