Music as Organized Sound, Research Paper Example

The commonest definition of music is “organized sound.” With the technological advancement, various ways of denoting the radical aspects of music that extend above tones have arisen. Popular aspects of “organized sound” include harmony, rhythm, melody, and timbre (Ashby 78). Conversely, a music concrete comprises only sound samples that are of non-music nature, sometimes presented in random juxtaposition. Ambient music may be composed merely of recordings of nature or wildlife. The arrival of twentieth century marked the start of avant-garde genre of music, which challenged traditional perceptions of music. As a result, music was diversified which led to broader characterizations. The impact of technology on “organized sound” is diversification of music to a variety of genres that include sound sculpture, sound art, and music vacillating from popular idioms to practical electroacoustic composition (Leon-Portilla 11).

The proliferation today in technologies such as music-enabled Smartphones and iPods has augmented the power of music as a type of mood regulator. The capacity of these technologies to hold large amounts of music and consolidate them into playlists implies that music has spurred to enable individuals exercise and work, or even pass time when commuting. Japanese studies have detected a relationship between listening to favorite tracks and reduction of testosterone levels (Leon-Portilla 17). This is a momentous departure from the traditional perceptions of the role of music. Aristotle and Plato perceived that music had an endowed moral power.

Approaching different genres of music as music-loving sociologist reveals a variety of cultural productions and possible careers of the musician and other participants. The principle of Music Instinct is a key factor in determining both the composition and influence of music. Sociologists appreciate the building blocks of music such as melody, rhythm, and harmony (Leon-Portilla 11). Reasonably, these are some of the most personal characteristic of music. During performance, timbre holds the different keys of music preference to result in organized notes. On the contrary, this definition of music condemns the scientific concepts of music that explains music consumption by the audience or listeners and their relationships to the producers (Ashby 78). It also condemns the argument that musicians and song composers are obliged to create and experiment in their music. As a result, music is solely limited to sociology and entertainment.

Undoubtedly, one of the most primitive perceptions of music is pulse, which is recognized in many genres as rhythmic pulse or heartbeat (Clifton 111). The pulse perception can be dated back to the Australopithecus who picked up objects and banged them against one another to come up with rhythmic tunes. Pulse in music is a fundamental parameter, which is variant dependent on the desired speed. Nowadays, pulse has become more precise and complicated as technology advances. Pulse is specified by assigning a metronome value to a musical note, which is tied in musical notation. Each pulse consists of a set of undifferentiated and unaccented beats, which are separated by time units. As a result, a metronome beats pulses, making the resultant pulses determinate and measurable (Leon-Portilla 15). Many musicians and song composers overlay a fundamental pulse with different pulses of different structural forms to come up with beats with different levels of accent as well as displacement in pulse beats. Pulse beats involves alteration of sound dynamics, for instance, pianoforte, to come up with an in/off pulse, which is generally referred to as rhythm.

To compose rhythm and beats that follows the definition of music, the music must be limited to accent and pulses of a certain language to ensure that the organization of words are meaningful to the listener. The art of organizing beats and pulses is referred to as prosody. The concept requires composers to pay attention to vowel sounds in a structural text to ascertain the biological resonance of pitches in vowels (Xenakis 23). Unmatched thoroughness of different notes is essential to facilitate human perception to vowel resonances. Music sociologists have identified different languages whose vowel is easy to write, for instance Italian, Spanish, Russian, and Hungarian languages. Consonantal clusters in Russian, Czech, and Slavic languages pose various difficulties during the composition stages. Language that present covered nasalized vowels, along with their diphthongs and trip thongs (French, English, and Portuguese) require substantial restriction and care in setting (Leon-Portilla 20).

About singing and language, the Italian Tuscan is the perfect and easiest language to composing and mellifluous singing. Reasonably, all vowels are open which implies there are no diphthongs. Contrary to this, an Italian composer must adhere to natural resonance of beats as well as vowel sounds. If this is not done, the singer is compelled to change vowel sounds in order to suit the pitch. In the Italian language, the most feared vowel id ‘e’ since it has the highest rhythmic and resonant pitch (Ashby 78). Additionally, it becomes unstable during high pitches. As a result, choice of language in music has become a powerful influence in determining the nature and structure of national music. Most of these influences come from both language and abstract setting of the music. Conversely, the rhythms and resonance of the language remain entrenched in the musical thought.

English is one of the hardest languages to compose music because most if its vowels are covered. The development of musical languages whose cadences and rhythm fit has proved a difficult task in English. “The Crucible” by Robert Ward is an American English prototype that requires more and better performances than its initial performance (Clifton 111). Other composers who have tried capitalizing on English vowel are Ned Rorem and Samuel Barber. In prototypical English American music, rhythm is used as a temporal component of music while cadences shows combines temporal, horizontal (melodic), and vertical (harmonic) features (Ashby 78). Cadence is defined as a technique, method, or procedure, which articulates the end of a music rhythm or phrase. In modern music, cadence articulates the end of a musical “activity.” Conversely, musical activities lack settings of a cadence since some are not related to music.

In the organization of music, pitching of natural vowels in human language is subtle rather than a diffuse concept, especially in languages originating from China, Africa, and some Caucasian languages. These languages distinguish different meaning by pitch or tonal variation patterns as applied to a syllable (Leon-Portilla 21). Although a foreigner can easily distinguish changes in tone and pitch, it is hard to determine the absolute pitch as frequency because of the semantic inflection in the language. The “Beethoven Bird” has defined resonances and pitch relations, factors that create natural rhythmic music (Xenakis 23). The bird chirps in a recognizable tone, which opened motive of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Many music sociologists believe that Beethoven derived the rhythm from birds since his music shows elements of musical banality. The ingenious of Beethoven in his Fifth Symphony transformed the spring to entire symphony. The symphony is an astounding resolution to radical problems in the composition of music. The composer wanted to capture the attention of the audience for about one hour without causing boredom.

The advancement of music technology has revealed than there is a linkage between sound wave and mathematics. Human beings can perceive pitch of a certain waveform and at the same time be elucidated. For instance, a gong can produce complex sound patterns that can be described in terms of resonances with the assumption of lack of pitch. Reasonably, most instruments produce sound at certain frequencies, which weigh more heavily on emanating frequencies than on its rhythm (Xenakis 23). This weighing is easy to map between a physic-mathematically defined pitch and auditory pitch. This sentiment can be illustrated using the theory of overtones. This theory explains that each musical instrument has different weights, which lead to its illicit recognition. The weight refers to different frequencies of beats and resonances.

From the findings of this study, music has evolved steadily form the simple traditional music to sophisticated modern music. Currently, studies show that there is a linkage between intelligence and music. Music today has elements of cognitive functioning, which has tied the ability of music to improve mood with enhanced mental activity (Ashby 79). Brain responds to different melodies and rhythms in a systematic ways that can trigger physiological processes that cannot be perceived through cognition. Different languages pose different challenge in the organization of rhythm and melodies. Italian language has the easiest vowel sounds while English has covered vowels, which affect its rhythm. Additionally, sound waves are related to mathematics since rhythm and overtones comprise definite number of beats.

Works Cited

Ashby, Arved. The Pleasure of Modernist Music: Listening, Meaning, Intention, Ideology. Eastman Studies in Music 29. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2004. Print.

Clifton, Thomas. Music as Heard: A Study in Applied Phenomenology. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002. Print.

Leon-Portilla, Miguel. “La música de los aztecas / Music Among Aztecs,” Pauta, no. 103:7–19, 2007.

Xenakis, Iannis. Formalized Music: Thought and Mathematics in Composition. Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 2005. Print.