Monday, October 27, 2008

What is music?
Many definitions of music have been put forward, but short and concise definitions seem to fall short. Music has been defined as “organized sound,” but that seems to encompass more than just music. The puffing of a steam engine, and the whine of a siren are both “organized sound” and while they may have some musical aspects, they are not real music. Some say that music is “emotion externalized” but so is a kiss or a punch in the nose.

Music has been defined as “the poetry of the air,” “the mediator between the spiritual and sensual life” (Beethoven), “the wine the fills the cup of silence” (Robert Fripp), “the universal language of mankind” (Longfellow), and “moonlight in the gloomy night of life” (Jean Richter). Some of these might be helpful, but they don’t really get at what music literally is. Martin Luther kind of sums it up when he says “The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them…” Music really defies definition.

One definition in the dictionary for music is “an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.” This does not sound as poetic or profound as some of the definitions above, but it is more specific and I find it more helpful. I would modify that and say music is a combination of pitch, rhythm, harmony, timbre and form.

Pitch makes up all melody and harmony and is present in all of what is commonly called music. Rhythm covers all the time element of music. Music is a performance art, and it cannot be music without time. Meter, tempo, and length of the music all fall under the rhythm category. Harmony is present in almost all music, and has been developed to very high degree in the West. Some monophonic music lacks harmony (it is still sort of present in the overtone series), but harmony is often still implied. Color, or timbre is what makes a guitar sound different than an oboe. Form is also present in all music whether it be in Sonata-Allegro form, or a simple AB folk song like Arkansas Traveler.

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