It is my opinion that music is strictly a human phenomenon that can be largely inspired by animal calls and other sounds of nature. Animals can also be taught to respond to music, such as a parrot responding to rhythm; however, I do not believe animals have the ability to create and develop music on purpose with specific common structures developed and implemented for music by humans. As Dr. Such has stated in Lecture 2: When Does Sound Become Music, our culture has aided in influencing our brains to decide that a sound is music when we detect the presence of “rhythm, melody, harmony, and form.” The instinct to apply structure or form to sound in order to create music has derived from a natural human instinct instilled within us since birth. …show more content…
Gordon Ramel, and Bird Songs in Musical Notation, by Mr. Tony Phillips. In the article-page titled Bird Songs, Ramel discusses that birds “evolved around 60 million years ago, long before any humans were around.” Birds, like nearly all creatures on earth, have existed since before human existence. We have been inspired by the sounds of nature since the beginning of our own time, even the simple, biologically-instilled instinct of communicating through sound. These communicational instincts have provided us with something to observe when developing our musical forms and instruments. Does a bird call remind you of a flute? Does a woodpecker provide an interesting beat? Humans can be inspired by animals to make musical sounds; however, animals are simply doing what they have been genetically wired to do since before any of us have existed. Birds do not know or understand that their bird calls can adhere to a musical form, because musical form was a human-created phenomenon. Ramel goes on to discuss that birds have inherited their abilities to create distinct calls and to respond to other bird calls through a genetic process. These abilities have simply evolved over time as they adapt to their circumstances, environment, species-type, and the situations that daily involve them. I prefer Ramel’s wording when he states that bird calls are “a mixture of innate, pre-programmed knowledge of what their species song is” as well as the process of “learning from older singing males” over time. Ramel is basically pointing out that birds are born with a basic, genetically-inherited, instinctive template-song that develops over time as they learn from older birds of their species and adapt to their environment. They simply learn to embellish these basic templates as needed for their unique communication purposes; however, this embellishment has nothing to do with creativity, and
song, we characterize it only by what the other birds sing. Hence, we see the
Most people are familiar with the word "music", however they barely consider the definition of it. After carefully think, everyone has their own opinions on this term and it is hard to have an uniform criterion of music sounds. According to the text book, Michael B. Bakan states five propositions to define the music. The first one is about the tone and the second one talks about the music is organized in some way. The next two are claims that music is human organized and a product of human intention and perception. The last proposition argues music cannot separate from Western culture. Among these propositions, I think the music is a product of human intention and perception is most interesting and worth to discuss. So I assert that the most
Soul had a great cultural impact on the music industry during the 1960's, especially considering that record labels such as Motown, Stax, and Fame had several important soul artists under contract. While Motown was considered by some to be a more restrained (pop) type of soul, musicians such as Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and groups such as the Supremes and the Temptations released many successful records in combination. Both Stax and Fame Records decided to take a different approach, and many of the tracks issued out of their respective studios were of a grittier, southern soul style, which some consider to be more true to the roots of African American culture. Some southern soul musicians include Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Aretha Franklin. During the civil rights movement and more so after Martin Luther King was assassinated, some soul artists began incorporating a "black power" element within their music. For example, take James Brown's single "Say It Loud, I'm Black and Proud".
Music is defined as vocal or instrumental sounds combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion, but music is not bound by its meaning. Music can be almost anything a person wants it to be. No one can put a date on the beginning of music. Some say it began before humans spread around the world or possibly originated in Africa. A conclusion that most people would agree on is that music has been around for mostly all of time. Whether or not people know it, music is a key aspect of their lives, and it affects them in many ways. One may begin to question why do humans participate in and enjoy music so much? This question can never have a concrete answer, but many have ideas of what might be the reason.
Music has been around since the dawn of time, ever since man first inhabited this planet we have learned to communicate in ways other then conventional speaking. Different Cultures all have there own specific way of communicating through music. Music is basically broken into two specific groups Eastern Music and Western Music. Eastern music is mainly derived from the orient and India. While, Western music first emerged from Europe. Western music has developed in many ways since the middle ages through its form, sound, and message.
Music is something that I believe we could not live without. There is a quote by a philosopher named Friedrich Nietzschethat says “without music, life would be a mistake”. I interpret this to mean that humans would not be creative if it were not for music. There is a reason that music can take us where word cannot. When you hear so many different sounds coming together to make a perfect harmony it is obvious that no words can make you feel the same way as the music. The best thing about music is that there are literally too many genres to choose from. There are different genres of music for any mood you are in. The origins behind these different genres is an interesting and rich history that is begging to be studied and written about. Let me explain....
The first people imitated music from nature. They mimicked the sound from their every day life. It had no rhythm, beat, or tune it was just noise, but later turned into what we now call music.
Ever since humans first learned how to make music with their voices and with instruments thousands of years ago, music has been changing. Some changes took place over hundreds or even thousands of years, stunted by human isolation or by guidelines set in place by religious institutions. The 20th century, in contrast, experienced several rapid, radical changes in the popular genres of music. This made the 20th century a very rich time period for musical culture. These remarkable genres--including, but not limited to jazz, rock and roll, and the music of the “British invasion”--all influenced one another, and all influenced the culture we still live in today.
Since the earliest days of human civilization music has been a key tool for communication of stories which carried emotions through them. If we think back to our youngest years of life music has surrounded us whether it was from our parents singing us lullabies or from some sort of toy that played music we can say that musical melodies have helped shape or lives one way or another. Once we start growing up and figuring out who we are our musical preferences change; some people like classical and some like punk. We start to befriend people who like the same music as us and eventually we may attend a musical event. Our lives somewhat revolve around the music that we listen to.
Music has been around since the very beginning of time. The human body flows in a rhythmic syncopation. Music is used to change one’s mood and to inspire those who open their minds. It has the potential to cure diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. Humans, of every culture and society, function with a type of rhythmic music. As humans, we are hard wired to respond to music (Mannes). The human brain responds to music in such a way that the brain becomes more open to new rhythms, ideas, and values. Music has the power to take over the human body. This makes it easier to overcome conflict and change the ideals of somebody while using music (The Power of Music).
The first music era know to man was the "Prehistoric Music." This was quite possibly influenced by birds singing and other animal sounds as they were communicating with each other. It was developed with the backdrop of natural sounds. Some evolutionary biologists have theorized that the ability to recognize sounds not created by humans as "musical" provides a selective advantage.
To fully understand any musical style, one must be able to analyze the various elements of music as they exist in that particular style. In this first musical close-up, we shall briefly describe these elements of music. In subsequent musical close-ups, we shall examine one or another of these elements in greater detail as it pertains to a given style or topic.
Music has been around for thousands of years throughout the world dating all the way back to prehistoric times proven by the digging up of a 9,000-year-old flute that had seven holes drilled into it to create a musical scale in China ("Prehistoric flute music:," 2000). Music went through numerous stages before becoming what we know music as today. The earliest periods of music were the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Periods which took place from the years 500-1760. The next cluster of periods were the Classical, Romantic, and Modern Periods which ended in 1930 to bring us to the most recent periods: Twentieth Century Period and the ongoing Contemporary and Twenty First Century Periods.
Music is one of the few things that has remained constant through the centuries this world has existed. Not only does music provide entertainment, it also has several effects linked to it. Music allows emotions of happiness and sadness to arise. From those emotions, physical effects, negative or positive, can occur. Music has a profound effect on the emotional, social, intellectual, and physical aspects of a person.
According to dictionary.com, music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, and color.” Music is the product of sound waves coming from anything making a melodic tone. There are different genera’s of music, ranging from rock to pop to classical. Each person likes different genera’s of music.