Chapter 1 What in the World Is Music I Perspective of music Music examples from the book and the CD s a 4 33 by composer John Cage b Islamic Qur anic recitation i The people in the audience and their interaction with their surroundings make up the music of those four minutes and thirty three seconds ii Creates a framework of music listening that compels people to refocus their hearing 1 The composer wanted the audience to pay attention to sounds and tones that generally would go unnoticed due to their lack of musical quality i While it sounds like music and is being chanted Muslim people do not view this as music and the notion that it is music to them is offensive ii Muslims believe music to be a profane art that has no place in religious observances 1 If it part of worship it is not music no matter what it sounds like 2 Cultural religious principles outweigh the musical c Os Mutantes meaning the mutants properties of the sound i At a Brazilian musical festival they performed e proibido proibir 1 They had fruit and paper thrown at them because their music was not viewed as music 2 Later they received Brazilian and international appreciation after progressive alternative rockers Kurt Cobain nirvana David Byrne Talking heads and Beck discovered their music d Ludwig Van Beethoven symphony 9 i Perfect example of classical western organized music e Japanese gagaku of organization i To westerners this kind of music defies recognizable principals II A Point of Departure Five Propositions for Exploring World Music a There is no general agreement of what music is b Proposition 1 The basic property of all music is sound i The term used to distinguish sound from music sounds is the term tone 1 Tones a sound whose principal identity is a musical identity as defined by people though not all people who make or experience that sound ii Four properties of tone 1 Duration a Length 2 Frequency a Pitch 3 Amplitude a Loudness 4 Timbre a Quality of sound tone color iii Tones are defined by their relationship arrangement with other musical tones musical environment iv Tones and cultural association 1 People associate tones with symbolic meaning and attachments far beyond the sound itself a Bells for a church saying the start of a mass b The jingles for fast food commercials saying come buy the new burger v The classification of sounds as music sounds tones or as nonmusic sounds is principally a product of people s intentions and perceptions regarding sound c Proposition 2 the sounds and silences that comprise a musical work are organized in some way i Musical sounds vs nonmusical sounds 1 Musical sounds are always arranged in an organized framework a i e musical is organized sound 2 Nonmusical sounds may or may not appear in an organized framework ii Unframed music does not necessarily mean that it has non western origins 1 There own western composers who intentionally try to subvert the common and familiar organizational principles a Ex John Cage d Proposition 3 Sounds are organized into music by people thus music is a form of humanly organized sound i Music is a human phenomenon It is a form humanly organized sound 1 2 Essentially only a human invention a Animal sounds music qualities etc may be conceptualized as music but are not actually proven music research inconclusive 3 Music is something that people either hear make or assign to other types of sounds a Any and all sounds have the potential to be heard as musical sounds 4 Only when a human being uses a given sound for musical purposes or perceives describes that sound in musical terms does the sound actually enter into the domain of music e Proposition 4 Music is a product of human intention and perception i Two basic cognitions of determining what is and is not music 1 Intention 2 Perception a When any sound series of sounds or combination of sounds is organized by a person or group of people and presented as music a When any person or group of person perceives a sound or series of sounds or combination of sound as music ii The HIP human intention and perception Approach 1 Privileges inclusiveness over exclusiveness 2 Emphasizes the idea that music is inseparable from the people who make and experience it 3 Using the HIP model to approach and understand John Cage s 4 33 a The composer and the musicians performing the piece have the intention that they made are performing music b The audience at least some part are likely to perceive it as music f Proposition 5 the term music is inescapably tied to western culture and its assumptions i Many of the world s people do not have an equivalent world to music in their languages 1 Even in languages that have a term like music it does not always be used the way we do ii Dilemma even though every human culture in the world has produced forms organized sound that we in the west would consider music many of these cultures do not recognize it as music 1 This is why the west falls in ethnocentrism a When we impose our own culturally grounded perspectives biases and assumptions on practices and lifeway s that are different from our own iii Ways for confronting the dilemma 1 Avoid describing with musical terms altogether 2 Impose western concepts on them i e converting them into music on our terms 3 Try to find a middle ground in describing the sounds phenomena a We perceive it as music but we use the cultures terminology and understanding of it for our analysis Chapter 1 Review 1 The basic property of all music is a Sound 2 A tone possessesd a All of the above i Duration frequency timbre 3 Sounds that have the potential to be music are a Any and all sounds 4 Music is a A human phenomenon are a Intention and perception 5 The two basic processes involved in determining what is and what is not music 6 The HIP human intention and perception approach emphasizesd Inclusiveness over exclusiveness a b That music is inseparable from the people who make and experience it 7 The term music a b 8 A tone a 9 Qur anic recitation Is inescapably tied to Western culture and its assumptions Is inescapably ethnocentric to some degree Is a sound whose principal identity is defined by people as a musical identity a Is not music from orthodox Muslim perspectives but does exhibit qualities e g melodic rhythmic that make it sound musical to non Muslim 10 The best way to figure out whether something is or is not music is to a Determine whether there are people who intended it to be music or who perceive it as music 11 The musical
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