music. For information on types of music see such articles as absolute music absolute music, term used for music dependent on its structure alone for comprehension. It is the antithesis of program music . It is not associated with extramusical ideas or with a pictorial or narrative scheme of emotions, nor does it attempt to reproduce sounds
..... Click the link for more information. ; aleatory music aleatory music (ā`lēətôr'ē) [Lat.
..... Click the link for more information. ; chamber music chamber music, ensemble music for small groups of instruments, with only one player to each part. Its essence is individual treatment of parts and the exclusion of virtuosic elements.
..... Click the link for more information. ; church music church music.

1 Music intended for performance as part of services of worship. With few exceptions, music is essential to the ritual of every religion; the singing of prayers and portions of Scripture is part of Judaeo-Christian tradition, and a large
..... Click the link for more information. ; computer music computer music, term used to describe music composed or performed with the aid of a computer. The first substantial piece of music composed on a computer was the Illiac Suite (1956) by the avant-garde composer Lejaren Hiller (1925–94).
..... Click the link for more information. ; electronic music electronic music or electro-acoustic music, term for compositions that utilize the capacities of electronic media for creating and altering sounds.
..... Click the link for more information. ; jazz jazz, the most significant form of musical expression of African-American culture and arguably the most outstanding contribution the United States has made to the art of music.

Origins of Jazz

Jazz developed in the latter part of the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ; program music program music Instrumental music of the 19th and 20th cent. that endeavors to arouse mental pictures or ideas in the thoughts of the listener—to tell a story, depict a scene, or impel a mood.
..... Click the link for more information. ; rock music rock music, type of music originating in the United States in the mid-1950s and increasingly popular throughout much of the world.

Origins of Rock

..... Click the link for more information. ; serial music serial music, the body of compositions whose fundamental syntactical reference is a particular ordering (called series or row) of the twelve pitch classes—C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B—that constitute the equal-tempered scale.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and spiritual spiritual, a religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States. The African-American spiritual, characterized by syncopation, polyrhythmic structure, and the pentatonic scale of five whole
..... Click the link for more information. . In addition, see entries on the music of various nations and peoples, including African music African music, the music of the indigenous peoples of Africa. Sub-Saharan African music has as its distinguishing feature a rhythmic complexity common to no other region.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Arabian music Arabian music, classical musical tradition of the Islamic peoples of Arabia, the Fertile Crescent, and North Africa.

Characteristics, Forms, and Instruments

..... Click the link for more information. ; Balinese music Balinese music represents, to a large extent, a survival of the pre-Islamic music of Java. It was taken to Bali by Hindu Javanese in the 15th cent. and uses the tonal systems of Javanese music , of which pelog is by far the more important in Bali.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Chinese music Chinese music, the classical music forms of China.

Origins and Characteristics

Chinese music can be traced back as far as the third millennium B.C.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Greek music Greek music, the music of the ancient and modern inhabitants of Greece.

Ancient Greek Music

The music of ancient Greece was inseparable from poetry and dancing. It was entirely monodic, there being no harmony as the term is commonly understood.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Hindu music Hindu music. The music of India is entirely monodic. To Westerners it is the most accessible of all Asian musical cultures. Its tonal system divides the octave into 22 segments called srutis, not all equal but each roughly equal to one quarter of a whole tone of
..... Click the link for more information. ; Japanese music Japanese music, the highly eclectic musical culture of the Japanese islands. Over the years, Japan has borrowed musical instruments, scales, and styles from many neighboring areas.

The indigenous music present before A.D.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Javanese music Javanese music, one of the richest and most distinctive of Asian musical cultures. It was and is of enormous importance in religious, political, and entertainment functions.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and Jewish liturgical music Jewish liturgical music, the music used in the religious services of the Jews.

The Bible and the Talmud record that spontaneous music making was common among the ancient Jews on all important occasions, religious and secular.
..... Click the link for more information. . The technical aspects of music, such as theory, notation, and tone, are treated in such general articles as theory theory, in music, discipline involving the construction of cognitive systems to be used as a tool for comprehending musical compositions. The discipline is subdivided into what can be called speculative and analytic theory.
..... Click the link for more information. and musical notation musical notation, symbols used to make a written record of musical sounds.

Two different systems of letters were used to write down the instrumental and the vocal music of ancient Greece. In his five textbooks on music theory Boethius (c.A.D. 470–A.D.
..... Click the link for more information. , and in more specific entries, including counterpoint counterpoint, in music, the art of combining melodies each of which is independent though forming part of a homogeneous texture. The term derives from the Latin for "point against point," meaning note against note in referring to the notation of plainsong .
..... Click the link for more information. ; harmonic harmonic.

1 Physical term describing the vibration in segments of a sound-producing body (see sound ). A string vibrates simultaneously in its whole length and in segments of halves, thirds, fourths, etc.
..... Click the link for more information. ; harmony harmony, in music, simultaneous sounding of two or more tones and, especially, the study of chords and their relations. Harmony was the last in the development of what may be considered the basic elements of modern music—harmony, melody, rhythm, and tone
..... Click the link for more information. ; key key.

1 In music, term used to indicate the scale from which the tonal material of a given composition is derived. To say, for example, that a composition is in the key of C major means that it uses as its basic tonal material the tones of that scale
..... Click the link for more information. ; measure measure, in music, a metrical unit having a given number of beats, the first of which normally is accented, although the accent may be displaced by syncopation. Measures are separated on the staff by vertical lines called bars.
..... Click the link for more information. ; mode mode, in music.

1 A grouping or arrangement of notes in a scale with respect to a most important note (in the pretonal modes of Western music, this note is called the final or finalis
..... Click the link for more information. ; musicology musicology, systematized study of music and musical style, particularly in the realm of historical research. The scholarly study of music of different historical periods was not practiced until the 18th cent., and few published efforts were rigorously researched.
..... Click the link for more information. ; note note, in musical notation , symbol placed on or between the lines of a staff to indicate the pitch and the relative duration of the tone to be produced by voice or instrument.
..... Click the link for more information. ; pitch pitch, in music, the position of a tone in the musical scale , today designated by a letter name and determined by the frequency of vibration of the source of the tone.
..... Click the link for more information. ; polyphony polyphony (pəlĭf`ənē), music whose texture is formed by the interweaving of several melodic lines.
..... Click the link for more information. ; rhythm rhythm, the basic temporal element of music, concerned with duration and with stresses or accents whether irregular or organized into regular patternings. The formulation in the late 12th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ; scale scale, in music, any series of tones arranged in a step-by-step rising or falling order of pitch . A scale defines the interval relationship of each tone to the others upon which the composition depends.
..... Click the link for more information. ; syncopation syncopation (sĭng'kəpā`shən, sĭn'–) [New Gr.
..... Click the link for more information. ; tablature tablature (tăb`ləch
..... Click the link for more information. ; temperament temperament, in music, the altering of certain intervals from their acoustically correct values to provide a system of tuning whereby music can move from key to key without unacceptably impure sonorities.
..... Click the link for more information. ; tonality tonality (tōnăl`ĭtē)
..... Click the link for more information. ; tone tone. In music, a tone is distinguished from noise by its definite pitch, caused by the regularity of the vibrations which produce it. Any tone possesses the attributes of pitch, intensity, and quality.
..... Click the link for more information. ; transposing instrument transposing instrument, a musical instrument whose part in a score is written at a different pitch than that actually sounded. Such an instrument is usually referred to by the keynote of its natural scale—the clarinet in A, for example—in which case A is
..... Click the link for more information. ; and tuning systems tuning systems, methods for assigning pitches to the twelve Western pitch names that constitute the octave. The term usually refers to this procedure in the tuning of keyboard instruments.
..... Click the link for more information. . There are numerous articles on various musical forms, including cantata cantata (kəntä`tə) [Ital.
..... Click the link for more information. ; concerto concerto (kənchâr`tō), musical composition usually for an orchestra and a soloist or a group of soloists. In the 16th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. ; march march, in music, composition intended to accompany marching. The only constant characteristics of a march are duple meter and a fairly simple rhythmic design.
..... Click the link for more information. ; nocturne nocturne (nŏk`tûrn) [Fr.
..... Click the link for more information. ; opera opera, drama set to music.

Characteristics

The libretto may be serious or comic, although neither form necessarily excludes elements of the other. Opera differs from operetta in its musical complexity and usually in its subject matter.
..... Click the link for more information. ; oratorio oratorio (ôrətôr`ēō)
..... Click the link for more information. ; polonaise polonaise (pŏl'ənāz`, ō'–), Polish national dance, in moderate 3–4 time and of slow, stately movements.
..... Click the link for more information. ; sonata sonata form. This is essentially a binary form, the first part being an exposition of two (or sometimes three) contrasted themes. The second part consists of a development of these themes and a recapitulation of the beginning exposition.
..... Click the link for more information. ; song song, relatively brief, simple vocal composition, usually a setting of a poetic text, often strophic, for accompanied solo voice . The song literature of Western music embodies two broad classifications— folk song and art song.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and symphony symphony [Gr.,=sounding together], a sonata for orchestra.

The Italian operatic overture, called sinfonia, was standardized by Alessandro Scarlatti at the end of the 17th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. . In addition to such survey articles as concert concert, in music, public performance of a group of musical compositions. Originally the word referred simply to a group of musicians playing together; concerts by a solo performer are properly called recitals.
..... Click the link for more information. ; conducting conducting, in music, the art of unifying the efforts of a number of musicians simultaneously engaged in musical performance. In the Middle Ages and Renaissance the conductor was primarily a time beater, maintaining the measure or tactus
..... Click the link for more information. ; musical instruments 2)), are idiophones, but are not percussion instruments. Aerophones are of two types: free aerophones, which include those reed instruments employing free reeds, and wind instruments , which produce sound by means of an enclosed, vibrating column of air.
..... Click the link for more information. ; music festivals music festivals, series of performances separate from the normal concert season and often, but not always, organized around an idea or theme. Music festivals usually are held annually in the summer, sometimes in the open air.
..... Click the link for more information. ; orchestra and orchestration orchestra and orchestration, an orchestra is a musical ensemble of mixed instruments based on strings and winds, under the direction of a conductor, employing four classes of instruments: strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.
..... Click the link for more information. , there are separate articles on musical instruments, treated singly, e.g., clarinet clarinet, musical wind instrument of cylindrical bore employing a single reed. The clarinet family comprises all single-reed instruments, including the saxophone. The predecessor of the modern clarinet was the simpler chalumeau, which J. C.
..... Click the link for more information. ; harp harp, stringed musical instrument of ancient origin, the strings of which are plucked with the fingers. Harps were found in paintings from the 13th cent. B.C. at Thebes. In different forms it was played by peoples of nearly all lands throughout the ages.
..... Click the link for more information. ; trumpet trumpet, brass wind musical instrument of part cylindrical, part conical bore, in the shape of a flattened loop and having three piston valves to regulate the pitch.
..... Click the link for more information. , or in groups, e.g., reed instrument reed instrument, in music, an instrument whose sound-producing agent is a thin strip of cane, wood, plastic, or metal that vibrates as air is passed over it. The predecessor of these instruments is the Chinese sheng.
..... Click the link for more information. ; stringed instrument stringed instrument, any musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibrating strings. Those whose strings are plucked with the finger or a plectrum include the balalaika , banjo , guitar , harp , lute , mandolin , zither , the sitar of India and Pakistan, the koto
..... Click the link for more information. . In addition to the entry on voice voice, sound produced by living beings. The source of the sound in human speaking and singing is the vibration of the vocal cords, which are inside the larynx , and the production of the sounds is called phonation.
..... Click the link for more information. , there are separate articles on alto alto, singing voice the range of which is lower than the soprano by the interval of a fifth. More generally, the term refers to the register in which this voice sings, i.e.
..... Click the link for more information. ; baritone baritone or barytone (both: băr`ĭtōn)
..... Click the link for more information. ; countertenor countertenor, a male singing voice in the alto range. Singing in this range requires either a special vocal technique called falsetto, or a high extension of the tenor range.
..... Click the link for more information. ; soprano soprano [Ital.,=above], female voice of highest pitch. The three basic types of solo soprano are coloratura, lyric, and dramatic. The coloratura has a great range and impressive vocal agility; the lyric soprano has a light, pretty voice; and the dramatic soprano has
..... Click the link for more information. ; and tenor tenor, highest natural male voice . In medieval polyphony, tenor was the name given to the voice that had the cantus firmus, a preexisting melody, often a fragment of plainsong, to which other voices in counterpoint were added.
..... Click the link for more information. . Information on individual composers and performers can be found in biographical entries on composers, e.g. Monteverdi Giulio Cesare Monteverdi, 1573–?, was a composer, organist, and critic, and Claudio's assistant at the court of Mantua.

Bibliography

See studies by D. Arnold (1963 and 1968) and L. Schrade (1950, repr. 1969).
..... Click the link for more information. , Claudio; Puccini Puccini, Giacomo (jä`kōmō p
..... Click the link for more information. , Giacomo; and Schubert Schubert, Franz Peter (fränts pā`tər sh
..... Click the link for more information. , Franz Peter; musicians, e.g., Beiderbecke, Bix Beiderbecke, Bix (Leon Bismarck Beiderbecke) (bī`dərbĕk), 1903–31, American jazz cornetist, pianist, and composer, b.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Gieseking, Walter Gieseking, Walter (väl`tər gē`zəkĭng), 1895–1956, German pianist, b. Lyons, France, grad.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Richter, Sviatoslav Richter, Sviatoslav (svyä`tōsläf rĭkh`tər), 1915–97, Russian pianist, b. Ukraine.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and singers, e.g., Deller, Alfred Deller, Alfred, 1912–79, English countertenor . He began his career as a chorister in his parish church. From 1940–47 he was a lay clerk at Canterbury Cathedral, and in 1947 he was appointed to the choir of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Merrill, Robert Merrill, Robert, 1917–2004, American baritone, b. Brooklyn, N.Y., as Moishe Miller. In 1945 he won the Metropolitan Opera's Auditions of the Air and in the same year made his debut as Germont in Verdi's La Traviata.
..... Click the link for more information. ; Sembrich, Marcella Sembrich, Marcella (sĕm`brĭk), 1858–1935, stage name of Praxede Marcelline Kochanska, Polish coloratura soprano.
..... Click the link for more information. ; and Sinatra, Frank Sinatra, Frank (Francis Albert Sinatra), 1915–98, American singer and actor, b. Hoboken, N.J. During the late 1930s and early 40s he sang with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands, causing teenage girls to shriek and swoon over his romantic, seemingly casual
..... Click the link for more information. .

music

Art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental sounds for beauty of form or emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of rhythm, melody, and, in most Western music, harmony. Music most often implies sounds with distinct pitches that are arranged into melodies and organized into patterns of rhythm and metre. The melody will usually be in a certain key or mode, and in Western music it will often suggest harmony that may be made explicit as accompanying chords or counterpoint. Music is an art that, in one guise or another, permeates every human society. It is used for such varied social purposes as ritual, worship, coordination of movement, communication, and entertainment.

Music

Amphion

his music so powerful that stones for a wall are moved into place. [Gk. Myth.: Benét, 32]

Apollo

god of music and fine arts. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 26]

Bragi

(Brage) harpist-god; flowers bloomed, trees budded as he played. [Norse Myth.: Leach, 160]

Cecilia, St.

patron of music and legendary inventor of organ. [Christian Hagiog.: Thompson, 380]

Corybantes

musicians; provided music for goddesses’ orgiastic dances. [Gk. Myth.: Kravitz, 67]

Daphnis

shepherd; invented pastoral music to console himself. [Gk. Myth.: Parrinder, 72; Jobes, 414]

Demodocus

minstrel whom Odysseus hears singing the amours of Ares and Aphrodite. [Gk. Lit.: Odyssey VIII]

Devil’s Trill, The

brilliant violin sonata by Tartini, said to have been revealed to him by the Devil in a dream. [Ital. Music: Tartini, Guiseppe in NCE, 2697]

Euterpe

Muse of dramatic melody; patroness of flautists. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 385]

Grammy

award for musical achievement. [Am. Cult.: Misc.]

Israfel

“none sing so wildly well.” [Am. Lit.: “Israfel” in Portable Poe, 606]

Jubal

forebear of all who play harp and pipe. [O.T.: Genesis 4:21]

Linus

musician and poet; invented melody and rhythm. [Gk. Myth.: Zimmerman, 152]

Muses

(Rom. Camanae) goddesses who presided over the arts. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 172]

Orpheus

musician, charmed even inanimate things with lyre-playing. [Gk. Myth.: Brewer Dictionary, 787]

Polyhymnia

Muse of sacred song. [Gk. Myth.: Howe, 172]

Schroeder

his only wish is to play Beethoven’s music on his piano. [Comics: “Peanuts” in Horn, 542–543]

Syrinx

transformed into reeds which pursuing Pan made into pipe. [Gk. Myth.: Hall, 232; Rom. Lit.: Metamorphoses]

Tin Pan Alley lit. 1650 Broadway, New York City; fig.

fount of American popular music. [Am. Music: Thompson, 1105]

(language, music)

Music - A series of languages for musical sound synthesis from Bell Labs, 1960's. Versions: Music I through Music V.

["An Acoustical Compiler for Music and Psychological Stimuli", M.V. Mathews, Bell Sys Tech J 40 (1961)].