Music is Science
It is exact, specific; and it demands exact
acoustics. A conductor’s full score is a chart,
a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities,
volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once
and with the most exact control of time.
Music is Mathematical
It is rhythmically based on the subdivision of time
into fractions which must be done
instantaneously, not worked out on paper.
Music is a Foreign Language
Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French;
and the notation is certainly not English but a highly
developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas.
The semantics of music is the
most complete and universal language.
Music is History
Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation,
often even the country and/or feeling.
Music is Physical Education
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip,
cheek, and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.
Music is All these Things, but Most of All, Music is Art
It allows a human being to take all these dry, technically boring, but difficult, techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate – humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.
That is Why We Teach Music
Not because we expect you to major in music.
Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life.
Not so you can relax.
Not so you can have fun.
But – so you will be human,
so you will recognize beauty,
so you will be sensitive,
so you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world,
so you will have something to cling to,
so you will have more love, more compassion,
more gentleness, more good – in short,
more life.
Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live?
Author unknown.
It is exact, specific; and it demands exact
acoustics. A conductor’s full score is a chart,
a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities,
volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once
and with the most exact control of time.
Music is Mathematical
It is rhythmically based on the subdivision of time
into fractions which must be done
instantaneously, not worked out on paper.
Music is a Foreign Language
Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French;
and the notation is certainly not English but a highly
developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas.
The semantics of music is the
most complete and universal language.
Music is History
Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation,
often even the country and/or feeling.
Music is Physical Education
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip,
cheek, and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back, stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.
Music is All these Things, but Most of All, Music is Art
It allows a human being to take all these dry, technically boring, but difficult, techniques and use them to create emotion. That is one thing science cannot duplicate – humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.
That is Why We Teach Music
Not because we expect you to major in music.
Not because we expect you to play or sing all your life.
Not so you can relax.
Not so you can have fun.
But – so you will be human,
so you will recognize beauty,
so you will be sensitive,
so you will be closer to an infinite beyond this world,
so you will have something to cling to,
so you will have more love, more compassion,
more gentleness, more good – in short,
more life.
Of what value will it be to make a prosperous living unless you know how to live?
Author unknown.