Cultural Interactions - Essay Example

This is not like most of the music around today, except perhaps in churches, but some gospel music has similar single voice to the chants, along with a chorus in the background which can echo the main voice. Most popular music has multiple kinds of instrumental accompaniment, and so it sounds completely different, with a lot of additional material beyond the main melody lines. The use of Latin recalls a long history of religious faith, and this reminds me of the musical “Evita” where at least one song has sections of Latin and this draws a parallel with the virgin Mary.

The portrayal of the human figure in the Early Classical period (480 BCE) is rather stiff and lifeless. The male nudes, for examples, just appear as if they are stuck on to a fixed and flat background, and they are only intended to be viewed from the front. In the High Classical period (450-430 BCE) statues are made with the weight shifted to give the figure an impression of moving in one or other direction in space. There is also a striving after the perfect human body shape, and that is why so many sculptures are made of fine physical specimens of me, like warriors and athletes.

In the Late Classical period (430-323 BCE) curves and sensuality are emphasized more, and there is also a focus on women as well as men. It is surprising how modern the people look, and this is partly because of the realism of the sculptures, and partly because modern ideas of male beauty have not changed very much: muscles are still fashionable and regarded as beautiful in men. The women look different from our ideal of supermodels, since they are heavier and have elaborate plaited hairstyles but they are still attractive, and indeed look much healthier than modern ideals of female beauty.

Plato’s allegory of the cave is quite complex because it gives both a visual image and a verbal argument to illustrate deep concepts about how people come to know about