Music And Rhetoric Analysis

Music and rhetoric are very closely intertwined. It can be said that a majority of all pieces of text have some musical influence or have later on been set to music. By looking at the way music can communicate different messages we can learn a lot about our own society and culture.Music has often been referred to as a universal language. This is certainly true and it can convey messages in ways nothing else can. As universal as organized pitch and rhythm might be, and as common as some musical intervals and rhythmic patterns are to all cultures and civilizations, there are nonetheless a great many "dialects" of this language which not only distinguish one civilization from the next, but indeed distinguish different eras of the same culture

It was very simple vocal music that was entirely monophonic with freely moving rhythms that changed with each performance. The term monophonic means that there is only one melody being heard at a time. Every voice was singing the same notes at the same time in unison. The most important thing to note is that this music was purely sacred and was only performed in “organized religious settings” (Abel, 3) particularly the Roman Catholic Church. Currently music and religion are so closely intertwined that It’s difficult for us to look back in history and even imagine a time when religion had no music. Almost all major religions in the world today worship with music, from catholicism, to islam, to buddhism. Though, it has not always been that way. Music became the language that humans chose to use to worship their creator because of its universality. Rhetoric is usually defined as the art of persuasive speaking or writing. Music took a role that in sense was used to persuade people that god was the almighty creator. Whether this was purposeful or not, it still had an effect. It’s a fact that music makes us feel things that nothing else can and when religions claim that music is a glorious gift directly from god they can use the way music makes us

In polyphonic music the voices split and you can hear at least two melodies sounding simultaneously. It’s at this point in history when music split and went in two directions: sacred, and secular music. At first music was still sacred and the polyphony was used only to ornament pre-existing chant music. These same fanciful developments were also seen in the architecture of the church and the art from this time period. Music began to take on a different purpose when the Renaissance arrived and an entirely new era of music was born. Beginning in the beginning of the 1400’s musicians and composers were now able to be employed and Court chapels became the most common form of patronage, where groups of paid musicians and clerics regularly composed, entertained, and performed for a particular ruler. Prior to this point in history it was basically impossible to make a living as a musician. But now music could be chosen for a long time career