When I started to study the history of music, I did not realize what I was getting into. I had thought that music history was like a trivial pursuit. Honestly, I only followed my history of classical music course because I needed the credits. I did not realize how completely interesting music history is.
You see, in our culture many of us do not actually study to comprehend music. For a lot of people, music is a language, but for our civilization it is something that we consumed passively. When I started to study about the history of Western music, however, it changed all that for me. I have had some experience using musical instruments, but I have never mastered one enough to really comprehend what music is all about. This class showed me.
When a lot of us think about the history of music, we think of the history of rock music. We think that the history is simple because the music is simple. Actually, neither is the case. The historyofmusic, whether you're talking about classical music, rock music, jazz music, or any other kind, is always complicated. New chord structures are introduced taking with them new ways of understanding humanity. New rhythmic patterns are introduced, bringing with them new methods of understanding history. And music shows all of it.
Even when the class was over, I could not stop learning about the historyofmusic. It had stimulated my appetite, and I wanted more. I acquired all the music history volumes that I could find. I even started to study forms of music that had not interested me before in the hopes of increasing my musical comprehension further. When I was in college studying toward something very different - a degree in engineering - I had thought about quitting and going back to get a degree in musicology.
That is how much I am enthralled by the issue.
If you have never taken a class in the history of music, you don't know what you are missing out on. The radio will never sound the same to you again. The whole thing will sound a lot more rich, a lot more bright, and much more important. A new song can be a sign of a new way of being, and a new way of imagining existence in the world. This is what learning about the history of music would do to many of us.
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