MUSIC: ITS ELEMENTS, MAIN TYPES AND BRIEF HISTORY

Music is sound arranged into pleasing or interesting patterns. It forms an important part of many cultural and social activities. People use music to express feelings and ideas. Music also serves to entertain and relax.

Music is a performing art. It differs from such arts as painting and poetry, in which artists create works and then display or publish them. Musical composers need musicians to interpret and perform their works, just as playwrights need actors to perform their plays. Thus, most musical performances are really partnerships between composers and performers.

Music also plays a major role in other arts. Opera combines singing and orchestra music with drama. Ballet and other forms of dancing need music to help the dancers with their steps. Motion pictures and TV dramas use music to help set the mood and emphasize the action. Also, composers have set many poems to music.

Music is one of the oldest arts. People probably started to sing as soon as language developed. Hunting tools struck together may have been the first musical instruments. By about 10,000 B.C., people had discovered how to make flutes out of hollow bones. Many ancient peoples, including the Egyptians, Chinese, and Babylonians, used music in court and religious ceremonies. The first written music dates from about 2500 B.C.

Today, music takes many forms around the world. The music of people in Europe and the Americas is known as Western music. There are two chief kinds of Western music, classical and popular. Classical music includes symphonies, operas, and ballets. Popular music includes country music, folk music, jazz, and rock music. The cultures of Africa and Asia have developed their own types of classical and popular music.

The importance of music. Music plays an important part in all cultures. People use music 1) in ceremonies, 2) in work, and 3) in personal and social activities.

In ceremonies. Nearly all peoples use music in their religious services. One kind of religious music seeks to create a state of mystery and awe. For example, some cultures have special musical instruments played only by priests on important occasions, such as harvest ceremonies and the burials of chiefs. Similarly, much Western church music attempts to create a feeling of distance from the daily world. Other religious music helps produce a sense of participation among worshipers. The singing of hymns by a congregation is a good example of this function of religious music.

Many nonreligious ceremonies and spectacles also use music. They include sports events, graduations, circuses, parades, and the crownings of kings and queens.

In work. Before machines became important, people had to do much difficult or boring work by hand. Laborers sang songs to help make their work seem easier. For example, crews aboard sailing ships sang chanteys, songs with a strong, regular beat. The sailors pulled or lifted heavy loads in time to the beat. Today, the wide use of machines has made the singing of work songs rare in industrialized societies. However, many offices and factories provide background music for workers.

In personal and social activities. Many people perform music for their own satisfaction. Singing in a chorus or playing a musical instrument in a band can be very enjoyable. Music provides people with a way to express their feelings. A group of happy campers may sing cheerful songs as they sit around a campfire. A sad person may play a mournful tune on a guitar.

Many famous rulers have used music to help them relax. According to the Bible, David played the harp to help King Saul take his mind off the problems of ruling Israel. Kings Richard I and Henry VIII of England composed music. Other leaders have performed music. For example, Presidents Harry S. Truman and Richard M. Nixon of the United States played the piano.

People use music at a variety of social occasions. At parties and dinners, music often is played for dancing or simply for listening. In some countries, a young man shows that a young woman is special to him by serenading her or by sending musicians to play and sing for her.

The elements of music. A composer uses five basic elements to create a piece of music. These elements are 1) tone, 2) rhythm, 3) melody, 4) harmony, and 5) tone color.

Tone is any musical sound of definite pitch. Most music is based on a scale, a particular set of tones arranged according to rising or falling pitch. Western musicians name the tones, or notes, of a scale with the first seven letters of the alphabet--A, B, C, D, E, F, and G.

Rhythm is the way the composer arranges notes in time. Every note has a certain duration as well as a definite pitch. Some notes may last a short time, and others a relatively long time. Rhythm helps give music its character. For example, a familiar piece of music sounds much different if the music is performed with all its notes the same length. The piece of music sounds strange because it lacks the variety of the short and long notes that make up its normal rhythm.

Another important element of rhythm is accent. Most composers build their music on a pattern of regularly occurring accents. Certain types of music have a fixed pattern of accent. For example, a waltz follows a strong-weak-weak pattern, ONE two three ONE two three. A march has a strong-weak pattern, ONE two ONE two. Some composers create different rhythms by accenting beats that are normally unaccented. This technique, known as syncopation, has been widely used in jazz and ragtime music.

Melody. The composer combines pitches and rhythms to create a melody, or tune.

Harmony. Most music is based on the idea of sounding notes together. The sounding together of three or more notes is called harmony.

Tone colour, also called timbre, is the quality of a musical sound. Tone colors produced by different musical instruments vary widely. For example, a melody that seems dark and mournful when played on the English horn may sound bright and merry when played on the flute. Composers take advantage of tone color in orchestration (writing or arranging music for a musical group). They combine tone colors much as an artist puts together colors in creating a painting.

Musical notation. Through the years, composers developed a system for writing down music so it could be performed by musicians. This system is called notation. Notation indicates 1) the pitch of tones; 2) the time values, or duration of the tones; and 3) expression--that is, the composer's ideas about how the music should be performed.

Поиск по сайту: