Art of Music | History / Sitemap

"Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul; on which they mightily fasten, imparting grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly educated graceful, or of him who is ill-educated ungraceful" - Plato.

Dal 1939 la Wiener Philarmoniker in concerto

The modern English word 'music' came into use in the 1630s.

It is derived from a long line of successive precursors: the Old English 'musike' of the mid-13th century; the Old French musique of the 12th century; and the Latin mūsica.

The Latin word itself derives from the Ancient Greek mousiké (technē) - μουσική (τέχνη) - literally meaning "(art) of the Muses".

The Muses were nine deities in Ancient Greek mythology who presided over the arts and sciences.

They were included in tales by the earliest Western authors, Homer and Hesiod, and eventually came to be associated with music specifically.

Over time, Polyhymnia would reside over music more prominently than the other muses.

Edgar Degas - Violinist and Young Woman, 1872

The Latin word musica was also the originator for both the Spanish música and French musique via spelling and linguistic adjustment, though other European terms were probably loanwords, including the Italian musica, German Musik, Dutch muziek, Norwegian musikk, Polish muzyka and Russian muzïka.

The modern Western world usually defines music as an all-encompassing term, used to describe diverse genres, styles and traditions.

This is not the case worldwide, and languages such as modern Indonesian (musik) and Shona (musakazo) have recently adopted words to reflect this universal conception, as they did not have words that fit exactly the Western scope.

In East Asia, neither Japan nor China have a single word which encompasses music in a broad sense, but culturally often regard music in such a fashion.

The closest word to mean music in Chinese, yue, shares a character with le, meaning joy, and originally referred to all the arts before its narrowing in meaning.

Africa is too diverse to make firm generalizations, but the musicologist J. H. Kwabena Nketia has emphasized African music's often inseparable connection to dance and speech in general.[18] Some African cultures, such as the Songye people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Tiv people of Nigeria, have a strong and broad conception of 'music' but no corresponding word in their native languages.

Other words commonly translated as 'music' often have more specific meanings in their respective cultures: the Hindi word for music, sangita, properly refers to art music, while the many Indigenous languages of the Americas have words for music that refer specifically to song but describe instrumental music regardless.

Though the Arabic musiqi can refer to all music, it is usually used for instrumental and metric music, while khandan identifies vocal and improvised music.

David Garrett, 1980 | The magic devil's violinist / Il magico violinista del diavolo

List of Classical, Modern and contemporary Musicians, Composers, Instrumentalist, Songwriters, Singers, Dancers, Videos published on Tutt'Art@

Bertalan Karlovszky (1858-1938)

Berthe Morisot, Le Mandoline, 1889

Andre Bouys - La Barre and Other Musicians, 1710

La musica (dal greco antico μουσική, mousikḗ, «arte delle Muse») è l'arte di ideare e produrre, mediante l'uso di strumenti musicali o della voce, successioni strutturate di suoni semplici o complessi, che possono variare per altezza, per intensità e per timbro, organizzati secondo le dimensioni di melodia, armonia e ritmo.

È uno degli aspetti culturali universali di tutte le società umane.

Il significato del termine musica non è comunque univoco ed è molto dibattuto tra gli studiosi per via delle diverse accezioni utilizzate nei vari periodi storici.

Etimologicamente il termine musica deriva dall'aggettivo greco μουσικός/musikòs, relativo alle Muse, figure della mitologia greca e romana, riferito in modo sottinteso a tecnica, anch'esso derivante dal greco τέχνη/techne.

In origine il termine non indicava una particolare arte, bensì tutte le arti delle Muse, e si riferiva a qualcosa di "perfetto".