Composers of Art Music Create Works That Are Passed

ii.8. Classifying Music^*

I of the first things needed when you brainstorm the study of any field of study is a petty introduction to the "lingo." Since music is such a huge subject, some of the words used to talk about it are the terms that split up it up into smaller subjects, the fashion science is divided into biology, physics, and and then on. So here are a few terms that may be useful if y'all are wondering what kind of music you desire to learn more than near.

Western and Non-Western

Nearly of the music books yous'll notice on the shelf are about Western music. From the finish of the Eye Ages to modern times, composers and performers in western Europe gradually adult widely accepted standards for tuning, melody, harmony, meter, note, form, counterpoint and other music basics. These rules are a sort of grammar for the language of music. Just equally the basic rules for putting together sentences and paragraphs aid people understand each other, knowing what to expect from a piece of music helps people understand and similar it.

Of course, music, like language, changes through the centuries. A Bach invention, a Brahms symphony, and a Beatles song are different forms in different genres, and at start they may sound equally if they have zippo in mutual. But they all use the aforementioned musical "language" and follow basically the same rules. They are all examples of Western music, and are all more like each other than they are like a Navajo lullaby, a Chinese opera, or a west African praise song.

Wherever Europeans went during the colonial era, they took their music with them. So, in places like Australia and the Americas, not but exercise nigh of the people speak European languages, much of their music also sounds Western. What are the rules of this European musical language? A consummate reply to that question would be long and complex, since Western music, like any living language shared by many different communities, has many "local dialects". The short reply is: Western music is more often than not tonal, based on major or pocket-size scales, using an equal temperament tuning, in an easy-to-recognize meter, with straightforward rhythms, fairly strict rules on harmony and counterpoint, and not much improvisation. This is, of course, a huge generalization. Twentieth century art music, in detail, was very interested in breaking down or even rejecting these rules. But because they are flexible enough to let enough of interesting but easy-to-grasp music, the rules are all the same widely used, particularly in popular music. In fact, the use of these traditional rules for Western music is now and then widespread that it is sometimes called common practice. They are what makes Western music sound familiar and piece of cake to understand.

Non-Western music is any music that grew out of a different culture or musical tradition than the European. For someone who grew upwards listening to Western music, Non-Western music will have a recognizably exotic audio. This comes from the use of unlike tuning systems, unlike scales, different vocal styles and performance practices, and different approaches to tune and harmony.

Note

You may find the terms "Western" and "Non-Western" to exist too Eurocentric, just they are very well entrenched, so yous'll need to know what they mean. If yous want to avert using the terms yourself, you can be more specific. You lot can speak, for example, of European classical or the European-American folk tradition, equally opposed to Indian Classical, Japanese folk, or African-American musics.

Jazz, Blues, and World Music

Much of the music that is popular today cannot actually exist classified every bit completely Western or Not-Western. Since colonial times, when European cultures came into contact with many Not-Western cultures, musicians on all sides accept been experimenting with music that is a alloy of "the best of both worlds." Many musical styles have been invented that mix Western and Non-Western traditions. Perhaps the oldest and most widely popular of these styles are the ones that join European and African musical traditions. These include various Latin (from Cardinal and Due south America, some of which likewise include Native American influences) and Caribbean area traditions, and from Due north America, many dissimilar kinds of jazz and blues. Most American popular musics also grew out of this blending of traditions.

But the procedure of inventing new ways of fusing Western and Non-Western music continues today in countries all over the world. The term World Music is oft used as a grab-all category referring to almost any music with widespread popularity that clearly does not audio similar Due north American pop music. This includes older blended traditions such as rumba and samba, newer but well-established composite genres such equally reggae and Afrobeat, and groups with unique experimental sounds borrowing from more than 1 tradition. Folk and traditional music from effectually the world is also sometimes included, but the most popular genres in this category tend to exist those, such as Flamenco, Hungarian folk, and Celtic music, that are easy for Western-trained ears to sympathise. African-American traditions are so basic to popular music that they are generally not included in World music, simply other North American traditions, such as Native American and Cajun traditions, sometimes are.

Tonal, Atonal, and Modal Music

As mentioned above, Western music has not remained static through the centuries, either. Information technology has changed and evolved as composers experimented with new sounds, ideas, and even new or evolving instruments.

Medieval European music, like many Non-Western traditions, was modal. This ways that a piece of music was not in a detail key based on a major or modest scale. Instead, it was in a item mode. A manner may look very much like a calibration, since it lists the notes that are "allowed" in the piece of music and defines the tonic of the music. But a mode is normally also a collection of melodies, melodic phrases, or patterns that are found in that mode and not others (since the various modes are more different from each other than the various scales). Modes also may imply or suggest specific moods or they may exist meant to have particular effects on the graphic symbol of the listener.

Unlike keys may also evoke unlike moods, but the main purpose of a central is to ascertain the chords and harmonic progressions that will be expected from a piece of music. From the Renaissance to the present mean solar day, almost Western music has tended to be tonal. Tonal music is music in which the progression of the melody and harmony gives the strong feeling that the piece has a note and chord that are its "home base", so to speak (the tonic of the primal). Think of a very familiar tune, perhaps "Row, Row, Row your Boat" or "Happy Birthday to Yous". Imagine how frustrating information technology would be to terminate that tune without singing the final note or playing the final chord. If you did this, most people would be and then dissatisfied that they might supply that concluding note for you. That annotation is the tonal center of the tune, and without information technology, there is a feeling that the song has not reached its proper resting identify. In tonal music, just about any tune is immune, as long as information technology fits into the harmonies every bit they wander away from and then head dorsum to their home base. Nigh Western tonal music is based on major and minor scales, both of which easily give that strongly tonal feeling. Some other scales, such as dejection scales, also work well within a tonal framework, but others, such as whole-tone scales, do not.

Most of the Western music that is popular today is tonal, but around the starting time of the twentieth century, composers of "Classical" or Art music (see below) began experimenting with methods of composing atonal music. "Atonal" literally means "not tonal". As the name implies, atonal music treats all notes and harmonies as equal and in fact tries to avoid melodies and harmonies that volition make the piece sound tonal. 1 blazon of atonal music is twelve-tone music, which seeks to use each of the notes of the chromatic scale equally. Other pieces may fifty-fifty dispense with the thought that music has to consist of notes; compositions may be collections of sounds and silences. Since the music is not organized by the familiar rules of Western music, many people take problem affectionate atonal music without some help or written report.

Music can exist more or less tonal without becoming completely atonal, all the same. Music that does not stray at all from its key is called diatonic. Many Western children's songs, folk songs, and pop songs are in this category. But composers often add together some notes or even whole sections of music that are from a different primal, to make the music a little more than complex and interesting. Music that goes even farther, and freely uses all the notes of the chromatic calibration, but still manages to have a tonal "dwelling house", is called chromatic. Music that has more one tonal center at the same time (Ives was peculiarly fond of this composition technique) is called polytonal.

Classical and Fine art Music

Popular music is, by definition, music that appeals to many people. You don't accept to know annihilation about music to like a pop tune - it'south "catchy". Art music is a grab-all term for whatever music that is enjoyed past a smaller crowd. This tin can include the more challenging types of jazz and rock music, every bit well every bit Classical. Nigh people agree that the appreciation of art music requires some written report, conscientious listening, or other extra effort. But information technology can exist harder to agree on what exactly belongs in this category. This is at least partly because popular tastes do change. For case, most operas were written to be popular, middle-form entertainments, and artists such equally Liszt and Paganini enjoyed rock-star-like fame and popularity in their day. Today, even so, nineteenth century operas are no longer considered popular entertainment, and pop works that could technically be considered opera - except for the fact that they are written in popular musical styles - are instead grouped with musicals. As another case, ragtime was wildly popular during Scott Joplin's lifetime. It after fell out of favor and was known but to some jazz connoisseurs. So in the 1970's it became pop again.

Classical music is a confusing term with more than than one meaning. In the visual arts, the term classical refers to aboriginal Hellenic republic and Rome. In the 1700's, Western Europeans became very interested in the aboriginal classical style, which was imitated by many artists, sculptors, and architects. Fine art historians telephone call that catamenia the neoclassical ("new classical"). Unfortunately, nobody really knows what the music of ancient times sounded like. So instead of existence influenced by the sound of aboriginal Greek music, eighteenth-century composers were influenced past the ideals of classical art. The music of Mozart, Haydn, and the early on works of Beethoven are in this fashion, which nosotros call classical rather than neoclassical, because the original classical music of ancient Greece and Rome is lost. (And really, information technology probably would sound very exotic and Non-Western to us if nosotros could listen to information technology!)

Then the original classical music comes from one fairly short era. The other corking composers of Western music lived during other periods: Bach and Handel were Baroque era composers, for example; Brahms and Wagner, Romantic; and Ravel and Debussy, Impressionist. But most people practice not know which music is from which period. So all of the music of the great Western composers of the by (as well as modern art music that is part of the aforementioned tradition) is lumped together and called classical. The art music of other cultures is also often called classical; for instance, people speak of the classical music of India.

Folk and Popular music

The terms "folk music" and "pop music" also have more than one meaning. The folk music of a civilization is the music that is passed downwardly from one generation to the next, often without writing it down. It includes many different kinds of music: lullabies and children's singing games, tunes that anybody enjoys singing together or dancing to, songs for celebrations, ceremonies, and holidays. Folk music can gradually change as it gets passed forth. Usually nobody remembers who originally wrote information technology, or who changed it, and there may be more than than one version of any particular folk song. Since ancient times, folk music has been the music of ordinary people, not the ruling class or professional person musicians. In every civilization, children learned and remembered the music that anybody enjoyed the most, and the music that was important to their traditions.

The modern recording industry has changed things, though. In many cultures, pop music has largely replaced folk music equally the music that anybody knows. Unlike folk music, it has normally been written recently and belongs to professional musicians, and new popular tunes quickly supersede old ones. Even the types of music that are considered popular can change quickly. The term popular music can refer to a specific kind of popular music, as in "bubblegum popular". Popular music is also a full general term for whatsoever blazon of music that is or has been a top seller. This includes almost types of rock music and some kinds of jazz.

Equally the rise of recording pushed aside traditional music, some musicians fabricated a point of recording traditional folk songs, so they would not be lost altogether. Some also wrote new songs in a "folk" mode that enjoyed some popularity, especially in the 1960'due south. Although these modernistic tunes exercise not fit the traditional definition, they are also called folk music.

Suggestions for Listening and Further Report

It tin be hard to follow a give-and-take of music without hearing some examples. If you lot would like to hear some music in the categories above, or yous are planning to present this lesson to a class, here are some like shooting fish in a barrel-to-find suggestions. Some categories also include suggestions for where to start if yous want more than information.

Tonal, Atonal, and Modal Music

• To hear tonal music, plow on the radio and listen to but about any station, unless your Classical station is playing twentieth century music.

• In the modal music category, medieval chant and the classical music of India are easiest to find.

• Even in the category of twentieth century music, the shelves tend to exist stocked with the work of composers who stayed with some sort of tonality (Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Gershwin, and Aaron Copland, for case). For atonality look for John Muzzle, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, or Edgard Varese.

Western Classical

• From the actual classical flow: listen to anything by Mozart or Haydn, or Beethoven's early works.

• From other periods: listen to Bach or Vivaldi (Baroque), Brahms, Schubert, Chopin, or Tchaikovsky, or Beethoven'due south after works (Romantic), Ravel or Debussy (Impressionist), Stravinsky, Hindemith, or Schoenberg (Modern).

• A History of Western Music by Donald Jay Grout is a scholarly source of information.

• The Music Makers , edited past Clive Unger-Hamilton, is an easy-to-read combination of history and reference volume.

• Most standard music dictionaries and encyclopedias also focus near exclusively on Western Classical music.

• For children, there are many appropriate picture books and even videos on the lives and music of the most famous composers. Also, await for motion-picture show books that summarize the plot of a famous opera or ballet.

• Whatever standard music theory book or course will introduce the basics of Western music.

Not-Western Classical

• The simply like shooting fish in a barrel-to-detect items in this category are Indian Classical music, for example the performances of Ravi Shankar.

• A web search for classical music from a particular state may plough up some sound clips. At the time of this writing, for example, sound clips could be plant of Chinese Opera and Tunisian classical music.

Western Folk

• For the audio of traditional Western folk music, look for collections of folk music from England or Australia, sea shanties, or American cowboy songs. For young students, Wee Sing's "Fun 'northward' Folk" and "Sing-Alongs" book-and-tape sets are good sources.

• To hear modern folk-fashion music, listen to Joan Baez, John Denver, Bob Dylan'due south protest music, Simon and Garfunkel, or Peter, Paul and Mary.

• The Rough Guide series of books and recordings includes some that examine mod folk artists. This would be a good identify to start learning more on the subject area of modern folk music.

Not-Western Folk

• If you lot live in a Western civilisation, it can be hard to find recordings of non-Western folk music, since most Western listeners do not have a gustation for it. For children, Wee Sing publishes an "Around the Globe" volume and tape with children'southward songs from all over.

• The Music for Little People catalogue also has some recordings that introduce children to music from other cultures.

• For adults, Ellipsis Arts publishes traditional music from non-Western cultures. Bank check your local library's recording section for music from Africa or Asia, or for the music of native Americans or Australians.

• Some of the Rough Guide series focus on specific folk or traditional musics.

Music that Combines Western and Not-Western Traditions

• For music that has been combining elements of both for long enough to have adult its own traditions, listen to whatsoever jazz, blues, gospel, Latin dance, or reggae. There are many books on these musics, particularly on jazz and reggae. For a comprehensive audiovisual overview of jazz, try Ken Burns' PBS documentary.

• Nearly all pop music is heavily influenced by both African and European traditions. Turn on the radio.

• To hear what is going on in modernistic Non-Western cultures as their musicians are influenced past American and European pop, mind to "Globe" music. The Rough Guide series is a good place to showtime learning about this subject field.

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Source: https://www.earmaster.com/music-theory-online/ch02/chapter-2-8.html

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