Re: Definition of Music


"Ertugrul iNANÇ" <void@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1127346079.b5b068752dece5fa7ee0f360e179d567@xxxxxxxxxxx

> Dave, I'm not here to teach you your own language but to my
> knowledge when you say "Melody *and* Harmony" you make *both*
> elements principal.

I have said that melody, harmony, and rhythm are the principal
attributes of music.

In my language/logic this does not mean that every single piece of
music must contain all three.

[Just as every dish need not contain all the principal ingredients
stored in the kitchen.]

And in fact I explicitly made that very clear in the post in which,
way back, I introduced the whole idea: I was describing rap as
music which is "amelodic" (and which it made no sense, therefore, to
describe in terms of tonality or lack of it).

> If you're saying that music should include *one or more* of those
> three elements, then OK. (Not that I agree in whole.)

I didn't put it that way. I identified melody, harmony, and rhythm
to be the principal attributes in terms of which one defines
something to be music. So far the only piece which some people
identify as music, which arguably has none of the three, is Cage's
infamous silent piece - and I don't personally regard that as music,
but rather as a space where music isn't.

Now I have never denied that music has other attributes which may be
of greater or lesser prominence in individual pieces, but those
three still strike me as the three most fundamental for music as a
whole. The more so since arguments to dislodge that view have been
entirely unconvincing (and have mostly relied on countering complete
redefinitions of what I said). I suspect that in focusing on
other attributes of certain pieces, it is relatively easy to ignore
the importance of melody, harmony, and rhythm, to music in general,
just because they are the common factors (NB as a set of three
rather than individually). To appreciate any given piece one often
focuses on what is uncommon about it, and takes the basics for
granted.

Dave
--
David Webber
Author MOZART the music processor for Windows -
http://www.mozart.co.uk
For discussion/support see
http://www.mozart.co.uk/mzusers/mailinglist.htm


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Death of tonality?
    ... > OTOH melody (pitch changing in time), ... you have harmony (typically about 20 voices playing ... and you have rhythm in your sense. ...
    (rec.music.compose)
  • Re: Melody (a second class citizen?)
    ... I suppose for others it can be harmony or rhythm or lyrics, ... So what makes great melody? ... makes that one of the greatest melodies of all time? ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)
  • Re: Melody (a second class citizen?)
    ... I suppose for others it can be harmony or rhythm or lyrics, ... So what makes great melody? ... makes that one of the greatest melodies of all time? ...
    (rec.music.makers.guitar.jazz)
  • Re: Definition of Music
    ... >>not have melody, harmony, or rhythm? ... > There are lots of other features that are more important to it. ...
    (rec.music.compose)
  • Re: Serial = Random ?
    ... to define the harmony used by the CPP ... since rhythm was not really notated that much or used that much ... Modal rhythm was not used in Greek music, ... 4th so the 4th was always considered a consonant interval. ...
    (rec.music.theory)