What is music?

I was thinking a lot in class about what Emily said in class. If we as a human race "invented" music, for lack of a better word, how can we not have a concrete definition on what it is? Why is there so much debate on whether or not bird song is music? There are a lot of different types of music that some people would definitely not label as music, but then there are some composers that no one would dare say don't make real "music." If you Google music, the first two definitions that show up are completely different.

1. vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.
2. the written or printed signs representing vocal or instrumental sound.

The second definition is completely straight forward and concrete. But, the first definition is more of an emotional definition. According to the first definition there are a lot of compositions that aren't considered music at all. For example, the worse song ever heard produces no beauty, harmony or emotion. Maybe it produces annoyance and anger to some extent, but it definitely does not produce a good emotion. According to the second definition however, that song could be written down on a music sheet and then it would be considered music. So why can we classify music one way, but it can be completely classified a different and not be music anymore? Why is it so difficult for us as humans to put a label on what is music and what is not?

Brian Eno

• Born in Woodbridge, England  May 15, 1948
• as a child he grew enamored of the "Martian music"
•  introduced to work of contemporary composers John Tilbury, Cornelius Cardew, & minimalists John Cage, LaMonte Young, & Terry Riley. Instructed in the principles of conceptual painting and sound sculpture, Eno began experimenting with tape recorders, which he dubbed his first musical instrument, finding great inspiration in Steve Reich's tape orchestration "It's Gonna Rain."         
• 1974 - developed a "tape delay system" (lead to sampling of electronicia and hip hop), hospitalized by a lung collapse, got out, went to San Francisco, got into a car accident --> led to creation of ambient music--> realized music had same properties as light and color
• 1977 - return to pop but continued ambient experimentation and created, Music for Films    
• 2000 - started to focus on vocals
• 2012 - returned to ambient 
• collaberated with many other musicians into same ideas as Eno
• Key Ideas - experimental rock, ambient, minimalism, elecronic, art rock, glam rock, art pop
• Song writer, producer, musician, artist

For more info about Brian Eno, visit:
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/brian-eno-mn0000617196/biography
Example of Ambient; Music for Films:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEzkhI5gWx4
Example of Pop Art:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPhxZBRD8ug

Jonathan Harvey- Composer

Jonathan Harvey (1939-2012) 

• ·        Composer
• ·        Born in Sutton Coldfield, England in 1939
• ·        Earned doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Cambridge
• ·        He was a professor of music at Sussex University from 1977-1993.
• ·        He was very influenced by cathedral music after being a chorister at St. Michael’s College.
• ·        In the 1980s, he worked in Paris where he developed his interest for electronic music.
• ·        He was a professor of music at Stanford University from 1995-2000. This is where he composed Bird Concerto from a bird song he heard in the California hills.
• ·        Jonathan wrote three books: “The Music of Stockhausen” published in 1975, and “Music and Inspiration” and “In Quest of Spirit,” both published in 1999.
• ·        He died in 2012 as a result of Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was survived by his wife Rosa, daughter Anna and son Dominic.

“Body Mandala”: composed in 2006 as a result of his transcendental meditation and his interest in Buddhism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Fwvzoi-njY  

“Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco”: composed in 1980. The focus of this piece is on the great tenor bell and the voice of Harvey’s son. He synthesized and mixed the sounds to get the final version.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYdRzDx1_J4

Pauline Oliveros

Just to re-cap a bit on what I presented earlier...Pauline Oliveros is a composer and performer of John Cage and more Avengarde styled music, and is an accordion player who specializes in post-war electronic music. She coined the term deep listening in 1991which she applied to her deep listening band and deep listening program of the deep listening institute. haha, say that five times fast. She's also a black belt and believes that listening can apply to ritual, healing and meditation. She splits up her philosophy of sound or "sonic awareness" into four major parts, the first two are global and focal attention, and from there it is split up into four parts: actively playing music, imagining music, presently listening to music or remember past music. Pauline Oliveros believed that every sound should be heard by everyone, everywhere and to enhance her performances she often played in resonant and reverberant settings such as in the great canyon or down in caves.

 

 "Listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening".  

Lou Harrison Presentation

This is just a post that contains the information in my Lou Harrison presentation, in case anyone wanted to know anything more about him, or if they wanted to read my presentation for some reason.

So, who was Lou Harrison? If you had asked the man himself, he would describe himself as a myriad of people, some of which include a record salesman, an animal nurse, and a florist (otherminds.org). In his own words, an American composer was someone who had to be many things in order to do what they loved. But Lou Harrison managed to do all of these things, completing masterpieces of sound. Harrison's focus was much different than that of other composers and musicians which we have covered, being of a more structured nature, and focusing on a more avant-garde music style, which he studied under Arnold Schoenburg. He also studied atonal music, which heavily influenced his opera, Rapunzel.

However, Harrison suffered from a nervous breakdown with his music in 1947, and on the advice of a friend, John Cage, retired to Black Mountain College. It was there that he first began studying and working with Asian music and tuning, which became the focus of his later works, especially after a visit to Asian countries. Some works, such as Suite for Violin and American Gamelan, feature his distinct style in this theater, specifically atonality and one of the instruments that he himself favored, the gamelan. Harrison became famous for his views on atonality, and was honored in many festivals for his contributions to both Asian music styles and his theories on music. Unfortunately, on February 2, 2003, Harrison passed away from a heart attack while on his way to a festival in Ohio.

Information on Harrison:

List of Harrison's works

Short biography of Harrison

Longer biography of Harrison

Harrison Documentary (trailer)

Stan Kenton

Stan Kenton was a jazz pianist during the early to mid 1900s. Kenton was signed to Capital Records in 1943 but before that he started his own orchestra "Artistry in Rhythm". As his career progressed he became a very accomplished musician winning multiple Grammy  Awards. After listening to a few songs I really liked Eager Beaver but during my research Mama Sang a Song came up and I couldnt get into it i only listened to about 30 seconds of it. below is the eager beaver link from youtube
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6hJMaDsO4Y

Miley Cyrus

Everyone knows Miley Cyrus, either you like her or you don't. She's done a complete 360 from her Hannah Montana days. She's just released her new song, Wrecking ball, in which she appears completely nude while sitting on a wrecking ball. If you listen to her lyrics, she's describing how her failed relationship has destroyed her. "I came in like a wrecking ball, I never hit so hard in love, all I wanted was to break your walls, all you ever did was wreck me." Thre the video and the lyrics she expresses how she feels. It may not be the way some of us express ourselves, but she is expressing herself and how she feels about her heart break, "Don't you ever say I just walked away, I will always want you." I think everyone can relate to this song because at one point or another everyone experiences a break up that is world ending to them.

Intro

My name is Christopher Richard, I am a Sports & Entertainment Marketing Major with minors in Business Administration and Psychology. I am also on the basketball team, and soon will be on the Students Activity Board. I have a very side spread taste in music, i like rap, hip hop, r&b, old school r&b, country and some jazz.

Music or Not Music?

Just found this while scrolling along through another blog, and it made me think of this class. I really started to question whether or not this would be considered music, especially since it follows a classical piece. Either way, I thought it was very interesting, and thought it could provoke some discussion.

Introductory blog: Emily Knight

As my first blog post officially I thought I should just introduce myself and share my thoughts and ideas on music and even share what kind of music I listen to. I'm 19 and I currently double major in biology and philosophy, I'm a sophomore and I'm a huge rock and roll fan in case you can't tell by looking at me lol. I sometimes wish I would of been born in the 70's so I could be this age back in the 80's and 90's when rock and roll really took off. With that being said my view on what music is takes more of an aesthetic approach, I would normally agree with the acousmatic approach but since it doesn't fully cover jazz music in its definition i'm really just tempting to come up with my own. Basically I view music as a man made thing first off. Music is also a man made word so I think it fits. I honestly don't see why we get so angry when we try to include natural sounds as music. Why not come up with a more fitting term to describe and categorize natures music as we did with man made music. I think the term music is used and abused in modern day English, I view music as a collected of sounds intended for aesthetic enjoyment that is composed and performed to the height of its musical capabilities with the intention of captivating and moving an audience to its sound. If you think of music as being man made its easy to see music as having an intended purpose. People write music with an underlying purpose and that purpose is for others to listen to it and for them to think about what they just heard. Music provokes thought and imagination. It is the metaphor of composition with sounds and melodies. Music can transcend language and convey thoughts and feelings with out ever speaking words. Also why do we value great composers such as Mozart and Bach? Because they used music to show their genius and skill. They mastered their craft and the product of their craft is the best of all others. We awe at their abilities to make us think and feel a certain way when listening to their music. Its as if a writer were to make a compelling metaphor that painted a picture in your mind as you were reading a novel. Also I'm wondering as I type this. What's the difference between labeling musicians composers and artists? Now a day we call someone who engages in musical activity an artist (usually in pop) and a composer usually in classical and a musician for the gray areas in between. Why do we have a need to have three names for distinct genres of music that all really try to do the same basic thing? Why is Beethoven a composer, Louis Armstrong a musician and Michael Jackson an artist? Is there a huge difference? All I can think of to separate the three is their responsibilities held with in their professions. For example, Beethoven is the lead director that commands and orchestra to play his prepared pieces but he himself doesn't need to play along with them. Louis Armstrong may or may not write the pieces for his players but he plays along side them in a more democratic fashion and does not sing. Michael Jackson may not write or play his on songs but he's a fabulous singer and dancer and utilizes technology to enhance his music. So my question also is, If there is such a difference among these musical professionals, does that difference also mean that one may be better than the other? Can Michael Jackson really be placed on the same level as Mozart even though he can't play instruments? What is the difference in sung music and music played with an instrument?  

I guess its my turn..

To start this off, my names Charlissa Smith. I live in Dayton, Kentucky and enjoy working out and being with my friends and family. A major part of my days are spent listening to music. I enjoy a bit of everything. On my phone you'll find music from Led Zeppelin and Metallica to 2 live crew and Machine Gun Kelly.  I honestly like a good mix of everything except country music, I have a low tolerance when it comes to country music. I'm not really into anything that resembles country music either. I'm the girl with her windows down and her music up loud.

Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself...

However, I'm not a man of wealth and taste. My name is Kimberly Yocom, known as Kim to most, and Fred to a few (it really depends on who you're talking to). I'm in my Junior year of English study with a concentration in Creative Writing. Music is something that is still almost completely new to me, since I only began to form my own music tastes about five years ago. So I've listened to a whole gamut of things, from Newer Classical, to the Rock-and-Roll Classics. I've also become quite fond of pop and what I consider to be hip-hop. If I had to go with a favorite style of music, I would generally go towards a more gothic style of rock, mixed with a bit of novel songs (by which I mean songs that tell a bit of a story). Since my tastes haven't really settled yet, I love  hearing new types of music, whether or not they can be defined as such. So, I'm pleased to meet you, don't forget my name.

Blog #1- Introduction

Just doing a nice simple introduction of myself, how easy is that. My name is Jessica Goines but I tend to go by Jessie. I am a 5th year senior Art/Graphic Design student. I love music as well, but of course who doesn't. I have been playing the violin for 8 almost 9 years now so definitely shows how much I like music. I have a wide variety of taste in music. I really enjoy listening to instrumental music, especially video game and movie soundtracks, like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJE6SSX-aw or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYIh-OmRGmU, I think it is so calming. I also like rock/alternative music as well like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfBKqaVk2Co, such a catchy song. Then I what I find very fun to listen to and is also my favorite type of music is techno/dubstep and 8-bit music (music that sounds like it came from old school video games, so cool) here is some of my favorite songs of those styles, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHjpOzsQ9YI (techno/dubstep, this violinist is pretty awesome) and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOJZHNP_RnM (just can't help but sit here and dance to it). So yeah I have a strange variety of favorite music. I enjoy almost anything I listening to but these are some of my favorite styles and songs. So now you know a little bit about me and what I like listening too and now you are most likely going to think wow this girl is nuts with her taste in music but its okay. I hope you found some new music you might want to listen reading this but if not it's okay, I enjoyed sharing. :)

Cage on Defining Music

"A single sound by itself is neither musical nor not musical. It is simply a sound. And no matter what kind of a sound it is, it can become musical by taking its place in a piece of music. This point of view requires some adjustment of the definition of music which was given by my Aunt Phoebe. She hadsaid that music was made up of melody, harmony, and rhythm. Music now seemed to me to be the organisation of sound, organisation by any means of any sounds. This definition has the advantage of being all-inclusive, even to the extent of including all that music which does not employ harmony, which, doubtless, is the larger part of the music which has been made on this planet, since it includes all oriental music, all of the early and middle music of our culture, and a large and not inconsiderable part of our current production." (John Cage)