Written Form Of Music example essay topic

Would you classify music as a language? Justify your answer, considering the extent to which it resembles or differs from natural language, and the role it plays in the acquisition of knowledge. Theory of Knowledge Essay To many of us in this world, language means what we speak and what we write. In our busy, day-to-day lives, we do not always perceive other languages that are used. One of these "hidden" languages is music.

It is very similar to natural language and is as useful to us in acquiring knowledge as natural language. Natural language is inherently difficult to define because it is so broad and can have so many interpretations. Fundamentally, it is a method of communication which can take a number of forms such as, but not limited to, written and oral expression. Natural language must have rules which provide structure and allow us to form recognizable expressions that others can comprehend and interpret. It must also be able and learnt, thereby allowing others to use the language for communication and self-expression. Music is primarily an auditory language.

When you turn on your radio or go to a concert, the form in which music comes to you is sound that has been organized into something understandable and interpretable. These sounds can be vocal, instrumental, or a combination of the two. They can be written down, though this is rare when we look at the world's cultures. Music is a form of expression of feeling, emotion, thought, opinions, and views which can be understood by people worldwide. Just as writers and poets express themselves through a written language, composers and other musicians say what they want to through their music. Music can be a story.

Take, for instance, the H'ary J'anos Suite by Kod " aly, a Hungarian composer. This work is a six-piece suite that tells of the exploits imagined by the soldier H'ary J'anos. The listener forms images in their imagination of what is happening to H'ary as he weaves intricate tales even though there are no words and pictures. The sounds of the instruments and of the voice (s) unlock images and feelings from within the mind of the listener. These pictures will, of course, vary with the listener and the culture, but in general the image will be the same. This is what happens with books.

When you read a novel, you form images in your mind of what is going on. There is one major difference though. With music, anybody of any culture can visualize what is happening because sound is something that everyone understands - it is natural, whereas with books you must have learnt the language before you can understand the written text. Without knowing the written and oral language everything is a jumble of characters, and it has no meaning, nothing is shared. A second difference is that there are no specific "words" for objects with music. It is a language not based upon objects.

This allows for better communication of more abstract ideas such as feelings. Objects can be "talked" about as well, but not in the sense of "This is a tree". Sounds would describe a tree, and the audience would form pictures in their minds of a tree, even though they were most likely not told that the sounds were describing a tree. Jazz is musical personal expression at one of its highest forms. Players have a set of chord changes in front of them that define what notes they can play. Nowhere, except at the beginning and the end of the piece, are there any explicit written notes.

During their solos, the players take the notes that they are allowed to play and weave them into what they feel and see. Those in the audience can both hear and feel the sadness of the soloist or his happiness or his depression. A musical conversation can begin between musicians when two or more are soloing at the same time or are taking turns soloing. One soloist will say something through what he plays, and another will reply and add his own ideas. In Africa, tribes sometimes use drums as a method of communication over a long distance. The sender beats a rhythm on his drum which is heard by the receiver who interprets the rhythm.

The message has been sent and received. He might, in return, send a reply to the sender, who will hear and interpret it. In order for sound to become music - a language - it must have structure. All music, from the music of the indigenous people of the Brazilian Rain Forest to Western Classical music, contains rules that govern how the sounds are arranged and written (if that culture has a written musical language). Though these rules and structures vary considerably from one culture to another, the fact remains that they are there.

They have been developed so that the sounds that are produced can actually be understood and have meaning behind them. Harmony, in Western music, is a set of rules that tell the composer how to build chords in such a way that the transitions between chords are smooth, allowing the music to flow. Another set of rules is counterpoint, or how to combine two or more melodies. These rules are used in all genres of western music, but they are very apparent in classical music. In jazz, the chords for classical music were taken and expanded upon, and new ones were created. Classical composers determine what notes to write down using chords.

Jazz does the same thing, but the difference lies in the fact that with classical music, you have to play the notes the composer wrote down on the page while with jazz, the chords tell the musician what notes he is allowed to play while soloing or accompanying the soloist. The use of chords gives structure this highly improvisational form of music. Without them, for example, you might have the pianist playing one group of notes, the bassist playing other notes which may or may not fit with what the pianist is playing, and the soloist playing notes which may or may not fit with what the other two are playing. The result would be something chaotic and messy. The music would quickly lose its meaning and ceases to become music. With the use of chords, everybody is playing notes that work well together.

There is not chaos, even though sometimes it might sound like, but then that would be because the chord was designed that way. Certain cultures decided that music needed to be notated in order to preserve it and to enable others to play exactly what the composer played. We are not sure who were the first people to write down music were. Some believe that the Assyrians had developed a musical notation. Those who have taken elementary music lessons or music theory classes learn what the various symbols, notes, letters, and numbers mean and, with practice, they should be able to play what is written on the sheet. Once the student or the performer has read the music (and possibly played it), the music has been communicated from the composer to the performer.

Even though much Western music has been written down, the vast majority of the world's cultures, such as the Native Americans, the African Pygmies, and the Australian Aboriginals, do not have a written form of music. They learn their music from their elders by listening and by repeating what has been played to them. It is part of their oral tradition. Stories and history are passed down through the generations by music and by song.

For the Australian Aboriginals, each tribe's history, or Dreamtime Story, is told and passed along by words and by the music played by tribe members. In many cases a culture has no need for a written system because the music that is played is improvised, or in other words, it is made up on the spot. The music keeps on growing and changing. It is never the same and allows for so much to be expressed by the performer (s). Another reason why written music is not found in all cultures is that some may not have had the idea of writing it down because they have no written version of their spoken language. This above discussion also relates to the acquisition of knowledge.

From people being told of a story through music to the performer learning a new piece of music from a sheet of paper to the communication between musicians in jazz, knowledge has been acquired. The audience learns of a new story, the performer learns new music, and those listening or playing jazz learn about the musicians and what they are feeling. In addition to these, people learn about values, morals, life, and the world from song and music. Children learn through the songs that are sung by their elders or by children's entertainers like Raffi and Fred Penner.

Music is similar to a natural language in that it a form of communication and self-expression that has structure. It allows for the acquisition of knowledge. Bibiligraphy Decries, Bernard et al. The Story of Music in Cartoon: From Pre-History to the Present. London: Macdonald & Co., 1983.