Music

Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. It is expressed in terms of pitch, rhythm, harmony, and timbre. more...

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Music involves complex generative forms in time through the construction of patterns and combinations of natural stimuli, principally sound. As a human activity, music may be used for artistic or aesthetic, communicative, entertainment, or ceremonial purposes. The definition of what constitutes music varies according to culture and social context.

Definition of music

See also: Music genre

The broadest definition of music is organized sound. There are observable patterns to what is broadly labeled music, and while there are understandable cultural variations, the properties of music are the properties of sound as perceived and processed by humans.

A more conservative definition would be: Music is harmonious sound created by the playing of instruments as a whole or individually. It is a direct expression of human emotions designed to manipulate and transform the emotion of the listener/listeners. Music is designed to be felt unlike sound which is heard.

Greek philosophers and medieval theorists defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies, and vertically as harmonies. Music theory, within this realm, is studied with the presupposition that music is orderly and often pleasant to hear. However, in the 20th century, composers challenged the notion that music had to be pleasant by creating music that explored harsher, darker timbres. The existence of some modern-day genres such as death metal and grindcore, which enjoy an extensive underground following, indicate that even the harshest sounds can be considered music if the listener is so inclined.

20th century composer John Cage disagreed with the notion that music must consist of pleasant, discernible melodies. Instead, he argued that any sounds we can hear can be music, saying, for example, \"There is no noise, only sound,\". 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.\"

The composer Anton Webern stated \"With me, things never turn out as I wish, but only as is ordained for means—I must\", which sets out his view of the underlying generative process of music. The German philosopher Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe believed that patterns and forms were the basis of music; he stated that \"architecture is frozen music.\"

History

See also: Music and politics

The history of music in relation to human beings predates the written word and is tied to the development and unique expression of various human cultures. Music has influenced man, and vice versa, since the dawn of civilization. The earliest form of musical expression is to be found in the Sama Veda of India. Popular styles of music varied widely from culture to culture, and from period to period. Different cultures emphasized different instruments, or techniques. Music history itself is the distinct subfield of musicology and history, which studies the chronological development of music, primarily in the Western world. Music has also been used extensively for propaganda.

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