Why We Make Music Essay

Submitted By BitLion
Words: 622
Pages: 3

Why We Make Music For many millennia language has existed, and it would serve us in helping to communicate, coordinate, and prosper since the beginning of our human race. A bit more recently, however, our race found human vocalizations too finite for our needs; in battle, nothing could hope to be heard over the adrenaline pumping screams and cries, and around the glowing fire in the chilly night, the use of our feeble vocal cords alone did little to help lift spirits and fend off cold. Over the clashing of swords, a golden bugle could amplify the fear of the troops’ enemies, and an animal skin drum can help hunter gatherers persevere during a dark and cold winter night. Melodies are a connection to a deeper, emotional sense where words cannot reach, and many look to find and emulate this connection. Music may quite be anything, from just a hobby to a lifetime profession. There is no restriction to what level of musical emotions you can elicit; one argument is that this kind of musical, emotional response and the emulation or such emotions requires a degree of musical understanding and talent. This is not necessarily true; we all have had one moment in our lives when we sang a popular song out loud with our friends to generate an entertaining hype on a boring car ride; even simply tapping your fingers on the table to pass the boredom is enough to say that you have, at least once in your life, drawn some musical emotion out of a unique rhythm. Humans also took the unique volume and bright sounds of the bugle, a long metal stretch of tubing that played every 5th note on the scale. The ancient Romans used one such metal instrument called the tuba. The instrument was used not only for commencement of events or leading of charges but also for the rousing of the emotions evoked from a single, simple call. A single call on a tuba to commence a ludi (annual public game/ceremony) sent thousands of civilians cheering for their favorite chariot racer with excitement and festivity in their heart. The vast range of the array of informations conveyed by music is almost infinite. This is apparent when one can compare a brave, adrenaline-pumped Civil War soldier falling to cannonballs and bullets in the clamorous field of battle with bugle calls in his