Disciplines of the Humanities: Music
One of the basic and fairly important senses that God has equipped us with is hearing. Being able to hear lets us determine our location, asses if a situation is dangerous or not, and of course, be able to listen effectively while feeding the brain with information and wonderful combinations of melodies. In this chapter, it describes all the wondrous impacts and various types of genres music have had towards people and how vital it is to our well-being and how different emotions can be brought up with it. Music is so essential that we may have a certain type we love to listen to, but it is important to get the feel for other music as every different types of music each speaks its own unique message. Messages may be vague, personal, or even general, but it always has a way of telling us some kind of story. According to the text, “Limiting ourselves to one kind of music is as detrimental to growth as if we were never to set foot outside our house and discover the unlimited life experiences waiting out there.” (155.6.2) As far as basic music goes there can be many aspects that can go into creating or making a piece. For instance, the basic elements for music is harmony, tone, a scale to work with, rhythm, and melody. All music goes ahead and uses this general baseline and work off of it to create a more complex and balanced piece to share with the world. Being a musician myself, I played a lot of jazz and found that when it came to improvisation, there were many components working together, but all I would use was a basic scale and key to hit those certain notes that just felt and sounded right to me. Everything sounded harmonious as different keys and octaves came together to make an unforgettable sound.
When it comes to music it’s hard not to remember it because as soon as you heard it your brain stores it and connects it to a memory. I know for a fact that everyone has had those moments where we’ve just randomly sang or hummed a tune from years ago, but yet we remember every detailed note that we were introduced to. During the Renaissance era, music was being played for enjoyment to the point they were constantly trying to find the actual limits of richness of music to the point where they were constantly working on different sounds while creating new instruments in order to find the “perfect” harmony. As far as classical music goes, we know all the big shot guys like Beethoven and Mozart that really took the statement “the sky is the limit” into effect. As stated in the text, “… to provide emotional release from a tormented life in which he gradually lost all of his hearing, Beethoven composed in new or greatly expanded musical forms. It is not an exaggeration to say he reinvented the music of the West.” (166.6.3) Mozart’s exploration into symphony orchestra is what propelled Beethoven to reach new heights in his music that ultimately made his career despite of his inability to even hear what he is creating, which shows how powerful music truly is. Over history, depending on your location, different genres were introduced to the world such as: art songs, gospel, folk, jazz, rock, and hip-hop. These went on to shape the culture of the world as they were introduced. Music isn’t always accepted or appreciated as it is from the artists viewpoint. That is why some music is personal and to people in certain ways. According to the text, “As long as her compositions satisfy her unique expressive needs, she doesn’t seem to care whether they are broadly accepted, an attitude shared by countless other composers.” (188–189.6.7) Zwilich’s viewpoint is the lens that we should be looking through when hearing music because when it really comes down to it, it’s about the uniqueness that it has to offer to this world.
Janaro, R. P., & Althshuler, T. C. (2013). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living. Pearson Learning Solutions.
‘We all have unique relationships with music’. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-32/october-2019/we-all-have-unique-relationships-music
Classical to Ragtime. (2018, May 27). Retrieved from https://ruthhubbard.blog/2018/05/27/classical-to-ragtime/
