Music | Art Form, Styles, Rhythm, & History

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class="article-content container-lg qa-content px-0 pt-0 pb-40 py-lg-20 content md-expanded" data-topic-id="398918"> <div class="grid gx-0"> <div class="col-auto"> <div class="topic-left-rail md-article-drawer position-relative d-flex border-right-sm border-left-sm open"> <div class="drawer d-flex flex-column open"> <div class="left-rail-section-content"> <div class="topic-left-rail-header text-truncate bg-gray-50 position-relative text-right d-flex align-items-center"> <div class="tlr-title px-20 py-15 text-left"> <em class="material-icons text-gray-400 d-lg-none" data-icon="toc"></em> <a class="font-serif font-weight-bold text-black link-blue" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/music" > music</a> </div> <button aria-label="Close" class="js-sections-close-button btn-link btn-sm btn d-lg-none position-absolute top-0 p-10 right-0" > <em class="material-icons font-26" data-icon="close"></em> </button> </div> <div class="section-content pl-10 pr-20 pl-sm-50 pr-sm-60 pl-lg-5 pr-lg-10 pt-10 pt-lg-0 bg-gray-50 clear-catfish-ad"> <div class="toc mb-20"> <div class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <ul class="list-unstyled my-0" data-level="h1"><li data-target="#ref1"><div class="pl-25"><a class="link-gray-900 w-100" href="/art/music">Introduction</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"></div></li><li data-target="#ref64609"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music#ref64609">Historical conceptions</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64610"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music#ref64610">Early Indian and Chinese conceptions</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64611"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music#ref64611">Ancient Greek ideas</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64612"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music#ref64612">Music in Christianity</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64613"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music#ref64613">17th- and 18th-century Western conceptions</a></li></ul></div></li><li data-target="#ref64614"><div class="d-flex align-items-center"><button class="h1-link-drawer-button btn btn-xs btn-circle d-flex rounded" type="button" aria-label="Toggle Heading"><em class="material-icons font-18" data-icon="keyboard_arrow_right"></em></button><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century">Theories of musical meaning since the 19th century</a></div><div class="ml-40 toc-drawer sub-toc-drawer"><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64615"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64615">The concept of dynamism</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64616"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64616">Referentialists and nonreferentialists</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64617"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64617">Intuition and intellect</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64618"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64618">Symbolist contributions</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64619"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64619">Contextualist theories</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64620"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64620">Information theory</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64621"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64621">Considerations related to performance practice</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64622"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64622">Music and worldview</a></li></ul><ul class="list-unstyled" data-level="h2"><li data-target="#ref64623"><a class="w-100 link-gray-900" href="/art/music/Theories-of-musical-meaning-since-the-19th-century#ref64623">Tonality and meaning</a></li></ul></div></li></ul> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/music/additional-info" > References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/music" > Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="tlr-media-slider pb-10 mb-30"> <a class="section-header link-gray-900 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mb-10 mx-10" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/music/images-videos" > Images & Videos</a> <div class="slider js-slider position-relative d-inline-flex align-items-center mw-100 "> <div class="slider-container js-slider-container overflow-hidden d-flex overflow-hidden text-nowrap ml-15"> <div class="rw-track rw-track-placeholder"> <a href="/video/Bobby-McFerrin-Demonstrates-the-Power-of-the-Pentatonic-Scale/278082" data-href="/media/1/398918/278082" class="media-overlay-link d-inline-block mr-5"> <div class="position-relative --aspect-ratio: 16/9"> <img loading="lazy" 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Author of <i>The Musical Symbol: A Study of the Philosophic Theory of Music.</i></div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> Gordon Epperson</span></div> <div class="font-serif font-12 text-gray-700"> <span class="qa-fact-checked-by">Fact-checked by</span> <div class="editor-popover popover p-0"> <a class="d-block p-20 qa-editor-popup font-12" href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419" > <div class="editor-title font-16 font-weight-bold">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</div> <div class="editor-description font-12 font-serif mt-5 text-black">Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link font-12 "> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <span class="text-gray-700"> Last Updated: <time datetime="2025-04-10T00:00:00CDT" >Apr 10, 2025</time> •</span> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/art/music/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn btn-sm border-2 btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 module-spacing js-inline-ai-ask-button p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Ludwig-van-Beethoven" topicid="58473">Ludwig van Beethoven</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Wolfgang-Amadeus-Mozart" topicid="395455">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach" topicid="47843">Johann Sebastian Bach</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Common-American-rapper" topicid="2058721">Common</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Olivia-Rodrigo" topicid="2207354">Olivia Rodrigo</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/art/opera-music" topicid="429776">opera</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Western-music" topicid="398976">Western music</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/Native-American-music" topicid="1350772">Native American music</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/harmony-music" topicid="255575">harmony</a></dd> <dd><a href="/art/choral-music" topicid="114405">choral music</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/music"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><div class="bg-gray-50 p-15 rounded module-spacing recent-news d-flex flex-column float-false"> <div> <h2 class="font-weight-bold font-14 m-0 d-inline"> News <span class="text-gray-600">•</span> </h2> <div class="recent-news-item first-recent-news-item d-inline"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/apr/06/i-thought-this-is-it-im-going-to-die-music-producer-itay-kashti-on-his-kidnapping-ordeal" rel="nofollow">‘I thought: this is it. I’m going to die’: Music producer Itay Kashti on his kidnapping ordeal</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Apr. 7, 2025, 11:33 PM ET (The Guardian) <button class="btn btn-link d-inline p-0 font-12 js-toggle-recent-news"> <span class="text-gray-500">...</span><span>(Show more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </div> <div class="rest-of-recent-news-items"> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.npr.org/2025/03/21/1239865426/new-music-friday-march-21-2025" rel="nofollow">New Music Friday: The best albums out March 21 : All Songs Considered</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Mar. 21, 2025, 2:58 AM ET (NPR) </span> </div> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2d420z46yeo" rel="nofollow">Accrington Stanley: Music ban football club's owner criticises council</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Mar. 18, 2025, 5:14 AM ET (BBC) </span> </div> <button class="js-toggle-recent-news d-flex btn btn-unstyled font-14 pr-10 rounded-sm mt-10" aria-label="Toggle additional news items"> Show less <em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_less"></em> </button> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="278082" data-asm-type="video"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="video" video-id="240872"><a data-id="240872" class="gtm-assembly-link d-flex justify-content-center" style="--aspect-ratio: 16/9" href="/video/Bobby-McFerrin-Demonstrates-the-Power-of-the-Pentatonic-Scale/-278082"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/72/240872-138-3D434C6C/Bobby-McFerrin-Demonstrates-the-Power-of-the-Pentatonic-Scale.jpg?w=800&h=450&c=crop" alt="Bobby McFerrin" loading="lazy"><script type="application/json"> { "sources": [ { "file" : "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/ioQ73bRf.m3u8" } ], "image": "https://cdn.britannica.com/72/240872-138-3D434C6C/Bobby-McFerrin-Demonstrates-the-Power-of-the-Pentatonic-Scale.jpg" ,"tracks": [ { "file" : "//assets-jpcust.jwpsrv.com/tracks/8fGO4I3w", "label": "English" } ] ,"adfile": "//content.jwplatform.com/manifests/7CpdCkUx.m3u8" } </script><div class="btn btn-xl btn-white btn-circle position-absolute shadow" style="top: 50%; transform: translateY(-50%)"><em class="material-icons" data-icon="play_arrow"></em></div></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><span class="md-assembly-title font-weight-bold mr-5 d-inline font-sans-serif md-video-caption" video-control="240872">Bobby McFerrin</span><span>The universality and innate nature of music, and the pentatonic scale, as demonstrated by singer Bobby McFerrin. </span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div><a class="font-14 mt-10 d-inline-block" href="/art/music/images-videos">See all videos for this article</a></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref530283"></span>music</strong>, art concerned with combining vocal or instrumental <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sound-physics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sounds</a> for beauty of form or emotional expression, usually according to cultural standards of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/rhythm-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rhythm</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/melody" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">melody</a>, and, in most Western music, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">harmony</a>. Both the simple <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/folk-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">folk song</a> and the complex <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/electronic-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">electronic composition</a> belong to the same activity, music. Both are humanly engineered; both are <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conceptual" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conceptual" data-type="MW">conceptual</a> and auditory, and these factors have been present in music of all styles and in all periods of history, throughout the world.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Music is an art that, in one guise or another, permeates every human society. Modern music is heard in a bewildering profusion of styles, many of them contemporary, others engendered in past eras. Music is a protean art; it lends itself easily to alliances with words, as in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/song" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">song</a>, and with physical movement, as in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/dance" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">dance</a>. Throughout history, music has been an important adjunct to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ritual" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ritual</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Drama-Greece" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">drama</a> and has been credited with the capacity to reflect and influence human <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/emotion" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">emotion</a>. Popular <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="culture" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/culture" data-type="MW">culture</a> has consistently exploited these possibilities, most conspicuously today by means of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/radio-technology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">radio</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/film" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">film</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/television-technology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">television</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">musical theatre</a>, and the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/technology/Internet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Internet</a>. The <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implications" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implications" data-type="MW">implications</a> of the uses of music in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/psychotherapy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">psychotherapy</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/gerontology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">geriatrics</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/advertising" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">advertising</a> testify to a faith in its power to affect <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/human-behavior" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">human behaviour</a>. Publications and recordings have effectively internationalized music in its most significant, as well as its most trivial, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="manifestations" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/manifestations" data-type="MW">manifestations</a>. Beyond all this, the teaching of music in primary and secondary schools has now attained virtually worldwide acceptance.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="235854" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/57/199157-050-1AB128C3/street-musicians-Cuban-music.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/235854"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/57/199157-050-1AB128C3/street-musicians-Cuban-music.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/57/199157-050-1AB128C3/street-musicians-Cuban-music.jpg?w=300" alt="traditional music" data-width="1600" data-height="1169" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/57/199157-050-1AB128C3/street-musicians-Cuban-music.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/235854">traditional music</a><span>Afro-Cuban street musicians playing traditional music.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">But the prevalence of music is nothing new, and its human importance has often been acknowledged. What seems curious is that, despite the universality of the art, no one until recent times has argued for its necessity. The ancient Greek philosopher <span id="ref561440"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Democritus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Democritus</a> explicitly denied any fundamental need for music: “For it was not necessity that separated it off, but it arose from the existing superfluity.” The view that music and the other arts are mere graces is still widespread, although the growth of psychological understanding of play and other symbolic activities has begun to weaken this <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="tenacious" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenacious" data-type="MW">tenacious</a> belief.</p><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Music is treated in a number of articles. For the history of music in different regions, <em>see</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/African-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">African music</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Oceanic-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Oceanic music and dance</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Western music</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Central-Asian-arts/Music#ref13924" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Central Asian arts: Music</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Chinese music</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Japanese-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Japanese music</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Korean-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Korean music</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Islamic-arts/Music#ref13798" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Islamic arts</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Native-American-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Native American music</a>; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/South-Asian-arts/Music#ref65218" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">South Asian arts: Music</a>; and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Southeast-Asian-arts/Music#ref29482" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Southeast Asian arts: Music</a>. <em>See also</em> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/folk-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">folk music</a>. Aspects of music are treated in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/counterpoint-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">counterpoint</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/harmony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">harmony</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/instrumentation-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">instrumentation</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/mode-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">mode</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/musical-criticism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">music criticism</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-composition" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">music composition</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-performance" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">music performance</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/music-recording" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">music recording</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/musical-sound" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">musical sound</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/musical-notation" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">music notation</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/rhythm-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rhythm</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/scale-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">scale</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tuning-and-temperament" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tuning and temperament</a>. <em>See also</em> such articles as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/blues-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">blues</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chamber-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">chamber music</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/choral-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">choral music</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/concerto-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">concerto</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/electronic-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">electronic music</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/fugue" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">fugue</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/jazz" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">jazz</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">opera</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/rhythm-and-blues" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rhythm and blues</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/rock-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rock</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/symphony-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">symphony</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/sonata" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">sonata</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/theatre-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">theatre music</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/vocal-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">vocal music</a>. Musical instruments are treated in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/electronic-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">electronic instrument</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/keyboard-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">keyboard instrument</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/percussion-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">percussion instrument</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/stringed-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">stringed instrument</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/wind-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">wind instrument</a>, as well as in separate articles on individual instruments, such as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/clarinet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">clarinet</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/drum-musical-instrument" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">drum</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/guitar" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">guitar</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/kayagum" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">kayagŭm</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/piano" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">piano</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/tabla" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">tabla</a>, and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/theremin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">theremin</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker h2"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref64609"> <h2 class="h1">Historical conceptions</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Music is everywhere to be heard. But what is music? Commentators have spoken of “the relationship of music to the human senses and intellect,” thus affirming a world of human discourse as the necessary setting for the art. A definition of music itself will take longer. As <span id="ref530284"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Aristotle</a> said, “It is not easy to determine the nature of music or why anyone should have a knowledge of it.”</p><a class="link-module shadow-sm d-block qa-quiz-module" href="/quiz/sound-check-musical-vocabulary-quiz" data-link-module-iframe-link=""> <img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/30/254330-131-1B200240/young-girl-playing-trumpet.jpg" alt="Young girl wearing a demin jacket playing the trumpet (child, musical instruments, Asian ethnicity)" class="rounded-sm mr-15" width="70" /> <div class="line-clamp clamp-5"> <div class="module-title bg-green">Britannica Quiz</div> <div class="font-weight-semi-bold mt-5">Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz</div> </div> </a><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="235855" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/67/196867-050-CC934CD8/Man-Indian-instrument.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/235855"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/67/196867-050-CC934CD8/Man-Indian-instrument.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/67/196867-050-CC934CD8/Man-Indian-instrument.jpg?w=300" alt="traditional music" data-width="1000" data-height="667" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/67/196867-050-CC934CD8/Man-Indian-instrument.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/235855">traditional music</a><span>Man playing a traditional Indian musical instrument.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Early in the 20th century, it was regarded as a commonplace that a musical tone was characterized by the regularity of its vibrations; this uniformity gave it a fixed pitch and distinguished its sounds from “noise.” Although that view may have been supported by traditional music, by the latter half of the 20th century it was recognized as an unacceptable yardstick. Indeed, “noise” itself and silence became elements in <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="composition" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/composition" data-type="MW">composition</a>, and random sounds were used (without prior knowledge of what they would be) by composers, such as the American <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Cage" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Cage</a>, and others in works having <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/aleatory-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">aleatory</a> (chance) or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/impromptu" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">impromptu</a> features. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/tone-sound" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tone</a>, moreover, is only one component in music, others being <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/rhythm-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">rhythm</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/timbre" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">timbre</a> (tone colour), and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/texture-literature" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">texture</a>. Electronic machinery enabled some composers to create works in which the traditional role of the interpreter is abolished and to record, directly on tape or into a digital file, sounds that were formerly beyond human ability to produce, if not to imagine.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span> <section data-level="2" id="ref64610"><h2 class="h2">Early <span id="ref530285"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Indian-music" class="md-crosslink ">Indian</a> and Chinese conceptions</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">From historical accounts it is clear that the power to move people has always been attributed to music; its ecstatic possibilities have been recognized in all <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="cultures" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cultures" data-type="MW">cultures</a> and have usually been admitted in practice under particular conditions, sometimes stringent ones. In India, music has been put into the service of religion from earliest times; <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Vedic-chant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Vedic hymns</a> stand at the beginning of the record. As the art developed over many centuries into a music of profound melodic and rhythmic intricacy, the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="discipline" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discipline" data-type="MW">discipline</a> of a religious text or the guideline of a story determined the structure. In the 21st century the narrator remains central to the performance of much Indian traditional music, and the virtuosity of a skillful singer rivals that of the instrumentalists. There is very little concept of vocal or instrumental <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="idiom" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiom" data-type="MW">idiom</a> in the Western sense. The vertical dimension of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/chord-music" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">chord</a> structure—that is, the effects created by sounding tones simultaneously—is not a part of South Asian classical music; the divisions of an <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/octave-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">octave</a> (intervals) are more numerous than in Western music, and the melodic complexity of the music goes far beyond that of its Western counterpart. Moreover, an element of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/improvisation-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">improvisation</a> is retained that is vital to the success of a performance. The spontaneous imitation carried on between an instrumentalist and narrator, against the insistent rhythmic subtleties of the drums, can be a source of the greatest excitement, which in large measure is because of the faithful <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="adherence" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adherence" data-type="MW">adherence</a> to the rigid rules that govern the rendition of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/raga" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ragas</a>—the ancient melodic patterns of Indian music.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=august-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="235866" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/90/160390-050-14CBA54B/Musician-erhu-Chinese-fiddle-2008-Moon-Festival-2008.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/235866"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/90/160390-050-14CBA54B/Musician-erhu-Chinese-fiddle-2008-Moon-Festival-2008.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/90/160390-050-14CBA54B/Musician-erhu-Chinese-fiddle-2008-Moon-Festival-2008.jpg?w=300" alt="traditional Chinese music" data-width="533" data-height="800" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/90/160390-050-14CBA54B/Musician-erhu-Chinese-fiddle-2008-Moon-Festival-2008.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/235866">traditional Chinese music</a><span>Musician playing a traditional Chinese fiddle, the erhu, at the 2008 Moon Festival.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph"><span id="ref530286"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Chinese music</a>, like the music of India, has traditionally been an adjunct to ceremony or narrative. <span id="ref530287"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Confucius" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Confucius</a> (551–479 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>) assigned an important place to music in the service of a well-ordered <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="moral" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moral" data-type="MW">moral</a> universe. He saw music and government as reflecting one another and believed that only the superior man who can understand music is equipped to govern. Music, he thought, reveals character through the six emotions that it can portray: sorrow, satisfaction, joy, anger, piety, love. According to Confucius, great music is in harmony with the universe, restoring order to the physical world through that harmony. Music, as a true mirror of character, makes pretense or deception impossible.</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span></section> <section data-level="2" id="ref64611"><h2 class="h2">Ancient <span id="ref530288"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/Greek-music" class="md-crosslink ">Greek</a> ideas</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD9 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="235867" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/28/197128-050-737DF894/Dancers-clothing-celebration-island-Easter-Crete-Greece.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/235867"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/28/197128-050-737DF894/Dancers-clothing-celebration-island-Easter-Crete-Greece.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/28/197128-050-737DF894/Dancers-clothing-celebration-island-Easter-Crete-Greece.jpg?w=300" alt="traditional Greek music" data-width="1600" data-height="1353" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/28/197128-050-737DF894/Dancers-clothing-celebration-island-Easter-Crete-Greece.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/235867">traditional Greek music</a><span>Dancers in traditional clothing at an Easter celebration in Heraklion on the island of Crete, Greece. Musicians are playing Greek musical instruments, including a Cretan lyra (left) and a bouzouki.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Although music was important in the life of ancient Greece, it is not now known how that music actually sounded. Only a few notated fragments have survived, and no <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/key-music" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">key</a> exists for restoring even these. The Greeks were given to <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="theoretical" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/theoretical" data-type="EB">theoretical</a> speculation about music; they had a system of notation, and they “practiced music,” as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Socrates" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Socrates</a> himself, in a vision, had been enjoined to do. But the Greek term from which the word <em>music</em> is derived was a generic one, referring to any art or <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/science" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">science</a> practiced under the aegis of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Muse-Greek-mythology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Muses</a>. Music, therefore, as distinct from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/sports/gymnastics#ref214700" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">gymnastics</a>, was all-encompassing. (Much speculation, however, was clearly directed toward that more-restricted meaning with which we are familiar.) Music was virtually a department of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/mathematics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">mathematics</a> for the philosopher <span id="ref530289"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pythagoras" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Pythagoras</a> (<em>c.</em> 550 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>), who was the first musical <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/numerology" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">numerologist</a> and who laid the foundations for <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/acoustics" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">acoustics</a>. In acoustics, the Greeks discovered the correspondence between the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/pitch-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">pitch</a> of a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/note-staff-notation" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">note</a> and the length of a string. But they did not progress to a calculation of pitch on the basis of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="vibrations" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/vibrations" data-type="EB">vibrations</a>, though an attempt was made to connect sounds with underlying motions.</p><span class="marker MOD9 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD10 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><span id="ref530290"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plato" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Plato</a> (428–348/347 <span class="text-smallcaps">bce</span>), like Confucius, looked on music as a department of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethics-philosophy" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ethics</a>. And like Confucius he was anxious to regulate the use of particular <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/mode-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">modes</a> (i.e., arrangements of notes, like scales) because of their supposed effects on people. Plato was a stern musical disciplinarian; he saw a correspondence between the character of a person and the music that represented him or her. Straightforward simplicity was best. In the <em><em>Laws</em></em>, Plato declared that rhythmic and melodic complexities were to be avoided because they led to depression and disorder. Music echoes divine harmony; rhythm and melody imitate the movements of heavenly bodies, thus <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="delineating" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/delineating" data-type="MW">delineating</a> the music of the spheres and reflecting the moral order of the universe. Earthly music, however, is suspect; Plato distrusted its emotional power. Music must therefore be of the right sort; the sensuous qualities of certain modes are dangerous, and a strong censorship must be imposed. Music and gymnastics in the correct balance would <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constitute" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constitute" data-type="MW">constitute</a> the desirable curriculum in education. Plato valued music in its ethically approved forms; his concern was primarily with the effects of music, and he therefore regarded it as a psychosociological phenomenon.</p><span class="marker MOD10 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD11 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Yet Plato, in treating earthly music as a shadow of the ideal, saw a symbolic significance in the art. Aristotle carried forward the concept of the art as imitation, but music could express the universal as well. His idea that works of art could contain a measure of truth in themselves—an idea voiced more explicitly by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Plotinus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Plotinus</a> in the 3rd century <span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span>—gave added strength to the symbolic view. Aristotle, following Plato, thought that music has power to mold human character, but he would admit all the modes, recognizing happiness and pleasure as values to both the individual and the state. He advocated a rich musical diet. Aristotle made a distinction between those who have only theoretical knowledge and those who produce music, maintaining that persons who do not perform cannot be good judges of the performances of others.</p><span class="marker MOD11 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD12 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><span id="ref530291"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aristoxenus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Aristoxenus</a>, a pupil of Aristotle, gave considerable credit to human listeners, their importance, and their powers of perception. He <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="denigrated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/denigrated" data-type="MW">denigrated</a> the dominance of mathematical and acoustical considerations. For Aristoxenus, music was emotional and fulfilled a functional role, for which both the hearing and the intellect of the listener were essential. Individual tones were to be understood in their relations to one another and in the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="context" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/context" data-type="MW">context</a> of larger formal units. The <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Epicureanism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Epicureans</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stoicism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Stoics</a> adopted a more naturalistic view of music and its function, which they accepted as an adjunct to the good life. They gave more emphasis to sensation than did Plato, but they nevertheless placed music in the service of moderation and virtue. A dissenting 3rd-century voice was that of <span id="ref530292"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sextus-Empiricus" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Sextus Empiricus</a>, who said that music was an art of tones and rhythms only that meant nothing outside itself.</p><span class="marker MOD12 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD13 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Platonic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Platonic" data-type="MW">Platonic</a> influence in musical thought was to be <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/dominant" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">dominant</a> for at least a millennium. Following that period of unquestioned philosophical <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="allegiance" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/allegiance" data-type="MW">allegiance</a>, there were times of rededication to Greek concepts, accompanied by reverent and insistent homage (e.g., the group of late 16th-century Florentines, known as the <span id="ref530293"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Camerata" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Camerata</a>, who were instrumental in the development of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/opera-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">opera</a>). Such returns to simplicity, directness, and the primacy of the word have been made periodically, out of loyalty to Platonic <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="imperatives" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/imperatives" data-type="MW">imperatives</a>, however much these “neo” practices may have differed from those of the Greeks themselves.</p><span class="marker MOD13 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD14 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In the 21st century the effects of Greek thought are still strongly evident in the belief that music influences the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ethical" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethical" data-type="MW">ethical</a> life; in the idea that music can be explained in terms of some component such as number (that may itself be only a reflection of another, higher source); in the view that music has specific effects and functions that can be appropriately labelled; and in the recurrent observation that music is connected with human emotion. In every historical period there have been defectors from one or more of these views, and there are, of course, differences of emphasis.</p><span class="marker MOD14 mod-inline"></span></section> <section data-level="2" id="ref64612"><h2 class="h2">Music in Christianity</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD15 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="97440" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/98/95798-050-9C2A1186/Philosophy-Boethius-oil-canvas-Mattia-Preti.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/97440"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/98/95798-050-9C2A1186/Philosophy-Boethius-oil-canvas-Mattia-Preti.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/98/95798-050-9C2A1186/Philosophy-Boethius-oil-canvas-Mattia-Preti.jpg?w=300" alt="Mattia Preti: Boethius and Philosophy" data-width="1600" data-height="1170" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/98/95798-050-9C2A1186/Philosophy-Boethius-oil-canvas-Mattia-Preti.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/97440">Mattia Preti: <em>Boethius and Philosophy</em></a><span><em>Boethius and Philosophy</em>, oil on canvas, by Mattia Preti, 17th century.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">Much of the Platonic-Aristotelian teaching, as restated by the Roman philosopher <span id="ref530294"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anicius-Manlius-Severinus-Boethius" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Boethius</a> (<em>c.</em> 480–524), was well suited to the needs of the church; the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conservative" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conservative" data-type="MW">conservative</a> aspects of that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/philosophy" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">philosophy</a>, with its fear of <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="innovation" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovation" data-type="MW">innovation</a>, were <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="conducive" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conducive" data-type="MW">conducive</a> to the maintenance of order. The role of music as accessory to words is nowhere more clearly illustrated than in the history of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Christianity</a>, where the primacy of the text has always been emphasized and sometimes, as in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-Catholicism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Roman Catholic doctrine</a>, made an article of faith. In the varieties of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/plainsong-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">plainchant</a>, melody was used for textual illumination; the configurations of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/sound-physics" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">sound</a> took their cue from the words. <span id="ref530295"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Saint-Augustine-Florida-United-States" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">St. Augustine</a> (354–430 <span class="text-smallcaps">ce</span>), who was attracted by music and valued its utility to religion, was fearful of its sensuous element and anxious that the melody never take <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="precedence" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/precedence" data-type="MW">precedence</a> over the words. These had been Plato’s concerns also. Still echoing the Greeks, Augustine, whose beliefs were <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="reiterated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reiterated" data-type="MW">reiterated</a> by <span id="ref530296"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Thomas-Aquinas" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">St. Thomas Aquinas</a> (<em>c.</em> 1225–74), held the basis of music to be mathematical; music reflects celestial movement and order.</p><span class="marker MOD15 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD16 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="94514" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/97/115497-050-7D8CC20E/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/94514"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/97/115497-050-7D8CC20E/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/97/115497-050-7D8CC20E/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg?w=300" alt="Martin Luther" data-width="998" data-height="1600" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/97/115497-050-7D8CC20E/Portrait-oil-panel-Martin-Luther-Lucas-Cranach.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/94514">Martin Luther</a><span>Portrait of Martin Luther, oil on panel by Lucas Cranach, 1529; in the Uffizi, Florence.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph"><span id="ref530297"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Martin Luther</a> (1483–1546) was a musical liberal and reformer. But the uses he <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="envisioned" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/envisioned" data-type="MW">envisioned</a> for music, despite his <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="innovations" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/innovations" data-type="MW">innovations</a>, were in the mainstream of tradition; Luther insisted that music must be simple, direct, accessible, an aid to piety. His assignment of particular qualities to a given mode is reminiscent of Plato and Confucius. <span id="ref530298"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Calvin" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Calvin</a> (1509–64) took a more cautious and fearful view of music than did Luther, warning against voluptuous, effeminate, or disorderly music and insisting upon the supremacy of the text.</p><span class="marker MOD16 mod-inline"></span></section> <section data-level="2" id="ref64613"><h2 class="h2">17th- and 18th-century Western conceptions</h2> <span class="marker PREMOD17 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="2965" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/04/1904-004-D1A961F7/Johannes-Kepler-oil-painting-artist-Strasbourg-cathedral.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/2965"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/04/1904-004-D1A961F7/Johannes-Kepler-oil-painting-artist-Strasbourg-cathedral.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/04/1904-004-D1A961F7/Johannes-Kepler-oil-painting-artist-Strasbourg-cathedral.jpg?w=300" alt="Johannes Kepler" data-width="201" data-height="250" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/04/1904-004-D1A961F7/Johannes-Kepler-oil-painting-artist-Strasbourg-cathedral.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/2965">Johannes Kepler</a><span>Johannes Kepler, oil painting by an unknown artist, 1627; in the cathedral of Strasbourg, France.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph">In reviewing the accounts of music that have characterized musical and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/intellectual-history" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">intellectual history</a>, it is clear that the Pythagoreans are reborn from age to age. The German astronomer <span id="ref530299"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johannes-Kepler" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Johannes Kepler</a> (1571–1630) perpetuated, in effect, the idea of the harmony of the spheres, attempting to relate music to planetary movement. <span id="ref530300"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rene-Descartes" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">René Descartes</a> (1596–1650), too, saw the basis of music as mathematical. He was a faithful Platonist in his prescription of temperate rhythms and simple melodies so that music would not produce imaginative, exciting, and hence immoral, effects. For another philosopher-mathematician, the German <span id="ref530301"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gottfried-Wilhelm-Leibniz" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Gottfried von Leibniz</a> (1646–1716), music reflected a universal rhythm and mirrored a reality that was fundamentally mathematical, to be experienced in the mind as a subconscious <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="apprehension" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apprehension" data-type="MW">apprehension</a> of numerical relationships.</p><span class="marker MOD17 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD18 mod-inline"></span><div class="assemblies"><div class="w-100 assembly-container"><figure class="md-assembly m-0 mb-md-0 card card-borderless print-false" data-assembly-id="95969" data-asm-type="image"><div class="md-assembly-wrapper card-media" data-type="image"><a href="https://cdn.britannica.com/29/51029-004-21FCAAB9/Immanuel-Kant-pencil-portrait-Hans-Veit-Schnoor.jpg" class="gtm-assembly-link position-relative d-flex align-items-center justify-content-center media-overlay-link card-media" data-href="/media/1/398918/95969"><picture><source media="(min-width: 680px)" srcset="https://cdn.britannica.com/29/51029-004-21FCAAB9/Immanuel-Kant-pencil-portrait-Hans-Veit-Schnoor.jpg?w=300"><img src="https://cdn.britannica.com/29/51029-004-21FCAAB9/Immanuel-Kant-pencil-portrait-Hans-Veit-Schnoor.jpg?w=300" alt="Immanuel Kant" data-width="229" data-height="300" loading="eager"></picture><button class="magnifying-glass btn btn-circle position-absolute shadow btn-white top-10 right-10" aria-label="Zoom in"><em class="material-icons link-blue" data-icon="zoom_in"></em></button></a></div><figcaption class="card-body"><div class="md-assembly-caption text-muted font-14 font-serif line-clamp"><span><a class="gtm-assembly-link md-assembly-title font-weight-bold d-inline font-sans-serif mr-5 media-overlay-link" href="https://cdn.britannica.com/29/51029-004-21FCAAB9/Immanuel-Kant-pencil-portrait-Hans-Veit-Schnoor.jpg" data-href="/media/1/398918/95969">Immanuel Kant</a><span>Immanuel Kant, pencil portrait by Hans Veit Schnorr von Carolsfeld; in the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden, Germany.</span><button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-white js-content" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"><span class="link-blue">(more)</span></button></span></div></figcaption></figure></div></div><p class="topic-paragraph"><span id="ref530302"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Immanuel-Kant" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Immanuel Kant</a> (1724–1804) ranked music as lowest in his <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="hierarchy" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hierarchy" data-type="MW">hierarchy</a> of the arts. What he distrusted most about music was its wordlessness; he considered it useful for enjoyment but negligible in the service of culture. Allied with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/poetry" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">poetry</a>, however, it may acquire conceptual value. <span id="ref530303"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georg-Wilhelm-Friedrich-Hegel" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel</a> (1770–1831) also extolled the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="discursive" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discursive" data-type="MW">discursive</a> faculties, saying that art, though it expresses the divine, must yield to philosophy. He acknowledged the peculiar power of music to express many <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="nuances" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nuances" data-type="MW">nuances</a> of the emotions. Like Kant, Hegel preferred <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/vocal-music" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">vocal music</a> to instrumental, deprecating wordless music as subjective and indefinite. The essence of music he held to be rhythm, which finds its counterpart in the innermost self. What is original in Hegel’s view is his claim that music, unlike the other arts, has no independent existence in space, is not “objective” in that sense; the fundamental rhythm of music (again an aspect of number) is experienced within the hearer.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD18 mod-inline"></span> <span class="marker PREMOD19 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">After the 18th century, speculations upon the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="intrinsic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/intrinsic" data-type="MW">intrinsic</a> nature of music became more numerous and profound. The elements necessary for a more <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="comprehensive" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comprehensive" data-type="MW">comprehensive</a> theory of its function and meaning became discernible. But philosophers whose views have been summarized thus far were not speaking as philosophers of music. Music interested them in terms extrinsic to itself, in its observable effects; in its connections with dance, religious ritual, or festive rites; because of its alliance with words; or for some other extramusical consideration. The only common denominator to be found, aside from the recognition of different types of music, is the acknowledgment of its connection with the emotional life, and here, to be sure, is that problematic power of the art to move. Various extramusical preoccupations are the raison d’être of “contextualist” explanations of music, which are concerned with its relation to the human <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="environment" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/environment" data-type="MW">environment</a>. The history of music itself is largely an account of its adjunctive function in rituals and ceremonies of all kinds—religious, military, courtly—and in musical theatre. The protean character of music that enables it to form such easy alliances with <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/literature" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">literature</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/theatre-art" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">drama</a> (as in folk song, art song, opera, “background” music) and with the dance (ritual, popular entertainment, “social,” <a href="https://www.britannica.com/art/ballet" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">ballet</a>) appears to confirm the wide range and influence that the Greeks assigned to it.</p><span class="marker MOD19 mod-inline"></span></section></section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-simplify-root"></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> </div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":2,"pageId":398918,"pageLength":2700,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-134/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.134.42"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-134/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.134.42' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"B","adLeg":"B","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"PAGINATED","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":true,"hasAiTopQuestions":false,"hasSimplifyButton":false} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Music | Art Form, Styles, Rhythm, & History | Britannica