Thursday 2 September 2010
When You Believe - Leon Jackson
Many nights weve prayed
With no proof anyone could hear
In our hearts a hopeful song
We barely understood
Now we are not afraid
Although we know theres much to fear
We were moving mountains long
Before we knew we could
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
Its hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe
Some how you will
You will when you believe
Easy to despair
When all you hear is fear and lies.
Easy just to run and hide,
To frightened to begin
But if we dare to dare
Dont wait for answers from the sky
Each of us can look inside
And hear this song within
They dont always happen when, you ask
And its easy to give in, to your fear
But when you blinded by your faith
Cant see your way clear through the rain
A small but still resilient voice
Says hope is very near
Ohhhhh...
There can be miracles
When you believe
Though hope is frail
It's hard to kill
Who knows what miracles
You can achieve
When you believe
Some how you will
Now you will
(Now You Will...)
You will when you believe
You will when you believe.
What Makes Music Sound Good Or Bad
Ever since ancient times, scholars have puzzled over the reasons that some musical note combinations sound so sweet while others are just downright dreadful. The Greeks believed that simple ratios in the string lengths of musical instruments were the key, maintaining that the precise mathematical relationships endowed certain chords with a special, even divine, quality. Twentieth-century composers, on the other hand, have leaned toward the notion that musical tastes are really all in what you are used to hearing.
Now, researchers reporting online on May 20th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, think they may have gotten closer to the truth by studying the preferences of more than 250 college students from Minnesota to a variety of musical and nonmusical sounds. "The question is, what makes certain combinations of musical notes pleasant or unpleasant?" asks Josh McDermott, who conducted the studies at the University of Minnesota before moving to New York University. "There have been a lot of claims. It might be one of the oldest questions in perception."
The University of Minnesota team, including collaborators Andriana Lehr and Andrew Oxenham, was able to independently manipulate both the harmonic frequency relations of the sounds and another quality known as beating. (Harmonic frequencies are all multiples of the same fundamental frequency, McDermott explains. For example, notes at frequencies of 200, 300, and 400 hertz are all multiples of 100. Beating occurs when two sounds are close but not identical in frequency. Over time, the frequencies shift in and out of phase with each other, causing the sound to wax and wane in amplitude and producing an audible "wobbling" quality.)
The researchers' results show that musical chords sound good or bad mostly depending on whether the notes being played produce frequencies that are harmonically related or not. Beating didn't turn out to be as important. Surprisingly, the preference for harmonic frequencies was stronger in people with experience playing musical instruments. In other words, learning plays a role—perhaps even a primary one, McDermott argues.
Whether you would get the same result in people from other parts of the world remains to be seen, McDermott says, but the effect of musical experience on the results suggests otherwise. "It suggests that Westerners learn to like the sound of harmonic frequencies because of their importance in Western music. Listeners with different experience might well have different preferences." The diversity of music from other cultures is consistent with this. "Intervals and chords that are dissonant by Western standards are fairly common in some cultures," he says. "Diversity is the rule, not the exception."
That's something that is increasingly easy to lose sight of as Western music has come to dominate radio waves all across the globe. "When all the kids in Indonesia are listening to Eminem," McDermott says, "it becomes hard to get a true sense."
The researchers include Josh H. McDermott, New York University, New York, NY; Andriana J. Lehr, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. and Andrew J. Oxenham, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
Understanding what makes pop music popular
Back in the day, hits were tracked by record sales and predicted by how they sounded to music industry veterans. If you really wanted to test the waters, you could let Dick Clark play a soon-to-be-released single on American Bandstand and see if people moved to it. ("It's got a good beat and you can dance to it. I'll give it a 93, Dick.") Even today, the tastes of the record-buying public are something of a mystery to the labels. A couple of PhDs at MIT may change that with a program that mimics the musical tastes of the public.
The application, written by Brian Whitman and Tristan Jehan of MIT's Media Laboratory, "listens" to music, analyzes elements of a song (e.g., pitch, beat, tempo, melody) and gives it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. When compared to the Billboard charts, the software is "surprisingly accurate."
Predicting which music will get listeners on the dance floor, and more importantly, to buy CDs or individual tracks from online music stores has become big business. One company, HitPredictor, scored big in 2002 when it hit gold with its advice on how to stagger releases from a Christina Aguilera album to maximize sales. Unlike Whitman's and Jehan's application, HitPredictor uses a combination of focus groups and other market data to determine how the public will respond to new music.
Music retailers of all stripes would love to have reliable data on consumers' musical tastes. All of us have had recommendations thrust at us on Amazon or one of the online music stories. Those are hit and miss, and in my case, more often miss. Having an application that is able to analyze the songs or CDs in your shopping carts and then use a reliable algorithm to come up with suggestions that you would actually like would thrill retailers.
Will software that can nail the musical tastes of the public lead to even more homogenized-sounding airwaves? If Whitman and Jehan have their way, it won't. Their goal is to actually broaden the musical tastes of the public by using data gleaned from the application to get a wider variety of music on the radio. Anything that results in less bubblegum pop and whiny rock is fine by me.
Friday 27 August 2010
The Complete Definition Of The Music
PortalMusic is a form of art that involves organized and audible sounds and silence. It is normally expressed in terms of pitch (which includes melody and harmony), rhythm (which includes tempo and meter), and the quality of sound (which includes timbre, articulation, dynamics, and texture). Music may also involve complex generative forms in time through the construction of patterns and combinations of natural stimuli, principally sound. Music may be used for artistic or aesthetic, communicative, entertainment, or ceremonial purposes. The definition of what constitutes music varies according to culture and social context.
If painting can be viewed as a visual art form, music can be viewed as an auditory art form.
Allegory of Music, by Filippino Lippi
Allegory of Music, by Lorenzo Lippi
Contents
1 Definition
2 History
3 Aspects
4 Production 4.1 Performance
4.2 Solo and ensemble
4.3 Oral tradition and notation
4.4 Improvisation, interpretation, composition
4.5 Composition
//
[edit] Definition as seen by [http://www.FaceYourArt.com]
Main article: Definition of music
See also: Music genre
The broadest definition of music is organized sound. There are observable patterns to what is broadly labeled music, and while there are understandable cultural variations, the properties of music are the properties of sound as perceived and processed by humans and animals (birds and insects also make music).
Music is formulated or organized sound. Although it cannot contain emotions, it is sometimes designed to manipulate and transform the emotion of the listener/listeners. Music created for movies is a good example of its use to manipulate emotions.
Greek philosophers and medieval theorists defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies, and vertically as harmonies. Music theory, within this realm, is studied with the pre-supposition that music is orderly and often pleasant to hear. However, in the 20th century, composers challenged the notion that music had to be pleasant by creating music that explored harsher, darker timbres. The existence of some modern-day genres such as grindcore and noise music, which enjoy an extensive underground following, indicate that even the crudest noises can be considered music if the listener is so inclined.
20th century composer John Cage disagreed with the notion that music must consist of pleasant, discernible melodies, and he challenged the notion that it can communicate anything. Instead, he argued that any sounds we can hear can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound,"[3]. According to musicologist Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990 p.47-8,55): "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."
Johann Wolfgang Goethe believed that patterns and forms were the basis of music; he stated that "architecture is frozen music."
[edit] History as seen by [http://www.FaceYourArt.com]
Main article: History of music
See also: Music and politics
Figurines playing stringed instruments, excavated at Susa, 3rd millennium BC. Iran National Museum.
The history of music predates the written word and is tied to the development of each unique human culture. Although the earliest records of musical expression are to be found in the Sama Veda of India and in 4,000 year old cuneiform from Ur, most of our written records and studies deal with the history of music in Western civilization. This includes musical periods such as medieval, renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century era music. The history of music in other cultures has also been documented to some degree, and the knowledge of "world music" (or the field of "ethnomusicology") has become more and more sought after in academic circles. This includes the documented classical traditions of Asian countries outside the influence of western Europe, as well as the folk or indigenous music of various other cultures. (The term world music has been applied to a wide range of music made outside of Europe and European influence, although its initial application, in the context of the World Music Program at Wesleyan University, was as a term including all possible music genres, including European traditions. In academic circles, the original term for the study of world music, "comparative musicology", was replaced in the middle of the twentieth century by "ethnomusicology", which is still considered an unsatisfactory coinage by some.)
Popular styles of music varied widely from culture to culture, and from period to period. Different cultures emphasised different instruments, or techniques, or uses for music. Music has been used not only for entertainment, for ceremonies, and for practical & artistic communication, but also extensively for propaganda.
As world cultures have come into greater contact, their indigenous musical styles have often merged into new styles. For example, the United States bluegrass style contains elements from Anglo-Irish, Scottish, Irish, German and some African-American instrumental and vocal traditions, which were able to fuse in the US' multi-ethnic "melting pot" society.
There is a host of music classifications, many of which are caught up in the argument over the definition of music. Among the largest of these is the division between classical music (or "art" music), and popular music (or commercial music - including rock and roll, country music, and pop music). Some genres don't fit neatly into one of these "big two" classifications, (such as folk music, world music, or jazz music).
Genres of music are determined as much by tradition and presentation as by the actual music. While most classical music is acoustic and meant to be performed by individuals or groups, many works described as "classical" include samples or tape, or are mechanical. Some works, like Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, are claimed by both jazz and classical music. Many current music festivals celebrate a particular musical genre.
There is often disagreement over what constitutes "real" music: late-period Beethoven string quartets, Stravinsky ballet scores, serialism, bebop-era Jazz, rap, punk rock, and electronica have all been considered non-music by some critics when they were first introduced.
[edit] Aspects as seen by [http://www.FaceYourArt.com]
Main article: Aspects of music
The traditional or classical European aspects of music often listed are those elements given primacy in European-influenced classical music: melody, harmony, rhythm, tone color or timbre, and form. A more comprehensive list is given by stating the aspects of sound: pitch, timbre, loudness, and duration.[1] These aspects combine to create secondary aspects including structure, texture and style. Other commonly included aspects include the spatial location or the movement in space of sounds, gesture, and dance. Silence has long been considered an aspect of music, ranging from the dramatic pauses in Romantic-era symphonies to the avant-garde use of silence as an artistic statement in 20th century works such as John Cage's 4'33."John Cage considers duration the primary aspect of music because it is the only aspect common to both "sound" and "silence."
As mentioned above, not only do the aspects included as music vary, their importance varies. For instance, melody and harmony are often considered to be given more importance in classical music at the expense of rhythm and timbre. It is often debated whether there are aspects of music that are universal. The debate often hinges on definitions. For instance, the fairly common assertion that "tonality" is universal to all music requires an expansive definition of tonality.
A pulse is sometimes taken as a universal, yet there exist solo vocal and instrumental genres with free, improvisational rhythms with no regular pulse;[2] one example is the alap section of a Hindustani music performance. According to Dane Harwood, "We must ask whether a cross-cultural musical universal is to be found in the music itself (either its structure or function) or the way in which music is made. By 'music-making,' I intend not only actual performance but also how music is heard, understood, even learned." [3]
[edit] Production
Main article: Music industry
Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. Amateur musicians compose and perform music for their own pleasure, and they do not attempt to derive their income from music. Professional musicians are employed by a range of institutions and organizations, including armed forces, churches and synagogues, symphony orchestras, broadcasting or film production companies, and music schools. As well, professional musicians work as freelancers, seeking contracts and engagements in a variety of settings.
Although amateur musicians differ from professional musicians in that amateur musicians have a non-musical source of income, there are often many links between amateur and professional musicians. Beginning amateur musicians take lessons with professional musicians. In community settings, advanced amateur musicians perform with professional musicians in a variety of ensembles and orchestras. In some rare cases, amateur musicians attain a professional level of competence, and they are able to perform in professional performance settings.
A distinction is often made between music performed for the benefit of a live audience and music that is performed for the purpose of being recorded and distributed through the music retail system or the broadcasting system. However, there are also many cases where a live performance in front of an audience is recorded and distributed (or broadcast).
[edit] Performance
Main article: Performance
Chinese Naxi musicians
Someone who performs, composes, or conducts music is a musician. Musicians perform music for a variety of reasons. Some artists express their feelings in music. Performing music is an enjoyable activity for amateur and professional musicians, and it is often done for the benefit of an audience, who is deriving some aesthetic, social, religious, or ceremonial value from the performance. Part of the motivation for professional performers is that they derive their income from making music. Not only is it an income derived motivation, music has become a part of life as well as society. Allowing one to be motivated through self intrinsic motivations as well, as a saying goes "for the love of music." As well, music is performed in the context of practicing, as a way of developing musical skills.
[edit] Solo and ensemble
Many cultures include strong traditions of solo or soloistic performance, such as in Indian classical music, and in the Western Art music tradition. Other cultures, such as in Bali, include strong traditions of group performance. All cultures include a mixture of both, and performance may range from improvised solo playing for one's enjoyment to highly planned and organized performance rituals such as the modern classical concert or religious processions.
Chamber music, which is music for a small ensemble with no more than one of each type of instrument, is often seen as more intimate than symphonic works. A performer is called a musician or singer, and they may be part of a musical ensemble such as a rock band or symphony orchestra.
[edit] Oral tradition and notation
Main article: Musical notation
Musical notation
Music is often preserved in memory and performance only, handed down orally, or aurally ("by ear"). When the composer of music is no longer known, this music is often classified as "traditional". Different musical traditions have different attitudes towards how and where to make changes to the original source material, from quite strict, to those which demand improvisation or modification to the music. In the Gambia, West Africa, the history of the country is passed aurally through song.
When music is written down, it is generally notated so that there are instructions regarding what should be heard by listeners, and what the musician should do to perform the music. This is referred to as musical notation, and the study of how to read notation involves music theory, harmony, the study of performance practice, and in some cases an understanding of historical performance methods.
Written notation varies with style and period of music. In Western Art music, the most common types of written notation are scores, which include all the music parts of an ensemble piece, and parts, which are the music notation for the individual performers or singers. In popular music, jazz, and blues, the standard musical notation is the lead sheet, which notates the melody, chords, lyrics (if it is a vocal piece), and structure of the music. Nonetheless, scores and parts are also used in popular music and jazz, particularly in large ensembles such as jazz "big bands."
In popular music, guitarists and electric bass players often read music notated in tablature, which indicates the location of the notes to be played on the instrument using a diagram of the guitar or bass fingerboard. Tabulature was also used in the Baroque era to notate music for the lute, a stringed, fretted instrument.
Generally music which is to be performed is produced as sheet music. To perform music from notation requires an understanding of both the musical style and the performance practice that is associated with a piece of music or genre. The detail included explicitly in the music notation varies between genres and historical periods. In general, art music notation from the 17th through to the 19th century required performers to have a great deal of contextual knowledge about performing styles.
For example, in the 17th and 18th century, music notated for solo performers typically indicated a simple, unornamented melody. However, it was expected that performers would know how to add stylistically-appropriate ornaments such as trills and turns.
In the 19th century, art music for solo performers may give a general instruction such as to perform the music expressively, without describing in detail how the performer should do this. It was expected that the performer would know how to use tempo changes, accentuation, and pauses (among other devices) to obtain this "expressive" performance style.
In the 20th century, art music notation often became more explicit, and used a range of markings and annotations to indicate to performers how they should play or sing the piece. In popular music and jazz, music notation almost always indicates only the basic framework of the melody, harmony, or performance approach; musicians and singers are expected to know the performance conventions and styles associated with specific genres and pieces.
For example, the "lead sheet" for a jazz tune may only indicate the melody and the chord changes. The performers in the jazz ensemble are expected to know how to "flesh out" this basic structure by adding ornaments, improvised music, and chordal accompaniment.
[edit] Improvisation, interpretation, composition
Main articles: Musical composition, Musical improvisation, and Free improvisation
Most cultures use at least part of the concept of preconceiving musical material, or composition, as held in western classical music. Even when music is notated precisely, there are still many decisions that a performer has to make. The process of a performer deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed and notated is termed interpretation.
Different performers' interpretations of the same music can vary widely. Composers and song writers who present their own music are interpreting, just as much as those who perform the music of others or folk music. The standard body of choices and techniques present at a given time and a given place is referred to as performance practice, where as interpretation is generally used to mean either individual choices of a performer, or an aspect of music which is not clear, and therefore has a "standard" interpretation.
In some musical genres, such as jazz and blues, even more freedom is given to the performer to engage in improvisation on a basic melodic, harmonic, or rhythmic framework. The greatest latitude is given to the performer in a style of performing called free improvisation, which is material that is spontaneously "thought of" (imagined) while being performed, not preconceived. According to the analysis of Georgiana Costescu, improvised music usually follows stylistic or genre conventions and even "fully composed" includes some freely chosen material (see precompositional). Composition does not always mean the use of notation, or the known sole authorship of one individual.
Music can also be determined by describing a "process" which may create musical sounds, examples of this range from wind chimes, through computer programs which select sounds. Music which contains elements selected by chance is called Aleatoric music, and is often associated with John Cage and Witold Lutosławski.
[edit] Composition
Musical composition is a term that describes the composition of a piece of music. Methods of composition vary widely from one composer to another, however in analyzing music all forms -- spontaneous, trained, or untrained -- are built from elements comprising a musical piece. Music can be composed for repeated performance or it can be improvised; composed on the spot. The music can be performed entirely from memory, from a written system of musical notation, or some combination of both. Study of composition has traditionally been dominated by examination of methods and practice of Western classical music, but the definition of composition is broad enough to include spontaneously improvised works like those of free jazz performers and African drummers.
What is important in understanding the composition of a piece is singling out its elements. An understanding of music's formal elements can be helpful in deciphering exactly how a piece is constructed. A universal element of music is how sounds occur in time, which is referred to as the rhythm of a piece of music.
When a piece appears to have a changing time-feel, it is considered to be in rubato time, an Italian expression that indicates that the tempo of the piece changes to suit the expressive intent of the performer. Even random placement of random sounds, which occurs in musical montage, occurs within some kind of time, and thus employs time as a musical element.
[edit] Reception and audition as seen by FaceYourArt.com
Main article: Hearing (sense)
Concert in the Mozarteum, Salzburg
The field of music cognition involves the study of many aspects of music including how it is processed by listeners.
Music is experienced by individuals in a range of social settings ranging from being alone to attending a large concert. Musical performances take different forms in different cultures and socioeconomic milieus. In Europe and North America, there is often a divide between what types of music are viewed as a "high culture" and "low culture." "High culture" types of music typically include Western art music such as Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and modern-era symphonies, concertos, and solo works, and are typically heard in formal concerts in concert halls and churches, with the audience sitting quietly in seats.
On the other hand, other types of music such as jazz, blues, soul, and country are often performed in bars, nightclubs, and theatres, where the audience may be able to drink, dance, and express themselves by cheering. Until the later 20th century, the division between "high" and "low" musical forms was widely accepted as a valid distinction that separated out better quality, more advanced "art music" from the popular styles of music heard in bars and dance halls.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, musicologists studying this perceived divide between "high" and "low" musical genres argued that this distinction is not based on the musical value or quality of the different types of music. Rather, they argued that this distinction was based largely on the socioeconomic standing or social class of the performers or audience of the different types of music.
For example, whereas the audience for Classical symphony concerts typically have above-average incomes, the audience for a hip-hop concert in an inner-city area may have below-average incomes. Even though the performers, audience, or venue where non-"art" music is performed may have a lower socioeconomic status, the music that is performed, such as blues, hip-hop, punk, funk, or ska may be very complex and sophisticated.
Deaf people can experience music by feeling the vibrations in their body, a process which can be enhanced if the individual holds a resonant, hollow object. A well-known deaf musician is the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed many famous works even after he had completely lost his hearing. Recent examples of deaf musicians include Evelyn Glennie, a highly acclaimed percussionist who has been deaf since the age of twelve, and Chris Buck, a virtuoso violinist who has lost his hearing.
Music is Wonderful
Music was always famous for its beauty, notably through the many music artists to express their emotions and feelings. Good dancers have lot of fans and their songs are sung. The basic elements of music: high, timbre, loudness and duration. The tempo is also assigned to the universal element. Is the pace we have much to say about the song, as approved by pace or song fast and energetic or slow and sad.
Nowadays, artists become so popular that all the scandals and their interesting personal life. Artists themselves and understand that link popularity and was embroiled in all sorts of troubles and trouble, then that they had been written in every newspaper, for each of the magazine. Sometimes the performers are acting very sensational, such a kiss with other famous performers. The fans and the listeners cause a lot of curiosity, without a doubt on any music magazine, we will see sensational celebrity kiss. For example, Britney Spears To raise its rating for our entertainment world, had kissed in 2003 with Madonna. Now was all very interesting and they are lesbians or not they are healthy. Actors and find other tricks and how to become famous surpass others, such as Kate Perry has established a well-known song "I Kissed a Girl ''. After this song has been much debated.
Happens in the event that the artists it known after his death, or decline, such as Michael Jackson, also known as the King of Pop, guess everyone have heard the song ''Smooth Criminal." Music wonderful, find a song by Its lyrics. Some people stated that music is a whole different world that hypnotizes us and we it is analyzed. Music can help us relax, and induce euphoria, cheer, wonder, cry, mourn, and a lot of different feelings. There is no human in the world than the one which is not like the song, which is not nice to hear a voice or music videos mates.
Acoustical Foam And Acoustical Drapes - Two Great DIY Ways To Improve The Sound Of Your Voice
practicing your art is an important component of keeping a great voice, and a great sound of your instrument. But how does your voice improve? And how does the sound of your musical instrument improve? We'll present two ways of how you can instantly improve the sound of your voice or your musical instrument in your practicing room. These two ways are: installing acoustical foam on your walls, doors, and possibly ceiling, and using acoustical drapes. You'll be shocked how either one or both together will improve the sound of your instrument.
But that is not all. I will bet that, having a better room acoustics, you will hear yourself play better and the sound of your instrument will continue to improve at a faster pace.
Installing acoustical foam
Acoustical foam looks just like a regular foam but is created from the natural or man made materials that have special sound dampening qualities. Such sound dampening must occur over the wide gamut of frequencies, the wider the better. The range of frequencies must definitely include the frequencies your voice or your musical instrument is capable of generating. The sound absorption is both a function of the foam volume and the foam surface, so many times acoustical foam is shaped with outwards pointing spikes, or wedges, to increase its surface, and decrease the sound reflection. Installing such foam on the walls, doors, and ceilings, will not only improve your sound but will also reduce the amount of sound that penetrates outside your room, likely making the house more livable for the others.
Acoustical drapes
Acoustical drapes, sometimes termed "noise drapes" have their place when installing acoustical foam is not practical, or not allowed, such as when you rent a flat. Acoustical drapes can be either permanent acoustical drapes, installed just like the regular drapes, or they can be portable acoustical drapes, and can be moved about, possibly on a frame with the coaster wheels attached. You may want to use acoustical drapes in conjunction with acoustical foam, to cover walls where acoustical foam is impractical, such as the walls that have windows. Of you can use these sound absorbing drapes on top of the sound dampening foam, to increase the sound dampening effect.
You can expect immediately audible improvement of the sound of your voice or the sound of your musical instrument after the installation over a significant portion of the surface of your walls. And, since you will have a better feedback on the quality of your own voice or sound, you can expect the sound of your music to continue to improve as the time goes on.
Musical Guide - A Brief History Of Musicals
An artist has the privilege of communicating to you visually. Sometimes he wants to share his believes in a few words.
The new 'Visual Grammar', developed by the European Avant-gard of the 20s, particularly by the Russian Avant-gard, - namely by Vasiliy Kandinsky, as well as the Classical heritage from Ancient Greece to the Renaissance - is a stepping stone for my own research in art.
What I do, is build composition on that stepping stone on the foundation of Visual Grammar, shaped by classical and modern schools, and than fill it in with content that is more emotional than intellectual, at this stage compelling rational tools to yield to intuition. It is like a rigid skeleton surrounded with a soft living tissue.
I do believe that the spiritual - ideal - objective model forms our real Reality.
So-called 'realism' is an ill defined term commonly attributed to art focused on depicting visible surfaces of material objects. This is an indication and a result of an incomplete, even defective, mental horizon, a primitive materialistic view on reality reduced to a small fraction of the physical world -- that only fraction, which can be seen or touched.
I must note here, that many great pieces of art labeled with this word, do not fall into this ill-defined category.
I must note here, that many great pieces of art labeled with this word, do not fall into this ill-defined category.
A pure abstract art, which is closer to me because it deals with a more important part of Reality than the matter, specifically with the ideas and pure forms, seams to be deficient too. I believe that the total elimination of material objects as a class from paintings not only impoverishes the artist's 'toolbox', but is the consequence and indication of a one-sided approach to (the) Reality -- this time, a purely idealistic one, almost coincident with Plato's concept, who saw the changing physical world as a poor, decaying copy of a perfect one.
Yes, abstract art most certainly delivered great masterpieces to humanity in 20th century. And I cannot but agree with Roger Fry's statement: "The form of a work of art has a meaning of its own and the contemplation of the form in and for itself gives rise in some people to a special emotion which does not depend upon the association of the form with anything else whatsoever." But it doesn't mean that a self-sufficient form cannot be turned into a recognizable object.
By the way, an original definition of a widespread term - Visual Music - was coined by Roger Fry in 1912 to describe the work of Kandinsky, meaning the translation of music to painting.
Regarding intuitivism, or any theory stating that the creative process is solely an act of genius, spontaneous and purely emotional, it wouldn't be worth even discussing, were it not so widespread an assumption. I personally have heard from several artists, one art critic and several art dealers that the intellectual and physical aspects in the creative process (i.e. ideas and techniques) are only boring limitations, and an inevitable evil to creativity. I believe this started as an opposition to the dry, actually degrading academism or 'classicism' of the mid 19th century. It (could) may have started when some of the leaders of the Impressionist movement openly rejected the 'old grammar', emphasizing the importance of a direct impression and spontaneous, emotional reaction of an artist to that impression in a creative process. But almost all of the artists of that period had a solid 'classical' training prior to this rejection; they inherited all the goods possessed by that domain, they inherited the basic visual grammar even on subconscious levels, which cannot be said about many of their followers in 20th century, who even now keep questioning the importance of basic training in visual arts, as well as the power of the analytical, deductive component in art making.
Avant-grad Movement of the first third of the century came in as a gust of fresh air, filling in the vacuum left by an already dead Academism and degrading impressionism. It not only restored the position of intellectual tools in the arts, but also dramatically expanded the borders of visual arts to unprecedented levels. I'd like to emphasize here, that very similar and radical processes were taking place at that very period around the world in the social spheres, in science and industry, in architecture and literature, and of course in music.
Having said that, I'd like to summarize what all this means to me and to my art:
1. A solid abstract and, if need be, mathematically described foundation of composition is a must (to be present) in my work.
2. An object must to be presented in my artwork, for I do not share a purely idealistic ( in Plato style) approach to (the) Reality, which, to my mind, ultimately leads to the mental Uncreation of the world.
3. My work has to be a fusion of both aspects, ideal and material, blended together by a third - spiritual force.
In this respect, music, which is very abstract, and musicians with their beautiful instruments, who are so "real", are perfect subjects for my exercises. Moreover, music and visual arts have a lot in common.I cannot help from mentioning at least some categories that are common to both:
In this respect, music, which is very abstract, and musicians with their beautiful instruments, who are so "real", are perfect subjects for my exercises. Moreover, music and visual arts have a lot in common.I cannot help from mentioning at least some categories that are common to both:
Rhythm - it's very obvious: duration / length / frequencies, including and forming (or formed by) negative spaces / pauses / absence / silence - all are common to both fields.
Proportions - harmonic proportions and derivatives from them, commonly described in mathematical terms, starting with very basic, discovered by Pythagoras- 1:2, 2:3, 3:4, 1:1- discovered specifically on the acoustic / musical territory (please note, that these are basic proportions of canvases one can buy in an art supplies store) and then going further to the Fibonacci series which have their limit in the irrational Golden Ratio.
The temperature (cold / hot) of sounds and colours. This idea is still considered to be controversial, yet it is obvious that sounds and colours can be warmer or cooler. Less obvious is an exact scientific correlation between them.
Movement - ascending, descending, elliptic etc. Musicians do not need an explanation of this, and neither do artists. Please have a look at my study of ascending and descending movements in the elliptic composition of the very first picture on my home page, titled the 'Trio".
All of these categories sound (or look!) familiar to both musicians and visual artists, don't they?
We can talk about background sounds and colours, about a sound being like a ray emerging from a particular starting point and fading away, or like a part of an endless line going from eternity to eternity. We could mention intensity / saturation of the tones in the both fields, we could dedicate a chapter to the theory of contrasts, for example between 'low' and 'deep' continuous sound or form and a sharp 'stroke' of a sound or a paint.
On the human capacity to see sounds and hear colours I would recommend, once again, Vasiliy Kandinsky Synaesthesia.
Another fascinating subject is the Counterpoint Concept (as known as Contrapunkt), which defines relationship between two or more different parts of a piece, which are somewhat independent, say, in rhythm, but are interdependent in harmony. This powerful instrument, in my opinion, has been much less understood, appreciated and used in visual arts than in music.
I drew these parallels on the very basic or fundamental level for both arts. But, as a part of Life, they are constantly changing (I hate the term 'still life' or 'nature mort', for life cannot be still or 'mort' by definition), developing, progressing or, unfortunately, regressing. I find a lot in common between modern scientific thinking (Relativistic Theory, Quantum Theory, Expanding Universe Model, String Theory etc.), modern art.
Finally, I am attempting two things: to explore reality, including but not limited to it's 'visible' fraction, and to take part in shaping it. This, I believe, is ultimately the essence of any creative process.
"We shall therefore borrow all our Rules for the Finishing our Proportions, from the Musicians, who are the greatest Masters of this Sort of Numbers, and from those Things wherein Nature shows herself most excellent and compleat." - Leon Battista Alberti (1407-1472)
Top 10 Famous Song Quotations
Song Quotes #1
Fathers be good to your daughters, daughters will love like you do. Girls become lovers, who turn into mothers, so mothers be good to your daughters, too.John MayerSong Quotes #2
I'd rather be a hammer than a nail.Simon and Garfunkel
Song Quotes #3
So often in time it happens, we all live our life in chains, and we never even know we have the key.The Eagles
Song Quotes #4
Then one day you find, ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.Pink Floyd
Song Quotes #5
You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometime you just might find, you get what you need.The Rolling Stones
Song Quotes #6
You got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, and know when to run.Kenny Rogers
Song Quotes #7
Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills, one man gathers what another man spills.Grateful Dead
Song Quotes #8
It seems to me, sorry seems to be the hardest word.Elton John
Song Quotes #9
I understand about indecision, but I don't care if I get behind. People living in competition, all I want is to have my peace of mind.Boston
Song Quotes #10
The Beatles
Quotations about Music
A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach
All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! ~Thomas Carlyle
If the King loves music, it is well with the land. ~Mencius
Without music life would be a mistake. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. ~Gustav Mahler
Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? ~Michael Torke
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs
And as silently steal away.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day Is Done
He who sings scares away his woes. ~Cervantes
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. ~Benjamin Disraeli
Music is what feelings sound like. ~Author Unknown
There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~Lord Byron
Musical compositions, it should be remembered, do not inhabit certain countries, certain museums, like paintings and statues. The Mozart Quintet is not shut up in Salzburg: I have it in my pocket. ~Henri Rabaud
Music is the poetry of the air. ~Richter
If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth. Sydney Smith
There is nothing in the world so much like prayer as music is. ~William P. Merrill
If in the after life there is not music, we will have to import it. ~Doménico Cieri Estrada
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it. ~Henry David Thoreau
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet
My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require. ~Edward Elgar
Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. ~Charlie Parker
Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. ~William F. Buckley, Jr.
Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself. ~Henry Ward Beecher
Play the music, not the instrument. ~Author Unknown
Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. ~Robert Fripp
[An intellectual] is someone who can listen to the "William Tell Overture" without thinking of the Lone Ranger. ~John Chesson
Music's the medicine of the mind. ~John A. Logan
You are the music while the music lasts. ~T.S. Eliot
Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,Outre-Mer
Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music. ~Ezra Pound
He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once. ~Robert Browning
You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. ~Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket
The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven't got the joke yet. ~Oliver Herford
What we provide is an atmosphere... of orchestrated pulse which works on people in a subliminal way. Under its influence I've seen shy debs and severe dowagers kick off their shoes and raise some wholesome hell. ~Meyer Davis, about his orchestra
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~Victor Hugo
...where music dwells
Lingering - and wandering on as loth to die...
~William Wordsworth, "Within King's College Chapel, Cambridge"
Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel. ~Buffy Sainte-Marie
Music is an outburst of the soul. ~Frederick Delius
Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. ~Oscar Wilde
In music the passions enjoy themselves. ~Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886
Music is what life sounds like. ~Eric Olson
If this word "music" is sacred and reserved for eighteenth and nineteenth century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound. ~John Cage
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. ~Arnold Bennett
Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words. ~Robert G. Ingersoll
Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends. ~Alphonse de Lamartine
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
~William Cowper
When words leave off, music begins. ~Heinrich Heine
Truly to sing, that is a different breath. ~Rainer Maria Rilke
Music is the shorthand of emotion. ~Leo Tolstoy
There is no truer truth obtainable
By Man than comes of music.
~Robert Browning
Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific. ~Aaron Copland
What passion cannot music raise and quell! ~John Dryden
The joy of music should never be interrupted by a commercial. ~Leonard Bernstein
Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. ~Paul Simon
Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory -
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges. ~Benny Green
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides! ~Artur Schnabel
The pause is as important as the note. ~Truman Fisher
The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built forever.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson
Silence is the fabric upon which the notes are woven. ~Lawrence Duncan
Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. ~Confucius
Rock music in its lyrics often talks ahead of the time about what's going on in the country. ~Edmund G. Brown
Music can noble hints impart,
Engender fury, kindle love,
With unsuspected eloquence can move,
And manage all the man with secret art.
~Joseph Addison
My whole trick is to keep the tune well out in front. If I play Tchaikovsky, I play his melodies and skip his spiritual struggle. ~Liberace
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music. ~Ronald Reagan
The discovery of song and the creation of musical instruments both owed their origin to a human impulse which lies much deeper than conscious intention: the need for rhythm in life… the need is a deep one, transcending thought, and disregarded at our peril. ~Richard Baker
Music is the medicine of the breaking heart. ~Leigh Hunt
Classical music is the kind we keep thinking will turn into a tune. ~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard, Comments of Abe Martin and His Neighbors, 1923
Country music is three chords and the truth. ~Harlan Howard
An artist, in giving a concert, should not demand an entrance fee but should ask the public to pay, just before leaving as much as they like. From the sum he would be able to judge what the world thinks of him - and we would have fewer mediocre concerts. ~Kit Coleman, Kit Coleman: Queen of Hearts
I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms, could I live in a great city, and know where I could go whenever I wished the ablution and inundation of musical waves, that were a bath and a medicine. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Are we not formed, as notes of music are,
For one another, though dissimilar?
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies. ~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
A song has a few rights the same as ordinary citizens... if it happens to feel like flying where humans cannot fly... to scale mountains that are not there, who shall stop it? ~Charles Ives
The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic. ~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~Aldous Huxley, Music at Night and Other Essays
Music is love in search of a word. ~Sidney Lanier
It is incontestable that music induces in us a sense of the infinite and the contemplation of the invisible. ~Victor de LaPrade
Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. ~Jean Paul Richter
Music is a friend of labor for it lightens the task by refreshing the nerves and spirit of the worker. ~William Green
If anyone has conducted a Beethoven performance, and then doesn't have to go to an osteopath, then there's something wrong. ~Simon Rattle
Bach opens a vista to the universe. After experiencing him, people feel there is meaning to life after all. ~Helmut Walcha
I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else. ~Lily Tomlin
The scratches in Yoko Ono records are moments of relief. ~S.A. Sachs
Music is well said to be the speech of angels. ~Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "The Opera"
Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings. ~Robert Benchley
No good opera plot can be sensible:... people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. ~W.H. Auden, Time, 29 December 1961
Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach
All deep things are song. It seems somehow the very central essence of us, song; as if all the rest were but wrappages and hulls! ~Thomas Carlyle
If the King loves music, it is well with the land. ~Mencius
Without music life would be a mistake. ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons. You will find it is to the soul what a water bath is to the body. ~Oliver Wendell Holmes
If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music. ~Gustav Mahler
Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass? ~Michael Torke
And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares that infest the day
Shall fold their tents like the Arabs
And as silently steal away.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Day Is Done
He who sings scares away his woes. ~Cervantes
Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness. ~Maya Angelou, Gather Together in My Name
Were it not for music, we might in these days say, the Beautiful is dead. ~Benjamin Disraeli
Music is what feelings sound like. ~Author Unknown
There's music in the sighing of a reed;
There's music in the gushing of a rill;
There's music in all things, if men had ears:
Their earth is but an echo of the spheres.
~Lord Byron
Musical compositions, it should be remembered, do not inhabit certain countries, certain museums, like paintings and statues. The Mozart Quintet is not shut up in Salzburg: I have it in my pocket. ~Henri Rabaud
Music is the poetry of the air. ~Richter
If I were to begin life again, I would devote it to music. It is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth. Sydney Smith
There is nothing in the world so much like prayer as music is. ~William P. Merrill
If in the after life there is not music, we will have to import it. ~Doménico Cieri Estrada
Men profess to be lovers of music, but for the most part they give no evidence in their opinions and lives that they have heard it. ~Henry David Thoreau
Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
I have my own particular sorrows, loves, delights; and you have yours. But sorrow, gladness, yearning, hope, love, belong to all of us, in all times and in all places. Music is the only means whereby we feel these emotions in their universality. ~H.A. Overstreet
My idea is that there is music in the air, music all around us; the world is full of it, and you simply take as much as you require. ~Edward Elgar
Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them!
~Oliver Wendell Holmes
Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. ~Charlie Parker
Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. ~William F. Buckley, Jr.
Music cleanses the understanding; inspires it, and lifts it into a realm which it would not reach if it were left to itself. ~Henry Ward Beecher
Play the music, not the instrument. ~Author Unknown
Music is the wine which inspires one to new generative processes, and I am Bacchus who presses out this glorious wine for mankind and makes them spiritually drunken. ~Ludwig van Beethoven
Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence. ~Robert Fripp
[An intellectual] is someone who can listen to the "William Tell Overture" without thinking of the Lone Ranger. ~John Chesson
Music's the medicine of the mind. ~John A. Logan
You are the music while the music lasts. ~T.S. Eliot
Music is the universal language of mankind. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,Outre-Mer
Music rots when it gets too far from the dance. Poetry atrophies when it gets too far from music. ~Ezra Pound
He who hears music, feels his solitude peopled at once. ~Robert Browning
You can't possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven's Seventh and go slow. ~Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket
The Irish gave the bagpipes to the Scots as a joke, but the Scots haven't got the joke yet. ~Oliver Herford
What we provide is an atmosphere... of orchestrated pulse which works on people in a subliminal way. Under its influence I've seen shy debs and severe dowagers kick off their shoes and raise some wholesome hell. ~Meyer Davis, about his orchestra
Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent. ~Victor Hugo
...where music dwells
Lingering - and wandering on as loth to die...
~William Wordsworth, "Within King's College Chapel, Cambridge"
Music has been my playmate, my lover, and my crying towel. ~Buffy Sainte-Marie
Music is an outburst of the soul. ~Frederick Delius
Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory. ~Oscar Wilde
In music the passions enjoy themselves. ~Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, 1886
Music is what life sounds like. ~Eric Olson
If this word "music" is sacred and reserved for eighteenth and nineteenth century instruments, we can substitute a more meaningful term: organization of sound. ~John Cage
Its language is a language which the soul alone understands, but which the soul can never translate. ~Arnold Bennett
Music expresses feeling and thought, without language; it was below and before speech, and it is above and beyond all words. ~Robert G. Ingersoll
Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends. ~Alphonse de Lamartine
There is in souls a sympathy with sounds:
And as the mind is pitch'd the ear is pleased
With melting airs, or martial, brisk or grave;
Some chord in unison with what we hear
Is touch'd within us, and the heart replies.
~William Cowper
When words leave off, music begins. ~Heinrich Heine
Truly to sing, that is a different breath. ~Rainer Maria Rilke
Music is the shorthand of emotion. ~Leo Tolstoy
There is no truer truth obtainable
By Man than comes of music.
~Robert Browning
Most people use music as a couch; they want to be pillowed on it, relaxed and consoled for the stress of daily living. But serious music was never meant to be soporific. ~Aaron Copland
What passion cannot music raise and quell! ~John Dryden
The joy of music should never be interrupted by a commercial. ~Leonard Bernstein
Music is forever; music should grow and mature with you, following you right on up until you die. ~Paul Simon
Music, when soft voices die
Vibrates in the memory -
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
A jazz musician is a juggler who uses harmonies instead of oranges. ~Benny Green
The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides! ~Artur Schnabel
The pause is as important as the note. ~Truman Fisher
The city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built forever.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson
Silence is the fabric upon which the notes are woven. ~Lawrence Duncan
Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without. ~Confucius
Rock music in its lyrics often talks ahead of the time about what's going on in the country. ~Edmund G. Brown
Music can noble hints impart,
Engender fury, kindle love,
With unsuspected eloquence can move,
And manage all the man with secret art.
~Joseph Addison
My whole trick is to keep the tune well out in front. If I play Tchaikovsky, I play his melodies and skip his spiritual struggle. ~Liberace
Music that gentlier on the spirit lies,
Than tired eyelids upon tired eyes.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson
Life is one grand, sweet song, so start the music. ~Ronald Reagan
The discovery of song and the creation of musical instruments both owed their origin to a human impulse which lies much deeper than conscious intention: the need for rhythm in life… the need is a deep one, transcending thought, and disregarded at our peril. ~Richard Baker
Music is the medicine of the breaking heart. ~Leigh Hunt
Classical music is the kind we keep thinking will turn into a tune. ~Frank McKinney "Kin" Hubbard, Comments of Abe Martin and His Neighbors, 1923
Country music is three chords and the truth. ~Harlan Howard
An artist, in giving a concert, should not demand an entrance fee but should ask the public to pay, just before leaving as much as they like. From the sum he would be able to judge what the world thinks of him - and we would have fewer mediocre concerts. ~Kit Coleman, Kit Coleman: Queen of Hearts
I think sometimes could I only have music on my own terms, could I live in a great city, and know where I could go whenever I wished the ablution and inundation of musical waves, that were a bath and a medicine. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Are we not formed, as notes of music are,
For one another, though dissimilar?
~Percy Bysshe Shelley
Music, once admitted to the soul, becomes a sort of spirit, and never dies. ~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
A song has a few rights the same as ordinary citizens... if it happens to feel like flying where humans cannot fly... to scale mountains that are not there, who shall stop it? ~Charles Ives
The pleasure we obtain from music comes from counting, but counting unconsciously. Music is nothing but unconscious arithmetic. ~Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. ~Aldous Huxley, Music at Night and Other Essays
Music is love in search of a word. ~Sidney Lanier
It is incontestable that music induces in us a sense of the infinite and the contemplation of the invisible. ~Victor de LaPrade
Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life. ~Jean Paul Richter
Music is a friend of labor for it lightens the task by refreshing the nerves and spirit of the worker. ~William Green
If anyone has conducted a Beethoven performance, and then doesn't have to go to an osteopath, then there's something wrong. ~Simon Rattle
Bach opens a vista to the universe. After experiencing him, people feel there is meaning to life after all. ~Helmut Walcha
I worry that the person who thought up Muzak may be thinking up something else. ~Lily Tomlin
The scratches in Yoko Ono records are moments of relief. ~S.A. Sachs
Music is well said to be the speech of angels. ~Thomas Carlyle, Essays, "The Opera"
Opera is where a guy gets stabbed in the back, and instead of dying, he sings. ~Robert Benchley
No good opera plot can be sensible:... people do not sing when they are feeling sensible. ~W.H. Auden, Time, 29 December 1961
Thursday 26 August 2010
The Music of the Romantic Era
When people talk about "Classical" music, they usually mean Western art music of any time period. (For more on this subject, see Classical Music and Music of the Classical Era.) But the Classical period was actually a very short era, basically the second half of the eighteenth century. Only two Classical-period composers are widely known: Mozart and Haydn.
The Romantic era produced many more composers whose names and music are still familiar and popular today: Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Schumann, Schubert, Chopin, and Wagner are perhaps the most well-known, but there are plenty of others who may also be familiar, including Strauss, Verdi, Liszt, Mendelssohn, Puccini, and Mahler. Ludwig van Beethoven, possibly the most famous composer of all, is harder to place. His early works are from the Classical period and are clearly Classical in style. But his later music, including the majority of his most famous music, is just as clearly Romantic.
The term Romantic covers most of the music (and art and literature) of Western civilization from the nineteenth century (the 1800's). But there has been plenty of music written in the Romantic style in the twentieth century (including many popular movie scores), and music isn't considered Romantic just because it was written in the nineteenth century. The beginning of that century found plenty of composers (Rossini, for example) who were still writing Classical-sounding music. And by the end of the century, composers were turning away from Romanticism and searching for new idioms, including post-Romanticism, Impressionism, and early experiments in Modern music.
Background, Development, and Influence
Classical Roots
Sometimes a new style of music happens when composers forcefully reject the old style. Early Classical composers, for example, were determined to get away from what they considered the excesses of the Baroque style. Modern composers also were consciously trying to invent something new and very different.
But the composers of the Romantic era did not reject Classical music. In fact, they were consciously emulating the composers they considered to be the great classicists: Haydn, Mozart, and particularly Beethoven. They continued to write symphonies, concertos, sonatas, and operas, forms that were all popular with classical composers. They also kept the basic rules for these forms, as well as keeping the rules of rhythm, melody, harmony, harmonic progression, tuning, and performance practice that were established in (or before) the Classical period.
The main difference between Classical and Romantic music came from attitudes towards these "rules". In the eighteenth century, composers were primarily interested in forms, melodies, and harmonies that provided an easily-audible structure for the music. In the first movement of a sonata, for example, each prescribed section would likely be where it belonged, the appropriate length, and in the proper key. In the nineteenth century, the "rules" that provided this structure were more likely to be seen as boundaries and limits that needed to be explored, tested, and even defied. For example, the first movement of a Romantic sonata may contain all the expected sections as the music develops, but the composer might feel free to expand or contract some sections or to add unexpected interruptions between them. The harmonies in the movement might lead away from and back to the tonic just as expected, but they might wander much further afield than a Classical sonata would, before they make their final return.
Different Approaches to Romanticism
In fact, one could divide the main part of the Romantic era into two schools of composers. Some took a more conservative approach. Their music is clearly Romantic in style and feeling, but it also still clearly does not want to stray too far from the Classical rules. Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms are in this category.
Other composers felt more comfortable with pushing the boundaries of the acceptable. Berlioz, Strauss, and Wagner were all progressives whose music challenged the audiences of their day.
Where to go after Romanticism?
Perhaps it was inevitable, after decades of pushing at all limits to see what was musically acceptable, that the Romantic era would leave later composers with the question of what to explore or challenge next. Perhaps because there was no clear answer to this question (or several possible answers), many things were happening in music by the end of the Romantic era.
The period that includes the final decades of the nineteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth is sometimes called the post-Romantic era. This is the period when many composers, such as Jean Sibelius, Bela Bartok, and Ralph Vaughan-Williams, concentrated on the traditions of their own countries, producing strongly nationalistic music. Others, such as Mahler and Strauss, were taking Romantic musical techniques to their utmost reasonable limits. In France, Debussy and Ravel were composing pieces that that some listeners felt were the musical equivalent of impressionistic paintings. Impressionism and some other -isms such as Stravinsky's primitivism still had some basis in tonality; but others, such as serialism, rejected tonality and the Classical-Romantic tradition completely, believing that it had produced all that it could. In the early twentieth century, these Modernists eventually came to dominate the art music tradition. Though the sounds and ideals of Romanticism continued to inspire some composers, the Romantic period was essentially over by the beginning of the twentieth century.
Historical Background
Music doesn't happen in a vacuum. It is affected by other things that are going on in society; ideas, attitudes, discoveries, inventions, and historical events may affect the music of the times.
For example, the "Industrial Revolution" was gaining steam throughout the nineteenth century. This had a very practical effect on music: there were major improvements in the mechanical valves and keys that most woodwinds and brass instruments depend on. The new, improved instruments could be played more easily and reliably, and often had a bigger, fuller, better-tuned sound. Strings and keyboard instruments dominate the music of the Baroque and Classical periods, with small groups of winds added for color. As the nineteenth century progressed and wind instruments improved, more and more winds were added to the orchestra, and their parts became more and more difficult, interesting, and important. Improvements in the mechanics of the piano also helped it usurp the position of the harpsichord to become the instrument that to many people is the symbol of Romantic music.
Another social development that had an effect on music was the rise of the middle class. Classical composers lived on the patronage of the aristocracy; their audience was generally small, upper-class, and knowledgeable about music. The Romantic composer, on the other hand, was often writing for public concerts and festivals, with large audiences of paying customers who had not necessarily had any music lessons. In fact, the nineteenth century saw the first "pop star"-type stage personalities. Performers like Paganini and Liszt were the Elvis Presleys of their day.
Romantic Music as an Idea
But perhaps the greatest effect that society can have on an art is in the realm of ideas.
The music of the Classical period reflected the artistic and intellectual ideals of its time. Form was important, providing order and boundaries. Music was seen as an an abstract art, universal in its beauty and appeal, above the pettinesses and imperfections of everyday life. It reflected, in many ways, the attitudes of the educated and the aristocratic of the "Enlightenment" era. Classical music may sound happy or sad, but even the emotions stay within acceptable boundaries.
Romantic-era composers kept the forms of Classical music. But the Romantic composer did not feel constrained by form. Breaking through boundaries was now an honorable goal shared by the scientist, the inventor, and the political liberator. Music was no longer universal; it was deeply personal and sometimes nationalistic. The personal sufferings and triumphs of the composer could be reflected in stormy music that might even place a higher value on emotion than on beauty. Music was not just happy or sad; it could be wildly joyous, terrified, despairing, or filled with deep longings.
It was also more acceptable for music to clearly be from a particular place. Audiences of many eras enjoyed an opera set in a distant country, complete with the composer's version of exotic-sounding music. But many nineteenth-century composers (including Weber, Wagner, Verdi, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Grieg, Dvorak, Sibelius,and Albeniz) used folk tunes and other aspects of the musical traditions of their own countries to appeal to their public. Much of this nationalistic music was produced in the post-Romantic period, in the late nineteenth century; in fact, the composers best known for folk-inspired classical music in England (Holst and Vaughan Williams) and the U. S. (Ives, Copland, and Gershwin) were twentieth-century composers who composed in Romantic, post-Romantic, or Neoclassical styles instead of embracing the more severe Modernist styles.
Music can also be specific by having a "programme". Programme music is music that, without words, tells a story or describes a scene. Richard Strauss's tone poems are perhaps the best-known works in this category, but programme music has remained popular with many composers through the twentieth century. Again unlike the abstract, universal music of the Classical composers, Romantic-era programme music tried to use music to describe or evoke specific places, people, and ideas. And again, with programme music, those Classical rules became less important. The form of the music was chosen to fit with the programme (the story or idea), and if it was necessary at some point to choose sticking more closely to the form or to the programme, the programme usually won.
As mentioned above, post-Romantic composers felt ever freer to experiment and break the established rules for form, melody, and harmony. Many modern composers have, in fact, gone so far that the average listener again finds it difficult to follow. Romantic-style music, on the other hand, with its emphasis on emotions and its balance of following and breaking the musical "rules", still finds a wide audience.
Music Software Development
The BSc (Hons) Music Software Development will appeal to undergraduates wishing to develop their skills and interests in computing and music. The course integrates studies in computing, programming and software development, the professional use of computer technology in the service of music, and creative artistic studies in music including harmony, composition and orchestration.
The Music Software Development degree is an innovative course that bridges a gap by bringing together a practical exploration of the concepts and use of music technology with an understanding of the underlying computer science. Graduates of this degree will be skilled in music production and the creation of systems, real-time and graphical user interface software in general and music-related software in particular. Students will study music theory and practice and apply the knowledge and skills gained in the composition and manipulating of diverse sound and music resources.
Practical experience is based upon use of industry-standard software and equipment, a recording studio, post-production equipment and laboratories dedicated to digital music studies. The combination of academic studies and intensive creative practical work will prepare students for specialist jobs in the music, multimedia, games, television, animation and film industries.
Entry requirements will be typical of those for an honours degree course but additionally evidence of a keen and developed interest in music, some knowledge of music theory and both artistic and instrumental ability will be sought.
Students may choose to spend a year in industry after their second year or opt to continue immediately with their final year options.
Course Structure and Content
Full time undergraduate degrees are taught over three years at the university, plus perhaps, a "sandwich" year in industry after the second year.
These are the modules you could expect to study on this course. The modules you can choose in your Second and Final years will depend on those you have studied in preceeding years. Also, some second and final year modules may be changed or restructured in order to keep the course up to date with latest trends in the industry.
Music Together's Ongoing Research and Development
As part of its ongoing research and development in early childhood music and the Music Together program operates a "lab" school serving the greater Princeton, New Jersey, area. Both Music Together and the Music Together Princeton Lab School are committed to helping families, caregivers, and early childhood professionals rediscover the pleasure and educational value of informal musical experiences. Rather than emphasizing traditional music performances, Music Together encourages family participation in spontaneous musical activity occurring within the context of daily life. Music Together recognizes that all children are musical and that every child needs a stimulating, supportive music environment to achieve basic competence in the wonderful human capacity for music making.
What does it mean when we say that Music Together is a "research-based" program? In addition to employing the research of others, we do three types of research on an ongoing basis: basic research, action research, and applied research.
Basic research is the stereotypical "hardcore" scientific method approach that attempts to collect and interpret data with more or less rigorous objectivity. Action research translates inquiries into actions in the real world which then generate more qualitative information, such as observing the rhythmic and tonal behaviors of children of various ages during a play-along experience. Applied research takes knowledge, often gained from basic and action research, and applies it in the field to see what really happens (e.g.: children learn through active music making, so what happens when these particular children experience those particular songs with this teacher in that environment, etc.).
All of these sources continually inform Music Together's creative work on program content, varied applications of the program, and teacher training.
Classical Music: Improving Children's Development
since a 1993 study revealed that college students' scores improved on spatial-temporal reasoning tests after listening to Mozart, the "Mozart Effect" has been the buzz phrase that won't disappear.
The researchers behind the "Mozart Effect" study, Professor Francis Rauscher and Dr. Gordon Shaw, made national news again in the late 1990s with an inspiring study that motivated people on a national scale to reintroduce music – especially classical music – into children's lives and education.
Raucher and Shaw's findings are not the first of their kind. Since the mid-1800s, research has suggested that classical music can have numerous positive effects on children's development and health.
Memory
Background music may aid in developing memory. Most importantly, memory recall improves when the same music played during learning is played during recall.
Emotion and mood
An Ohio study using the 30 variations in J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, found that children of different ages were mostly consistent in identifying the "emotion" of the variation as excited, sad, happy, or calm. Even children with no musical background were able to articulate the emotions expressed by the music.
The prodigy myth
Famous classical musicians are often deemed child geniuses. While Mozart is the most common example, there are others: Felix Mendelssohn wrote his first piece at age 11, and Frederick Chopin, the quintessential "romantic" composer, performed crowded concerts by the time he was 20.
While every child may not develop into a musical master, every child does have the potential to benefit from classical music – especially when music teaching takes a broad sensory approach.
Make the most of classical music
Spatial-temporal reasoning
The researchers behind the "Mozart Effect" study, Professor Francis Rauscher and Dr. Gordon Shaw, made national news again in the late 1990s with an inspiring study that motivated people on a national scale to reintroduce music – especially classical music – into children's lives and education.
- After receiving keyboard lessons, preschool children in Los Angeles performed 34 percent higher on tests for spatial-temporal reasoning than children who were either trained on computers or received no special training.
- At the Wales and Magee elementary schools in Wisconsin, kindergarten students, after a minimal amount of keyboard lessons, scored 36 percent higher on spatial-temporal reasoning tests than students who received no instruction.
Raucher and Shaw's findings are not the first of their kind. Since the mid-1800s, research has suggested that classical music can have numerous positive effects on children's development and health.
Memory
Background music may aid in developing memory. Most importantly, memory recall improves when the same music played during learning is played during recall.
Emotion and mood
An Ohio study using the 30 variations in J. S. Bach's Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, found that children of different ages were mostly consistent in identifying the "emotion" of the variation as excited, sad, happy, or calm. Even children with no musical background were able to articulate the emotions expressed by the music.
The prodigy myth
Famous classical musicians are often deemed child geniuses. While Mozart is the most common example, there are others: Felix Mendelssohn wrote his first piece at age 11, and Frederick Chopin, the quintessential "romantic" composer, performed crowded concerts by the time he was 20.
While every child may not develop into a musical master, every child does have the potential to benefit from classical music – especially when music teaching takes a broad sensory approach.
Make the most of classical music
- Develop motor and rhythmic skills by having children invent their own instruments with classroom materials or recycled objects. Encourage students to organize small ensembles and perform for the rest of the class.
- Highlight a composer each month by providing biographical information and samples. Encourage class discussions that compare and contrast each month's composer with the previous ones.
- Invite children to hum and sing along with music to enhance language development skills. David Brin of classical music station KDFC suggests the CDs "The Mozart Effect: Music for Children" and Polygram's "Bach for Breakfast."
- Teach children the pleasure of music through dance. Encourage students to express themselves physically by stomping, marching, swaying, jumping, or shaking.
Spatial-temporal reasoning
- It is the brain function behind difficult, complicated tasks like math or chess.
- Spatial-temporal reasoning allows us to imagine ratios and proportions. For example, this type of reasoning is why we know that a tall, skinny glass and a short, wide glass can be filled with the same amount of water.
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