7 Music as a Temporal Art

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” – Victor Hugo

Meaning in Music – Introduction

Music is an art form which exists in time. As a temporal art, it involves both sound and silence. While such sound and silence occurs in everyday life, it is when that sound is purposefully organized with intent of expressive effect that we begin to hear and think of it as music. So given a definition of music as purposefully organized sound for expressive intent, the nature of sound itself and how we perceive sound becomes most important.

The scientific study of sound (acoustics) does impact on our perception of sound, and we will delve into that later in this chapter. For now, our concern with sound is the various ways we perceive sound as music which typically involves some aspect of recognizing patterns and/or sources (instruments).

While obvious, it is important to note that one cannot hear an entire piece of music at once, since the sounds are presented in a linear fashion through time. In contrast, a piece of visual art (such as a painting) can be viewed in its entirety in an instant. (A photograph of a painting attempts to do just that.)

Given the fact that one hears a piece of music over a certain length of time, memory becomes crucial to the enjoyment and/or appreciation of that piece. You, as a listener, must remember what you heard a moment ago so that what you are hearing now makes sense and has meaning for you. In a similar fashion, the sounds you are about to hear will be compared to this set of aural remembrances. If you lack experience with the sounds you hear, or if you have little understanding or knowledge about what you are listening to, your initial reaction may be that you are hearing static or noise.

The Music 1 example “Noise” will probably be heard as nothing more than a sound effect or some kind of sound texture that might be a backdrop for something else.

If you recognize the sounds or sources, but they lack context or obvious organization, the results may sound as if they are random or by chance.

The Music 2 example “Sounds” are recognizable sounds, but still don’t resonate with our hearing as ‘music’. On first hearing, you might not be able to identify what the sounds are, other than three different sources one after another. Because of a lack of structure (i.e. no repetition or apparent organization) the entire example doesn’t convey strong musical ideas.

Your past experience and knowledge will also come into play when listening (and remembering) a piece of music. If for example you were to listen to a Japanese folk tune, and had little or no past experience and knowledge of how such music sounds, it might indeed sound like a foreign language. While you would ‘hear’ the sounds, there would be little meaning for you. What is happening is that you do not know what to expect as you listen to these new sounds. Since you don’t know what ‘normally’ happens. you are not able to react to instances of uniqueness, craftsmanship, or creativity within the musical work.

Imagine listening to a symphony by Mozart or a tune played by a rock ‘n’ roll band as compared to listening to static or ‘white noise’. While all these examples are sounds, the static/white noise does not have sufficient structure for you to remember, thus it will have little or no meaning for you.

Meaning in music has been described as involving expectation and the fulfillment of these expectations. Most people are familiar with the idea of musical style, either from past experiences in listening, or through an understanding of the history and theory of music.

The Music example “Guitar” has lots of inherent musical structure as well as a musical style that should be familiar. The piece will make sense to you as a piece of music even though it is something you’ve never heard before.

If one were to listen to a keyboard piece by the famous Baroque era composer Johann Sebastian Bach, there are certain things we would expect and other things we know would not occur. (We would not expect to hear a Dixieland chorus in the middle of a Bach organ prelude!) Compare the Bach ‘Giga (original)’ with the version that has ‘Mixed Styles’. You simply don’t expect the juxtaposition of so many musical styles in a single piece.

We can appreciate the craftsmanship contained in a Bach fugue, a Beatles tune, or a Duke Ellington song. Within any piece of music from any time period or style, we have certain expectations and then react to the manner in which our expectations are fulfilled or thwarted.

Memory, knowledge, and past experience all are involved when we listen to a piece of music. It would follow that our ability to listen can be enhanced by increasing our knowledge about music (both in general and specifically for a given piece) as well as broadening our experiences with the various aspects of music and music-making.

So what about your background and experience in music? The music industry tracks music consumption in the form of sales of physical products (vinyl, CD), digital downloads (tracks as well as albums) and streaming. Here is a listing of the categories of musical style that are typically used to explain and detail such sales:

• Children
• Christian/Gospel
• Classical
• Country
• Dance/Electronic
• Holiday/Season
• Jazz
• Latin
• New-Age
• Pop
• R&B/Hip-Hop
• Rock
• World

While some of the musical styles are very broad, it does provide a starting point for describing various styles (rather than genres) of music.

Here is a interactive slideshow that will present to you what percent of music sales for 2023 were in various categories. Before you try it, guess what you think might have been the top styles…

Link to the data used to create the above interactive slides.