Music as Science or Art? by @carluis777

in Zero to Infinity • 4 years ago

Greetings friends of #Steemit especially to all who make life in this great community as it is @ZerotoInfinity. It is my first time among you and today I become part of this scientific community, I find it an extraordinary place for all those who through knowledge and human knowledge seek to interpret life objectively and all that it implies.

I am a musician, since I was a child I have been passionate about music, in my growth as a musician I have been able to observe the different perceptions, concepts and interpretations that music has for many people, today I would like to expose to all of you some perspectives that many have had of music throughout our history as humanity. There are two totally opposite currents when it comes to placing music within some concept, some say that music is scientific being closely linked to mathematical concepts.


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From ancient times to our modern times music is considered by a good number of scientists and philosophers as a science, one of the main theorists of the XVI century, such as Giusefo Zarlino, once said:

"Music deals with sound numbers".

St. Augustine stated:

"Music is based on mathematical laws whose number governs the world of sound ".

In the Middle Ages music was considered and assigned within the same categories as arithmetic, geometry and astronomy.

On the other hand, others claim that music is totally art, this concept is the one that has had somehow more acceptance being the most predominant especially in our modern times, this popular concept makes music largely lose its scientific basis becoming a totally artistic concept exclusive of entertainment. Today allow me from my experience to throw my own interpretation on this object of study, music. It is my personal hypothesis, my own individual experience subject to your opinions and recommendations. I only intend to throw my interpretation based on my own experiences in this great universal debate, can music be scientific or is it only artistic? this question and concern precedes us and has been with us for some centuries.

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The origin of music is considered a real mystery, although its origin is estimated in the prehistory of mankind, music has played an important role since ancient times in civilizations with their peculiar mysticism when communicating and worshiping their gods, walking through the different cultures of all countries and their religious beliefs where music intervenes as one of the main elements. It is present in all places and spaces of society, music already existed long before some civilizations and cultures. From the beginning music took a concept closely linked to the mystical and unknown, being used by various tribes at the time of performing their rituals based on their particular beliefs.

It is really in the Greek era that we could say that music begins to have a more philosophical concept as well as to some extent scientific, the great mathematical philosopher Pythagoras, who contributed significantly not only in mathematics, geometry and arithmetic but precisely in music, significantly contributing some concepts and theories where some of them are still fundamental theory in modern musical harmony. Some of these concepts are the I, IV, V as we musicians also interpret them: I fundamental, IV sub-dominant or fourth, V dominant or fifth. The relationship between music as a science has its origin in the era of the Mesopotamians, although it was Pythagoras who formalized it, taking the merit and recognition.

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The researcher and physics PhD Gerardo García Naumis, in a conference where "music as a science" was discussed expressed: >"Music is the art of combining sounds in a harmonic way. And those sounds are waves for physicists like me, they are a kind of inhabitants in space and time. When you play a sound, that sound propagates throughout the room, so at every position in space and time a wave is propagating. We perceive that to the ear and it is transmitted to the brain at the level of electrical impulses. That is the mechanics of music," he continued.

Then, taking into account some fundamental theories of science such as Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, which indicates that:

Time is in the same dimension as space.

We could then say that a musician composer is merely an organizer of space and time. Music possesses a totally mental language having a writing system based on physics and mathematics.

On the other hand, music perceived as art has its first steps in France from the Baroque era. This was a movement that began to develop between 1730 and 1760, approximately, having important repercussions during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It was characterized by its peculiar way of conceiving art in sculpture, architecture, painting, literature and also in music, deriving from it the opera and its close approach to theater and dance. In this sense it could be said that music is once again democratized, passing through the Romantic period in which it is only understood and perceived as art.

Music as art could also be defined as an artistic and cultural manifestation, its purpose is to arouse an aesthetic experience in the listener, thus expressing emotions and feelings allowing a stimulus in the perceptive field of the individual. Objectively, music as art from the mind of every musician is considered to some extent the coherent combination of sounds and silences using the fundamental principles of melody, harmony and rhythm, that is to say, music is organized sonority, perceptible, coherent and meaningful formulation.


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Todas aquellas definiciones que se le puedan adjudicar a la música parten desde lo cultural tomando en cuenta lo social e histórico, en este sentido permite diversas expresiones musicales surgiendo así múltiples definiciones que pueden ser válidas en el momento de expresar lo que se entiende como música, sin embargo, ninguna de estas definiciones se puede considerar como únicas, perfectas o absolutas.

Personally as a musician I cannot deny that music has deep physical concepts, in any aspect of it we will find its predominant scientific mark, from any score no matter its degree of complexity we will find mathematical principles, from the elaboration and construction of the instrument where the materials and the technique used for its manufacture are important, physics is present, even at the moment of being executed by the musicians producing sound waves in time and space, physics is present there. On the other hand, I cannot deny the artistic aspect of music, its inspiring feeling, its different emotional nuances that it causes in the listeners, even its spontaneous and bohemian feeling that it produces in the musicians.

In conclusion, music as an essence will always be acceptable its origin and essence from the scientific as well as its trajectory and artistic way of being.

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#zerotoinfinity #steemexclusive #science #music #art #venezuela #r2cornell #steemit
4 years ago in Zero to Infinity by
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     4 years ago 

    que chevere, yo tocaba violín de pequeña y de chama.... ya ahora no tanto pero si recuerdo mucho de esa época de orquesta y música clásica

    [WhereIn Android] (http://www.wherein.io)

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       3 years ago 

      Saludos amiga, la música siempre seguirá en espera por aquellos que alguna vez le conocimos. eres de los nuestros. siempre serás un musico!

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         4 years ago 

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        Great post .

        Keep posting and stay with our community.

        Thank you

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           3 years ago 

          Gracias por tu comentario, es importante la valoración que das al post.

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             3 years ago 

            You have been upvoted by @tarpan A Country Representative, we are voting with the Steemit Community Curator @steemcurator07 account to support the newcomers coming into steemit.

            Follow @steemitblog for the latest update. You can also check out this link which provides the name of the existing community according to specialized subject

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               3 years ago 

              Gracias por su apoyo @tarpan @steemcurator07, y por tomar en cuenta mi post.

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