Luigi Russolo

For as long as mankind has walked on this earth, music has been an important part of our culture and lifestyles. Each walk of life beats to a different drum. Different cultures use music for many aspects of their lives; for religious purposes, for celebrations, for comfort, for sorrow, for relaxation, for sports, for dances, for energy, for learning, for sleeping, and for sexual experiences. Everyone uses music for something. Music connects with people and reaches them in ways that words simply cannot. Music is a representation of what feelings sound like. It expresses emotion and brings that characteristic out from within us; it tells us a story. Every generation has its’ own sound and different music styles have emerged and become

Capital punishment is a sentence that is given to someone that has committed a capital crime. This is a subject of great debate; some people agree and some do not. There are times when a crime is so heinous that the majority would seek capital punishment. Susan Gissendaner received this sentence for plotting to kill her husband, although her boyfriend actually killed her husband. Since being in prison, Susan has undergone a conversion and transformation. She is now a model prisoner. Due to Susan’s transformation, they are trying to have her sentence changed. Should Susan’s sentence be commuted to life in prison is the question being asked? This paper will answer the question by providing a moral judgment viewed by two non-consequentialist theories. The strengths and weaknesses of these positions will be assessed. Whether I agree or disagree will be answered and explained.

To understand why music is a product of human intention and perception, we start by defining or understanding the nature of music. Music is defined as the sounds or combination of vocals and instruments in a way that it produces a form of beauty, expression, or harmony of emotions. Arguably, people compose or make music through many ways (Resnicow, Joel E., 20-29). While some people might compose music without incorporating instruments, others use instruments to produce beats that match with their sounds. However, to argue that the

A critique of soundscape composition and theory within the broader field of electronic music is such that the work may impart to the listener the artist’s musical intuition, proficiency of the medium and aesthetic preferences, but nevertheless is often devoid of any substantial thinking concerning the making of representations and consequently power relations. If the making and presenting of representations of environmental sound

Bach’s peers did not understand his desire to preserve the past; therefore, they did not embrace his musical genius. His musical peers used the new dynamic and elaborate idea of art expression in their works. They experimented with new styles and forms in their works. Bach’s perfection in his music was ignored because no one understood it. Bach, unlike his peers, chose to remain with traditional sounds from the past when he composed music. Because of his modesty and the lack of interest from the people around him, Bach’s creative works existed without influencing the world around him for many years (Herz 2).

The Avant-garde composer, John Cage, created a space for silence as an important element in understanding the meaning of music and sound. According to Cage, when he is listening to ‘music’ it is as though someone is talking about their feelings or their ideas. When sound is presented in a raw, natural form for example, in the case of traffic, it is simply sound that is acting. This activity of sound is what caught Cage’s interest because of its transient ability to be loud or soft, long or short, high or low etc., leaving him satisfied, without having the need for sound to ‘talk’ to him. In this paper, I will be writing about the role of silence in John Cage’s compositions and the evolution of his changing perception of silence as seen in those compositions.

There is no genre of modern music that it is not intertwined by the roots of classical influence. In fact, it is quite a marvel to sit back and listen to how music is evolving so swiftly,however, remains very coherent in its classical influence. By simply listening to different decades of music, it is immediately apparent that certain patterns, rhythms, and instruments are constantly replicated to explore new creations. One of the tools that has presented these changes for years is the phonograph. The phonograph, similarly to music, has evolved as well, displaying multi-faceted capabilities. The adaptability of the phonograph is an amazing achievement. To understand this achievement of adaptability, it will be important to understand; the history

The evolution of music and its ability to have multitudinous uses is what makes the notion of music unique when compared to anything else. Communication was one of the first uses of music. Utilizing music as a style of communication required the creation of complex and subtle acoustic techniques, each with the purpose of articulating a specific idea. These musical gestures developed from manipulations of the various parameters of music. When Guido D 'Arezzo first improved and reworked standard notation by adding time signatures and inventing solfege in 1000 CE, this was the beginning of music taking on the form of art. As musical advances continued many elite composers began to arise. Music was then employed as a form of expression, representing joy, sorrow, and pain. Music can also paint scenes and take the listener to distant places; however, this requires an experienced composer, who can manipulate pitch, tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, texture, and form. If the composer can exploit these properties of sound and music to paint a vivid world of emotions, he can paint a musical masterpiece. This use of musical gestures is prevalent throughout Western composition, particularly in the form of program music, “which is a piece of instrumental music, usually for symphony orchestra, that seeks to re-create in sound the events and emotions portrayed in some extra musical source: a story, a play, a historical event, an encounter with nature, or even a painting” (Wright). When

Often music is consisted not only by sounds made from musical instruments, but also by voice and verbal messages. The structure of the voice, or as Roland Barthes describes it ‘the grain of voice’ is the element in a certain piece of music which is responsible for creating the emotions when listening. The grain and the lyrics make the signified and carry out the message. The vocal part of music is formed of words, text, which communicate and make the representation and expression of what it is sung - talked about. According to Barthes the emotive modes of the voice and the changes of the tones from low to high is what delivers the final message and makes us feel the music. (Barthes, R. 1977 [1972]).

Music is built on a very sophisticated foundation that is expressed through a variety of technicalities and rules. As an art form, music has survived through many era’s that have evolved genre’s and sounds into its culture. The ages of music that were most prominent included the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern era’s. Within these years (1600-1900’s) music was distinguished for separate motives, audiences, and demands. Chamber music for example, was created for small audiences in the nobility, while Concert music was used for larger audiences in concert halls of varying classes. Absolute music was abstracted sound with no particular motive, while Program music was played for specified themes and stories that usually involved heroism

I perceive art as the unique use of imagination and creativity to express new ideas and thought primarily through media accessible by an audience. Art entails a broad range of activities of creativity designed to convey ideas to readers and listeners with aims of information transfer. An artist uses various methods of expressing ideas such as drawings, paintings, music, and plays. Music specifically is a form of art mostly based on sounds. Music, therefore, entails different sounds played, in particular, a pattern designed to amuse or entertain. Additionally, music adds to the methods of information transfer from sources, usually artists, to an audience. The art of music in many cases gets in place in entertainment purposes following the vivid fact that changing tunes and vibrations of sounds changes emotions and thoughts, which contribute to entertainment through internet.

Russolo believed that there needed to be more “noise” in music, he wrote a whole manifesto asking for that to happen. Noise, Russolo said, was comprised of the sounds that one hears every day. Russolo was very passionate about how he thought that noise should be incorporated into music, saying “We must break at all cost from this restrictive circle of pure sounds and conquer the infinite variety of noise-sounds” (Russolo 6). Russolo’s manifesto continues on, using very vivid metaphors to try to convince people about how great noise in music would

Moreover, he desires to be the best at what he is doing, but struggles to achieve this goal under an overwhelming crush of the mass of others around him who are striving just as hard as he is to achieve the same goal. However, the author is attempting to stand out from the pack but is finding it difficult to come up with new ideas that are not already present in today’s music. The feeling is portrayed that it might be easier to just go back to a time when all of these ideas were not present so that then each idea an artist had could be new and unheard of.

It is when the artist begins to add nuances and harmonies to the melody that the work becomes inaccessible to the unlearned ear, thus isolating a portion of the audience. When works of art are created to express the universality of humankind they are more beneficial to it. As an example, this view is dissimilar to the view if Dante, who believed that the language of a work should be elevated. Tolstoy argues the more details that are given in the work the more opportunities for disconnection from its message the audience has (391).

Thesis: Music is a unique form of sound powerful enough to manipulate mood, feelings, and cognition.