What is music? Most would agree that breaking glass is not music, just as most would agree that smashing a cello with a hammer is less musical than vibrating a bow across its strings. Many say that music is a series of sounds which contain the elements of rhythm and pitch, but most music we hear follows certain patterns beyond rhythm and pitch. Music as we know it contains key signatures and time signatures, chord progressions and other repetitive harmonies. This strict language that we have built for music is called tonality. So we must ask ourselves, is tonality necessary for music? This question was explored by the experimental composers of the twentieth century, including Arnold Schoenberg. The music they wrote was called atonal, without …show more content…
A possible misconception about the music of the time is that a message existed outside of the music; however, these composers intended the message of the music to be nothing more than the music itself. This was a time of meta-music. The music was atonal to illustrate that tonality is not necessary to make music musical. Schoenberg was very against analysis of his work for this very reason; to listen to his music was to understand his purpose, to analyze it was to miss it entirely. According to Elaine Barkin, composer, and Martin Brody, professor of music, "Babbitt has extended the notion of compositional creativity to encompass the development of musical systems themselves, as well as specific compositional achievements within such systems" (Barkin and Brody). Babbitt was one who believed that the musical system was important to the meaning of music. By developing specific atonal structures, he pushed people to explore all facets of music, believing them each important. It did not matter why a composer chose to use this system, the fact that it was used is meaningful enough, reflecting Schoenberg's belief that music held significance for simply being music. While Babbitt stood for the beauty of music in all its forms, Hauer believed that some music was more meaningful than others. John Covach, professor of music theory, says, "In [Vom Wesen des Musikalischen], as well as in his Deutung des Melos (1923) and in many short articles written during the early 1920s, Hauer argues for the superiority of atonal over tonal music, grounding his claims by offering support drawn from acoustics, culture, and spiritual studies" (Covach) Tonality is such a narrow window that anything in it was essentially the same to Hauer, and was thusly unable to contain any true meaning. Atonal music has the
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Show MoreOxford’s dictionary defines music: as vocal or instrumental sounds or both, combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion. Music, as a form of expression and communication, comes in many forms and styles: classical, folk, country, rock, and electronic
John Cage took a simple approach to music. While Cage believed that music can merely be found anywhere and within any sound, traditionally, music remains described as the art of arranging tones or sounds in a way that produces a composition having unity and continuity (Merriam-Webster). John Cage had a Zen Buddhism philosophy of music, meaning music is everywhere and anything can be interpreted as such (House of Solitude). However, I believe music is only the intentional arrangement of sounds.
Music, in most of the dictionaries is defined as sound that has rhythm and melody or harmony. Rhythm. When we listen to music we use this term quite often. In almost all the songs we appreciate we would attach the word Rhythm to it. Rhythm is defined as a regular repetition of a beat. It is also defined as the time element of music. When we hear John Cage?s Sonata No 5, we can clearly hear a repetition of sound. So we hear a rhythm.
Form gives organization to sounds. It refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music. It is with the patterns, motifs, and cadences contained within form that help make music enjoyable to listen to. In Roger Scruton’s “Aesthetics of Music” Scruton states in Ch. 10 that form relies on two concepts, deep structure or linear and hierarchal order. Deep structure is the concept that most organized sounds have an underlying form. Deep Structure exists within language particularly in the study of syntax. In language deep structure is a theoretical concept that unifies other structures. An example of this would be how the sentences “Max loves Sara” and “Sara is loved by Max” mean the same thing and use similar wording.
Music is the most diverse form of art in existence. In modern days, some may view music as merely a bass heavy atmospheric tool for a night of clubbing and mischief, but despite this minority perspective, music is by no means purely background noise. Music is not only a beat, a rhythm, melody, lyrics, and a voice; it can change lives.
I want to discuss the function of music to combine intention and perception. I believe in the prehistoric, people sing or beat on the tough surface because they want to express their emotions, otherwise they have no reason to sing. Similarly, the composers also write the songs to express their feelings. Nevertheless, a piece of music which cannot trigger the change of feeling to audience cannot regarded as a musical sound. According to Thomas Schafer, "When people listen to music they usually try to attain specific goals. Those related to self-awareness and the regulation of mood and arousal are relatively important to them and those related to social relatedness less so"(12). From the research, Schafer get a conclusion that the music which can let people attain goals related to self-awareness and the regulation of mood and arousal will increase the strength of music preference(12). Hence, the function of music is to express the emotion and then influence the audience to let them have the same feeling as composers or performers. For example, Beethoven composed the famous Fate Symphony, or called Symphony No.5 in C major to show his determination to fight with the fate, for Beethoven the fate is the loss of his lover. While it is not the only purpose to write this symphony. The final goal is to move the
Music is an art that combines vocal and instrumental sounds to produce something that gives different emotions to the listeners. Music can make a person sad, happy and romantic at the same time. Playing an instrument is also a music, not only singing a song. I had this misunderstanding that music has the song and the musical instrument included in it. But I realized that musical instruments have more importance and beauty than a song including in it.
Over time, mankind’s music has developed from disorderly to orderly; tonal music was being one of the most brilliant chapters in the 17th century before Schoenberg’s big transformation of music. However, since the pioneer figure of Second Viennese School- Arnold Schoenberg began the atonal music, a new chapter of music composition has been created. Tonality collapse has been seen as the most important step towards music at the late 19th and early 20th century.
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.
Music: the art of organized noise. The blend of pitch and rhythm combined in different mediums and enjoyed by our ears. A very interpretive art, music isn’t very clearly constricted or defined by one definition. With so many varieties of music, it’s difficult to say what aspect is really the most important. Some people think music’s history and the appreciation of music are the most important aspects to take into consideration. Some think complex in rhythms and melodies make the best music. Some people devote their whole lives to studying one genre of music in order to fully understand how that genre works. While all of these aspects of music are important, none of them can truly be compared with each other on a fair playing field. Music of different genres, eras, and geographic backgrounds were written for different purposes, different people, and different settings. Still, there is still one overarching theme that applies to all forms of music new or old: the way the composer presents his or her creation. The performance and presentation of a work of music is like the icing on the top of a cake. The cake may be the best you’ve ever tasted, but if the icing on the outside doesn’t look appealing or doesn’t taste good, chances are you’ll take a different piece of cake with better looking frosting next time. The performance of music is what appeals most to people. With live performance, an artist must “sell” his or her creation. They must put smile on their face and convey to the audience that this is their music and through the music explain why it’s awesome. They must persevere through whatever the stage, the audience, and their surroundings give them and put on a good show. In today’s popular music though, this aspect of showma...
The book is divided into four chapters: 1) Humanly Organized Sound, 2) Music in Society and Culture, 3) Culture and Society in Music, and 4) Soundly Organized Humanity. In chapter one, Blacking discusses the analysis of sound. He begins by describing music as humanly organized sound. His overarching theme is that “the function of tones in relation to each other cannot be explained adequately as part of a closed system” (30). In other words, music can’t be analyzed simply by one set of rules. This is because every single culture has a different system that they use to structure and compose their music. In order to adequately analyze a society’s music we have to study their “system.” We must learn what music means to them. Then, and only then, can we accurately and completely analyze what a particular type or piece of music means to a particular society and culture.
Music is far more than the sum of its parts. It can be thought of in a highly mathematical sense, which leaves one in awe of the seemingly endless combinations of rhythm, tone and intervals that a good musician can produce. Admiring music in this way is a lot like admiring an intricate snowflake, or shapes in the clouds; it's beautiful, but at the same time very scientific, based on patterns. All of the aforementioned qualities of music have one thing in common: they can be defined with numeric, specific values. However, the greatest aspect of music lies elsewhere, and cannot be specifically defined with words. It is the reaction that each individual has when they are confronted with their favorite (or least favorite) kind of music.
What is music? Music is defined as an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color according to dictionary.com. What is sound? Sound is the sensation produced by stimulation of the organs of hearing by vibrations transmitted through the air or other medium; mechanical vibrations transmitted through an elastic medium, traveling in air at a speed of approximately 1087 feet (331 meters) per second at sea level (Sound, 2014). To put that into simpler terms, sound is manufactured when an object moves and creates friction to make vibrations.
For thousands of years, music has been a part of people’s lives and has evolved through many different forms over time. Music is the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre (American Heritage). One important component of analyzing music is whether it has musical value. In other words, music does not have to be organized sound or produced by instruments. This is what composers and artists of experimental music discover. Experimental music is an art form, makes use of instruments or other items that can produce sound, and can alter or expand the basic foundations of music and musicality. These are the key elements that define experimental music.
Music, a form of art, made up of unique and special sounds containing elements of pitch and rhythm can powerfully soothe one’s soul. Firstly, there are different types of music, and each has its own features. These sounds and features are what I admire in music because to me it creates a new form of communication to one’s consciousness. It stimulates our mind and gives it a sense of harmony and peace through the hardships that life poses for us. As a kid, I would always listen to music from any genre, deciding which genre would complement me the most as I grew older. In middle school, I remember going on the computer and finding a website/program where I could make my own beats. From that day on, I spent countless of hours each day making sure the tune sounded proper and pleasurable for my ears. At first, it wasn’t good, but eventua...