The Evolution Of Music And Its Ability

Plato once said, “Music Gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” Music has touched the human soul since the dawn of time. In the Bible times, music was directly related to the worship of God. For example, David the Psalms talks about dancing and music to praise God with the “lute, and cymbal”. Music, like much of everything else, has been affected due to the fall. Music was still mostly used for worship and praise of God until the early 1800’s. Between the 16th and 18th Century the classical genera of music evolved greatly. Bach, Mozart, and Vivaldi all wrote music within the classical genera, but within different eras of classical music.

Music is present in every culture’s past, present, and future. It has been around since 500 B.C. and was especially important in the Elizabethan Era. There were reinventions of music as it was widespread and popular. Without this essential time in history, modern music may have been completely different from what we have today. This era brought new uses for music, styles of compositions, new instruments, and the uprising of popular composers.

To understand why music is a product of human intention and perception, we start by defining or understanding the nature of music. Music is defined as the sounds or combination of vocals and instruments in a way that it produces a form of beauty, expression, or harmony of emotions. Arguably, people compose or make music through many ways (Resnicow, Joel E., 20-29). While some people might compose music without incorporating instruments, others use instruments to produce beats that match with their sounds. However, to argue that the

Music is remarkable for its special nature, which it is heritability. Music itselfs does not only give all music notes but innovation and inspiration from

Throughout the many years of time, music has been associated with the lives of humans. Ranging from the oldest recorded music in 1888, The Lost Chord, to Motherese, or the way that mothers “sing” to their babies to communicate to them, to our modern music of radio stations blaring our favourite song while we drive from place to place. Music has found its place within human lives, intertwining its existence with ours. Incredibly enough, humans have found a way to harness music with our very hands and create elegant melodies from tools. Beginning with instruments that look like a guitar, instruments that look like a flute and instruments that look like a drum, we began making controlled music with rhythms and harmonies. As years passed and civilization began to grow, musicians came to be. These ancient musicians played music for others on the instruments that they would make and performed for many.

Western musical styles have developed into the music what we listen to today in the twentieth century. Throughout time composers have created new ways to enhance music by adding harmonies, phrases, dynamics, and much more. At the start of music, composers kept a simple melody using the same frame of pitches in simple tunes. As we became more educated, so did our music and we are now able to create songs with texture and countermelodies all within a plethora of genres. The use of notation has changed our music we have allowed music to obtain variety, depth, and be shared amongst people for thousands of years. Without notation, music would have no way to thrive and expand on what composers discovered and experimented with. We can see how western music developed throughout the musical notation of the eras. Starting in the Middle Ages, we can see the basics of Western music and where it all began.

Throughout history, music has evolved and branched off into many different categories, each of which have distinct styles and orchestrations; there is classical music that is centuries old and today there is modern contemporary music that is often synthesized or played with electronic instruments. There are also many ways that the two styles can cross over each other; this is seen in popular music and a lot of video game music. Though many people cannot see any similarities between modern and classical music, modern music is really an evolution of classical music; the roots of modern music go back to classical era.

Regardless of where they are located, almost all ancient civilizations share basic features. For example, most civilizations develop things such as a class system, a common religion, or a system of writing. Another mark of a successful civilization is the evolution of music. Since music is not essential to survival, its development is usually within a large established society. The purpose of music varies from civilization to civilization, era to era. In some cultures, music accompanied religious rituals, as one sees in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia. In others, such as Ancient Greece, music was a part of education and entertainment. Music also played a very important role in keeping legends and records of history alive through oral tradition. The way it was produced ranged from monophonic vocalizations in its earliest history to complex instruments and systems later in time. Any way it was produced, the role music played was one of the most important in ancient societies.

Throughout the early years of music there were numerous examples of different forms of music that were on the rise while others were deemed to be ushered out. As these new styles of music were becoming more popular they had to fight against groups and individuals that were resisting the change. There were various reasons why people did not approve to new styles of music, including racial tensions, raunchy or obscene movements, and inappropriate movements. Even though there was a lot of resistance to these movements there were a couple key players that helped guide these movements into the national spotlight.

Brandyn Bailey MUS 1250 Professor Field 11/13/16 Music over Time The history of music has changed greatly over the years; in many different ways too. I argue that from the early years of 400-1450 (The Middle Ages) through today’s musical period, music has changed throughout melodies, varying styles of which the music was played, the use of different instruments, and new technologies. The body of this paper will include a paragraph from each era explaining how music styles, traditions, and innovations has changed from time period to another.

Back in Medieval times, music was crude, extremely limited, costly, and exhausting to write. It was and used mainly for church services. The music used in the church were mainly choir chants; only men and young boys could sing in the choir due to the church rules. Next came the praise worthy baroque period. Figured bass, preludes, ornamentations, trills, mordants, and various new musical forms developed, such as the etude or sonata. In this part of musical history, the composers Bach, Handel, and Vivaldi were the cream of the crop. Baroque’s musical characteristic consisted usually of detached, staccato accents, light metered rhythms, and fast precise notes. Next came the classical period, where the staccato accents still stayed within the music, but the light pace and styles where dropped for freer rhythms and notes. Some of the composers who wrote music in this period are some of the most widely known composers ever. Composers such as Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and Mozart were the top classical writers, but some such as Beethoven branched to both the classical and the romantic periods. The romantic period brought warmth, emotions and life into music. Pieces were no longer mechanical and orderly any more. Music was written with feeling and was written for enjoyment. Therefore, the modern period was quiet a huge jump for the general public, and most of the music after the romantic period is usually left unexplored. Though the daunting task of sorting through the various modern pieces is very tedious, it is worth it. From behind the ear-bleeding music of Rachmaninoff and the odd works of Ravel, comes many wonderful and different styles of music. Modern music's characteristics include atonally, minimalism, twelve-tone, and many other new musical devices and ornamentation. Not all modern music, however, is unusual or weird. Some composer wrote music in a revival of romantic. Gustav Mahler and Jean

Music has been evolving since its creation. This evolution of music has led to a vast variety of music that all people can enjoy. Artists who make good music, are praised and revered for their talents, and recently this has led to many aspiring musicians who want to acquire fame and fortune through their music. In the United States music in constantly evolving, and in recent years this evolution of music has sped up to a very fast rate. Music has evolved for many reasons including, improved technology, and change in culture, and a desire to create something new.

“The system of understanding characteristics of that individual’s society, or of some subgroup within that society” (Trumbull and Pacheco 1). For example, being American could be your cultural identity, but for as long as you live in America you will be classified as an American and in that ethnic group. Being an American can be known as the main society, but an example of a subgroup could be Music and its culture within itself. Music is the society I personally belong in and is classified as my ethnic or cultural group. Music helps with my cultural identity because that is how I relate to the society that is around me and helps enhance my ethnic identity. Music also enhances my heritage because I am going to try to start a tradition of playing music in a band and try and influence the next generations of the family to play music. Music completely changes my perspective of the world and how I see others.

Like the history of human beings, music also has its own history. From ballad opera to the present, music has significantly evolved. Without the constant improvements, popular music nowadays would not be where it is at. One of its main influences is from the eighties. The eighties is known as the rock era. It is different than other eras because of its new sounds and rhythms. Thanks to digital technology, it was easier to make both the replication of existing timbres and the creation of new timbres. Also, the eighties introduced three new rhythms: the rock beat derived from punk, the adaptations of the afterbeat rhythms of reggae, and the sixteen-beat rhythms. These three rhythms were widely used in almost every song in the eighties.

The evolution of the music industry follows the familiar pattern of digitization. Innovation began with the introduction of the vinyl record, transitioned from the cassette tape to the compact disc and landed us in an era of digital downloads. The emergence of music streaming services like Spotify has progressed the industry even further, giving consumers the ability to access music on demand using download-free online platforms. Spotify faces criticism from artists as a result of the overlap of creativity and commerce. They argue that business activities corrupt creativity, transforming it into a tool for profitability rather than an outlet for expression. Artists insist that Spotify deters album sales, favors established artists and fails to support them financially. However, Spotify was created for consumers. It delivers an accessible alternative to purchasing and downloading music. The interplay between creativity and commerce is changing the nature of the music industry. Spotify has adapted to this change, providing a platform that supports both artists and consumers. Through analysis of the market, artist’s revenue, record labels and consumers, I will argue that artists should accept the evolution of the industry and support Spotify.