Aren&#x27;t you then saying that melody-ness is being conferred by the composer? That would make it extremely difficult to confirm that something is a melody or not by observation alone (and thus likely impossible when determining whether other apes can come up with melodies).<p>That said, I think the article is not using &quot;random&quot; in the literal sense but in the sense of &quot;arbitrary&quot;, as in &quot;novel&quot; (rather than being simply a reiteration of a previously observed tune).