They continue deep inside you, distant yet familiar. The language of the river is not any known language, but a language nonetheless. It is familiar to the body and communicates watery eloquence. Rivers and Mountains, Robert Reese, Parabola. Sent by Cupid.
Music is more primal, more specific than the day to day.
Music is not about what happens to people but more about their states of mind and heart when it is happening. Standards of conduct change. Characters ride horses or drive trucks. But I suspect that the visceral rushes of pain and pleasure stay pretty much the same, as constituent parts of an emotional DNA that survives in a straight line from Adam and Eve to Elvis Presley. Negotiating Between Old and New, Bernard Holland, NY times, 14th May 00.