Greek mythology’s nine Muses served as models for various artistic pursuits, including the arts, and later developed a tight relationship with music in particular.
In the 1630s, the word “music” as we know it today first appeared. Its predecessors include the Old English “musike” of the mid-13th century, the Old French music of the 12th century, and the Latin msica.
Ancient Greek mousiké (techn)— (v)—literally meaning “(art) of the Muses”—is where the Latin word itself originates. Nine Greek mythological goddesses known as the Muses ruled over the humanities and sciences.
The term “music” is typically used in the modern Western world to refer to a wide range of genres, styles, and traditions.
Worldwide, this is not the case, and since words in languages like modern Indonesian (musik) and Shona (musakazo) did not quite fit the Western scope, these languages recently adopted words to reflect this global understanding.
A powerful and expansive idea of “music” exists in some African civilizations, such as the Songye in the DRC and the Nupe in Nigeria, yet there is no term for it in their respective languages.
While many Indigenous languages of the Americas have words for music that specifically refer to song but nonetheless describe instrumental music.
Other words that are frequently translated as “music” often have more precise meanings in their respective cultures.
For example, the Hindi word for music, sangita, appropriately refers to art music.
Although all types of music can be described in Arabic as musiqi, vocal and improvised music are typically described as khandan.
The Creation Of Music
The act of making a song, an instrumental piece of music, a work that combines singing and instruments, or another genre of music is referred to as “composition.”
In many cultures, particularly Western classical music, the act of composing also entails producing musical notation, such as a sheet music “score,” which is then played by the composer or by other singers or musicians.
A lead sheet, which is a basic sketch of the song that includes the melody, lyrics, and chord progression, may be created as part of the composition process in both popular and traditional music.
Even when music is reasonably properly notated, as in jazz or classical music, a performer still has to make a lot of decisions because notation does not completely specify all of the aspects of music.
“Interpretation” refers to the act of choosing how to perform previously created and notated music. The tempos used as well as the playing, singing, or melodic phrasing of a piece of music can be very different depending on the performer.
A musical composition doesn’t always have a single composer, even if it frequently does and uses musical notation. Multiple composers can contribute to a piece of music, which frequently happens in popular music when a band collaborates to write a song.
Performance, which happens when a song is sung or when a piano piece, electric guitar tune, symphony, drum beat, or other musical part is played by musicians, is the physical representation of music.
In classical music, a composer first creates a musical composition in music notation, and once the composer is happy with the composition’s structure and instrumentation, the piece is performed.
