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?
No comments:
Post a Comment