Essay Sample on The Significance of Music

There is a common adage that states that all work and no play make Jack a dull boy. Primarily, the saying exalts the significance of resting and relaxation after a strenuous day or experience. Regarding this, listening to music is one prime way of relaxation. Essentially, music is an art of sound in time that is used to express emotions and ideas in pivotal forms by applying the rudiments of rhythm, color, harmony, and melody (Waters 12). However, apart from relaxation, music has several varied uses principally spread across political, social, economic, and cultural spheres of human existence. Therefore, music occupies a gravitas position within the scope of human civilization due to the verity that it can be used to inspire religious devotion, motivate work, prepare individuals for war, stimulate the passions and enrich play (Waters 15).

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

More to the point, the Kung people in Namibia and Botswana highly esteem in the culture. The Kung people that are mostly bushmen and occupy the Kalahari Desert have varied uses of music in their culture. However, as a hunting and gathering community, one of the prime purposes of music is to prepare hunters before going out on a hunting mission. The music motivates the hunting morale of the Kung as well as improve their luck in hunting.

On the other hand, Epirote music in traditional Greek weddings serves a very critical role of conveying treasured heritage, and its significance is centered on the fact that the music touches the soul of the Greeks. Generally, music occupies a key position in the lives of people, mainly due to its ability to take somebody back in memory on a significant event that happened when a given type of music was played. Therefore, from a personal perspective, every moment I listen to gospel music, my religious devotion is always inspired, and I still recall when I first embraced a life of salvation in my local church.

Music Rhythmic Structures

The creation of relevant music is extensively dependent on apropos rhythmic structures no matter the type of music. In west African drumming, for instance, rhythmic structures are applied purposefully to maintain a song in motion (Waters 34). As for Japanese shakuhachi tradition music, rhythmic structures are used mainly to make a song feel faster or slower than its real pulse or maintain a sense of groove. Also, the use of rhythmic structures in Afro-Cuban dance music is aimed at attaining the dramatic effect. Therefore, in all the three types of music above, the use of rhythmic structures is jointly geared towards enabling all listeners to understand aptly. A better understanding will, therefore, make listening to the above music pleasurable, and its listeners will keenly follow, for instance, by either snapping their fingers or tapping their foot in time with the music (Waters 52).

Nevertheless, in the first music video, AlgoNuevo, Dick "Taco" Mesa, arr. Sascha Jacobsen, the music video, demonstrates the ability of music to stimulate people's passion for music. The band primarily uses musical instruments for their music. Some of the musical instruments used include violin, viola, percussion, bass, and cello ("AlgoNuevo, Dick "Taco" Mesa, Arr. Sascha Jacobsen"). As for the second music video; We Shall Overcome (SNCC Freedom Singers, Chicago 2007), the centrality of the musical message is to prepare individuals to face an opposing force. The message of the music is we shall overcome, and the performers are a composition of the civil rights movement ("We Shall Overcome (SNCC Freedom Singers, Chicago 2007)"). Therefore, the focal point of the music is to inspire individuals towards the fight for civil rights movements as well as prepare individuals for the forthcoming forces of opposition, thus the centrality of their musical theme "we shall overcome."

In conclusion, in the last music video, Pete Seeger - This Land is Your Land, the music video is primarily aimed at stimulating Americans' passion for their land. The music conveys patriotic messages that indisputably warms Americans love for their nation therefore the assertion that the music stimulates passion ("Pete Seeger - This Land is Your Land").

Works Cited

"AlgoNuevo, Dick "Taco" Mesa, Arr. Sascha Jacobsen." YouTube, 16 Jan. 2013, youtu.be/n41UfmseuWA.

"Pete Seeger - This Land is Your Land." YouTube, 3 May, 2009, youtu.be/HE4H0k8TDgw.

Waters, Keith. "Rhythmic Structures." Rhythmic and Contrapuntal Structures in the Music of Arthur Honegger, 2019, pp. 33-59.

"We Shall Overcome (SNCC Freedom Singers, Chicago 2007)." YouTube, 19 Jan. 2008, youtu.be/Gn7MOR1zpgw.