The word music describes an incredibly broad and often complex psychoacoustic phenomenon. |
From the simplest folk melodies to the grandest symphonies, music has the power to emotionally move us. |
Because its medium, the sound wave, is longitudinal in nature, music unfolds one moment at time. |
In a purely physical sense it is a serial phenomenon. |
Psychologically, however, it possesses what we perceive as depth; that is to say, we often hear music as the simultaneous propagation of a collection of individual sounds that are layered or intertwined. |
This 2-dimensional characteristic is echoed by the format of a musical score which is, fundamentally, a multiple list plot of pitch (note value) versus time. |
Return to music theory.