Respect and Music

Music exists in every culture and it represents the people who have made it.

“Music is not a universal language, it is universal like language." Every society has used music to express feelings, emotions and traditions by using human voices or musical instruments.

Western music has become polyphonic. The music is composed of two or more lines of “melody of relatively equal complexity” (www.cartage.org.lb). In other cultures, music has focused on a monophonic rhythm. For example, the Japanese Shakuhachi music uses different voices and instruments which combined together give a total different texture compared to Western music. According to D. Mitchell and J. Logan (Mitchell and Logan, 2005), “texture in music describes two areas of musical phenomena”. First, it describes the “melodic and harmonic relationships”. Secondly, it describes the “density of the simultaneous layering of different musical components”. Western music has focused on both sides to produce the music which we can listen to nowadays. Western polyphonic music presents several melodic lines which are combined together to form a nice melody.


In other cultures, music is more focused on melody. For instance, Iranian music is mainly monophonic and the singer “will improvise on a melodic pattern, exploring all of its possible aspects in high and low notes” following one melodic pattern.
Western music has a simple rhythm because most of the songs use the same beat or meter pattern.

By contrast, music of other cultures use “several complex rhythms simultaneously." Native American music is melodic and there is no harmony or polyphony. The rhythm is irregular.
In the other hand, Western music and music of other cultures have elements which are similar. They both use a wide range of instrumental and vocal sounds. For example, jazz music and African music use the same style of rhythmic beat. Each instrument contributes into making an extremely intricate rhythm.


Other cultures have used their music in America to help them keep their identity. According to Yudkin “each ethnic group has a distinctive traditional music that helps to foster its separate identity."


Jazz music was brought by the slaves who came from West Africa. The jazz music which evolved from African American folk music has impacted modern American jazz. The modern American jazz musicians have started putting more emphasis on rhythm than on harmony and melody.


“Music is a reflection of the society that makes it." In order to understand the culture of a community, we should try to understand the music that they perform. Then, we can respect and love diversity with the help of music. Music is the element that connects a diverse society, “divided as it is by age, class, and ethnicity."

Can music inspire Peace?