Music

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Music (Middle English musik, from Anglo-French musike, from Latin musica, from Greek μουσικη mousike) is an art form consisting entirely of organized sound interspersed with periods of silence. It takes its name from three Greek goddesses known as the Muses, who specialized in stimulation of an artist's or poet's mind.

Music is the highest of all the arts, and the one best able to stir human emotion. Depending on what sort of work of music one composes, interprets, or hears, it can build a person up in spirit, or break it; make a person happy, or sad; inspire a person to greatness, or lead him into very challenging temptation. It is the art form to which the Bible gives its strongest endorsement, and to which the Bible pays the greatest attention. At the same time, it is arguably the most dangerous of all the arts, when misused.

What is music?

Strictly speaking, music means sound having any organization at all, while noise is purely random sound. But the roots of these two words suggest that music ought to mean that which makes one think and feel something new and significantly different, while noise (from the same root from which we get the verb I annoy) is merely a distracting, disturbing, or often physically damaging sound. Some modern composers have attempted to stretch the definition of music by using noises in a manner that they insist is organized. Whether such a work product properly falls under the heading of "music" is debatable.

Note that music is not limited to such sounds that a human being might produce by fashioning an instrument for the making of a simplified or otherwise organized sound and then "playing" said instrument. The chirping of birds and certain insects may properly be called music, especially if the sound produced is particularly pleasant to the listener. Furthermore, some of the most sophisticated music attempts to imitate the sounds made by birds, insects, and other animals.

Basic music theory

Main Article: Music theory

Classically, music consists of tones, melodies, counterpoint, and rhythm. A tone is the purest form of sound, having a single frequency. However, pure tones in music are rare. Most tones present themselves to the human ear together with overtones, which typically are small-integer multiples of the basic frequency (the fundamental tone).

Notes, intervals, and scales

Two tones played together form an interval. The simplest of all intervals is the octave, formed by two tones, one of whose frequencies is the exact double of the other. The full collection of tones that one can play between the two notes of an octave is called a scale. In Western music, most scales are semi-tonal, with twelve tones between the octave notes. (The high end of the octave is considered a repetition of the low end, but at twice the frequency.) Oriental music commonly has quarter-tonal scales, with twenty-four separate tones within an octave. Quarter tones are often difficult to distinguish for a Western listener, and such music, as a result, tends to suggest the sinuous movement of a snake.

The Greeks recognized early that fundamental tones in music have a simple and strict mathematical relationship. As mentioned, the octave consists of two notes, one at double the frequency of the other. At triple the frequency, one hears a low fundamental tone, and a higher tone that is past the octave but roughly midway toward the second octave. If one then divides the high-tone frequency by two, one creates the interval called the perfect fifth or dominant interval, one of the most common intervals used in Western music. One can test this relationship by striking a note on a piano while holding down another key that is one octave higher than the perfect fifth. The second note will sound in sympathy with the first--because it is resonating with the overtone from the first note.

Melody and counterpoint

Melody is the series of notes that most closely captures the attention of the listener. A counterpoint is another series of notes that complements the melody. Either melody or counterpoint can exist either as series of single notes, or as intervals, or as chords. A chord (named after the string of a Greek hand-held instrument called a lyre) is any three or more notes sounded at once.

Rhythm

Rhythm consists of all aspects of music that suggest forward movement. Most music contains a regularly repeating sequence of beats, or strong elements, that typically lead with a down beat followed by any of a small number of slightly weaker beats. A down beat and its weaker beats form a measure. Usually, all measures in a piece of music have the same number of beats.

A note in music is described not only by pitch, or frequency, but also by duration. Notes in Western music have names that typically describe how long they would sound in a typical measure. Whole notes are so called because normally they would sound for the full measure. Half notes would sound for half the measure, quarter notes for a fourth of the measure, and so on. A note may also carry a dot to the right of it, that indicates that the note is to sound for one and one-half times its usual duration.

Any one of these notes may carry a beat, and a measure may have any number of beats. Thus every piece of music commonly carries at least one time signature describing how many beats a measure has, and which type of note carries one beat. The most common time is "four-quarter time" (four beats per measure, with the beat given to the quarter note), which is therefore called "common time." Other commonly used time signature include three-quarter, six-eighth, nine-eighth, or rarely, two-half (called Alla breve or "cut time"). Even rarer are the time signatures with prime numbers of beats (other than three-quarter), including five-quarter or even eleven-eighth.

Tempo (Italian for "time") describes how frequently the beats occur. The typical tempo signature is a drawing of the note that has the beat, followed by the number of beats per minute.

Notes may be accented at any time. In fact, often the accent will fall on the weak beat and make the beats seem to sound out-of-sequence. The result is syncopated rhythm.

The genre of music called rock and roll features a unique rhythm convention: the backbeat. This is a third beat, in four-quarter time, that is stressed even more strongly than the down beat. This produces a profound sense of restlessness in the listener.

Types of instruments

Main Article: Musical instruments

History

The Bible suggests that music actually began in heaven, and that the first-ever musician was Lucifer, then the chief of God's messengers, or angels. When he fell, so Scripture says, his choir fell with him.

Human music goes back to antediluvian civilization. The Bible specifically credits Jubal, son of Lamech the Murderer by his wife Adah, with introducing music to mankind. (Genesis 5:19-21 (KJV))

The earliest post-diluvian records of music have been found in Iraq and India, and date at least from the time of Abraham. They probably were made shortly after the Babel Incident.

Almost every culture and religious movement has its own particular form of music. Some forms are richer and more sophisticated than others. The Hebrew people, and especially the children of Israel, have some of the grandest of all musical traditions. Mentions of "singing to the Lord" abound in the Old Testament. The most highly specific testimony to the power of music over human emotions is surely contained in the story of King Saul and how he came to recruit the young David as his armorbearer and personal musician. I_Samuel 16:14-23 (KJV)

King David, at the height of his reign, once had a four-thousand-voice choir to assist in the worship of God. The Book of Psalms is in fact a collection of lyrics for some of the first worship songs in Israelite tradition. (Most of these came from David, but at least one comes from Moses.) The Song of Solomon is a grand ballad of love that most scholars regard as a type of the love of Jesus Christ for His elect.

The Greeks, when Alexander the Great accepted the surrender of Jerusalem in his wars of conquest, introduced their own brand of music to the region--which the Jews largely resisted. But music was highly prominent throughout the Greek world--and later in the Roman world following Rome's conquest of Greece. The Greeks' contributions to musical theory influenced the classical artists for centuries to come, and still influence those composers who prefer to adhere to the classical traditions of music.

The earliest Greek music was associated with Greek theater. But beginning with the fall of Rome, music became largely liturgical. The primary influence remained the Roman Catholic Church until the twin movements of the Renaissance and the Reformation, each of which introduced a countervailing tradition.

From that time forward, most scholars divide music into "classical" music (composed primarily to achieve a high art) and "popular" music (composed for the masses in the primary hope of financial remuneration). In the former category one can usually find music composed for these purposes:

  1. As an aid to worship, by placing the listener into a proper frame of mind for worship or instill in the listener a proper appreciation of the grandeur and glory of God and of the listener's own place in relation to Him.
  2. To rally troops, either during training, on the march, or in battle.
  3. To celebrate military victory or the reign of a king, usually the one presently on the throne.
  4. Occasionally as a supplement to various forms of theater. Originally (especially in the Greek era) this meant the open-air live theater of classical fame. Today such music might accompany a live stage performance or several scenes in a motion picture.

Popular music, on the other hand, is almost always used:

  1. For entertainment, and more particularly for financial remuneration.
  2. As a powerful aid to propaganda.
  3. Very frequently as a supplement to modern theater in all its forms, including stage, motion pictures, and especially television.

The power of music over human emotion

Music has a very powerful effect on the emotions of the listener. Music relies on sound, and if "faith comes through hearing," then so does emotion. Music can instantly bring joy or sorrow, ecstasy or despair, and far more quickly than can any other form of art. Many musical composers insist that their music merely expresses emotions. This does not do music justice. Music does more than express emotions; it induces them.

The amateur botanist Dorothy L. Retallack, in 1973, found that music can have an effect on plants. "Positive" music (that produces joy or contentment) makes plants flourish and even "reach" for, or grow toward, such music. Negative music (that produces frustration, restlessness, or especially anger and rage) causes plants to "recoil" (grow away) from the music, and prolonged or repeated exposure debilitates and eventually kills plants.

As powerful as are the effects of music on plants, its effects on animals and man are far more profound. That animals, and especially dogs and cats, recoil in horror from the sound of a poorly trained voice, is proverbial (and in fact the animals might be reacting to a sound that is not merely grating but acutely and physically painful to their ears). But the effects of music on human beings are far better documented and recognized. The history of warfare includes a rich history of martial music. More recently, music has now found a use in the healing of negative emotional states and even as an aid to the healing of physical disabilities.

Commercial enterprises always attempt, at great expense of time, money, and effort, to find and deploy forms of music that will enhance worker productivity or cause prospective customers to behave in a manner calculated to make them purchase their goods and/or services. The rock-and-roll selections played in supermarkets are a prime example.

Music has always been an adjunct to theater. This is especially true of the performing arts called opera and ballet, but applies also to the use of music as an adjunct to a theatrical production, whether on the stage, as a motion picture, or as a television show.

Music has an obvious use in propaganda, in which the propagandist seeks to manipulate people's emotions and stir them typically to rage and hostility against certain groups.

Finally, music can strengthen in the listener a curiosity about, or even a desire for, an act of sexual or other sin. Sadly, this use of music is probably as old as "the oldest profession." Cultural critics observe, pointedly, that permissive cultures have permissive music, and non-permissive cultures avoid such music.

Yet for all this, music is still important in worship. If it were not, then it would not have received the favorable attention that the Bible clearly gives to it. As powerful a force for evil as it might be, music can be an equally powerful force to encourage the listener to worship, appreciate, and above all obey God and keep His laws--at least, as best as any human being is able.

Traditions and principles for liturgical music

Saint Paul specifically exhorts his readers to employ music, and specifically "psalms, hymns, and spiritual odes," to bring them closer to God. (Ephesians 5:19 (KJV), Colossians 3:16 (KJV)) In this context, a psalm is not necessarily a chapter out of the Book of Psalms; it can be any song that primarily quotes any part of Scripture. Hymns are songs primarily of praise and magnification of God; they do not, however, directly quote Scripture in most of their lyrics, as "psalms" do. Spiritual odes are primarily personal testimonies, either of salvation or of one's own perception of God. Amazing Grace, by John Newton, is a prime example. It Is Well With My Soul, by Horatio Spafford, is one song that has features of a hymn and a spiritual ode.

The Rev. Alan B. Brown, MDiv, ThM, has studied liturgical music extensively. In his view, liturgical music ought to satisfy three prime tests:

  1. Are the lyrics accurate, either when they quote Scripture or reflect Christian principles?
  2. Can you properly associate the lyrics and/or the notes with Godly things, as opposed to worldly things?
  3. Are the lyrics and/or the notes appropriate for worship in general, and in the setting of a particular celebration?

The actual notes to the tunes that, say, King David's choir might have sung, or his royal orchestra might have produced, are lost to us today. But the titles of many of the Psalms contain specific instructions, originally to the music director at King David's court, as to the type of tune and the types of instruments required. Hymnists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries often set the Psalms and other portions of Scripture to music, often with very good effect. The best-known example is the Doxology (literally, "study in glory") that is a paraphrase of Psalm 100; the tune is called "Old Hundredth" and remains popular today.

Controversies surrounding music today

Music perhaps has always been controversial, but the controversies surrounding music today rage with particular vehemence. The question of what is, and what is not, music is relatively tame. Different composers have always experimented with different music conventions. Many such experiments fail, in that the works produced draw only small audiences, and ultimately no one will play them, because no one will pay to listen to them or to have them played for other people.

Rather, the most raging controversy concerns certain genres of popular music that have provoked adverse political comment precisely because of the emotions they incite and the themes they sound, both in lyrics and in notes. Parents of adolescent and pre-adolescent children object to music that explicitly (mainly through its lyrics) exhorts its listeners to sexual sin. Members of various political interest groups object to music that they believe provokes its listeners to show disrespect for members of those groups.

Some listeners and music critics attempt to defend music as "amoral," that is to say, devoid of moral significance and always good and safe to listen to. The reaction of so many interested parties to various types of popular music today would seem to belie that stance. Indeed, history is replete with examples of various pieces of music from earlier eras inciting their listeners to violence; Maurice Ravel's signature work Bolero, for example, was known to incite riots. Riots have also broken out at many rock-and-roll concerts, and often the responding law-enforcement authorities have been at a loss to determine the ultimate causes of those riots. The proximate cause typically is a one-on-one fight in which other concert attendees joined in--but what put the original combatants into a fighting mood, or causes others to join a fight that was, strictly speaking, not theirs, is far more difficult to explain. The causes of the quarrels involved seem trifling in comparison to the damage that ultimately results--and riots like these do not normally occur at performances of other, "tamer" types of music.

Related references

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