Key Points

• Music has played —and continues to play—an integral part in the day-to-day events, ceremonial functions, and private lives of individuals, communities, and cultures across the world. People have a strong urge to make music meaningful and useful in their lives. Practically every culture uses it for a wide variety of purposes: religious, ceremonial, entertainment, health, and economic reasons, and in the case of college hymns or national anthems, to establish personal or national identity.
• Music is used:
  • to express a communion with the divine
  • for sociopolitical purposes ranging from protest to solidarity, usually involving a specific narrative.
• Spoken language is our most fully shared basis of communication. Music semantics asks whether music shares with language the ability to convey semantic meaning. Musical practices of several cultures around the world suggest that music can, indeed, convey semantic meaning. One particular example is The Talking Drums of the Yoruba people of Africa.
• Music's therapeutic power to heal, reduce stress, relax, enhance mood, or benefit the brain has been well studied and documented. Music has been found to ease pain, increase workout endurance and motivation in athletes, speed up post-workout recovery, improve sleep quality, enhance blood vessel function, induce meditative states, relieve symptoms of depression, elevate mood, improve cognitive performance, relax patients before surgery, and elevate mood while driving.
• Music that is used for a specific utilitarian purpose is known as utility music.
• In his book Emotion and Meaning in Music (1961), Leonard B. Meyer refers to the connection between music and its function as a musical connotation. This connection applies when, over time, a piece of music becomes associated with certain events or experiences, such as the fanfare and stately march for a bride’s wedding entrance. Musical connotation is reinforced by the use of certain instruments.

Listening List

Self Check

At the end of each class, you will have an opportunity to check your knowledge. Please take it as many times as you need to as this will help you prepare for the Section Quiz and the Midterm Exam.