What is music?

Music is in the ear of the beholder.
Some of my most favorite music is just me being quiet and letting nature perform.
The gentle wind thru the trees,
The birds singing.
Children gleefully playing can be music
or your mom even though she cannot carry a note when she sings,that too is music.
Of course Contemporary Christian Music the right song can lift me up and even making up my own simple songs as poorly as my voice is but it all leads to praise of the Lord who has made all things possible.
1 Chronicles 15:16 And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of music, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy.

 

With you, Aaron, another argument waiting to happen!

 

Maybe later...looking for another fight?

Yea, we might be able to have fun with this one, Aaron, as long we didn't degenerate into the usual CCM vs. traditional argument. We've worn the crap out of that one recently!!!


Quite honestly, I have really wanted to jump in on this one, but have never had a sufficient block of time to "launch" my thoughts. I will try (not promise) to look for that launch time...check back occasionally...

[oh, and by the way, the college degreed music educator stuff is really sickening now that I think about it. I am sorry to all I have offended by that arrogant sounding tripe...I am really stupid for putting that shingle forward. I can admit that... ]

 

You know I can't do it in 25 words or less!!!

 

Hey, Aaron. Looks interesting. Since no one wants to start, I went to dictionary.com and define:music at google, and am cutting and pasting the following. I know that's not exactly what you're asking for, but maybe this will get something going.

Music is "an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner."

"Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the Deluge, the first mention of music is in the account of Laban's interview with Jacob (Gen. 31:27). After their triumphal passage of the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang their song of deliverance (Ex. 15). But the period of Samuel, David, and Solomon was the golden age of Hebrew music, as it was of Hebrew poetry. Music was now for the first time systematically cultivated. It was an essential part of training in the schools of the prophets (1 Sam. 10:5; 19:19-24; 2 Kings 3:15; 1 Chr. 25:6). There now arose also a class of professional singers (2 Sam. 19:35; Eccl. 2:8). The temple, however, was the great school of music. In the conducting of its services large bands of trained singers and players on instruments wereconstantly employed (2 Sam. 6:5; 1 Chr. 15; 16; 23;5; 25:1-6). In private life also music seems to have held an important place among the Hebrews (Eccl. 2:8; Amos 6:4-6; Isa. 5:11, 12; 24:8, 9; Ps. 137; Jer. 48:33; Luke 15:25)."

"Music is said to be an art, a form of entertainment, and is also often defined by contrast with noise or speech."

"Music is said to be an art, a form of entertainment, and is also often defined by contrast with noise or speech...The organization of sounds with some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony...sounds and pitches organized in time to create a chosen artistic or aestetic statement."

 

"Music is said to be an art, a form of entertainment, and is also often defined by contrast with noise or speech...The organization of sounds with some degree of rhythm, melody, and harmony...sounds and pitches organized in time to create a chosen artistic or aestetic statement."

Does that def get your blood going, Aaron? Our rap guys would love the part about making an artistic or aesthetic statement!

 

A plaque right above my computer that I am looking at right now has a violin, a rose, and the words "God gives the heart a voice to sound its joy...and calls it music."

That's enough for me...

 

Amen Helen

 

Psalms 150 is an excellent chapter about how we can praise God with music from "everything that hath breath".

Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp. Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.

 

I basically agree with rlvaughn. I was beginning to try to articulate a definition, but when he posted that; I said "that's basically it".

 

Dear Aaron,

Here's a defintion from Merriam Webster On Line:

Main Entry: mu·sic
Pronunciation: 'myü-zik
Function: noun
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English musik, from Old French musique, from Latin musica, from Greek mousikE any art presided over by the Muses, especially music, from feminine of mousikos of the Muses, from Mousa Muse

1 a : the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity b : vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony

2 a : an agreeable sound : EUPHONY <her voice was music to my ears> b : musical quality <the music of verse>

3 : a musical accompaniment <a play set to music>

4 : the score of a musical composition set down on paper

5 : a distinctive type or category of music <there is a music for everybody -- Eric Salzman>



In Christ,

Dale