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To defend my own metafore about the great music, I say this. Who were the Ainur singing of? It could not all be of trees and rock and air. They sang of the people of middle earth, of the tortures that would take place within Arda. Does it not seem at all odd to you, Burrahobbit, that Tolkien makes a point of describing Melkor's disruption and destruction to the music? He is not about to be cast from heaven as in Paradise Lost. Melkor, in marring the perfection of Iluvatar's vision and the great themes has already done his greatest harm. He has stated the his malice, all that remains after Ainulindale is to act it out. Men and Elves did not sing, but they were sung of. They were in the great themes that Iluvatar produced.
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I was rereading the thread just now, and I realized something I left out of the above post.
Look at the existence of Arda in three levels:
Creation (Ainulinale, the Great Themes of Iluvatar)
Existence (the Living history of Middle-Earth, all of the tales told in the books that take place within Arda)
Rapture (post Dagor Dagorath, the final music of Arda, when all men, elves, ainur, and (possibly) dwarves are gathered before Iluvatar to sing anew the Great Music of Creation.
These are the necessary states of existence for Arda, and without one the others cannot possibly exist. When you, Burrahobbit, say that Men and Elves were not involved in the music, you are thinking solely of the beginning. You must take into consideration the fact that every beginning not only has an existence, but an end. In this case the end is imperitive. In the end we realize the reality that all of the people that have lived in Arda exist. After the Dagor Dagorath, all are taken from Arda and sing in an innumerable host before the throne of Eru. Then, Burrahobbit, we can most definately say that Men and Elves are not only sung of, but do sing themselves in the great music.
Iarwain