Intro: What is Music?

# What is Music?

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts

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# So, what is music?

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# What is music?

* So many approaches
	* Produced as music?
	* Any sound?

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### Bangalore traffic

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### Madness: "Driving in my Car"

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# What is music?

* So many approaches
	* Produced as music?
	* Any sound?
	* Any organized sound?

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### Young Cattle Auctioneer Championships

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### Daveed Diggs interview

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### clipping. "Intro" [Explicit]

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# What is music?

* So many approaches
	* Produced as music?
	* Any sound?
	* Any organized sound?
	* Anything I enjoy?
	* Anything anyone enjoys?
* Definitions and propositions
	* Individual perspectives matter
	* You do not need to agree
* Five propositions from Michael Bakan 
	* Ethnomusicologist, author of a popular textbook

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# Music is sound

* Made up of musical “tones”
	* Frequency
	* Duration
	* Amplitude
	* Timbre
* Defined by environments, context
	* Clapping?

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### Steve Riech's *Clapping Music*

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### Steve Riech's *Clapping Music*

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### Steve Riech's *Clapping Music*

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### Steve Riech's *Clapping Music*, with Wolfram Winkel

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# Music is sound

* Made up of musical “tones”
	* Frequency
	* Duration
	* Amplitude
	* Timbre
* Defined by environments, context
	* Clapping alone, in funk, in flamenco

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### Mr. C the Slide Man: "Cha-Cha Slide (2000)" (0:20 and 2:28)

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class: middle, center

### Irene La Serranilla (dance), David El Gamba (singing), Ramón Kailani (guitar)

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# Music is sound

* Made up of musical “tones”
	* Frequency
	* Duration
	* Amplitude
	* Timbre
* Defined by environments, context
	* Clapping alone, in funk, in flamenco
	* John Cage’s challenge to listeners?

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### John Cage's *4'33"*

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# Is this organized?

### David Mahler, "The Priest from Cape Breton"

<!-- ### Manzakiraku (Japanese court dance)

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# Music is oranized

* Organized… somehow
	* Schemes may not be obvious
	* Or familiar
	* Or logical
* … By people
	* Is dripping water music? Musical?
* Unfamiliar organization
	* Middle Eastern *maqam*
	* Indian *raga*
	* African drumming

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# Intention or perception

* Music vs. musical sound
	* Punk rock as music, as noise?
	* Coughing audiences as music, noise?
	* Who counts? Listener? Composer? Performer? All?

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### Loma Preita, "Fly By Night"

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# Intention or perception

* Music vs. musical sound
	* Punk rock as music, as noise?
	* Coughing audiences as music, noise?
	* Who counts? Listener? Composer? Performer? All?
* The example of chant
	* Perceptions of the Islamic *adhan*

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### A young Moroccan woman reciting a chapter of the Qur'an

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# Western assumptions

* “Music” is a Western concept
	* Music, musique, musiqa…
	* Cognates are not always identical
	* Often include extra-musical context
* Ethnocentrism
	* Working to recognize and overcome our biases: odd sounds, tastes, conceptions
	* Recognize and understand the biases for opinions of others (dads hating thrash…)
	* Biases are not only geographical

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# What is Music?

![BGSU](/assets/bgsu.png)

### Christopher Witulski, Ph.D.

### College of Musical Arts