Music Culture - The Four Components - Essay Example

Music Culture: The Four Components Music is not just about sounds, words and rhythm. The definition, perception and, therefore, essence of this, undoubtedly, important phenomenon of a human life is much wider, and everyone definitely has something personal to add to its standard definition. This is the thing that accompanies us throughout the entire life, and in many cases the most important events of one’s life are associated with certain things related to music – a song, a music video, or a music instrument etc. The complicatedness of music, however, is a myth, and it is easy to understand its essence by its division into four components below. The Music Ideas This is a component namely aimed ad answering the question what music is. There are also several very important questions in this component, such as what is the music designed for, or, for example, what relation it has to the values of the society. The mentioned questions aside, this component also provides a consideration of such music aspects as its context, that is, the events on which it is played and the meaning the music adds to the events, music aesthetics, that is, the beauty of the music which is, obviously, a very subjective concept and it is up to everyone to decide which music is and which is not beautiful, and the music history, that is, the demonstration of the music evolution, and revolution, the contrast of the present music and that of the past, and the role the music has historically played in the general society development. (Titon et al., 2009). This is, therefore, an introductory component of the music culture which gives an idea of what music is and what its importance for the human beings is. Activities Employing Music The second component of the music culture includes the activities which employ music. Today music is used in almost all the spheres of human activity, and music itself has become a separate activity practiced both by amateurs and by professionals. It is also remarkable that music itself has become a very lucrative business, and it is not normal that sometimes its quality may suffer so that more income could be gained on its mass production. Filmmaking is the first activity mentioned when the music-employing activities are in question. In this sphere of activity music is one of the key components of the proper product making, as it often conveys such emotions and information which is impossible to be transferred otherwise. (Titon et al., 2009). Music is also employed by ritual events. This means that such events from one’s life as marriage, child’s birth, college entering etc. are in most cases accompanied by music, and its kind and mood depends on the nature of the event, that is, if the event is positive and gives happiness, then the music is also major and pompous, and, on the contrary, negative events imply involvement of sad music. This means that music has relation to the norms of the society. It helps people honor their colleagues or relatives and mourn loss of someone or something very dear, that is, expressing one’s feelings and emotions, maintenance of interpersonal communication. (Titon et al., 2009). Repertoire The next, the third, component of the music culture is the music repertoire. This component deals with such specific and important aspects of music as style, that is, the way the sounds are organized, text, that is, the words accompanying thee music, transmission, that is, in which way it is transferred to each other. (Titon et al., 2009). These concepts are usually unfamiliar for usual people, that is, those not dealing with music professionally or at least not involved into music production themselves. For example, people may define a composer as a XVII-XVIII century musician sitting in front of his piano and elaborating exquisite and to complicated symphonies, and this is quite a usual practice due to some stereotypical perception of such a concept. In practice, however, a neighbor next door may be directly related to the music composition, even though he is a night shift worker, by means of his talents and skills synthesis when using his computer and creating masterpieces of music art while singing walking through the flat. The word which is contained in the title of this sub-section, repertoire, is also a very important concept when talking about the music culture. This is not just a set of songs performed by a musician, this is a wider concept which includes the topics of the songs, the things described in them. For example, one can perfectly know the titles and the genres of the songs of a favorite artist, however, it may be quite difficult to name such things as the ideas, the perception, the story of a certain song which are as important as the words of the song are. Music-Related Material Objects The last, fourth, component of the music culture tackles the material objects related to the music. (Titon et al., 2009). The first thing that comes to one’s mind in this regard is music instruments. This is logical because they are the sources of the music played. They are also, however, not just wooden or metal things used to extract certain sounds, they are similar to a musician him or herself as they produce the sounds by their inner essence. This component is not limited to just music instruments. Any things related to music belong to it, for example, books on the music art, studying guides and manuals, song collections and any literature about music in general. It is obvious that they constitute primarily a theoretical basis for the music as a phenomenon, however, they give an idea how to practice music properly. The technical progress covered the music practice as well. The introduction of the new sound recording and mastering technologies has given a new impulse for music development, and its making has become easier and more pleasant. These things also constitute a significant part of the music culture, especially now when they have become unalienable attributes of really good music. Conclusion The words ‘music culture’ are often referred to in the music context primarily. This is only partially right because culture in this concept is as important as the music itself, and culture is the thing which explains its importance for a human being. This is also thee thing that indicated relations between individuals and music and clarifies which role it plays in their lives. The music culture also explains the most important and key concepts of the music as such and emphasizes on them for a usual listener who normally does nothing but only listens to the music which is, of course, a pleasant activity but definitely needs some thinking. Works Cited Titon, J, Cooley, T., Locke, D., Rasmussen, A., Schechter, J., Stock, J., McAllester, D., Beck, D. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World’s Peoples. 2009. Belmont: Schirmer/Cengage Learning. Print. Read More