Music is an art form whose medium is sound. Common elements of music are
pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre
and texture.
The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music
vary according to culture and social context. Music ranges from strictly
organized compositions, through
improvisational music to aleatoric forms. Music can be divided into genres and
subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres
are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally
controversial. Within "the arts," music may be classified as a
performing art, a fine art, and auditory art. There is also a strong connection
between music and mathematics.
To many people in many cultures music is an important part of their way of
life. Greek philosophers and ancient Indian philosophers defined music as tones
ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings
such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my
ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to
listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can
be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."
Musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez summarizes the relativist, post-modern
viewpoint: "The border between music and noise is always culturally defined—which
implies that, even within a single society, this border does not always pass
through the same place; in short, there is rarely a consensus ... By all
accounts there is no single and intercultural universal concept defining what
music might be."
Western cultures
The music of Greece was a major part of ancient Greek theater. In Ancient
Greece, mixed-gender choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and
spiritual reasons. Instruments included the double-reed aulos and the plucked
string instrument, the lyre, especially the special kind called a kithara.
Music was an important part of education in ancient Greece, and boys were
taught music starting at age six. Greek musical literacy created a flowering of
development; Greek music theory included the Greek musical modes, eventually
became the basis for Western religious music and classical music. Later,
influences from the Roman Empire, Eastern Europe and the Byzantine Empire
changed Greek music.
During the Medieval music era , the only European repertory that
survives from before about 800 is the monophonic liturgical plainsong of the
Roman Catholic Church, the central tradition of which was called Gregorian
chant. Alongside these traditions of sacred and church music there existed a vibrant
tradition of secular song. Examples of composers from this period are Léonin,
Pérotin and Guillaume de Machaut. From the Renaissance music era ,
much of the surviving music of 14th century Europe is secular. By the middle of
the 15th century, composers and singers used a smooth polyphony for sacred
musical compositions. The introduction of commercial printing helped to
disseminate musical styles more quickly and across a larger area. Prominent
composers from this era are Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Thomas Morley and
Orlande de Lassus.
The era of Baroque music began when the first operas were
written and when contrapuntal music became prevalent. German Baroque composers
wrote for small ensembles including strings, brass, and woodwinds, as well as
choirs, pipe organ, harpsichord, and clavichord. During the Baroque period,
several major music forms were defined that lasted into later periods when they
were expanded and evolved further, including the fugue, the invention, the sonata,
and the concerto.Composers from the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian
Bach, George Frideric Handel and Georg Philipp Telemann. The music of the
Classical period is characterized by homophonic texture, often
featuring a prominent melody with accompaniment. These new melodies tended to
be almost voice-like and singable. The now popular instrumental music was
dominated by further evolution of musical forms initially defined in the
Baroque period: the sonata, and the concerto, with the addition of the new
form, the symphony. Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart are among the
central figures of the Classical period.
In 1800, the Romantic era in music developed, with Ludwig van
Beethoven and Franz Schubert as transitional composers who introduced a more
dramatic, expressive style. During this era, existing genres, forms, and
functions of music were developed, and the emotional and expressive qualities
of music came to take precedence over technique and tradition. In Beethoven's
case, motifs came to replace melody as the most
significant compositional unit. The late 19th century saw a dramatic expansion
in the size of the orchestra, and in the role of concerts as part of urban
society. Later Romantic composers such as Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Gustav
Mahler created complex and often much longer musical works. They used more
complex chords and used more dissonance to create dramatic tension.
