Music, what is the world without music. What would be the point of iPods, mp3s, Discmans, without the glorious music? Music fills up life, adds mood to even the most boring dinners, in fact without music there would not be such a thing as dance. When people here music, their natural instinct is to sing along, dance to it, or do all of the above.
Before anything else, what is music? It is a bunch of sounds being put together to make tunes. Music does not have to have lyrics, quite the contraire (though people do prefer it with lyrics). A lot of people say music is life, and in a way it is true, because without music, life would be dull, and boring. Anything can make music, for example police sirens. Police sirens, or the sound of a warning sirens can create music, maybe not by themselves, but add them into music et voila, music! Music can also set moods, picture a boring dinner, and then somebody gets sick of it and turns on the music, and then everybody gets happier and when they are finished dinner they get up to dance (okay not that happy, do not picture the Brady Bunch).
So most people (teachers usually) say that the first ever instrument was a recorder, but no, it was the flute. The oldest instrument is a 35 000 year old flute made from the backbone of a vulture.It is a surprise it has not crumbled to dust. After that came percussion, because all it takes is a couple of rocks and there is a percussion instrument. Percussion is one of the most important parts because the percussion instruments are one of the most important. Percussion instruments keep the beat in the music so that nobody goes off beat (get it? Off-beat?!). From there instruments kept evolving getting more complicated, but after a while, came the recorder.
The recorder used to be one of the most important instruments. The recorder was invented in the late middle ages, but it is not known exactly who invented it. The recorder was chiseled out of wood. The most similar instrument to the recorder is a clarinet. The clarinet is more of an elaborated recorder. It is slightly more complicated to play because there are around three octaves on it (octaves are more like pitches, every 8 notes the player goes up one octave). Although it is more complicated to play than the recorder, the clarinet is an extremely easy instrument to play (talking from experience). The next most similar instrument is the bass clarinet which is an octave lower that the regular clarinets. In fact the 35 000 year old flute was more like a recorder. Music has come a long way from what it used to be.
In the Medieval ages was where many instruments were made. The most popular was a strings instrument called: the violin. Yes the violin was extremely popular, in fact it has been extremely popular to this very day. The violin was played in places like balls (hardy har har very funny to those of you with dirty minds), at banquets, or simply when just sitting in throne. Why? Music adds flavour into life, it is not fun just sitting in a throne doing nothing, listening to peacekeepers and all them. Just sitting and listening to music can be extremely entertaining, people of today have stereos or iPods and do it all the time.
The most important time for music was the Classical Era, when there was Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and all those famous people. Sure it wasn’t famous for its advancements, but many great pieces were written. Examples are Ode to Joy (Beethoven), Air on the G String (Bach), or Das Veilchen (The Violet by Mozart). The Classical is where the piano music was mainly written, and where it became popular. The Classical Era actually had an impact on music because that is when most songs were written. It must be when music spread its fastest as well.
One of the most important times for art and culture, was the Renaissance Era, but it was not just important for art and culture, it was also important for music. 200 hundred years, 2 centuries of advancements from 1400-1600. Music had its biggest advancement in the Renaissance Era; it evolved most, and turned into something even bigger after the Renaissance Era. The Renaissance is also when a lot of instruments were, from brass, percussion, woodwinds, and strings. Examples are the viola, the popular bagpipes, the basic tambourines, and the famous trumpet, one instrument from each class. The Renaissance was possibly the peak of the advancement of music.
Now that a couple of Musical Eras have been covered, it is time to talk about what different countries had to do with music (please note it is one example from each major group for the examples). The Egyptians really got involved with Music at around 3100 BC. They believed in Musical gods and played different instruments from all the major categories like the lyre (rather plucked than bowed), flutes (single or double reeds), or rattles. The Greek used the piano, guitar (plucked), and the Pan pipes (also known as the syrinx). It is believed that they got involved with music from the start, in fact it has to do a bit with religion. It is believed that the gods Pan, Hermes, Apollo, and Orpheus all created music first, and taught their own students how to play like Daphnis, and Amphion how to play. Muslims actually had no effect on Music, they just hated it. Allah (god) would not prohibit anything that would not hurt the human race, and it is proven that music can. Music can effect one’s bodily movement, and emotions, so if there is an angry song, someone may get up and hurt someone else. As well it may affect someone’s future (especially with the usual topic of drugs, girls, and freedom). For that they declared music haraam. Italy had a great impact on music because they created operas. Operas are where the singers sing with powerful voices while acting, almost like a musical. Instruments are the guitar and the Ocarina (yes like the Ocarina of Time from Legend of Zelda).
Here are two example genres: Rock and Rap. But hey, what are they? That will be explained (well duh!). Rock is a more explosive type of music, loud, but not EXTREMELY loud like metal. Rock has good music and solos. Led Zeppelin for example, the singer was Robert Plant, the guitarist was Jimmy Page, the bassist/keyboardist is John Paul Jones, and the drummer John Bonham. Rap is less tune and more beat, their voices usually stay monotone (one pitch only), with the occasional raising it from one beat. Rap can be considered gangster music as gangs prefer to listen to it, but many of the teenagers of today listen to it (believe it, talking from experience). Rap usually adds techno into it, but it is mainly someone just twisting up the sound of the words, sometimes people when they want to try to rap they just go “yo yo yo!” kind of like Sylvester Stallone.
Music really became popular though when electricity was put into control. People starting making recordings instead of playing live, though they did that as well. That was when bands were made by themselves. Music started to split into different genres, and radios were made. This led to Discmans, and iPods. From iPods came the iPads, which is the most recent invention of apple today. Music has also had a huge impact on technology as well. But back to bands and radios. Back then the only way to listen to music electronically was through the radio, but more importantly amps. Other than that people held concerts and people went to listen to them, but that was only possible because the amps amplified the music so more people could here it. Kiss, Rolling Stones, Metallica, all of those bands started to come in and play great music.
Music has really changed greatly, it all started with a flute from the backbone of a vulture, and has come to techno sound, DJs, like Skrillex, or many others making remixes. Music really has come far, and Music should not be taken for granted (although the music of today is getting really crappy due to the fact that all the singers sing about boyfriends and girlfriends. Examples are Boyfriend by Justin Bieber, or Call Me Maybe by Carly Rae Jepson.) Music should go backwards a bit back into the old days because of the crappy music, music was real back in the 1900s, like Ray Charles, or Led Zeppelin. This is true rock, and should be appreciated more because the children of toady have been poisoned by this boyfriend girlfriend garbage.
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