MUSICAL

CULTURE
 According to Duke Ellington, there ar
e only two kinds of music- the good a
nd bad. It is an argument that each cu
ltural community or social grouping h
as its own valuation or appreciation of
what is good and bad music.
In a crowd of audience of one known musi
cian in the country, there is always polarity
, the crowd is divided into two:
1. Loyal audience identifies the nuances a
nd variety of notes and styles employed b
y their favorite performer.
2. It may be less pleasing to other listener and
thinks that all they heard sounds the same.
Thus music can be performed well or it may
turn out ugly which is based according to wh
at the culture believes as good or bad music t
he listeners need to be well informed and ac
tive in listening.
Uninformed and inactive listeners, howe
ver, will always turns the most brilliant co
mposer and performer in their worst perf
ormance.
Another category of music is art music (
high culture) and music of the people ( p
opular culture).
1. Artistic music demands high level of train
ing on the part of the performer and high le
vel of sophistication on the part of the audi
ence, music is relatively limited to the elite
member of society.
 2. Popular music and folk styles on the other
hand started out as easier to perform and not
complicated to the ears of the listener thus att
racts wide audience mostly coming from the l
ower ranks of the society, there is a tendency f
or it to become sophisticated later on.
 The third category of music in terms of soph
istication and popularity in the subculture:
1. Rock and roll music for example establishe
d itself as a popular music but distinction in
styles and instruments employed created n
ew generationsof rock music (subculture) li
ke the gothic, grunch, hand core, emo, alte
rnative and techno.
2. Symphony in No. 4 in G Major by Austrian compos
er Gustav Mahler and suite: Pour le Piano by French c
omposer Claude Debussy can be thought of as Europ
ean art music and both were completed in 1901. Onc
e again, however we find music with clearly different
sounds.
 The most obvious difference is in performance
medium: orchestra and voice in the Mahler wor
k: piano in Debussy composition. The two works
also differ in pitch structure. The Mahler symph
ony is still organized around a set of harmonic r
elationships among pitches and would be descri
bed as tonal.
Most and modernizing and modern country ho
wever, have its own subculture on subculture m
usic, thus it creates a multi-layered musical cult
ure.