Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized sound, though definitions may vary.
What Is Music?
- Main article: Definitions of music.
Music is often defined by contrast with noise or speech. Some definitions of music place it explicitly within a cultural context by defining music as what people
accept as musical.
Broadly, here are some groups of definitions: those that define music as an external fact, for example "organized sound" or as
a category of perception, those that label it according to context as a social construction or subjective experience, and those
that seek a platonic or quasi-platonic ideal of music which is not rooted in
specifically physical or mental terms, but in a higher truth.
The definition of music as sound with particular characteristics is taken as a given
by psycho-accoustics, and is a common one in musicology and performance. In this
view, there are observable patterns to what is broadly labelled music, and while there is understandable cultural variations, the
properties of music are the properties of sound as perceived and processed by people.
John Cage is the most famous advocate of the idea that anything can be music,
saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound," though some argue that this somewhat fascistically imposes the definition
on everything. According to musicologist Jean-Jacques
Nattiez (1990 p.47-8,55): "The border between music and noise is always culturally defined--which implies that, even within a
single society, this border does not always pass through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus....By all accounts
there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what music might be."
In support of the view that music is a label for a totality of different aspects which are culturally constructed. Often a
definition of music lists the aspects or elements that make up music. Molino (1975: 43) argues that, in addition to a lack of
consensus, "any element belonging to the total musical fact can be isolated, or taken as a strategic variable of musical
production." Nattiez gives as examples Mauricio Kagel's Con Voce
[with voice], where a masked trio silently mimes playing instruments. In this example sound, a common element, is excluded, while
gesture, a less common element, is given primacy.
The platonic ideal of music is currently the least fashionable in the philosophy of criticism and music, because it is crowded
on one side by the physical view - what is the metasubstance of music made of, if not sound? - and on the other hand by the
constructed view of music - how can one tell the difference between any metanarrative of music and one which is merely
intersubjective? However, its appeal, finding unexpected mathematical relationships in music, and finding analogies between music
and physics, for example string theory, means that this view continues to
find adherents, including such critics and performers as Charles Rosen
and Edward Rothstein.
Aspects of music
- Main article: Aspects of music.
The traditional or classical European aspects of music often
listed are those elements given primacy in European-influenced classical music: melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color, and form.
However, a more comprehensive list is given by stating the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, intensity, and duration. 4
These aspects combine to create secondary aspects including structure, texture
and style. Other commonly included aspects include the spatial location or the movement in space of sounds, gesture, and dance.
Silence is also often considered an aspect of music, if it is considered to
exist.
As mentioned above not only do the aspects included as music vary, their importance varies. For instance, melody and harmony
are often considered to be given more importance in classical music at the expense of rhythm and timbre. John Cage considers
duration the primary aspect of music as, being the temporal aspect of music, it is the only aspect common to both "sound" and
"silence".
It is often debated whether there are aspects of music which are universal.
The debate often hinges on definitions, for instance the fairly common assertion that "tonality" is a universal of all music may
necessarily require an expansive definition of tonality. A pulse is
sometimes taken as a universal, yet there exist solo vocal and instrumental genres with free and improvisational rhythms no
regular pulse;5 one example is the alap section of
a Hindustani music performance. According to Dane Harwood, "We must ask whether a
cross-cultural musical universal is to be found in the music itself (either its structure or function) or the way in which music
is made. By 'music-making,' I intend not only actual performance but also how music is heard, understood, even learned."
6
Common terms
- Main article: Musical terminology.
Common terms used to discuss particular pieces include note, which is an abstraction
which refers to either a specific pitch and/or rhythm or the written symbol; melody,
which is a succession of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord,
which is a simultaneity of notes heard as some sort of unit; chord progression which is a succession of chords (simultaneity
succession); harmony, which is the relationship between two or more pitches;
counterpoint, which is the simultaneity and organization of different
melodies; and rhythm which is the organization of the durational aspects of music.
See also: List of musical topics.
Production
- Main article: Music industry.
The music industry is that which creates, performs, and promotes music. A great deal of music is produced by amateurs.
Performance
- Main article: Performance.
Someone who performs, composes, or conducts music is a musician. Performance is
a method for musicians to share music with others.
Solo and ensemble
Many cultures include strong traditions of solo or soloistic performance, such as in Indian
classical music, while other cultures, such as in Bali, include strong traditions of
group performance. All cultures include a mixture of both, and performance may range from
improvised solo playing for one's enjoyment to highly planned and organized performance rituals such as the modern classical
concert or religious processions. What
is called chamber music is often seen as more intimate than symphonic works. A performer is called a musician, a group being a musical ensemble such as a
rock band or symphony orchestra.
Oral tradition and notation
- Main article: Musical notation.
Music is often preserved in memory and performance only, handed down orally, or aurally ("by ear"), this music often may be considered "traditional" or not considered composed by
individuals. Different musical traditions have different attitudes towards how and where to make changes to the original source
material, from quite strict, to those which demand improvisation. If the
music is written down, it is generally in some manner which attempts to capture both what should be heard by listeners, and what
the musician should do to perform the music. This is referred to as musical notation, and the study of how to read notation involves music theory. Written notation varies with style and period of music, and includes scores, lead sheets, guitar
tablature, among the more common notations. Generally music which is to be performed is produced as sheet music. To perform music from notation requires an understanding of both the musical style and
performance practice expected or acceptable.
Improvisation, interpretation, composition
- Main articles: Musical composition and Improvisation#Music.
Most cultures use at least part of the concept of preconceiving musical material, or composition, as held in western classical music. Many but fewer cultures also include the related
concept of interpretation, performing material conceived by others, and
less still the contrasting concept of improvisation, material which is
spontaneously thought of while performed, not pre-conceived. However, many cultures and people do not have this
distinction at all, using a broader concept which incorporates both without discrimination. Improvised music virtually always
follows some rules or conventions and even "fully composed" includes some freely chosen material. See also, precompositional. Composition does not always mean the use of notation, or
the known sole authorship of one individual.
Compositional methods
Music can also be determined by describing a "process" which may create musical sounds, examples of this range from wind
chimes, through computer programs which select sounds. Music which contains elements selected by chance is called Aleatoric music, and is most famously associated with John Cage and Witold
Lutoslawski. See: precompositional, form (music), modulation,
twelve tone technique, serialism, and process music.
Compositions
A musical composition is a piece of music designed for
repeated performance (as opposed to strictly improvisational music, in which each performance is unique). The music may be
preserved in memory, or through a written system of notation. Compositions include songs to be performed by human voices, usually
including lyrics, as well as pieces written for other musical instruments.
Change
Musical change, stylistically, is thought of both as inevitable and necessary, or at least beneficiary in European influenced
classical music and much popular music, while in classical Iranian culture music is thought to be complete, new creations are
variations and rearrangements of old ones or parts of. Some classical composers seek to create innovative works in prexisting
genres and forms, while other seek to break the mold. Indian classical is thought to change little and valued for that quality,
while great changes between different improvised performances are equally valued. In folk, jazz, and some popular music variation
and reinterpretation of traditional or received materials is valued, while in some popular music, such as progressive rock, for
example, inspired individual or group innovation is sought for. The European classical canon is valued for its unchanging
timeless, ahistorical,
nature.(Nettl, 1989)
Reception
Audition
Concerts take many different forms and may include people dressing in formal wear and sitting quietly in the rows of
auditoriums, drinking and dancing in a bar, or loudly cheering and booing in an auditorium.
Deaf people can experience music by feeling the vibrations in their body; the most
famous example of a deaf musician is the composer Ludwig van
Beethoven, who composed many famous works even after he had completely lost his hearing. In more modern times, Evelyn Glennie, who has been deaf since the age of twelve, is a highly
acclaimed percussionist. Also, Chris Buck, a violinist virtuoso and New
Zealander, has recently lost his hearing. See: Baschet Brothers.
See: psychoacoustics.
Media
The music that composers make can be heard through several media; the most traditional
way is to hear it live, in the presence, or as one of, the musicians. Live music can also be broadcast over the radio or television. Some musical styles focus
on producing a sound for a performance, while others focus on producing a recording which mixes together sounds which were never
played "live". Recording, even of styles which are essentially live often uses the ability to edit and splice to produce
recordings which are considered "better" than the actual performance.
In many cultures there is less distinction between performing and listening to music, as virtually everyone is involved in
some sort of musical activity, often communal. Sometime in the middle 20th century, listening to music through a recorded form,
such as sound recording or watching a music video became more common than experiencing live performance. Sometimes, live performances incorporate prerecorded sounds; for example, a DJ uses disc records for scratching.
Audiences can also become performers by using Karaoke, invented by the Japanese,
which uses music video and tracks without voice, so the performer can add his voice to the piece.
See: sound sculpture.
Education
Training
Many people compose, perform, and improvise music with no training and feel no need for training, including entire cultures.
Other cultures have traditions of rigorous formal training that may take years and serious dedication. Sometimes this training
takes the form of apprenticeship, as in Indian training traditionally
take more years than a college education and involves spiritual discipline and reverence for one's guru or teacher. In Bali everyone learns and
practices together. It is also common for people to take music lessons,
short private study sessions with an individual teacher, when they want to learn to play or compose music, usually for a fee. The
most famous private composition teacher is Nadia Boulanger.
Secondary education
The incorporation of music performance and theory into a general liberal arts curriculum, from pre-school to postsecondary
education, is relatively common. Western style secondary schooling is increasingly common around the world, such as STSI in Bali.
Meanwhile, western schools are increasingly including the study of the music of other cultures such as the Balinese gamelan, of
which there are currently more than 200 in America.
Study
Many people also study about music in the field of musicology. The
earliest definitions of musicology defined three sub-disciplines: systematic musicology,
historical
musicology, and comparative musicology. In
contemporary scholarship, one is more likely to encounter a division of the discipline into music theory, music history, and ethnomusicology. Research in musicology has often been enriched by
cross-disciplinary work, for example in the field of psychoacoustics.
The study of music of non-western cultures, and the cultural study of music, is called ethnomusicology.
In Medieval times, the study of music was one of the Quadrivium of the seven
Liberal Arts and considered vital to higher learning. Within the
quantitative Quadrivium, music, or more accurately harmonics, was the study of rational proportions.
Zoomusicology is the study of the music of non-human animals, or the
musical aspects of sounds produced by non-human animals. As George Herzog (1941) asked, "do animals have music?" François-Bernard
Mâche's Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion (1983), a study of "ornitho-musicology" using a technique of
Ruwet's Language, musique, poésie (1972) paradigmatic segmentation analysis, shows that birdsongs are organized according
to a repetition-transformation principle. In the opinion of Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990), "in the last analysis, it is a human being who decides what is and is not
musical, even when the sound is not of human origin. If we acknowledge that sound is not organized and conceptualized (that is,
made to form music) merely by its producer, but by the mind that perceives it, then music is uniquely human."
Theory
- Main article: Music theory.
Music theory is the study of music, generally in a highly technical manner outside of other disciplines. More broadly it
refers to any study of music, usually related in some form with compositional concerns, and may include physics, mathematics, and
anthropology. What is most commonly taught in beginning music theory classes are guidelines to write in the style of the common practice period, or tonal music. Theory, even that which studies music of the common practice period, may take many other forms.
Musical set theory is the application of mathematical set theory to music, first applied to atonal music. Speculative music theory is devoted to the analysis and synthesis of music materials, for example
tuning systems, generally as preparation for composition. See "Common
Terms" above.
Genres
- Main article: Musical genre.
As there are many definitions for music there are many divisions and groupings of music, many of which are as hotly contested
as, and even caught up in, the argument over the definition of music. There are many musical genres. Among the larger genres are classical
music, popular music or commercial music (including rock and roll), country
music and folk music. The term world music has been applied to a wide range of music made outside of Europe and European influence,
although its initial application, in the context of the World Music Program at Wesleyan University, was as a term including all
possible music genres, and not excluding European traditions. In academic circles, the original term for the study of world
music, "comparative musicology", was replaced in the middle of the twentieth century by "ethnomusicology", which is still an
unsatisfactory definition.
Genres of music are as often determined by tradition and presentation as by the actual music. While most classical music is
acoustical in nature, and meant to be performed by individuals, many works include samples, tape, or are mechanical, and yet
described as "classical". Some works, for example Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, are claimed by both jazz and classical music.
As cultures of the world have been in more contact with each other, their indigenous music styles have often melded to form
new styles. For example, the U.S.-American bluegrass style has
elements from Anglo-Irish, Scottish, Irish, German and some African-American instrumental and vocal traditions, and can only have
been a product of the 20th Century.
Many music festivals exist these days celebrating a particular
music genre.
See: List of genres of music
Sources
- Chocholle, R. (1973). Le Bruit. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
- Harwood, Dane (1976). "Universals in Music: A Perspective from Cognitive Psychology", Ethnomusicology 20, no.
3:521-33.
- Johnson, Julian (2002). Who Needs Classical Music?: Cultural Choice and Musical Value. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195146816.
- Molino, Jean (1975). "Fait musical et sémiologue de la musique", Musique en Jeu, no. 17:37-62.
- Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1987). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et
sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0691027145.
- Owen, Harold (2000). Music Theory Resource Book. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195115392.
Notes
- Molino, 1975: 37
- Nattiez, 1990: p.47-8,55
- Molino, 1975: 43
- Owen, 2000: 6
- Johnson, 2002
- Harwood, 1976: 522
External links
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