The word music has different definitions. The most important or recognized one, taking into account the definitions given by the Oxford English Dictionary and the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia, is the one that states that music is a combination of sounds produced by voice or instrument, which create a pleasant effect. There is some discrepancy in this matter though; some people bear music to be only instrumental and others believe it exists only when the voice is present.
If we trace the origin of the word music, we find that it derives from words such as musaMusae, (the Muses), modulatio (singing, playing; melody, song), according to the book “On Music (De musica cum tonario)” by John. Out of these three words, we could say that Musae is the most accurate one. The Encarta Encyclopedia states that in Greek mythology the Muses were nine goddesses, daughters of Zeus, who inspired all artists, including the musicians. Moreover, they were the companions of Apollo, the God of music, and they used to sing to their father about his greatness, and the good deeds. Therefore, the Muses were closely related to music, that is why it seems very coherent to believe that this word was the most influential one when coming up with the term music to define what we nowadays know it to be. (bagpipe),
In the above-mentioned book, we learn that music could be natural or artificial. Natural music would be the one the universe and human voices produce, and artificial music the one produced by instruments. In both groups we have discrete (discontinuous) and indiscreet (continuos) sounds; the first ones are the only ones that can create music.
Music is, however, different from sound, which is just something that we can hear. So, whatever we can hear conforms a sound, and music derives from sound, as well as noise does. Therefore, there are certain sounds that are music and some that are not. Which one is which? Certainly, not everything that we hear is considered to be music, or is it? Is a bug's buzzing music? Is glass shattering on the floor music? If these sounds are not music, then they are just noise. Even more if we take into account what was mentioned before about the book by John, that music can only be created by discrete sounds, and no bug, for example, buzzes discontinuously.
However, according to the Encarta Encyclopedia, there are some copyrighted musical compositions that include, for example, more than 4 minutes of silence, the sound of a metal-stamping machine, or the reading of a list of different things. Even so, this cannot be called music. This is just the creation of some people who were only trying to be different or original, but that does not mean that what they copyrighted actually is music, that would more likely be noise (except for silence, which is not noise).
So, music belongs to sound, was there no sound there would be no music. Then why is it that some people consider silence to be music? If sound is something that we can hear and music derives from sound, how can silence be music if we cannot hear it? According to the Encarta Encyclopedia, Pythagoras believed the music of the spheres, i.e. the one created by the movement of the stars and planets, to be “a perfectly harmonious music”, even though this could not be heard on Earth. What did he mean by that? How could he even know if there was any music or even sounds while planets and stars moved? This sounds more like a romantic thought than like a real definition of music.
On the other hand, as the Encarta Encyclopedia states, some philosophers believe that music can exist without sound. The way in which they describe this is by saying that music is a mental state and that by just imagining certain sounds we obtain music. Then, we could say that music does indeed exist without sound, but that does not mean that silence is music because silence, whether it is in the mind or not, is still not a sound; therefore, it cannot be music.
Going back to the Oxford English Dictionary, we read another definition for this simple word: it is considered to be music even what birds “sing” (do they sing?), the sound of water running, and even words.
However, this sounds more like a metaphor, does it not? Read this example that the dictionary mentioned before provides, it is a quotation from W. Irving: “Mosquitoes, which, with their stings and their music, set all sleep at defiance”. Have many people considered mosquitoes' buzzing to be music? It actually is a very annoying sound, and according to the first definition of music provided, music is supposed to create a pleasant effect. That is why the definition that regards birds' singing, etc. as music seems to be purely metaphoric. Since animals, water and insects cannot create music by themselves, writers or people in general still refer to the only sounds they can create as music, to give it a more poetic meaning.
There is still another point to take into account: music is also considered to be both an art and a science. This sounds a little bizarre, since both concepts do not usually go together. But if we think about it, it might actually make sense. The Oxford English Dictionary states that music is an art that combines sounds to form beauty, and that it is also the science used to regulate this art. Science is more like technique, knowledge, principles, whereas art is something creative. If we apply this two notions to music, we could say that we need the science first to then be able to come up with the art. It is more like what we hear is the art and what is behind it, the whole construction, is the science.
Many people believe that the meaning of music has been misunderstood. Nowadays, if you ask an old lady what she thinks about let us say Marilyn Manson's “music”, she would very likely say it is NOT music, but mere noise. On the other hand, many young people today might say that opera is nothing more but some weird, boring yelling. Both groups happen to have different ideas towards music, but we cannot say for sure how this meaning is misunderstood, if it actually is.
What is for sure is that not everything we hear is music. We hear sounds all the time, and that does not mean that we are listening to music all the time, it could also be noise. Music is harmonious, pleasant; even if we do not enjoy a certain type of music, as long as it is not unpleasant to our ears and it has a certain pattern it still is music. Silence is not music, noise is not music, but those sounds that get together to provide us with something nice to hear and entertain us at the same time, that can rightfully be called music.
