Music is an art form
that involves organized and audible sounds and silence.
It is usually expressed in terms of pitch (which includes
melody and harmony), rhythm (which includes tempo
and meter), and the quality of sound (which includes
timbre, articulation, dynamics, and texture). Music
may also involve generative forms in time through
the construction of patterns and combinations of natural
stimuli, principally sound. Music may be used for
artistic or aesthetic, communicative, entertainment,
or ceremonial purposes. The definition of what constitutes
music varies according to culture and social context.
Within "the arts",
music can be classified as a performing art, a fine
art, or an auditory art form. The broadest definition
of music is organized vibration. There are observable
patterns to what is broadly labeled music, and while
there are understandable cultural variations, the
properties of music are the properties of sound as
perceived and processed by humans and animals (birds
and insects also make music).
Music is a personal
response to vibration since the same piece of music
will affect people differently. Although it cannot
contain emotions, it is sometimes designed to manipulate
and transform the emotions of the listeners. For example,
a piece of music created for a movie is primarily
designed to heighten the emotion or mood of each scene
in the film.
