Music is the art of arranging sounds in time to produce a composition through the elements of melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre. It is one of the universal cultural aspects of all human societies. General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics (loudness and softness), and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture (which are sometimes termed the "color" of a musical sound). Different styles or types of music may emphasize, de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping; there are solely instrumental pieces, solely vocal pieces (such as songs without instrumental accompaniment) and pieces that combine singing and instruments. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "(art) of the Muses"); see § Etymology and glossary of musical terminology.
In its most general form, the activities describing music as an art form or cultural activity include the creation of works of music (songs, tunes, symphonies, and so on), the criticism of music, the study of the history of music, and the aesthetic examination of music. Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music in two parts: melodies, as tones ordered horizontally, and harmonies as tones ordered vertically. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is often ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context. Indeed, throughout history, some new forms or styles of music have been criticized as "not being music", including Beethoven's Grosse Fuge string quartet in 1825, early jazz in the beginning of the 1900s and hardcore punk in the 1980s. There are many types of music, including popular music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies, and work songs such as chanteys. Music ranges from strictly organized compositions—such as Classical music symphonies from the 1700s and 1800s—through to spontaneously played improvisational music such as jazz, and avant-garde styles of chance-based contemporary music from the 20th and 21st centuries.
Music can be divided into genres (e.g., country music) and genres can be further divided into subgenres (e.g., alternative country and country pop are two of the many country subgenres), although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to personal interpretation, and occasionally controversial. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between some early 1980s hard rock and heavy metal. Within the arts, music may be classified as a performing art, a fine art or as an auditory art. Music may be played or sung and heard live at a rock concert or orchestra performance, heard live as part of a dramatic work (a music theater show or opera), or it may be recorded and listened to on a radio, MP3 player, CD player, smartphone or as film score or TV show.
In many cultures, music is an important part of people's way of life, as it plays a key role in religious rituals, rite of passage ceremonies (e.g., graduation and marriage), social activities (e.g., dancing) and cultural activities ranging from amateur karaoke singing to playing in an amateur funk band or singing in a community choir. People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, or work as a professional musician or singer. The music industry includes the individuals who create new songs and musical pieces (such as songwriters and composers), individuals who perform music (which include orchestra, jazz band and rock band musicians, singers and conductors), individuals who record music (music producers and sound engineers), individuals who organize concert tours, and individuals who sell recordings, sheet music, and scores to customers. Even once a song or piece has been performed, music critics, music journalists, and music scholars may assess and evaluate the piece and its performance.
I am a computer programmer, mostly in Windows, but a little bit into open source, Linux and Java. I work a lot in javascript and SQL of one kind or another, both of which are utilized somehow via all common platforms.
I am also interested in music, physics, and chemistry. I play piano and...
I was watching 'The sound of Music' for the nth time with my 11 year old daughter. There is a scene at the beginning, the Reverend mother tells Maria to go to the Captain's house. My daughter insists the reverend mother says "the captain's wife died seven years ago". And when the kids's names...
Is anyone else having problems with local storage on their iPhones after downloading Apple Music? I'm not even talking about the problems with my music files... which also is an issue. But my local storage has become so depleted that I can't even do basic app updates.
I lightly placed my finger a quarter of the length down the E-string of a violin and drew the bow, forcing the third harmonic. I used an oscilloscope app to look at the waveform. I got this unusually regular pure pattern...
I've been researching this subject for a little while. I'd like to hear your ideas, because the topic is widely discussed.
So here is some part of my research which makes my opinion quite clear:
"Sometimes we say , that one is moved by music. Of course, it does not mean for him/her to be...
When it comes to waves, spherical harmonics are, like, da bomb. I'm no expert - probably obvious from the question - but it seem to me that an instrument which maximises the utilisation of harmonics/resonances would be spherical.
And yet, I can think of no spherical instruments - the most...
A B C D E F G
Sharp, flat, neutral
Beat 8 4 1 half quarter eighth ...
Vocal chords
Three different hertz variances, this may be in the wrong thread.
Vowels can be extended for ever
I guess that the way we experience sounds on Earth is very importantly influenced by the composition and density of our atmosphere, since it determines how a pressure wave will be formed and will propagate.
Does music sound appreciably different when heard at very high altitudes with low air...
This is not a homework question per se, but rather something I have come across during a homework project. Using Audacity, I recorded a few different instruments playing the same notes (investigating timbre). I noticed that (using a steel string acoustic guitar) the first harmonic at 131 Hz...
So I've been researching into this a lot lately as I want to learn just exactly what pitch is coming from my speakers but I'm getting confused. If pitch changes with temperature/speed of sound and 1hz is always the speed of sound. Then when using a midi instrument or electronical instrument...
Is there any application of maths in music, which topic is directly used. I've heard group theory is used, but how it is used. Plz help..i m going to work on a project that will show how maths works in music or sound system.
Hi everyone. I have a question on the role of piano in choral music.
Piano seems to be the "default" instrument for accompaniment in many choral works. May I know why is piano the "preferred" instrument?
Thanks!
Hi,
New to this forum..
..and physics
I am currently a seasoned undergrad who only recently decided to study physics. The choice was more out of a growingly passionate curiosity of the subject than of desired career field. While I have been rather indecisive in my choosing of a major, I...
Hi, I've been searching for a way to turn off album art on my lockscreen for a Samsung galaxy note 3. Every time I look for something like this on the playstore, it comes up with a bunch of apps for people who WANT their album art displayed on the lockscreen while playing.
Some of the bands I...
I have come across some articles saying that the reason we like music is that its auditory cheesecake. And i think someone called steven pinker came up with it. Can someone please shed some light into the matter, what does it mean? Simple explanation please.
I noticed that when I was younger, there was a much higher prevalence of bands having popular songs. I'm talking about the late 90s to about 2004. It seems in recent times that music have shifted towards solo artists instead of bands, I was wondering what might account for this.
Hello Physics Forums-
My name is Tyler Cutts, and I am a student at the University of South Florida.
After some serious career and college thought, I have decided to change my major to Mathematics Education, which covers almost all of the content a Math major would take, as well as a...
I understand octaves, like 100 hz, the first octave is 25, second, 50, and 100 the third octave.
How can I relate all this to chords? I have been reading all this music lingo and can't correspond any of it to frequencies, and a lot of the ideas from now today don't match up with the past etc...
If you put your two hands over two ears while listening to music, sounds of which frequency range will be more audible?
When I listen to music, I notice that if I put my two hands over my two ears, some sounds become more audible than others. Please check it yourself. I don't know...
so I have a program that pull data from a microphone and does an FFT.
now it is working for computer Generated Sin waves like from:
http://onlinetonegenerator.com/
and
youtube..
but not for read work sound from youtube.
so I do not have a piano, but I have been using youtube videos...
I have been doing some research on music note frequencies.
and I am getting a lot of mix information.
ok middle C is 261.625565 hertz
Human can sing between 150Hz to 4K
Or between 60Hz to 2K ?
Also I tried this site
http://onlinetonegenerator.com/?freq=5000
and I can't hear
60Hz...
How do you classify music? Music is so complex that it seems impossible to categorize it but still there are so many genres.
Here are a few common:-
-Rock
-Pop
-Classical
-Rap
-Hip-hop
Some classify based on the instrument used, some based on how you sing but I don't understand...
I know everyone says do not put Music or any sounds on a WebSite.
But my WebSite has Diferant Galleries on it and every Gallery has it's own theme.
So for my Fall Gallery Page I have a Spooky Sound that I want to play one time.
I have iE10 and I have an MP3 file.
And I can not get it...
Hello, the internet.
I am attempting to graph Doppler Shift as a function of time for a music project. The equation for observed frequency is:
fo=fs(c)/vs(c)
Where
fo is observed frequency
fs is the source frequency
c is the speed of sound
vs is the velocity of the source
But...
I was reading this article - http://psychology.about.com/od/personalitydevelopment/a/music-and-personality.htm which links type of music with different personalities and I was very surprised at its correctness.
I'm very introverted and the article was correct pointing out that I generally like...
I am trying to understand how our brain interprets sound and I am bumped on a few things.
We can differentiate between different frequencies of sound (athough if they are close enough we might get confused).
And there is something called pitch which is a subjective realisation of frequency of...
I want to know about music. It should be something that starts with what music is, how humans started it, why humans are stimulated by it. Further it should give a brief description about idea of solfege, music notation, rhythm and how we develop new songs.
The latter part is music theory which...
this is the music from the trailer of the new Cosmos series :
love it
Have you got any song of this type?
Here's the trailer if you've not watched yet:
Here is the question:
Here is a link to the question:
Quick Proof about a Square Matrix? - Yahoo! Answers
I have posted a link there to this topic so the OP can find my response.
This thread is inspired by MarkFL and mathmaniac.
I'll start,
Best Trance 2011 2012 2013
:)
We've been discussing dreaming and music lately so... TRANCE!
edit* VG is video game. Thanks MarFL i can embed the video now!
I've had the same CD in my car that I've been listening to for almost a year; a lot of the songs are great, but I'm starting to get sick of some of them. I've started putting some new songs together for a new CD, but I only have this list so far:
- All Along the Watchtower
- Another Brick...
I still remember a long time ago one of my teachers told me ''Discman(LOL) are forbidden in class , if you are coming to class you should be able to concentrate and music ruins your concentration''.I then proceeded to explain to her that I thought music could actually help me concentrate even...
After participating in so many discussions about QM and GR... I've got strange hobby.
Well, the first experiment. The actress is overplaying, I know, but she is not an actress at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHiMZQwJU9Y
Girl is transforming into a vampire and then burns...
Or more precisely from advent of the gramaphone and "talkies" until today. I am geussing it is 4 beats per measure, but why? I am asking with respect to how iambic pentameter could have become predominant back in the day, if poetic meter is ultimately derived from musical time, as that would...
Why music causes emotions in our mind? They are just sound waves interpreted by our brain? But what causes it to trigger emotions? Do scientists have an answer for this yet?
Greetings PFers
I've got a Capricorn Electronics Caroling Christmas Bells.
http://www.digitalfires.com/bells/
I'm not going to pay $90 for another music cartridge, so I've decided to program in my own songs... yay!...
My trouble is that I need a piece of software to convert some simple...
First, here is some context for a series I'm writing. The main setting for tomes 1-11 (I'm writing tome 12 now, which takes place after the 4th generation main character graduates from her music PhD) is an otherworldly city surrounded by a LHC-like particle accelerator whose radius is 2π km, and...
Sometimes when music is playing next door you can only hear the bass. Why? This website likes people to make a guess so here's my shot. Perhaps the bass is on a wavelength that can penetrate walls better. I'm not sure why it is equally as loud as the treble or the other sounds when you're in...
I have heard that music is very mathematical and was wondering if there is a place I could watch lectures on a topic like this? Or maybe a textbook I could read through? Thanks for any help!
We, or most of us, listen to music whilst working out, so how about working? Does soothing, relaxing sounds help facilitate your working environment, or banging of bells? Please post some artists to help me find some new music to listen to, so far I've been listening to Erik Satie (The Best Of)...
I am a musician, I've been playing guitar form 8 years now. And piano and drums as well for under 3. People tell me music is mathematical same with artwork, something i am also very proficient at. Is it purely from the patterns of the notes and timing of the pitches that make it mathematical? Or...
I was wondering what classical composers, modern, and not used math to write compositions, I am aware of a couple of examples, including the 12 tone system. What has anyone else come up with? I have heard, that Bach's compositions are "mathematically perfect" though, I have no idea what that...
The fact that the biggest heroes in America are athletes, music artists, and movie stars is a testament to the idiocy of most Americans. Why are Tim Tebow, Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, Michael Jackson, and Michael Jordan more famous and held in higher esteem than Sir Alexander Fleming, Edward...