This one actually helps me write my paper
So, music can be defined as organized sound. Plain and simple, no bravura, just sound that is also organized. It's not so different form sound really. It is sound. The word "organized" only serves to differentiate music from noise. So, what type of organization makes sound into music? This definition has historically included pleasing natural sounds such as running water and birdsong. Does it then also include non-natural sounds like machinery? Also, who draws the line at continuous sounds? Running water and birdsong typically exhibit an underlying pattern or identifiable rhythm. Repetition, as well as certain qualities of pitch and timbre, make these sounds qualify as "music."
But, what if the human mind creates a rhythm, or an organization of "noise" sounds. Can something then be classified as music when a person hears not the clatter of stones, an errant gust of wind, a distant exclamation, a passing car, but hears a pattern of sounds. Even though the particular sonic qualities of those sounds may never repeat themselves in the same fashion again. Isn't this just an exaggeration of all music? No two performances of Beethoven's fifth are ever the same, but we perceive them to be the same by approximation. It is through the power of perception that we classify something as music.
So, think about Cage's bell thing. I don't know what it's called, but basically he wrote a piece of music where a bell is sounded once every thousand years. It would be impossible for one human being to hear more than one note of this piece in his lifetime, but it is still organized, and it is still sound. Furthermore it was composed and was written for a musical instrument. It is a piece that will never end, and that noone can ever listen to in its entirety, but it is still music.
What makes pi a number anyway? It never really ends, just keeps going on and on forever (and that really makes much less sense than Cage's bell thing) but it's still called a number. It's a rather important number, too.
Aw crap, I'm out of meandering thoughts. Did this have a point that hasn't already been beaten to death by contemporary music theorists? No. But now I have to go back to writing my paper.
But, what if the human mind creates a rhythm, or an organization of "noise" sounds. Can something then be classified as music when a person hears not the clatter of stones, an errant gust of wind, a distant exclamation, a passing car, but hears a pattern of sounds. Even though the particular sonic qualities of those sounds may never repeat themselves in the same fashion again. Isn't this just an exaggeration of all music? No two performances of Beethoven's fifth are ever the same, but we perceive them to be the same by approximation. It is through the power of perception that we classify something as music.
So, think about Cage's bell thing. I don't know what it's called, but basically he wrote a piece of music where a bell is sounded once every thousand years. It would be impossible for one human being to hear more than one note of this piece in his lifetime, but it is still organized, and it is still sound. Furthermore it was composed and was written for a musical instrument. It is a piece that will never end, and that noone can ever listen to in its entirety, but it is still music.
What makes pi a number anyway? It never really ends, just keeps going on and on forever (and that really makes much less sense than Cage's bell thing) but it's still called a number. It's a rather important number, too.
Aw crap, I'm out of meandering thoughts. Did this have a point that hasn't already been beaten to death by contemporary music theorists? No. But now I have to go back to writing my paper.