1. Music is an organized sound and that can be analyzed through concentration on its elements, such as melody, rhythm, phonic structure, form, and so forth. The ways to understand music needs a different approach. An insider to hear a musical tradition differently compare to an outsider. Evidently, the insider tends to react to his or her own cultural music in ways that draw on a lifetime consciously absorbed cultural knowledge and attitude while outsider is assumed not to bring in ethnocentrism into her or his interpretations. However, the outsider prefers to dwell only on these aspects of music that are observable to an outsider, such as objects and sonic structure. The major drawback of the insider and outsider is that the outsider cannot
In “How we listen to music” by Aaron Copland from McGraw-Hill What to Listen for in Music (1988), the author has organised the listening process so that it had been split into three parts: the sensuous place, the expressive plane, and the sheerly musical plane. Aaron Copland thesis is that each plane of listening has its own function and advantages and knowing about them can help us enhance our listening experience. The purpose of Copland’s essay is to educate his readers on the three main ways people listen to music, and to inspire readers to listen in a more compound way. In the authors casual analysis, Copland tries to for sees his readers’ questions and objections at many points in the essay. He includes the thoughts of his readers to
Can music represent? Does it matter if it can? Roger Scruton and Peter Kivy tackle these two questions in two articles concerning music’s representational powers: Representation in Music (Scruton) and Sound and Semblance (Kivy). Scruton takes a two-pronged approach to the question of musical representation arguing that 1) music cannot represent things and 2) even if it could, such representation is irrelevant to the appreciation of the music. Kivy attempts to rebut both these charges. In this paper I will outline both Scruton’s and Kivy’s positions and argue that Kivy is correct in thinking that music can represent and that in certain cases, such representation is crucial to understanding the music. Finally, I will offer some arguments against Scruton that are not directly addressed by Kivy.
One of my long-standing philosophical ‘worries’ is what I describe as a ‘cognitive dilemma’ in relation to musical communication. How can an art form which lacks a discursive element and addresses itself primarily and indeed immediately to the auditory sense, be discerned as conveying ‘truth’ or ‘profundity’? The power is amply attested — so much so that alone among the arts music occasionally figures as a ‘surrogate religion’. The pieces of this kaleidoscope — ideas culled from Schopenhauer, Langer, Jung and others — did not fall together until recently after reading Peter Kivy’s Music Alone, an account of his quest for musical profundity which ends (as he confessed) in failure, but from whose dissection of the presuppositions I gained a platform for a synthesis of my own.
The book is divided into four chapters: 1) Humanly Organized Sound, 2) Music in Society and Culture, 3) Culture and Society in Music, and 4) Soundly Organized Humanity. In chapter one, Blacking discusses the analysis of sound. He begins by describing music as humanly organized sound. His overarching theme is that “the function of tones in relation to each other cannot be explained adequately as part of a closed system” (30). In other words, music can’t be analyzed simply by one set of rules. This is because every single culture has a different system that they use to structure and compose their music. In order to adequately analyze a society’s music we have to study their “system.” We must learn what music means to them. Then, and only then, can we accurately and completely analyze what a particular type or piece of music means to a particular society and culture.
Though an individual may be a producer of a piece of music, it is the audience that shares their like for it and makes it popular. The audience of each piece of music is a community in itself. The significance of the piece is conveyed through what the artist produces and what they call “meaning”. From the audience, the “meaning” lies within the interpretation of the music produced. This meaning can be affected depending on different factors involved in the listening experience. These factors are the lyrics, the form, performance style among others. The piece that demonstrates a “meaning” according to the audience is something they enjoy, what is called popular music and something the audience can identify with as a community (Robinson, Buck and Cuthbert 15). This can be associated with music in the past. Past meaning of music refers to the “material and aesthetic environment in which it was once playing” (Denora 144).
This is an extremely difficult topic to tackle. Essentially, I must choose only one artist to listen to for an undetermined amount of time. Then I have to pick only one album from said artist. The problem arises from having a wide arrange of music that I enjoy listening to on a regular basis, and struggling with to narrow it down to only a single artist.
Aesthetic Perception Dear friend, how are you? The reason for writing this letter is to give you an insight into what music really is. For the past few months, I have learnt a lot and as a result, I have come to love music so much. It is my sincere hope that, after reading through this letter, you will consider taking a chance on music. Dear friend, this is a decision that you will never regret.
Since the early time of human civilization, each and every ethnics that exist in this world, majority of them have come to express their culture identity through the form of music. For instance, during the ancient time of human life, societies used music as a way to gather people around the community in order to express their beliefs in terms of myths and history, ethnical background as well as cultural believes that has been foretold throughout generations within their communities.
Music is more than beautiful words put together. I have always found a strong connection to the lyrics of a song. Listening to music that I can relate to allows me to de-stress myself, concentrate, and gives me motivation. We’ve all had a heartbreak which resulted to having a playlist made of pop artist Adele. Music can help us cope with the struggles we face in life. I’ve always been a believer that the last song you hear on your way to work/ school will determine your mood for the day. Music is a form of art, it is a communication, and therefore many people make connections to the lyrics of a song. Music is remembering how things once were, where you want thing to be directed, and music is a form of self expression.
Music means many different things to many different people. To a listener, a song is sometimes for four simple minutes of entertainment, but sometimes it is much more. Sometimes, a song is a message from the artist. This is much the same way from the opposite end of the spectrum. An artists message can get so complex that it is completely lost on the listener.
Music according to Merriam Webster dictionary can be defined as “the science and art of ordering tones in succession, combination, and in temporal relationships to produce having unity and continuity. The dictionary made me understand that for music to be meaningful, it must have an agreeable sound. Music depicts a lot of information, ideas, knowledge and importantly feelings. People who make or produce music definitely have a way they feel before they begin to sing or before they make a decision to sing. A popular musician, Bob Marley said, “one good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” The familiarity of a song can determine the way you feel about the song. Familiarity plays a great role, it underpins our engagement with
Bennett accurately states that people do not embrace music that the global culture industries throw around in the hopes of creating a connection. People have and continue to think judiciously about popular music and the importance it evokes. It needs to be known that many opinions and moods that social beings have about popular music take place within controlled or persuasive environments. The influence that these environments hold allows people to restrict their cultural predilections and practices, or to create their own relationship to the musical texts. Bennett’s ignorance toward the structural context within which a person’s relationship with music evolves is essential to form a sufficient judgment of musical practice. The restriction on Bennett’s scope of study is directly related to his inability to study more than a minority in the European Culture. By diversifying his study like he has claimed to, would allow copious more readers to be engaged with his
There are many different styles and forms of music, that have their own distinct sound. Each sound that is heard is the sound of a culture, each piece of music has a tie to places, ideas, thoughts and feelings based on opinions. This often results in stereotyping and portraying the music and culture with an inaccurate view, of the larger population of the cultures in which the music has originated from. Many times the way a culture advertises itself, and is portrayed, is the visual that is reflected in their music, This will be expressed through the steel pans of the Caribbean, Aboriginal music, and classical music.
...s a set of rules which musicians must follow. Also just like any official language, music can be used to communicate emotions. In order for somebody to understand music they must have some sort of knowledge about rules in order to appreciate musical experiences. Every culture is different, every language is different and every music is different, but to fully appreciate the music; listeners must be musically literate. In our first week of class, “Khoomi” was our first musical example and all the students were confused about this type of music. But now with my little knowledge about music and how diverse it is, I learned to appreciate it more.
There is a clear difficulty in apprehending and describing another’s musical experience (Downey, 487). Performers, spectators, and producers will have different ways of hearing the common piece that they are listening to together. All senses, including sound reception, are affected and refined by one’s culture. In order to better understand how our personal involvement with music may differ from our peers, we need to educate ourselves in the different ways to respond to music perceived as