What is Western music based on?
Western was directly influenced by the folk music traditions of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, and many cowboy songs, sung around campfires in the 19th century, like “Streets of Laredo”, can be traced back to European folk songs.
What are the characteristics of Western music?
Western music is one of several separate, highly developed musical cultures, each of which has its own specific theoretical base that encompasses, among other things, its own system of tunings and scales, its preferred timbres (tone colors), its particular approach to musical form, and its characteristic musical …
What is Western music history?
Western Music refers to those cultures whose music system is based on the philosophy and science of Pythagoras and his school. The Ancient Greeks were the first European culture to investigate the science of acoustics using mathematics and simple scientific laboratory instruments like the monochord.
What makes Western music unique?
The short answer is: Western music is generally tonal, based on major or minor scales, using an equal temperament tuning, in an easy-to-recognize meter, with straightforward rhythms, fairly strict rules on harmony and counterpoint, and not much improvisation.
What scale does Middle Eastern music use?
The Persian scale is a musical scale occasionally found in guitar scale books, along other scales inspired by Middle Eastern music. It is characterized by the liberal use of half steps (4), augmented seconds (2), and frequent use of chromaticism.
What makes Middle Eastern music unique?
Further distinguishing characteristics of Middle Eastern and North African music include very complex rhythmic structures, generally tense vocal tone, and a monophonic texture. Traditional Middle Eastern music does not use chords, or harmony in the Western sense.
What is the difference between classical music and Western music?
composed vs improvised Western classical music is composed, Indian classical music is improvised. All Western classical music compositions are formally written using the staff notation, and performers have virtually no latitude for improvisation….
What defines music as classical?
Classical music is a very general term which normally refers to the standard music of countries in the western world. It is music that has been composed by musicians who are trained in the art of writing music (composing) and written down in music notation so that other musicians can play it.
What is considered Western classical music?
In technical musical usage this means music composed during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, characterized by the development of the sonata by such composers as Mozart. In popular use, however, the term is used to mean any serious art music as distinct from jazz, pop, or folk.