music is considered as the greatest art that makes the mood of person good to bad and can also make to bad to good
Music is an
art form whose
medium is
sound and silence. Its common elements are
pitch (which governs
melody and
harmony),
rhythm (and its associated concepts
tempo,
meter, and
articulation),
dynamics, and the sonic qualities of
timbre and
texture. The word derives from
Greek μουσική (
mousike; "art of the
Muses").
[1]
The creation,
performance, significance, and even the
definition of music
vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from
strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance),
through improvisational music to
aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into
genres and
subgenres,
although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are
often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and
occasionally controversial. Within "
the arts", music may be classified as a
performing art, a
fine art, and auditory art. It may also be divided among "
art music" and "
folk music". There is also a strong connection between
music and mathematics.
[2] Music may be played and heard live, may be part of a
dramatic work or
film, or may be recorded.
To many people in many cultures, music is an important part of their way of life.
Ancient Greek and
Indian philosophers
defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically
as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and
"it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered
and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer
John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."
[3] Musicologist
Jean-Jacques Nattiez
summarizes the relativist, post-modern viewpoint: "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."
[4]
History
Prehistoric eras
Prehistoric music can only be theorized based on findings from
paleolithic archaeology sites.
Flutes
are often discovered, carved from bones in which lateral holes have
been pierced; these are thought to have been blown at one end like the
Japanese
shakuhachi. The
Divje Babe flute, carved from a
cave bear femur, is thought to be at least 40,000 years old. Instruments such as the seven-holed flute and various types of
stringed instruments have been recovered from the
Indus Valley Civilization archaeological sites.
[5] India has one of the oldest musical traditions in the world—references to
Indian classical music (
marga) are found in the
Vedas, ancient scriptures of the
Hindu tradition.
[6] The earliest and largest collection of prehistoric musical instruments was found in
China and dates back to between 7000 and 6600 BC.
[7] The
Hurrian song, found on
clay tablets that date back to approximately 1400 BC, is the oldest surviving notated work of music.
Ancient Egypt
Main article:
Music of Egypt
The ancient
Egyptians credited one of their gods,
Thoth, with the invention of music, which
Osiris
in turn used as part of his effort to civilize the world. The earliest
material and representational evidence of Egyptian musical instruments
dates to the
Predynastic period, but the evidence is more securely attested in the
Old Kingdom when
harps,
flutes and
double clarinets were played.
[8] Percussion instruments,
lyres and
lutes were added to orchestras by the
Middle Kingdom.
Cymbals[9] frequently accompanied music and dance, much as they still do in
Egypt today. Egyptian
folk music, including the traditional
Sufi dhikr rituals, are the closest contemporary
music genre to
ancient Egyptian music, having preserved many of its features, rhythms and instruments.
[10][11]
References in the Bible
Music and theatre scholars studying the history and anthropology of
Semitic and early
Judeo-Christian culture have discovered common links in theatrical and musical activity between the classical cultures of the
Hebrews and those of later
Greeks and
Romans. The common area of performance is found in a "social phenomenon called
litany," a form of prayer consisting of a series of
invocations or
supplications.
The Journal of Religion and Theatre notes that among the earliest forms of litany, "Hebrew litany was accompanied by a rich musical tradition:"
[12]
- "While Genesis 4.21 identifies Jubal as the “father of all such as
handle the harp and pipe,” the Pentateuch is nearly silent about the
practice and instruction of music in the early life of Israel. Then, in I
Samuel 10 and the texts that follow, a curious thing happens. “One
finds in the biblical text,” writes Alfred Sendrey, “a sudden and
unexplained upsurge of large choirs and orchestras, consisting of
thoroughly organized and trained musical groups, which would be
virtually inconceivable without lengthy, methodical preparation.” This
has led some scholars to believe that the prophet Samuel was the
patriarch of a school, which taught not only prophets and holy men, but
also sacred-rite musicians. This public music school, perhaps the
earliest in recorded history, was not restricted to a priestly
class—which is how the shepherd boy David appears on the scene as a
minstrel to King Saul."[12]
Antiquity
Western cultures
have had a major influence on the development of music. The history of
the music of the Western cultures can be traced back to Ancient Greece
times.
Ancient Greece
Music was an important part of social and cultural life in
Ancient Greece. Musicians and
singers played a prominent role in
Greek theater.
[13] Mixed-gender
choruses performed for entertainment, celebration, and spiritual ceremonies.
[14] Instruments included the double-reed
aulos and a plucked
string instrument, the
lyre, principally the special kind called a
kithara.
Music
was an important part of education, and boys were taught music starting
at age six. Greek musical literacy created a flowering of music
development. Greek
music theory included the Greek
musical modes, that eventually became the basis for Western
religious and
classical music. Later, influences from the
Roman Empire,
Eastern Europe, and the
Byzantine Empire changed Greek music. The
Seikilos epitaph is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition, including musical notation, from anywhere in the world.
The Middle Ages
The
medieval era (476 AD to 1400 AD) started with the introduction of chanting into
Roman Catholic Church
services. Western Music then started becoming more of an art form with
the advances in music notation. The only European Medieval repertory
that survives from before about 800 is the
monophonic liturgical plainsong of the Roman Catholic Church, the central tradition of which was called
Gregorian chant. Alongside these traditions of
sacred and
church music there existed a vibrant tradition of
secular song. Examples of composers from this period are
Léonin,
Pérotin and
Guillaume de Machaut. From the
Renaissance music era, much of the surviving music of 14th-century Europe is secular. By the middle of the 15th century,
composers and singers used a smooth polyphony for sacred
musical compositions. Prominent composers from this era are
Guillaume Dufay,
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina,
Thomas Morley, and
Orlande de Lassus.
The Renaissance
Renaissance music (c. 1400 A.D. to 1600 A.D.) was more focused on secular themes. Around 1450, the
printing
press was invented, and that helped to disseminate musical styles more
quickly and across a larger area. Thus, music could play an increasingly
important role in daily life. Musicians worked for the church, courts
and towns. Church choirs grew in size, and the church remained an
important patron of music. However, musical activity shifted to the
courts. Kings and princes competed for the finest composers.
Many leading important composers came from Holland, Belgium, and
northern France, called the Franco-Flemish composers. They held
important positions throughout Europe, especially in Italy. Other
countries with vibrant musical lives include Germany, England, and
Spain.
The Baroque
The
Baroque era of music took place from 1600 to 1750, as the
Baroque artistic style flourished across Europe; and during this time, music expanded in its range and complexity. Baroque music began when the first
operas were written and when
contrapuntal music became prevalent. German Baroque composers wrote for small
ensembles including strings,
brass, and
woodwinds, as well as
choirs,
pipe organ,
harpsichord, and
clavichord.
During this period several major music forms were defined that lasted
into later periods when they were expanded and evolved further,
including the
fugue, the
invention, the
sonata, and the
concerto.
[15]
The late Baroque style was polyphonically complex and ornamental and
rich in its melodies. Composers from the Baroque era include
Johann Sebastian Bach,
George Frideric Handel, and
Georg Philipp Telemann.
Classicism
The music of the
Classical Period
(1750 A.D. to 1830 A.D.) looked to the art and philosophy of Ancient
Greece and Rome, to the ideals of balance, proportion and disciplined
expression. It has a lighter, clearer and considerably simpler texture,
and tended to be almost voicelike and singable. New genres were
discovered. The main style was the
homophony,
[16] where prominent
melody and
accompaniment are clearly distinct.
Importance was given to
instrumental music. It was dominated by further evolution of musical forms initially defined in the Baroque period: the
sonata, the
concerto, and the
symphony. Others main kinds were
trio,
string quartet,
serenade and
divertimento.
The sonata was the most important and developed form. Although Baroque
composers also wrote sonatas, the Classical style of sonata is
completely distinct. All of the main instrumental forms of the Classical
era were based on the dramatic structure of the sonata.
One of the most important evolutionary steps made in the Classical
period was the development of public concerts. The aristocracy would
still play a significant role in the sponsorship of musical life, but it
was now possible for composers to survive without being its permanent
employees. The increasing popularity led to a growth in both the number
and range of the orchestras. The expansion of orchestral concerts
necessitated large public spaces. As a result of all these processes,
symphonic music (including
opera,
ballet and
oratorio) became more extroverted.
The best known composers of Classicism are
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach,
Christoph Willibald Gluck,
Johann Christian Bach,
Joseph Haydn,
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
Ludwig van Beethoven and
Franz Schubert. Beethoven and Schubert are also considered to be composers in evolution towards Romanticism.
Romanticism
Romantic Music
(c. 1810 A.D. to 1900 A.D.) turned the rigid styles and forms of the
Classical era into more passionate and expressive pieces. It attempted
to increase emotional expression and power to describe deeper truths or
human feelings. The emotional and expressive qualities of music came to
take precedence over technique and tradition. Romantic composers grew in
idiosyncrasy, and went further in the syncretism of different art-forms
(such as literature), history (historical figures), or nature itself
with music. Romantic love was a prevalent theme in many works composed
during this period. In some cases the formal structures from the
classical period were preserved, but in many others existing genres,
forms, and functions were improved. Also, new forms were created that
were deemed better suited to the new subject matter.
Opera and
ballet continued to evolve.
[13]
In 1800, the music developed by
Ludwig van Beethoven and
Franz Schubert introduced a more dramatic, expressive style. In Beethoven's case,
motifs, developed organically, came to replace
melody as the most significant compositional unit. Later Romantic composers such as
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
Antonín Dvořák, and
Gustav Mahler used more elaborated
chords and more
dissonance to create dramatic tension. They generated complex and often much longer musical works. During Romantic period
tonality was at its peak. The late 19th century saw a dramatic expansion in the size of the
orchestra, and in the role of
concerts as part of
urban society. It also saw a new diversity in
theatre music, including
operetta, and
musical comedy and other forms of
musical theatre.
[13]
Asian cultures
Indian classical music is one of the oldest musical traditions in the world.
[17] The
Indus Valley civilization has sculptures that show dance
[18]
and old musical instruments, like the seven holed flute. Various types
of stringed instruments and drums have been recovered from
Harrappa and
Mohenjo Daro by excavations carried out by Sir
Mortimer Wheeler.
[19] The
Rigveda has elements of present Indian music, with a musical notation to denote the metre and the mode of chanting.
[20] Indian classical music (marga) is monophonic, and based on a single melody line or
raga rhythmically organized through
talas.
Hindustani music was influenced by the Persian performance practices of
the Afghan Mughals. Carnatic music popular in the southern states, is
largely devotional; the majority of the songs are addressed to the Hindu
deities. There are a lot of songs emphasising love and other social
issues.
Asian music covers the music cultures of
Arabia,
Central Asia,
East Asia,
South Asia, and
Southeast Asia.
Chinese classical music,
the traditional art or court music of China, has a history stretching
over around three thousand years. It has its own unique systems of
musical notation, as well as musical tuning and pitch, musical
instruments and styles or musical genres. Chinese music is
pentatonic-diatonic, having a scale of twelve notes to an octave
(5 + 7 = 12) as does European-influenced music.
Persian music is the music of
Persia and Persian language countries:
musiqi, the science and art of music, and
muzik, the sound and performance of music (Sakata 1983). See also:
Music of Iran,
Music of Afghanistan,
Music of Tajikistan,
Music of Uzbekistan.
20th- and 21st-century music
With
20th-century music, there was a vast increase in music listening as the
radio gained popularity and
phonographs were used to replay and distribute music. The focus of
art music was characterized by exploration of new rhythms, styles, and sounds.
Igor Stravinsky,
Arnold Schoenberg, and
John Cage
were all influential composers in 20th-century art music. The invention
of sound recording and the ability to edit music gave rise to new
sub-genre of classical music, including the
acousmatic [21] and
Musique concrète schools of electronic composition.
Jazz
evolved and became an important genre of music over the course of the
20th century, and during the second half of that century,
rock music did the same. Jazz is an American musical artform that originated in the beginning of the 20th century in
African American communities in the
Southern United States from a confluence of
African and
European music traditions. The style's
West African pedigree is evident in its use of
blue notes,
improvisation,
polyrhythms,
syncopation, and the
swung note.
[22] From its early development until the present, jazz has also incorporated music from 19th- and 20th-century
American popular music.
[23] Jazz has, from its early-20th-century inception, spawned a variety of subgenres, ranging from
New Orleans Dixieland (1910s) to 1970s and 1980s-era
jazz-rock fusion.
Rock music is a genre of
popular music that developed in the 1960s from 1950s
rock and roll,
rockabilly,
blues, and
country music. The sound of rock often revolves around the
electric guitar or acoustic guitar, and it uses a strong
back beat laid down by a
rhythm section of electric
bass guitar,
drums, and keyboard instruments such as
organ,
piano, or, since the 1970s,
analog synthesizers and digital ones and computers since the 1990s. Along with the guitar or keyboards,
saxophone and blues-style
harmonica
are used as soloing instruments. In its "purest form," it "has three
chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody."
[24] In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it branched out into different subgenres, ranging from
blues rock and
jazz-rock fusion to
heavy metal and
punk rock, as well as the more classical influenced genre of
progressive rock and several types of
experimental rock genres.
Performance
Main article:
Performance
Performance is the physical expression of music. Often, a musical
work is performed once its structure and instrumentation are
satisfactory to its creators; however, as it gets performed, it can
evolve and change. A performance can either be rehearsed or
improvised.
Improvisation is a musical idea created without premeditation, while
rehearsal is vigorous repetition of an idea until it has achieved
cohesion.
Musicians will sometimes add improvisation to a well-rehearsed idea to create a unique performance.
Many cultures include strong traditions of
solo and performance, such as in Indian classical music, and in the Western art-music tradition. 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 organised performance rituals
such as the modern classical concert, religious processions,
music festivals or
music competitions.
Chamber music,
which is music for a small ensemble with only a few of each type of
instrument, is often seen as more intimate than symphonic works.
Aural tradition
Many types of music, such as traditional
blues and
folk music were originally preserved in the memory of performers, and the songs were handed down
orally,
or aurally (by ear). When the composer of music is no longer known,
this music is often classified as "traditional." Different musical
traditions have different attitudes towards how and where to make
changes to the original source material, from quite strict, to those
that demand improvisation or modification to the music. A culture's
history may also be passed by ear through song.
Ornamentation
In a score or on a performer's music part, this sign indicates that the musician should perform a
trill—a rapid alternation between two notes.
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The detail included explicitly in the
music notation
varies between genres and historical periods. In general, art music
notation from the 17th through the 19th century required performers to
have a great deal of contextual knowledge about performing styles. For
example, in the 17th and 18th century, music notated for solo performers
typically indicated a simple, unadorned melody. However, performers
were expected to know how to add stylistically appropriate ornaments,
such as
trills and
turns.
In the 19th century, art music for solo performers may give a general
instruction such as to perform the music expressively, without
describing in detail how the performer should do this. The performer was
expected to know how to use tempo changes,
accentuation, and
pauses
(among other devices) to obtain this "expressive" performance style. In
the 20th century, art music notation often became more explicit and
used a range of markings and annotations to indicate to performers how
they should play or sing the piece.
In
popular music
and jazz, music notation almost always indicates only the basic
framework of the melody, harmony, or performance approach; musicians and
singers are expected to know the performance conventions and styles
associated with specific genres and pieces. For example, the "
lead sheet" for a jazz tune may only indicate the melody and the chord changes. The performers in the
jazz ensemble are expected to know how to "flesh out" this basic structure by adding ornaments, improvised music, and chordal accompaniment.
Production
Jean-Gabriel Ferlan performing at a 2008 concert at the collège-lycée Saint-François Xavier
Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an
entertainment
product for the marketplace. Amateur musicians compose and perform
music for their own pleasure, and they do not derive their income from
music. Professional musicians are employed by a range of institutions
and organisations, including armed forces, churches and synagogues,
symphony orchestras,
broadcasting or
film production companies, and
music schools. Professional musicians sometimes work as freelancers, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings.
There are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take
lessons
with professional musicians. In community settings, advanced amateur
musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles
and orchestras. In some cases, amateur musicians attain a professional
level of competence, and they are able to perform in professional
performance settings. A distinction is often made between music
performed for the benefit of a live audience and music that is performed
for the purpose of being recorded and distributed through the music
retail system or the broadcasting system. However, there are also many
cases where a live performance in front of an audience is recorded and
distributed (or broadcast).
Composition
An old songbook showing a composition
"Composition" is often classed as the creation and recording of music
via a medium by which others can interpret it (i.e., paper or sound).
Many cultures use at least part of the concept of preconceiving musical
material, or composition, as held in western
classical music.
Even when music is notated precisely, there are still many decisions
that a performer has to make. The process of a performer deciding how to
perform music that has been previously composed and notated is termed
interpretation. Different performers' interpretations of the same music
can vary widely. Composers and song writers who present their own music
are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others
or folk music. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a
given time and a given place is referred to as
performance practice,
whereas interpretation is generally used to mean either individual
choices of a performer, or an aspect of music that is not clear, and
therefore has a "standard" interpretation.
In some musical genres, such as jazz and blues, even more freedom is
given to the performer to engage in improvisation on a basic melodic,
harmonic, or rhythmic framework. The greatest latitude is given to the
performer in a style of performing called
free improvisation, which is material that is spontaneously "thought of" (imagined) while being performed,
not preconceived. Improvised music usually follows stylistic or genre conventions and even "fully composed" includes some
freely chosen material.
Composition does not always mean the use of notation, or the known sole
authorship of one individual. Music can also be determined by
describing a "process" that creates musical sounds. Examples of this
range from wind chimes, through computer programs that select sounds.
Music from random elements is called
Aleatoric music, and is associated with such composers as John Cage,
Morton Feldman, and
Witold Lutosławski.
Music can be composed for repeated performance or it can be
improvised: composed on the spot. The music can be performed entirely
from memory, from a written system of musical notation, or some
combination of both. Study of composition has traditionally been
dominated by examination of methods and practice of Western classical
music, but the definition of composition is broad enough to include
spontaneously improvised works like those of
free jazz performers and African drummers such as the
Ewe drummers.
Notation
Sheet music is written representation of music. This is a
homorhythmic (i.e.,
hymn-style) arrangement of a traditional piece entitled "
Adeste Fideles", in standard two-staff format for mixed voices.
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Notation is the written expression of music notes and rhythms on
paper using symbols. When music is written down, the pitches and rhythm
of the music is notated, along with instructions on how to perform the
music. The study of how to read notation involves music theory, harmony,
the study of performance practice, and in some cases an understanding
of historical performance methods. Written notation varies with style
and period of music. In Western Art music, the most common types of
written notation are scores, which include all the music parts of an
ensemble piece, and parts, which are the music notation for the
individual performers or singers. In popular music, jazz, and blues, the
standard musical notation is the lead sheet, which notates the melody,
chords,
lyrics
(if it is a vocal piece), and structure of the music. Scores and parts
are also used in popular music and jazz, particularly in large ensembles
such as jazz "big bands."
In popular music,
guitarists and electric
bass
players often read music notated in tablature (often abbreviated as
"tab"), which indicates the location of the notes to be played on the
instrument using a diagram of the guitar or bass fingerboard. Tabulature
was also used in the Baroque era to notate music for the
lute, a stringed, fretted instrument. Notated music is produced as
sheet music.
To perform music from notation requires an understanding of both the
rhythmic and pitch elements embodied in the symbols and the performance
practice that is associated with a piece of music or a genre. In
improvisation, the performer often plays from music where only the chord
changes are written, requiring a great understanding of the music's
structure and
chord progressions.
Improvisation
Musical improvisation
is the creation of spontaneous music. Improvisation is often considered
an act of instantaneous composition by performers, where compositional
techniques are employed with or without preparation. Improvisation is a
major part of some types of music, such as
blues,
jazz, and
jazz fusion,
in which instrumental performers improvise solos and melody lines. In
the Western art music tradition, improvisation was an important skill
during the Baroque era and during the Classical era; solo performers and
singers improvised virtuoso cadenzas during concerts. However, in the
20th and 21st century, improvisation played a smaller role in
Western Art music.
Theory
Main article:
Music theory
Music theory encompasses the nature and mechanics of music. It often
involves identifying patterns that govern composers' techniques and
examining the
language and
notation of music. In a grand sense, music theory distills and analyzes the
parameters or elements of music –
rhythm,
harmony (
harmonic function),
melody,
structure,
form, and
texture. Broadly, music theory may include any statement, belief, or conception of or about music.
[25] People who study these properties are known as music theorists. Some have applied
acoustics,
human physiology, and
psychology to the explanation of how and why music is
perceived.
Music has many different fundamentals or elements. These are, but are
not limited to: pitch, beat or pulse, rhythm, melody, harmony, texture,
allocation of voices, timbre or color, expressive qualities (dynamics
and articulation), and form or structure.
Pitch is a subjective sensation, reflecting generally the lowness or highness of a sound.
Rhythm is the arrangement of sounds and silences in
time.
Meter animates time in regular pulse groupings, called
measures or bars.
A melody is a series of notes sounding in succession. The notes of a
melody are typically created with respect to pitch systems such as
scales or
modes.
Harmony
is the study of vertical sonorities in music. Vertical sonority refers
to considering the relationships between pitches that occur together;
usually this means at the same time, although harmony can also be
implied by a melody that outlines a harmonic structure. Notes can be
arranged into different
scales and
modes.
Western music theory generally divides the octave into a series of 12
notes that might be included in a piece of music. In music written using
the system of major-minor
tonality, the
key of a piece determines the scale used.
Musical texture
is the overall sound of a piece of music commonly described according
to the number of and relationship between parts or lines of music:
monophony,
heterophony,
polyphony,
homophony, or
monody.
Timbre, sometimes called "Color" or "Tone Color" is the quality or sound of a voice or instrument.
[26]
Expressive Qualities are those elements in music that create change in
music that are not related to pitch, rhythm or timbre. They include
Dynamics and Articulation.
Form
is a facet of music theory that explores the concept of musical syntax,
on a local and global level. Examples of common forms of Western music
include the
fugue, the
invention,
sonata-allegro,
canon,
strophic,
theme and variations, and
rondo. Popular Music often makes use of
strophic form often in conjunction with
Twelve bar blues. Analysis is the effort to describe and explain music.
Philosophy and aesthetics
Philosophy of music is the study of fundamental questions regarding
music. The philosophical study of music has many connections with
philosophical questions in
metaphysics and
aesthetics. Some basic questions in the philosophy of music are:
- What is the definition of music? (What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for classifying something as music?)
- What is the relationship between music and mind?
- What does musical history reveal to us about the world?
- What is the connection between music and emotions?
- What is meaning in relation to music?
Traditionally, the aesthetics of music explored the mathematical and
cosmological dimensions of rhythmic and harmonic organization. In the
eighteenth century, focus shifted to the experience of hearing music,
and thus to questions about its beauty and human enjoyment (
plaisir and
jouissance) of music. The origin of this philosophic shift is sometimes attributed to
Baumgarten in the 18th century, followed by
Kant.
Through their writing, the ancient term 'aesthetics', meaning sensory
perception, received its present day connotation. In recent decades
philosophers have tended to emphasize issues besides beauty and
enjoyment. For example, music's capacity to express emotion has been a
central issue.
In the 20th century, important contributions were made by
Peter Kivy,
Jerrold Levinson,
Roger Scruton, and
Stephen Davies. However, many musicians,
music critics,
and other non-philosophers have contributed to the aesthetics of music.
In the 19th century, a significant debate arose between
Eduard Hanslick, a music critic and musicologist, and composer
Richard Wagner.
Harry Partch and some other
musicologists, such as
Kyle Gann, have studied and tried to popularize
microtonal music and the usage of alternate
musical scales. Also many modern composers like
Lamonte Young,
Rhys Chatham and
Glenn Branca paid much attention to a scale called
just intonation.
It is often thought that music has the ability to affect our
emotions,
intellect, and
psychology; it can assuage our loneliness or incite our passions. The philosopher
Plato suggests in
the Republic
that music has a direct effect on the soul. Therefore, he proposes that
in the ideal regime music would be closely regulated by the state.
(Book VII)
There has been a strong tendency in the aesthetics of music to
emphasize the paramount importance of compositional structure; however,
other issues concerning the aesthetics of music include
lyricism,
harmony,
hypnotism,
emotiveness,
temporal dynamics,
resonance, playfulness, and
color (see also
musical development).
Cognition and psychology
Music cognition
The field of music cognition involves the study of many aspects of
music, including how it is processed by listeners. Rather than accepting
the standard practices of analyzing, composing, and performing music as
a given, much research in music cognition seeks instead to uncover the
mental processes that underlie these practices. Also, research in the
field seeks to uncover commonalities between the musical traditions of
disparate cultures and possible cognitive "constraints" that limit these
musical systems. Questions regarding musical innateness, and emotional
responses to music are also major areas of research in the field.
Deaf
people can experience music by feeling the vibrations in their body, a
process that can be enhanced if the individual holds a resonant, hollow
object. A well-known deaf musician is the composer
Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed many famous works even after he had completely lost his hearing. Recent examples of deaf musicians include
Evelyn Glennie, a highly acclaimed
percussionist who has been deaf since age twelve, and
Chris Buck, a virtuoso
violinist
who has lost his hearing. This is relevant because it indicates that
music is a deeper cognitive process than unexamined phrases such as,
"pleasing to the ear" suggests. Much research in music cognition seeks
to uncover these complex mental processes involved in listening to
music, which may seem intuitively simple, yet are vastly intricate and
complex.
Montreal Neurological Institute
researcher Valorie Salimpoor and her colleagues have now shown that the
pleasurable feelings associated with emotional music are the result of
dopamine release in the
striatum--the same anatomical areas that underpin the anticipatory and rewarding aspects of drug
addiction.
[27]
Cognitive neuroscience of music
Cognitive neuroscience of music is the scientific study of
brain-based mechanisms involved in the cognitive processes underlying
music. These behaviours include music listening, performing, composing,
reading, writing, and ancillary activities. It also is increasingly
concerned with the brain basis for musical aesthetics and musical
emotion. Scientists working in this field may have training in cognitive
neuroscience, neurology, neuroanatomy, psychology, music theory,
computer science, and other allied fields.
Cognitive neuroscience of music is distinguished from related fields such as
music psychology,
music cognition and
cognitive musicology in its reliance on direct observations of the brain, using such techniques as
functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS),
magnetoencephalography (MEG),
electroencephalography (EEG), and
positron emission tomography (PET).
Music psychology
Music psychology, or the psychology of music, may be regarded as a branch of
psychology or a branch of
musicology.
It aims to explain and understand musical behavior and musical
experience. Modern music psychology is mainly empirical:
music-psychological knowledge tends to advance primarily on the basis of
interpretations of data about musical behavior and experience, which
are collected by systematic observation of and interaction with human
participants. Music psychology is a field of research with practical
relevance for music performance,
music composition,
music education,
music medicine, and
music therapy.
