Music

We explain what music is, its history, characteristics and elements. Also, musical types and genres.

What is music?

Music is a form of artistic expression that consists of the combination of sounds vocal or instrumental, according to cultural standards of rhythm and melody.

Music is one of the oldest forms of art and has been present, in different ways, in practically all human cultures. It can be created for aesthetic, recreational, ceremonial, therapeutic or communication purposes.

There are many different ways to produce music. Traditional methods can be used with instruments and voices improvise with everyday objects or use music creation computer programs, called DAW (digital audio station, for its acronym in English). Whatever the method, the principle is the same.

Musical pieces respond to specific historical, cultural and aesthetic contexts and their valuation depends on what a society or group considers art.

Music is associated with certain aspects of the mind and is considered an important stimulus for logical and mathematical thinking, language acquisition, psychomotor development, creativity and many other human abilities.

• See also: Fine arts

Music Features

Organize the sound

Music is characterized by organizing sounds to produce aesthetically appreciable and significant sequences. While all sounds could be “musical,” in each culture there is a specific range of sounds that are strictly considered music.

It spreads through waves

The fundamental component of music is sound and it is transmitted through air, water and other media capable of transporting waves. These media can be solid, liquid or gaseous.

Requires an executor and a composer

Music needs a performer or performer, who uses a musical instrument or his or her own voice to produce sounds. It usually also requires a composer, who is the one who conceives the musical piece that will be performed. They can both be the same person.

It is made up of four fundamental parameters

Music depends on the four fundamental parameters of sound, which are:

• Height . It is the frequency of sound vibration. Depending on how many times per second it vibrates, the sound will be lower (lower) or higher (higher).
• Duration . It is the time in which the sound remains audible.
• Intensity . Intensity is the strength with which a sound is produced, or the amount of acoustic energy it contains. It is measured in dB (decibels) and is related to the volume or sound pressure perceived by our ears.
• Ring . It is the quality of sound determined by the shape of the waves that compose it. It is what allows one sound to be distinguished from another, even if it has the same pitch, duration and intensity.

• It may help you: Musical intelligence

Origin of the term “music”

The word “music” It comes from the ancient Greek mousiké, which means “relating to the muses.” . The muses were, according to Greek mythology, nine goddesses, daughters of Zeus (king of the gods) and Mnemosyne (the goddess of memory). Each of the muses had a gift. Clío: history and epic poetry, Euterpe: instrumental music, Thalia: comedy and countryside poetry, Melpómene: tragedy, Terpsichore: dance and choral singing, Erató: love poetry, Polimnia: sacred poetry and the hymns, Urania: astronomy, sciences and didactic poetry and Calliope: epic poetry and eloquence.

Initially, music for the Greeks was only singing and poetry . Later there were the arts linked to the word and, finally, all the disciplines that were transmitted verbally (philosophy, history, science, astronomy and other knowledge).

This sense of the word “music” is an archaism (that is, an ancient meaning, which is no longer used), but it allows us to understand the place that this form of expression has had in traditions, worldview and culture throughout of history.

This interpretation corresponds to Western culture, in which the word “music” is understood as an extensive term, which covers the entire variety of styles, traditions and genres based on aesthetic experience, human creation and the organization of sounds. However, the notion of music and the way it is appreciated or understood in the modern Western world is very different in other cultures.

For example, In China, the word “music” (yue) was originally related to the notion of joy and it referred to all the arts. In India, the word “sangita” refers to music based on the ragas theoretical system, and in indigenous American cultures, there are often different names for vocal music and instrumental music.

• See also: Artistic expression

music history

The origin of the music has not been determined. It is estimated that it began in the prehistory of humanity from religious and mating rites.

Dance and song seem to have been associated with understanding the world from the beginning. They were part of religious or shamanic manifestations, healing rituals, battle or hunting songs, or dances to attract rain.

The oldest instrument found to date is the so-called flute by Divje Babe a bear femur more than 43,000 years old that has two aligned circular perforations.

The first recorded song is a musical fragment written in cuneiform in Sumeria in the year 1400 BC. C. In this civilization there were percussion and string instruments.

During the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, a semitone system began to be used and instruments such as the two-stringed lute, the 16-stringed harp, the double oboe and rectangular drums were introduced.

With the Greeks the first treatises on Western music appeared . The ancient Hellenes gave great importance to the educational and moral value of music, always linked to the tragic poem and mythology.

From the 5th century AD. C., with the expansion of Christianity, Western music was transformed under the influence of medieval religious thought . Early Christian music and Gregorian chant laid the foundations for a musical evolution that led to the development of polyphony towards the end of the Middle Ages.

In the Renaissance new styles appeared in Europe that gave rise to flamenco music, chanson French and baroque music.

Under the influence of classicism, the famous European classical music was born, performed by symphony orchestras. Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770-1827) and Franz Schubert (1797-1828) belong to this period.

Romanticism broke with the forms of musical classicism to give way to new registers and sensibilities linked to emotional intensity, local color and popular culture.

After the break with the traditional tonality of impressionism, he began the contemporary stage of music, characterized by an experimental search a constant exploration and a great diversity of musical genres.

Elements of music

The fundamental elements of music can vary from one culture to another. In Western music they are melody, rhythm and harmony.

Melody

The melody is the set of sounds that is ordered successively and that is perceived as a complete unit of sound, with its own identity and meaning. When two or more melodies sound simultaneously, it is called counterpoint.

Rhythm

Rhythm is the organization of time in music through the succession of sounds and silences. It is what gives structure to a piece of music. Its main elements are pulse, accent and beat.

Harmony

Harmony (or polyphony) is the simultaneous combination of different notes. It can be consonant (if it is considered “pleasant” to the ear) or dissonant (if it sounds tense or harsh). Harmony is the pillar of Western music and one of its fundamental elements is chords: sets of three or more sounds played simultaneously.

Types of music

There are many ways to classify music. Depending on their context and function, the types of music are:

popular music

Popular music includes the musical manifestations of folklore and tradition. It is characterized by being transmitted from generation to generation and does not always have a specific author. It is usually linked to regional history and is often accompanied by dance or dancing.

academic music

Academic music is music that comes from the musical tradition of the elites of Western Europe. It is also called classical music (even if it is medieval or by avant-garde composers), because the classical period was considered a model of excellence for academies, conservatories, and professional music teaching institutions.

Although the tradition has opened up to new forms and styles, academic music continues to have an important cultural value.

commercial music

Commercial music is the music consumed by the public on a massive scale, and it is what mostly drives the music industry. It covers multiple genres, currents and styles.

ceremonial music

Ceremonial music is music used in celebrations and rituals with a fundamentally symbolic function. This is the case of funeral marches, national marches, religious music, among others.

advertising music

Advertising music is what accompanies advertisements or serves as a curtain for television programs and radio shows. It is usually anonymous and forms part of the assets of a company or the producers of the show. It is not made for an aesthetic purpose nor is it considered for its artistic value.

musical genres

Musical genres are classifications that distinguish the various expressions according to the use of their instruments, their aesthetic tendencies or their historical content.

There is an enormous diversity of musical genres. Among the most common currently are pop, blues, rap, rock and electronic music.

Pop

Pop is a musical genre that emerged in the late 1950s in the United States based on the heritage of rock and roll and other genres. It is characterized by having simple and accessible structures, and simple and catchy rhythmic patterns.

Since its appearance, it has dominated the sales charts and has merged with other genres such as cumbia, reggae, salsa, trap or tango.

Blues

Blues is a musical genre that follows a repetitive pattern in a twelve-bar structure . His name means “melancholy” or “sadness.”

Originally it consisted of a solo song accompanied by a banjo or a guitar, but in the mid-20th century it adopted the structure that is known today and which made it popular in the United Kingdom and other countries. Its greatest exponents are African Americans.

Rap

Rap is a musical genre that appeared in the Latin and African American communities of New York. in the 1970s .

Combines rhyme, rhythmic recitation and slang about beats or percussion bases of very pronounced and monotonous rhythmic patterns.

Rock

Rock is a set of musical subgenres derived from Rock n' roll 60s American . It is characterized by having a strong and well-marked rhythm and its most prominent instrument is the electric guitar, which is usually accompanied by bass and drums.

Other instruments such as synthesizers, harmonicas, acoustic strings and many more can be included.

• Rock

electronic music

Electronic music is what is created and reproduced with electronic instruments or digital technology . It became popular in the 1960s with the appearance of synthesizers such as the Moog and the ARP 2600, which offered the possibility of experimenting with new sounds and timbres.

Around 1970 it diversified with subgenres such as krautrock, electro and disco, and later techno, house, drum and bass and chillwave appeared. Electronic music is currently one of the most expanding and widespread genres in the world.

References

• Epperson, G. (July 5, 2024). Music. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/
• Schopenhauer, A. (2016). About music. Casimir.
• Stolba, K. M. (1995). The Development of Western Music: A History. Brown & Benchmark
• Toop, D. (2014). Sinister resonance. Black box.
• Ulrich, M. (1985). Music Atlas. Alliance.