Year: 2017

Music is a form of art in a cultural activity that is expressed in sound organised in time. There are common traits in music. These are pitch, rhythm, dynamics and quality and texture. The pitch controls the melody, and harmony of music. Rhythm is associated with the tempo, meter and articulation. Dynamics is the softness and loudness of the sound. The qualities are the timbre and texture or colour of the musical sound. Music is played in various styles. It is emphasised and de-emphasised. Sometimes, some of these elements are omitted.

Performance of music is done using several kinds of instruments and vocal techniques. Musical instruments depend on the regions of the World. The Japanese use string instruments are plucked to a scale of five notes. The Indian play a wide variety of musical instruments based on the region. There are string instruments like Sitar, Sharod, Veena, and others. There are wood instruments like the flute. Other unique Indian instruments include Jaltarang, Tabla, Matka (Earthen Pot of Tamil Nadu). Indian play improvised music and there are 25 notes to the scale. Also, Indian Classical Music is based on different Ragas. There are classical vocalists. In addition, there are people who prefer to sing Adhunik (modern) songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore, Nazrul and others.

In the Western culture, the ancient Greece has evidence of musical instruments in their illustration of the muse. The harp was one of the oldest string instruments. Later other string instruments like the viola, violin, cello and bass were added. There were instruments like the harpsichord that gave rise to the grand-piano. Other instruments include the flute. These instruments were used for Classical Music.

Initially, music was written for the religious ceremonies and work songs such as chanteys. Several Composers like Vivaldi lived in Venice. After the notification was deciphered, music had a common language. It spread all over Europe and Great Britain. The European scale was based on 8 notes. Some of the very famous composers were Haydn, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and others. Even to this day, after 100 years since Mozart lived in Vienna people listen to his concerts and operas. Music like history went through different phases over the ages. There was Church music mostly organ composition during Bach. This was followed by Baroque and Chamber music in Lords homes where maximum four musicians took part. Then there was romantic age due to style composed during Mozart’s and Beethoven’s time. There were Strauss and his famous Blue Danube that was used for dancing before the opera. There operas are musical dramas where actors and actresses sing their part and they get dressed to represent the character. There was also ballet during Louis IV reign in France. The Classical music symphonies and other pieces were composed in 1700s and 1800s.

The teen-agers preferred hardcore punk in the 1980s. Jazz after Scott Joplin of Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, became popular in beginning of the 1900s. Word jazz means improvisation. Famous players were Louis Armstrong for saxophone and many others. Jazz also had style like the Blues and others.