Music: An Eternal Melody

Music: An Eternal Melody

There are many languages spoken throughout this world, but there is one that everybody speaks. Music is a universal language to all people and nations. Be it vocal or pure instrumental, music is used for weddings, graduations, religious events, or as a nation's anthem. It can change people's moods, feelings, or actions. It's easy to say that almost everyone enjoys listening to a tune on the radio. It's been around for a long time, but the question is how long has music really been around for?

For the believers of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, Darwin suggested that singing originated from man's imitation of animal cries and the sounds of nature surrounding him. Singing may have also originally been a form of communication, almost speech-like which arose from the need to give signals using sound. "Man's first songs ranged from celebratory aspects and prayers to godlike divinities to chants used as a form of magic to induce the listener into a trance-like concentration" (Digital Daydreams). Because there is no type of documentation or dates, the exact origins of music are unknown. Music far in the past was usually passed down from teacher to pupil, so it was never written down. Samaria, Egypt and China all have a history of not transcribing music. The Greeks gave us some of the first and most significant theoretical discoveries regarding music. "The purpose of music was therapeutic, to purify the mind and harmonize the soul through dancing or song" (Digital Daydreams). Some of the big names that come up in Greek history related to music in one way or another.

Pythagoras (c.585-c.479) had many musical theories; he stretched a string to calculate the length ratios of every conceivable musical interval. He developed music and numbers into a cosmology and evolved and defined a precise mathematical relationship for the notes on a scale. Pythagoras was probably also responsible for the principle of the octave. 3000 years later, musicians still harmonize almost any tune by using the chords of the three most important notes laid down by Pythagoras: tonic, dominant and subdominant. (Digital Daydreams)

Greek music would later on be taken to medieval Europe by Roman writers and Arabs.

There were two major types of music playing in the medieval era, religious and secular. The Medieval Church regarded any instrument besides the organ non-religious, therefore considered as pagan. This proved that music in the medieval era was still mainly vocal. Carols began to surface around the 14th century and started out as a one person song. These carols were usually danced to with some added music using a variable stanza.

Secular music on the other hand was used to entertain and amuse the public. Secular music usually used more than one person in the song. It also contained far more instruments than that of the religious music. Instruments at that time were only different by the amount of sound produced, rather than the type of sound that was produced. Many traveling musicians called Jongleurs would walk around amusing peasants singing, dancing, and using acrobatics.

During the Renaissance period most music that was created was now being written down using the printing press. Secular music was now becoming more popularized than religious music because power moved away from church towards kings and nobility. Instruments had a bigger emphasis as the design of them became important. "Courts began to hire great numbers of singers and instrumentalists. Instruments that became important were shawms (a form of oboe), bagpipes, trumpets, tambourines, flutes, lutes, harps, vielles, viols and recorders" (Digital Daydreams).

The Baroque period started in between the seventeenth century and the eighteenth century. "Harmonic complexity grew alongside emphasis on contrast in music composition. Examples were fast and slow, loud and soft, high and low, etc" (Digital Daydreams). During the Baroque period a great deal of opera was being composed. Much more styles of music began to surface such as ceremonial music, sonatas, and dance suites. "The focus of musical life spread from court to the theatre, concert-rooms, private houses and pleasure gardens" (Digital Daydreams).

A more controlled version of opera began to show up after the death of Beethoven. This new music was the start of the classical period.

Instrumental music became disciplined and excessive ornamentation was abandoned for the symphony or sonata. The sonata was written for a number of different instruments and could be called a trio, quartet, quintet, symphony or concerto depending on the number of instruments involved. (Digital Daydreams)

Mozart, a very popular composer, was one of the major people to establish the classical style of music. By this time people were publishing music and ordinary people could even go out and buy music. The middle class population was also able to purchase a variety instruments. Composers were now able to show off their work in masses by performing in a concert.

Music had reached a peak during the Romantic period. Music during this time contained feeling and expressed emotion. The unusual combination of instruments gave off those feelings. The idea that music had to always sound happy and gay was abandoned. The Romantic period zipped by until the twentieth century, when America and the rest of the world would take the music scene farther than it has ever been. Almost all of the music we listen to in the present was created from the 1900's and up. During the mid 1900's there was a period called the "Golden Decade". During the "Golden Decade" a new music called rock Ð''n' roll became much popularized and exists to this day. Many of the twentieth century music artists used innovation to create their own type of music from some other type of music. Putting feeling into songs was a common thing to do, but emotions and feelings is not all a song could change in a person.

Music has been studied to have psychological effects on humans. Throughout history there are references to the use of music as therapy for a variety of illnesses. There have been many studies of the relationship between music and the mind. Researchers also examined the effects on the physiological process of relaxation. A large number of studies reported significant decrease in heart rate, skin temperature and muscle activity when music was used in the relaxation process. "Likewise, it is well recognized that mental and emotional states can alter autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and balance. The ANS, in turn, can