|
An accurate and concise definition of music is fundamental to being able to discuss, categorize, and otherwise consider the phenomenon of what we understand as being music, and it is a key question in the philosophy of music. "Explications of the concept of music usually begin with the idea that music is organized sound. They go on to note that this characterization is too broad, since there are many examples of organized sound that are not music, such as human speech, and the sounds non-human animals and machines make" . Many scholars have suggested definitions, but defining music turns out to be more difficult than might first be imagined. As this article will demonstrate, there is ongoing controversy about how to define music. The ''Oxford Universal Dictionary'' defines music as, "That one of the fine arts which is concerned with the combination of sounds with a view to beauty of form and the expression of thought or feeling" . However, the music genre known as noise music, for instance, challenges these ideas about what constitutes music's essential attributes by using non-traditional elements of music . (See also musique concrète.) A famous example of the dilemma in defining music is modern composer John Cage’s composition titled ''4'33''''. The written score has three movements and directs the performer(s) to appear on stage, indicate by gesture or other means when the piece begins, then make no sound and only mark sections and the end by gesture. This has form and other important attributes of music, but no sound other than whatever ambient sounds may be heard in the room. Some argue this is not music because, for example, it contains no sounds that are conventionally considered "musical" and the composer and performer(s) exert no control over the organization of the sounds heard . Others argue it is music because the conventional definitions of musical sounds are unnecessarily and arbitrarily limited, and control over the organization of the sounds is achieved by the composer and performer(s) through their division of what is heard into specific sections . Problems of defining music also arise from differences in the differing conceptions of music in different cultures. ==Concepts of music== Because of differing fundamental concepts of music, the languages of many cultures do not contain a word that can be accurately translated as "music," as that word is generally understood by Western cultures . Inuit and most North American Indian languages do not have a general term for music. Among the Aztecs, the ancient Mexican theory of rhetorics, poetry, dance, and instrumental music used the Nahuatl term ''In xochitl-in kwikatl'' to refer to a complex mix of music and other poetic verbal and non-verbal elements, and reserve the word ''Kwikakayotl'' (or cuicacayotl) only for the sung expressions . In Africa there is no term for music in Tiv, Yoruba, Igbo, Efik, Birom, Hausa, Idoma, Eggon or Jarawa. Many other languages have terms which only partly cover what Western culture typically means by the term ''music'' (, ). The Mapuche of Argentina do not have a word for ''music'', but they do have words for instrumental versus improvised forms (''kantun''), European and non-Mapuche music (''kantun winka''), ceremonial songs (''öl''), and ''tayil'' . Some languages in West Africa have no term for music but the speakers do have the concept (,). ''Musiqi'' is the Persian word for the science and art of music, ''muzik'' being the sound and performance of music (, ), though some things European-influenced listeners would include, such as Quran chanting, are excluded. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「definition of music」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|