Music and Us

Music can be defined around two elements: material made up of sounds perceptible to the human ear, and the thought of a person who processes and organises that material. Whether we try to define music simply or philosophically, the first things we encounter are human feelings and thoughts. Music is their expression through sound, shaped by an aesthetic understanding within a particular system.

Music has held an important place in human life for thousands of years. Its journey began with early humans imitating sounds in nature as part of religious rituals and continues today in modern concert halls. In different historical periods, music has been regarded as sinful, shameful or criminal; used for religious influence and healing; and given a place of the highest esteem in the arts. Two thousand years ago, the philosopher Aristotle told his students: “Nothing is as powerful as rhythm and song in expressing our feelings. This power must therefore be used in children's education.” Throughout history, people have worked hard to establish music, which affects them so deeply, as a scientific discipline in its own right. The first steps were towards creating a universal language that would make music understandable to everyone. No significant work has survived from the period of primitive musical notation through to the Middle Ages. However, the simple signs called neumes, first used in medieval churches to show a melody's rising and falling movement, laid the foundations of today's universal musical notation.

In the eleventh century, an Italian monk introduced coloured staff lines and note names formed from the first syllables of each line of a hymn to make music easier to read. Development continued when a fifth line was added to the three- or four-line staff. Notes were given durations as well as pitches, making them easier for everyone to read. Musicians who contributed many works also helped develop the language of notation.

The terms and signs used in their works were adopted by later musicians and gained acceptance. Whereas the earliest notation merely guided the interpretation of an already familiar melody, representing pitches and durations with signs marked a turning point in music history. Music thus took its rightful place as a scientific discipline among the modern arts.

Duygu Deniz Uşaklıgil
Rekor Sanat – Violin Teacher