[Ads-l] "face the music" etymology (?)

[Stephen Goranson]

Many explanations of "face the music" have been offered, and the meaning and application of the phrase may have become more broad over time, but an origin solution may have been in effect staring us in the face.
The face seems less problematic than the music. Face: meet, encounter, confront, engage (come to Limerick, etc.). But what music? Stage fright while facing a pit orchestra? Hear some Mozart? Dance? Calm a horse next to a marching band? Being drummed out of the corps for cowardice? All unlikely.
The sense of face the music, in early use --reported on ads-l from 1834 in the US--is a call to be brave.
Many dictionaries report an earlier, outlier, jarring meaning for music: gunfire, battle sounds.
Early uses of the phrase encourage joining the noisy fray, originally military, then also political and others, eventually, in later use, also taking punishment for some past act.
Examples already reported seem to support this development.
?
Stephen

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