Art of combining sounds into a structured form, usually according to conventional patterns and for an aesthetic (artistic) purpose. Music is generally divided into different genres or styles such as classical music, jazz, pop music, country, and so on.The Greek word mousikē covered all the arts presided over by the Muses. The various civilizations of the ancient and modern world developed their own musical systems. Eastern music recognizes smaller changes of pitch than does mainstream Western music (with the exception of much 20th-century contemporary art music) and also differs from Western music in that the absence, until recently, of written notation ruled out the composition of major developed works, though these are created through improvisation using melodic and rhythmic patterns governed by particular modes and formal devices. Such improvisations (as in the Indian raga) can last up to 70 minutes, interpreted by virtuosos.
The second half of the 20th century has seen dramatic changes in the nature of composition, with many new techniques such as those developed from medieval and biological or natural processes by composers such as Harrison Birtwistle, and the immense complexity and ultra-expression of Brian Ferneyhough. The recording studio has helped in the development of musique concrète, based on recorded natural sounds, and electronic music, in which sounds are generated electrically. These developments meant that music could be created as a finished object without the need for interpretation by live performers. Chance music, promoted by John Cage, introduced the idea of a music designed to provoke unforeseen results and thereby make new connections; aleatory music, developed by Karlheinz Stockhausen, introduced performers to freedom of choice from a range of options, and in Poland, Witold Lutosławski took this further to create immense controlled complexity in sound, while allowing performers much freedom to play naturally. Further initiatives by Stockhausen introduced new musical sounds and compositional techniques, often combining electronic and live performances. Since the 1960s the computer has become a focus of attention for developments in the synthesis of musical tones, and also in the automation of compositional techniques, most notably at Stanford University and MIT in the USA, and at IRCAM in Paris.
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