We explain what music is, what its history, elements and other characteristics are. Also, what are the types and genres of music.
What is music?
Music is one of the calls Fine arts, that is, to an artistic genre, which consists of achieving aesthetic effects through the manipulation of sounds vocal or instrumental, according to cultural standards of rhythm, harmony and melody.
Music is one of the greatest forms of artistic expression since ancient times. It also constitutes the support of a gigantic industry global, since in the culture They have room for very different types of music, used for recreational, ceremonial, advertising or other purposes.
There are many and diverse ways to produce music, some very traditional like a classical orchestra, and others more contemporary like a band. rock. However, the guiding principle is similar. Each belongs to a context specific as to history, culture, values and considerations around what is and what is not the art.
On the other hand, music is associated with certain aspects of the human mind and is considered an important stimulus for the logical thinking Y mathematical, the acquisition of language, psychomotor development and a wide range of social and mental activities specific to gender human. That is why it is usually included in different school programs.
Music history
The origin of music is covered in mystery, although it is estimated that it began in the prehistory of the humanity and it is linked to mating rites and collective work.
The dance and singing seem from the beginning to have been associated with the way in which the human being understand the world. In fact, they were part of its religious or shamanic manifestations, such as healing rituals, battle or hunting songs, or dances to attract rain.
The oldest instruments are flutes of bone over 30,000 years old. Much later, in Sumeria from 3,000 BC. There were primitive percussion and string instruments. On the other hand, in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt they used scales of seven different sounds, and various instruments such as the harp, oboe and drums.
However, the first treatises on the music of the West are of Greek origin, since the ancient Hellenes they gave a lot of importance to value educational and moral of music, always linked to the poem tragic and the mythology. Its eastern equivalent is found in Ancient China, whose music was already responding in the 4th century BC. C. on a cyclical scale of its own.
Later, music in the West evolved hand in hand with religious thought medieval, giving Gregorian chant a prominent place as a liturgical song of the Catholic Church. At Renaissance new styles appeared in Europe, thus giving rise to flamenco music, to the chanson French and to music baroque.
Then he returned to classicism, under whose influence was born the famous European classical music performed by orchestras. The famous Bach, Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven belong to this period.
With the Romanticism, new records and new sensitivities linked to the local and popular culture were created. After different programmatic, impressionist and modernist variants, the contemporary stage of music began, characterized by enormous diversity and a constant exploration of musical genres.
Music Features
Music can be defined very broadly as an organized, coherent, meaningful sound. It is characterized by the use of sounds (and the instruments to produce them) with the objective to produce an aesthetically appreciable and meaningful sequence.
Like all sound, it propagates through the air (or the medium in which it is inserted) and therefore its properties will depend on the conditions in which an instrument is played.
It has an executor or interpreter, who is the one who uses the musical instrument, but also a composer, who is the one who conceived the rhythmic and sound language that will later be interpreted on stage.Both people may well be the same.
It is made up of four fundamental parameters, which are:
- The height. Which is nothing more than the frequency of the sounds produced, allowing them to be classified into bass or bass, and treble or high, depending on how many cycles their vibrations complete per second.
- The duration. I mean, the weather in which the instruments remain vibrating or emitting a sound, which is strongly related to the rhythm.
- The intensity. What is the force with which a sound is produced, or the Energy containing their sound waves, represented by the amplitude of wave from the same.
- The ringer. What is the quality of the sound, determined by the shape of the waves that compose it (in the case of complex sounds, such as musical ones) and it is what allows us to distinguish the different instruments that sound in an orchestra.
elements of music
The fundamental elements of music are usually always three, although its conception and its concrete application may well vary from one culture to another. These elements are:
- Melody. It refers to the set of sounds that, within the same specific sound field, sound successively, that is, one after another, and that, when perceived as a complete unit of sound, have their own identity and meaning. Silences have a place in it, serving as pauses in the melody's "discourse", and there may even be two or more simultaneous melodies, forming what is called a "counterpoint".
- Harmony. In this case we refer to the effect that results when combining two or more musical notes, and that can become more or less pleasant to the ear (more or less harmonic). A set of matching sounds makes up a chord, and they are all played at the same time.
- Rhythm. This element is the one that links music with time, allowing it to transmit a certain emotion depending on the vertiginousness, placidity or the ways in which the previous elements are manifested. Strictly speaking, rhythm is nothing more than the existing patterns in the succession of sounds, the specific combination of figures and silences that make up the music.
Types of music
There are many ways to classify music, since it is an ancient art and a vast and complex history. However, with the naked eye it is possible to discern between:
- Popular music. This term usually refers to the musical manifestations coming from the common people, that is, from folklore, the tradition and sometimes, the protest. It is characterized by being transmitted from generation to generation and not always having a specific author. They tend to have deep ties to local history and are often accompanied by dancing or dance.
- Academic music. Diametrically opposed to popular music, academic or "classical" music is that which comes from a more elitist, European and classicist cultural tradition, whether it comes from the great medieval composers, or from scholars and composers. avant-garde of the music. It does not always have a large audience, but it does have an important appreciation within the culture.
- Commercial music. This is the name given to the music that is consumed by the general public in a recreational way, and that mainly drives the industry record label or music company from around the world. It encompasses various genres and is generally held in low esteem by academia, although such criteria of musical elitism are always questionable.
- Ceremonial music. In this case, we are talking about the music that is used to mark celebrations, rituals or special occasions, regardless of its authorship or other details, such as the wedding march, the funeral march, the presidential march of a country, etc.
- Advertising music. The one that accompanies the advertising or that serves as a curtain to television programs or radio shows. It is usually anonymous and is part of the heritage of a business or from the show's producers. It is not usually considered artistic music at all.
Do not confuse types of music with musical genres.
Musical genres
Musical genres are more or less strict classifications that serve to guide us when choosing music, especially in commercial areas or radio stations. They are distinguished from each other by the use of some instruments, by certain aesthetic trends or by certain historical content that accompanies them.
Currently there are many and very varied musical genres. A summary list of the most famous musical genres of the moment includes:
- Pop music. Its name comes from "popular", in the sense of "famous" and not "traditional", and it is a very commercial genre of dance music, in which the singing voice is prioritized and accompanied with simple rhythmic patterns. It was born in the United States in the 1960s and has since dominated the sales charts around the world.
- The blues. Originally it consisted of a man alone singing accompanied by a banjo or a guitar, back in the 19th century, but in the mid-20th century it was reinvented in the UK and other countries, following a repeating pattern in a twelve-bar structure. Its name means "melancholy" or "sadness" and many of its greatest exponents were black Americans.
- The rap. Another American invention, this time from the early 1970s, is about a genre that combines rhymeHe speaks rhythmically and slang, the latter mostly from poor black American neighborhoods. Linked to certain African oral traditions, rap employs very pronounced and monotonous rhythmic patterns (the beat).
- The rock. Term used to group a set of musical subgenres derived from the Rock n 'roll American from the 60s. His most prominent instrument is the electric guitar, accompanied by bass, drums and other instruments.