Learning Styles of Music

Ragtime ... Ragtime fell out of favor as jazz claimed the public's imagination after 1917, but there have been numerous revivals since the music has been re-discovered... The album won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance of the year and was named Billboard's Top Classical Album of 1974... Historical context Ragtime originated in African American music in the late 19th century, descending from the jigs and march music played by black bands...

Music Of Egypt ... In general, modern Egyptian music blends these indigenous traditions with Turkish, Arabic, and Western elements... Early Arabic music was influenced by Byzantine, Indian and Persian forms, which were themselves heavily influenced by earlier Greek, Semitic, and ancient Egyptian music... The tonal structure of Arabic music is defined by the maqamat, loosely similar to Western modes, while the rhythm of Arabic music is governed by the awzan (wazn, sing.), formed by combinations of accented and unaccented beats and rests...

Prehistoric Music ... Prehistoric music thus technically includes all of the world's music that has existed before the advent of any currently-extant historical sources concerning that music, for example, traditional Native American music of preliterate tribes and Australian Aboriginal music... However, it is more common to refer to the "prehistoric" music which still survives as folk, indigenous or traditional music... Origins Research on the evolutionary origins of music mostly started in the second half of the 19th century, and was much discussed within Music Archaeology in the 20th Century...

Piano History And Musical Performance ... The problem is that much of the most widely admired piano repertoire was composed for a type of instrument that is very different from the modern instruments on which this music is normally performed today... The music of the early Romantics, such as Chopin and Schumann--and even of still later composers (see below) --was written for pianos substantially different from ours... However, many aspects of earlier music can be mentioned suggesting that it was composed very much with contemporary instruments in mind...

Music Education ... At the university level, students in most arts and humanities programs may receive academic credit for taking music courses, which typically take the form of an overview course on the history of music, or a music appreciation course that focuses on listening to music and learning about different musical styles... In addition, most North American and European universities have some type of music ensemble in which students from various fields of study may participate such as a choir, concert band, marching band, or orchestra... Many universities also offer degree programs in the field of music education, allowing their students to become certified educators of primary and secondary school ensembles as well as beginner music classes...

Medieval Music ... Genres Further information: Gregorian chant, Ars nova, Organum, Motet, Madrigal, Canon (music) and Ballata Medieval music was both sacred and secular...

Music ... The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to culture and social context... Music ranges from strictly organized compositions (and their recreation in performance), through improvisational music to aleatoric forms... Music can be divided into genres and subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are often subtle, sometimes open to individual interpretation, and occasionally controversial...

Performing Arts ... Artists who participate in performing arts in front of an audience are called performers, including actors, comedians, dancers, magicians, musicians, and singers. Performing arts are also supported by workers in related fields, such as songwriting and stagecraft...

Renaissance Music ... Demand for music as entertainment and as an activity for educated amateurs increased with the emergence of a bourgeois class... Relative political stability and prosperity in the Low Countries, along with a flourishing system of music education in the area's many churches and cathedrals, allowed the training of hundreds of singers and composers... Opera arose at this time in Florence as a deliberate attempt to resurrect the music of ancient Greece...

Music Theory ... At and below about 1,000 Hz, the perceived loudness of a tone gets lower as sound frequency decreases, but above approximately 2,000 Hz, the perceived loudness increases as the sound's frequency gets higher. This is due to the ear's natural sensitivity to higher pitched sound, as well as the ear's particular sensitivity to sound around the 2000-4000Hz area, the frequency range most of the human voice occupies...

Musician ... It's also a person who makes music a profession, anyone (professional or not) who's skilled in making music or performing music creatively, or one who composes, conducts, or performs music (especially instrumental music)...

Prehistoric Art ... The very earliest human artifacts showing evidence of workmanship with an artistic purpose are a subject of some debate; it is clear that such workmanship existed by 40,000 years ago in the Upper Paleolithic era. From the Upper Palaeolithic through the Mesolithic, cave paintings and portable art such as figurines and beads predominated, with decorative figured workings also seen on some utilitarian objects...

Music Industry ... In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the music industry was dominated by the publishers of sheet music... By the middle of the century records had supplanted sheet music as the largest player in the music business: in the commercial world people began speaking of "the recording industry" as a loose synonym of "the music industry"... Since 2000, sales of recorded music have dropped off substantially, while live music has increased in importance...

Record Producer ... Today, the recording industry has two kinds of producers: executive producer and music producer; they have different roles... While an executive producer oversees a project's finances, a music producer oversees the creation of the music... A music producer can, in some cases, be compared to a film director, with noted practitioner Phil Ek himself describing his role as "the person who creatively guides or directs the process of making a record, like a director would a movie...

Music Therapy ... Music therapy is also used in some medical hospitals, cancer centers, schools, alcohol and drug recovery programs, psychiatric hospitals, and correctional facilities... The Turco-Persian psychologist and music theorist al-Farabi (872–950), known as "Alpharabius" in Europe, dealt with music therapy in his treatise Meanings of the Intellect, where he discussed the therapeutic effects of music on the soul... Robert Burton wrote in the 17th century in his classic work, The Anatomy of Melancholy, that music and dance were critical in treating mental illness, especially melancholia...

Musical Instrument ... The date and origin of the first device considered to be a musical instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some scholars refer to as a musical instrument, a simple flute, dates back as far as 67,000 years...

The Arts ... Art is a global activity which encompasses a host of disciplines, as evidenced by the range of words and phrases which have been invented to describe its various forms. Examples of such phraseology include: Fine Arts, Liberal Arts, Visual Arts, Decorative Arts, Applied Arts, Design, Crafts, Performing Arts, and so on...

Wedding Music ... Some couples may consider the traditional wedding marches clichéd and choose a more modern piece of music or an alternate such as Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel...

Bebop ... In the 1940s, the younger generation of jazz musicians created a new style that came out of the 1930s' swing music... They partially strived to counter the popularization of swing with non-danceable music that demanded listening... These forerunners of the new music (which would later be termed "bebop," or "bop"-- although Parker himself never used that term, feeling it demeaned the music) began exploring advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords and chord substitutions...

Musical Composition ... Similarly, music of the Middle East employs compositions that are rigidly based on a specific mode (maqam) often within improvisational contexts, as does Indian classical music in both the Hindustani and the Carnatic systems, gamelans of Java and Bali, and much music in Africa... Useful skills in composition include writing musical notation, music theory, instrumentation, and handling musical ensembles (orchestration)...