Unit 3.1: Music

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Unit 3.1 Music
Leo
Issy

• All Gods Children Got Rhythm
• (Music Overview)

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Unit Outline

• What Is Music?
• Music In Different Cultures
• The Taxonomy Of Music

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What Is Music?
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What Is Music?

• Just the organized movement of sounds through
  time!
• Why does it affect us so?!

K. Stange
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What Is Music?

• Sound is a pressure wave through a medium.
• It is detectable by receptors in our inner ear.
• These receptors can distinguish three variables
• Height of the wave
• Average number of waves in a given period of
  time
• Complex shape of the waves
• This information goes to our brain which somehow
• keeps track and remembers changes in these
  variables
• and responds emotionally to these patterns.

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The Mystery Of Music
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The Mystery Of Music

• The emotions produced by this auditory pattern
  recognition is so desirable that virtually all
  humans seek it out.
• These emotions are often extremely powerful, and
  many people consider music the most emotional of
  all art forms.
• But music is totally abstract and has no external
  referents to human experience.
• We seem to have certain preferences for
  particular patterns which are based on
  mathematical relationships.
• What is going on here? the psychologist asks.

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The Mystery Of Music

• What purpose does music serve?
• It serves a variety of functions in different
  cultures and situations, but.
• it remains a mystery how it does this.

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Music In Different Cultures
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Music In Different Cultures

• All known cultures have music, but many languages
  do not even have a specific word for it!
• In many cultures it is linked to religion and
  sense of community.

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Music In Different Cultures

• In many African cultures
• viewed as uniquely human and defining of our
  humanity
• associated with all significant social events
• highly participatory
• emphasis place on rhythm

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Music In Different Cultures

• For many Native American cultures
• viewed as a way for spirits and people to
  communicate
• assumed to have power to affect nature and the
  outcome of future events

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Music In Different Cultures

• Music in Ancient Greece
• reflected their metaphysics.
• great importance was place on harmony and
  relationship to mathematics
• The music of the spheres

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Music In Different Cultures

• In China
• is viewed as reflecting the state of the society
  as well as affecting it.
• dissonant music and loud music considered a sign
  of decadence
• and enervating!

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Music In Different Cultures

• In fundamental Islamic and Christian culture
• viewed as of low value and associated with sin
  and evil. (Koran chanting or church choirs
  excepted.)

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Music In Different Cultures

• In many Western cultures
• viewed as inherently good, uplifting and
  soothing.
• music to the ears.
• sooth a savage breast
• has served a variety of different functions at
  different times and within different subcultures
• is extremely various in complexity and audience
• is less participatory than in many other cultures

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The Taxonomy Of Music
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Types Of Music

• A somewhat arbitrary four categories taxonomy
• Secular folk music
• Religious music
• Popular music
• Art music

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Types Of Music Folk Music

• Secular music of the common people.
• Six typical characteristics
• Composer usually anonymous.
• Common to a cultural group, distributed by word
  of mouth, generation to generation.
• Likely to be participatory.
• Associated with special events (e.g., weddings)
  or with daily chores (e.g., harvesting the
  crops).
• May come to be art music in our time.
• Not usually very complex but often wondrously
  melodic. Example Greensleeves tune

3m
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Types Of Music Religious Music

• Music associated with religion.
• Four typical characteristics
• Composer sometimes known but always of secondary
  importance.
• Music is common to a particular religious group,
  distributed by orthodoxy.
• Music sometimes complex, sometimes relatively
  simple. (E.g., Bach versus gospel music.)
• Often now appreciated for its own aesthetic
  qualitiesdivorced from religionas art music.
  Example Aaron Neville Ava Marie

5m
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Types Of Music Popular Music

• Secular music that permeates a culture because of
  reproductive technology.
• Six typical characteristics
• A relatively recent phenomenon
• Composer (or performer) often an object of
  idolatry.
• Commercially distributed.
• Usually relatively simple but with catchy
  melodic line.
• Often ambient or dance music.
• But often can also fall into category of art
  music. Example Beatles Get Back

3m
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Types Of Music Art Music

• Music that is listened to purely for its
  musicality treated as a work of art.
• 4 typical characteristics
• Composer (as artist) considered to have great
  importance (ethnic music sometimes excepted from
  this).
• Audience gives undivided attention.
• Music is usually complex and often requires full
  attention for full appreciation.
• May be originally religious, folk or popular
  music and later come to be appreciated
  independent of its origins. Example Chopins
  Etude in G Minor.

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