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April 20, 2024
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| Word of the
Week--"music" |
Definition--music (myzk) n. Abbr.
mus. The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous,
unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm,
and timbre. Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody,
harmony, or rhythm. A musical composition. The written or printed score
for such a composition. Such scores considered as a group: We keep our
music in a stack near the piano. A musical accompaniment. A particular
category or kind of music. An aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound
or combination of sounds: the music of the wind in the pines.
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| Discussion--The term "music" can be
traced back to a Greek word meaning "art of the Muses." (For those who
haven't read much Greek mythology lately, the word "Muse" Click Here) Thus, the etymological roots of
this word suggest that music is a divinely inspired art.
It is also perhaps one of the broadest subcategories under the still
broader category of art. For modern peoples, the word music encompasses
pieces by every artist from Johann Sebastian Bach to Tal Bachman, from
Scott Joplin to Janis Joplin. Music has also served a multitude of
purposes, everything from soothing the soul to inciting riots. Still, no
mattter what kind we listen to or why we listen to it, music remains one
of our society's greatest forms of expression.
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| Etymology--The term music
comes from the Latin musica, which is derived from the Greek term
mousike techne meaning "art of the Muses."
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Foreign
Translations
| German: |
Noten (pl) |
| Dutch: |
bladmuziek (de) |
| French: |
musique (f) |
| Italian: |
musica |
| Spanish: |
musica | |
Jane Ellis
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