Western music

Western music (North America), a form of country music from the Western United States and Old West, including: New Mexico music. Red Dirt (music) Tejano music. Texas country music.

Most Western tonal music is based on major and minor scales, both of which easily give that strongly tonal feeling. Some other scales, such as blues scales, also work well within a tonal framework, but others, such as whole-tone scales, do not.

Some common characteristics, which are not always present and are not only specific to this period, include:

• Fewer lyrical melodies than other periods.
• Dissonant Harmonies.
• Complex rhythms.
• Percussiveness.
• Greater use of percussion,brass,and woodwind.
• Uses synthetic and electronic sounds.

The main fundamental difference between western music and all other cultures is the polyphony and the chord based harmonic tunes, while other cultures have only known heterophony.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) is unquestionably the most revered figure in the entire history of western classical music, having been called “The Father of Music” on several occasions, and often being referenced to by other composers, like Frédéric Chopin and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as a key inspiration.

In many parts of the world, as they began to "modernize" in the 19th century, Western music, along with Western dress, Western architecture, etc were seen as being more civilized, more cultured - or, at least, they were seen as markers one needed to take on in order to get respect from the Western powers.

Western music is music composed/created in Europe, the United States, and societies that were shaped by European immigrants. It has taken many forms over the years and the time that it was written determines how the music sounds.

The four families of Western instruments are strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion.

Some of the central characteristics of Western culture include:

• Democracy.
• Rational thinking.
• Individualism.
• Christianity.
• Capitalism.
• Modern technology.
• Human rights.
• Scientific thinking.

Almost all Indian music is based on melody - single notes played in a given order. Western music has strong harmonic content i.e. a group of notes called chords played simultaneously. Unlike Indian tonal system, the Western tonal system is divided into twelve equal intervals.

Johann Sebastian Bach - Wikipedia.