First, the material used in music art is sound, that is, music is the art of sound. No matter songs or instrumental music, the material they use is sound (songs are the product of the combination of music and lyrics). The sound used in music is an organized sound sequence abstracted and selected from various sound phenomena in the objective world. According to the height, length, strength and timbre, these sounds constitute the elements of music language such as melody, beat rhythm, mode tonality, harmony polyphony and orchestration. What needs to be added here is that music not only uses musical sounds, but also includes some selected and processed noises. For example, some percussion and some discordant chords.
Second, music depends on auditory experience, that is, music belongs to the art of hearing. "Listening" here includes the whole process of auditory theory. Therefore, to understand the characteristics of music, we must understand the essence of sound, auditory feeling and auditory representation, that is, the whole process from perceptual basis to musical aesthetic consciousness. Hearing is closely related to other physiological and psychological phenomena, so if you want to feel music, you must train your hearing, otherwise "the most beautiful music is meaningless to non-musical ears" (Marx and Engels "On Art"). The so-called auditory music training refers to all elements in music works (such as melody, rhythm, strength, length, mode and tonality, harmony, timbre, etc.). ) mainly through hearing to perceive and feel. It should be added here that music is not only heard, but sometimes felt through the whole body. For example, beat, rhythm and strength are not only felt by hearing. But listening is the foundation and the key. Due to the long-term training and accumulation of hearing, people will also have different degrees of so-called "inner hearing", that is, they can feel the sound of a certain piece of music through imagination or reading music without directly singing, playing and listening to music works.
Third, music is best at expressing emotions, which means that music is an art of expression. Especially in instrumental music without semantic combination of lyrics. A piece of music may be a kind of emotional ups and downs, or it may be the contrast and conflict of several emotions.
Because the material used in music art-sound is not as clear as language and words, it is difficult to express specific concepts and ideas, and it is also difficult to describe specific phenomena and plot events in life, but to "melt" all this in feelings. Therefore, we can't simply use the laws of visual image plastic arts or literal arts to demand and understand the content of music. And she uses sound as the medium, which makes the sound have great emotional expression and appeal. She directly causes people's emotional reactions and stimulates people's emotions.
Music also has so-called modeling and description, but it is not like visual art, but through the analogy of sound, in association. Expression should always be dominant. Beethoven's sixth (pastoral) symphony, each movement has a specific title, but Beethoven's music begins with the words: "Expression is more than sound and picture".
The combination of music with lyrics and various literary forms (such as songs, operas, symphonic poems, etc.). ) lead the performance content of music to a broader realm. Of course, these different forms of combination (such as songs, operas, etc. ) is already a comprehensive art form.
The text title or description of instrumental music makes the content of music more specific, and people can follow it when enjoying it. However, "expression" must be the core. Although the so-called "musical image" is also used in music, it only refers to a vivid "scene" created through artistic generalization according to various phenomena in real life. It is an attribute that uses "image" to illustrate the concrete and vivid performance of music and arouse people's thinking. China Paper Download Center. Music needs performance to finally complete the creative process, that is to say, music is an art of performance. Only by playing and singing can music be perceived by people and produce artistic aesthetic effects. Performance should be said to be the second creation of music.