Definition of "musical" []

• Of, relating to, or capable of producing music: a musical instrument. (adjective)
• Characteristic of or resembling music; melodious: a musical speaking voice. (adjective)
• Set to or accompanied by music: a musical revue. (adjective)
• Devoted to or skilled in music. (adjective)
• A play or movie that contains musical numbers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Since the time of the Netherlandish contrapuntists, the primary impulse in musical creation has been the _musical_ ideal -- the creation of tonal fancies, novel, inspiring, musical, satisfactory."
• "No one has ever equalled him in quickness and depth of musical insight and feeling, nor in the constancy with which he bears within himself, in all its fulness, that mysterious power which can be called by no truer name than _musical inspiration_."
• "At the base of the musical experience seem to be (i) the experience of tones, as opposed to mere pitched sounds, where a tone is heard as being in ˜musical space™, that is, as bearing such relations to other tones as being higher or lower, or of the same kind (at the octave), and (ii) the experience of movement, as when we hear a melody as wandering far afield and then coming to rest where it began."