Music is the art of organizing vocal or instrumental sound for beauty of form or emotional expression, shaped by a culture's standards of rhythm, melody and, in most Western traditions, harmony. Its true origins are prehistoric and undocumented; plausible theories hold that it began as primitive communication, as an aid to coordinate communal labor, or as an adjunct to religious ceremony, and none is settled fact. The tradition shaping Western music traces to the Fertile Crescent, where Mesopotamian, Egyptian and Hebrew cultures developed musical practices absorbed by the Greeks, who along with the Sumerians, Egyptians and Romans built the first surviving aesthetic theories and formal musical systems, transmitted through Rome into western Europe. Out of this base grew the European lineage of notated, harmonically organized music, from medieval chant and polyphony through the ornamented Baroque, the balanced Classical era, the emotionally charged Romantic symphony and song, and into the twentieth century's break with traditional tonality. In the twentieth century a largely improvisatory tradition, jazz, emerged from African American communities in the United States and became one of the most influential musical developments of the modern era.
Facts
MediumSound produced by the human voice or by musical instruments, organized according to cultural conventions of rhythm, melody and, in most Western music, harmony. 1 Signature TechniquePolyphonic counterpoint: separate, simultaneous melodic lines sounded together, a technique central to the Baroque era and to Western classical music generally. 2 Place of OriginSouthwestern Germany; the oldest surviving musical instruments, bone and ivory flutes recovered from the Geissenklosterle cave, are dated to roughly 43,150 to 39,370 years before the present. 2 Notable ExampleThe Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal, found on clay tablets in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit and dated to about 1400 BC, the oldest surviving notated work of music. 2 Connections
Associated With
basso continuo is a technique of the music art form.
call and response is a technique of the music art form.
counterpoint is a technique of the music art form.
fugue is a technique of the music art form.
ostinato is a technique of the music art form.
pizzicato is a technique of the music art form.
sprechstimme is a technique of the music art form.
Movements
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Practitioners
Source Franz Schubert: Poet and Composer from Austria (Austria.info)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Works In This Form
Source Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's Poems (OpenLearn, The Open University)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's Poems (OpenLearn, The Open University)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and MusiciansStanley Sadie, editor (successive editions)
A jazz standard song; classified under the Music art form.
Sources
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica
Encyclopaedia Britannica editors, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.Music, britannica.com/art/musicView the Source 2. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationMusic, Western classical, Baroque subsection
Polyphonic contrapuntal music (music with separate, simultaneous melodic lines) remained important during this period.
Music, Origins and prehistory section
Three flutes from the Geissenklosterle are dated as the oldest, c. 43,150-39,370 BP.
Music, Antiquity section
The 'Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal', found on clay tablets in the ancient Syrian city of Ugarit, is the oldest surviving notated work of music, dating back to approximately 1400 BCE.
Practitioners: Claude Debussy, Claude Debussy article, lead section
was a French composer
Practitioners: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
was a Classical composer and musician
Practitioners: Miles Davis, Miles Davis, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
an American trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and painter
Practitioners: Frederic Chopin, Frederic Chopin, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist
Practitioners: Richard Wagner, Richard Wagner, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor, best known for his operas
Practitioners: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
He was a Russian composer of the Romantic period.
Practitioners: Antonio Vivaldi, Antonio Vivaldi, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
an Italian composer, virtuoso violinist and impresario of Baroque music
Practitioners: Franz Liszt, Franz Liszt, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher
Practitioners: John Coltrane, John Coltrane, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader, and composer
Practitioners: Gustav Mahler, Gustav Mahler, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation
Practitioners: Johannes Brahms, Johannes Brahms, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
was a German composer, pianist, and conductor
Practitioners: Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor
Practitioners: Igor Stravinsky, Igor Stravinsky, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
a Russian composer and conductor with French and American citizenship
Practitioners: George Frideric Handel, George Frideric Handel, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
was a German-British Baroque composer well-known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi, and organ concerti.
Practitioners: Antonin Dvorak, Antonin Dvorak, Wikipedia summary lead, practices
was a Czech composer
- Movements: Classical (music era), Classical period (music), Wikipedia summary, expressed-in music
Works In This Form: Kind of Blue, Kind of Blue, Wikipedia summary lead, in-form
is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis
Works In This Form: The Rite of Spring, The Rite of Spring, Wikipedia summary lead, in-form
is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky
Works In This Form: A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme, Wikipedia summary lead, in-form
is an album by the American jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane.
View the Source The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians
Stanley Sadie, editor (successive editions), Oxford University Press- entry: Western music, history and notation
- Practitioners: Johann Sebastian Bach, entry: Bach, Johann Sebastian
- Practitioners: Ludwig van Beethoven, entry: Beethoven, Ludwig van
- Works In This Form: Ninth Symphony, entry: Beethoven, Ludwig van
- Movements: Baroque, entry: Baroque, music of the
- Movements: Romanticism, entry: Romanticism
- Practitioners: Louis Armstrong, entry: Armstrong, Louis
- Movements: Jazz, entry: Jazz
- Movements: Modernism, entry: twentieth century modernist music
- Works In This Form: Mass in B minor
- Works In This Form: Goldberg Variations
- Works In This Form: Rhapsody in Blue
Franz Schubert: Poet and Composer from Austria (Austria.info)
Austria.info, Austrian National Tourist OfficePractitioners: Franz SchubertView the Source Schubert's Lieder: Settings of Goethe's Poems (OpenLearn, The Open University)
The Open University- Works In This Form: Erlkonig
- Works In This Form: Gretchen am Spinnrade
View the Source Frequently Asked Questions
What are the basic elements of music?
Melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre are generally considered music's basic elements, though traditions and theorists weight and define them differently.
Melody, harmony, rhythm and timbre are generally considered music's basic elements: melody the sequence of pitches heard as a line, harmony the combination of pitches sounded together, rhythm the pattern of duration and accent in time, and timbre the tone color that distinguishes one instrument or voice from another. Different traditions and theorists weight and define these elements differently, and some add form and dynamics as additional core elements.
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