i watched the Rich Hickey talk you referenced and one thing really jumped out at me: "choose-a-phones" have been around for a while now and, indeed, are quite popular instruments, though most of us call them "synthesizers". i enjoyed the talk and thought it was interesting and insightful, but i also think that the central argument is completely bogus. programming languages are special kinds of tools. the "specialness" is, at least in part, due to their universality. hence, by definition, programming languages more closely resemble synthesizers ("choose-a-phones") than bassoons.