To what extent is musical taste governed by society Essay

To what extent is musical taste governed by society - Essay Example Through historical study of music, it is clear that music was thought as endanger to societal moral standards of Europe. However later it was realised that music also upholds a religious dimension and quality music has the ability to provoke suppressed religious feelings (McLeod, 1996, p. 17).In this paper, we would analyse music as a magnum opus in the context of historical, cultural and educational significance. How its evolution as an art, closely connected with various trends of our Western civilization Music in different stages has not only permitted but has enforced the application of the so-called 'historical method' which aims at describing the single work of art as a product of the creative mind of a composer or the creative tendencies of a school of composers who remain anonymous.History has reshaped internationally the outlook of music in this era and to many musicians it has harmonised the study and performance of music, therefore distinctive styles are disappearing. The past has also given us a unique concept of national identity that concerns not only the ways in which composers wrote their music, influenced by considerations such as tradition, function, social context and even language, but also its performance. Music has not limited itself to extending aspects of instrument construction and sound ideal. While considering an example of seventeenth century music in Italy, it is obvious that representation and excitation of the emotions fostered were quite contrary to earlier practice, involving emotional expression on the model of speech. Although the Italian language's free expression resulted in the music taking second place to the drama in opera, the unimaginative Italian style of presentation encouraged a trend towards virtuosity in instrumental music. With the passage of time, as Italian music adopted more formal manner of expression, its manner of presentation remained capricious and rich in fantasy (Lawson & Stowell, 1999, p. 43). This way one can see Italian music maintained its national identity, while modernising the social values of music. Music rhetoric Relationships that exist between different musical works enjoy composition among those parts. For example a theme is composed of tones and phrases; a work entails certain themes and is a discourse, of phrases (Frances & Dowling, 1988, p. 134). Since themes and work present as an approximate character of such relationships that has often been noted and attributed to a variety of reasons. First the reason that thought is external to language and that verbal thought can only designate objects and their relations while musical thought embodies its objects in tones on which it strictly depends. Second is the reason that verbal relationships, the ordering of propositions and the succession of phrases are of a logical order, whereas musical 'discourse' is of a perceptual order. What our contemporary society perceives music is the encompassing of activities implied in the comprehension of musical rhetoric to be connected with those of sensory intelligence. It is music that has enabled twentieth century psychology to contribute to the expansion of the domain of thought in the direction of perceptual organisation. For instance, thinking of 'events' and relate them to the source of elaborate activities is what music is perceived in this society however in those activities one can found biological factors of motivation, psychological activities, pathological aspects etc. Music, art and society Society has always attached great symbolic meanings and sentiments to music.