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When I started to study the history of music, I did not know what I was getting into. I had thought that music history was like a trivial pursuit. In fact, I...

When I started to study the history of music, I did not know what I was getting into. I had thought that music history was like a trivial pursuit. In fact, I only took my history of classical music course because I needed the credits. I did not know how fully interesting music history is.


You see, in our culture a lot of us do not truly learn to understand music. For much of the world, music is a language, but for our civilization it is a thing that we consumed passively. When I started to learn about the history of Western music, though, it changed all that for me. I have had some experience playing musical instruments, but I have never mastered one enough to really understand what music is all about. This class taughed me.


When the majority of us think about the music history, we think of the history of rock music. We suppose that the history is plain because the music is plain. Actually, neither is the case. The historyofmusic, whether you're talking about classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is always complex. New chord structures are established bringing with them new ways of understanding the world. New rhythmic patterns are established, carrying with them new methods of understanding time. And music shows all of it.

Even when the class was finished, I would not stop learning about the historyofmusic. It had whetted my appetite, and I required more. I got a hold of all the music history volumes that I could get. I even started to research forms of music that had not interested me before in the hopes of developing my musical knowledge further. When I was in school studying toward something very different - a degree in engineering - I had thought about giving it up and going back to obtain a degree in musicology.

That is how much I am fascinated by the subject.
If you never took a course in the history of music, you don't know what you are missing out on. The CDs will never sound the same to you again. Everything will sound much more rich, much more luminous, and much more significant. A new song can reflect a new way of being, and a new way of imagining existence in the univers. This is what learning about the history of music signifies to a lot of us.


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Tags:  music     music history     history of music     music study   

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