| The history of music:
Development stage of music:
In its development, music as poetry had three qualitative different stages, which should be understood as different types (systems) of music, not as chronological replacing stages of its development. The first stage is often determined by the term "folklore". In European culture, the concept "musical folklore" is often used as a synonym to the concept "public", "primitive", "ethnic" or "musical culture of non-civilized nations". The stage of folklore characterizes such communication, when the listener and executor are not separated — all are co-participants of the musical action and are included in some ritual.
Musical folklore is an integral part of life (hunting, birth of child, welding, burials, a working process, calendar festivals, ceremonies and games.) It is syncretic as per its nature; singing and the sounding of musical instruments are adjacent in it. In primitive societies, it was an integral part of the words and body movements. Apart from the Christian musical folklore well retained in culture, urban musical folklore (in European countries) exists. This is already “professional public art", which appears only in developed societies. For the folklore stage the following are very typical: the oral form of translation of musical “texts”, the absence of forms of their written recording and under the development of musical – theoretical concepts and special musical studies.
At the oral form stage of communication it is replaced with the written and three participants of musical communication appear: the composer, executor and listener. Such a look determines the traditionally European concept of music in our days. This look is limited by the boundaries of European culture, where the break up of the musical communication process took place on three participants. In this way in Western Europe in the boundary of the 16th and 17th centuries, the author, the composer of the musical creation occurred. Music becomes written in a stable notation text and the necessity of execution of the “notation text” written and separated from the creator has come. The musical combination (composing, opus) has the possibility to exist independently, which resulted in the appearance of a musical notation and development of an instrumental form of music. The usage of the term “Pure music” by Europeans has become non random, which underlined the dependency of music from verbal text (music — the non verbal form of art), and also — from dance.
Types of music:
At present our understanding about music is significantly becoming wider and changing. The series of the following processes started in the 20th century promoted to this: the development of new technologies (sound recording and technical music play, the appearance of electro – musical instruments, synthesizers, musical-computer technologies); the introduction with musical cultures of different nations of the world; the intensive exchange of musical information between countries, nations and continents (musical programs in radio, television, tours of musical collectives, international musical festivals, sales of audio-musical products, usage of internet etc.); and the recognition of musical interests and tastes of different social groups in society.
Classical (or serious) — professional musical combinations born in the European culture predominately from new time (boundaries of 16-17 centuries) and middle of the century;
Popular — mass usage predominately singing-dancing musical genres;
Outside European (Non European) — music of those nations (East), whose culture differs from the culture of western European civilization (West);
Ethnical (and traditional) — folklore (and oral-professional musical phenomena of different nations), which underlines the individuality of ethno, nation, tribe.
Variety (or light) — music of an entertaining type meant for rest.
Jazz band — the professional executing traditions of American Negroes picked up by Europeans based on the synthesis of African and European musical elements.
Rock — music of small vocal-instrumental groups of youth, which characterizes the compulsory presence of an impact and electro-musical instrument, firstly – guitar.
Leading role (experimental) — general nomenclature of new direction in professional composer’s creativity of 20th century;
Alternative — new musical combinations or executions (sound presentations), which are in principle not similar to all types of music known now;
Many types of music are determined as per their habitation medium and functions: military, church, religious, theatre, dance, cinema-music etc. And also – as per type of execution: vocal, instrumental, chamber, vocal-instrumental, choral, solo, electronic, upright piano etc; and as per different properties of musical factors and composing techniques: polyphonic, homophony, monadic, hetero phonic, resonant, serial etc.
There is a possibility of creation of individual styles and directions, which differ with a stable and typical structural and esthetic attributes in each music type. For example: classism, romantism, impressionism, expressionism, neo classicism, seriality, leading role — in classical music; ragtime, Dixieland, swing, bi-bop, cool — in jazz; art, folk, heavy metal, hip-hop, rap, granz — in rock music etc.
In the news: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell donned a hard hat and tucked a hammer in his belt Friday, performing a version of the Village People's hit "YMCA" at the conclusion of Asia's largest security meeting. Tradition dictates that the meeting wrap up with a night of song and dance, provided by the diplomats themselves. Powell danced alongside five other U.S. officials sporting costumes that included an Indian headdress. The group blasted out a version of the 1970s disco classic, to the delight of foreign ministers from across the Asia-Pacific and Europe.
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