Meaning of “Face the Music” phrase of Idiom, definition and synonyms use in sentence.

Face the Music

“It was understood that the Prime Minister himself would reply—`face the music,’ as the Opposition expressed it.”—Press Report.

To “face the music” means to face boldly the con-sequences of one’s action.

Music is the science of harmonised sound, as well as the art of producing it. George W. E. Russell once described it as “harmonised noise”—a true definition; for no unharmonised sound can accurately be called music. Music must be pleasing to the ear: harmonising with the receptor cells of the nervous system in the individual; otherwise, it fails to fulfill the definition of harmony, and becomes discord instead. Such was “music” to men of genius like Lord Byron, Pope, Scott, and Dr. Johnson, who, it is said, found it definitely obnoxious, or they were indifferent to its charms. Obviously, some persons cannot “face” real music.

The origin of the phrase is said to be American, and it may have arisen through the practice of assembling troops with their military orchestras before them, playing enlivening musical marches, and the possibility of the regimental commander heartening his men by saying: “You will presently be facing another sort of music than this.” Hence, to confront any form of unpleasant consequences, has come to be called “facing the music.” Generally, the allusion is to one who is forced to do so, as a punishment; as one might say: “Why should he be excused? He ought to be made to face the music of his own misdeeds.”

A delightful story is told of a Thessalian youth who threw down the gauntlet to the whole world of birds in a challenge to musical composition. A nightingale, who boldly accepted the gage, found the contest more than a match; for, after a period of uncertain strain, the youth played a “rapture” with such subtlety that the king of songsters was overcome, and fell down upon his lute with a broken heart. He could not “, face that music.