Devin McGinnis: Art in Culture

If you want to know what is at the heart of a culture, look at its art, listen to its music, read its poetry and you will begin to know the tree from which it came.  Consider, for the case of this argument, the music of the Middle East.  The music from this region will often sound strange and dissonant to the Western ear because of the way the scales are spaced out and   the due to the frequencies being closer together.5  When you set the music theory of this region against the political and social back drop of the middle east one begins to see Heidegger’s theory.  This land has been home to much tension and conflict over the course of many years, the birth of several religions, and the begging of several nations.  The music of the Middle East obviously reflects this dissonance. The singing alone sounds like wailing, desperation, longing, pain, and religious fervor.  To hear Middle Eastern music is to hear the Middle Eastern soul.  Moving further east, examine the music of China.  China is one of the largest nations in the world.  This culture is known for its strict rules, mores, and taboos.  This is a direct result of the oppression of the Chinese government.  It is a common Chinese proverb that “the nail that sticks up gets hammered.”  The music of this region reflects this.  Chinese music is typically built on a pentatonic (five-note) scale that is built in a way that creates the least amount of dissonance as possible.