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World Knowledge of Literature, Music, and Art
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Throughout time the world has been blessedly endowed with great works
of literature, music, and art from around the globe. With such a vast
topic, where do you begin to understand the origin of great works and
their impact on society? Beginning with the classics in literature,
music, and art; then moving to the more contemporary space is a
wonderful way to at least get a historical overview.
With respect to the written word — literature;
many historians and academicians (professors, scholars) will
agree that the masterworks of Britain, the classics of Greece and
Rome, and the folk legends from the Norse and Celtic tribes is the
place to start when reviewing classic world literature. Some of the
works within this group respectively are Beowulf, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey,
and the Shakespearean epics. Even though these references may seem
unfamiliar, they are the cornerstones to classical literature. Far
preceding these European classics; however, are the Vedas of India,
which are among the world's oldest sacred texts dating from 1500 to 500 BC. In contemporary world literature, since the twentieth century, authors from around the globe — from Africa, such as the great Chinua Achebe to India's Rohinton Mistry — are contributing fine works reflective of the motherland and their country's condition.
Classical music could be our oldest form of music starting as early as
the ninth century until present times. "Fathers" of the classical
tradition are Johann Sebastian Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Brahms. Of
course there are many others, but these four men were typical of genres
or styles of classical music that have continued to influence music
today. In contemporary times, when one speaks of world music, which is
very popular, it refers to a trend in the 1960s to bring the music of
indigenous cultures to the forefront. Today, for example, Chab Mami
from Algeria is a popular singer fusing the sounds of North Africa with
the melancholy tones of Andalusia an area in Spain. If you think about
how many cultures there are in the world, you can imagine the how many
different sounds and types of music there are.
Art, some say, is a matter of taste and personal preference,
but since the beginning of time, man has tried to recreate beauty in
his space or use pictures to record his life and surroundings.
Beginning with the ancient Egyptians as far back as 2800 BC; many
art historians claim that the sculpture of the Pharaoh is one of the
greatest works of art of all time. Then there were the Iraqis who
decorated the Assyrian palaces with breathtaking beauty.
Monumental and great works continued to thrive in China, India, and
Peru. It was not until about the ninth century in Ireland, when the
Europeans were ready to keep up with the rest of the world. In looking
at art globally, there are iconic pieces and artists that have
influenced and shaped the way we see the world. Today, many great
museums around the world house rare and valuable art. A few famous
artists who changed the way we see the world, include —
Pablo Picasso (Spain), Vincent Van Gogh (Holland), Salvador Dalì
(Spain), Leonardo DaVinci (Italy), Kandinsky (Russia), and Matisse
(France.) This is just a tiny sampling of artists who have made huge
contributions to the art world. The world art scene today is dynamic,
subversive, and representative of many, many countries; including
in Beijing, China; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Berlin, Germany.
Knowing that there is so much information to explore, take
your time and absorb all the great beauty and talent that is in the
world. You never know what book or song or painting will inspire you,
fill your heart with joy, and open your eyes to ideas never once
imagined. That is what culture does for us.
Lesser Known Facts
"World literature was long defined
as an established canon of European masterpieces, but an emerging
global perspective has challenged both this European focus and the very
category of the masterpiece" (Princeton University Press)
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The epic, Homer's Iliad,
relates an important incident centering around the greatest hero of the
Greeks in the Trojan War, the most celebrated war of Greek legend
An epic is a long poem that tells a story involving gods, heroes, and heroic actions — good and otherwise.
In classical literature a fable is a narrative for the "every day man" including a morality tale.
King Lear is considered William Shakespeare's greatest masterpiece.
Classical music has approximately seven different time division and styles:
- The Medieval Period (476 to1400)
- The Renaissance Period (1400 to 1600)
- The Baroque Period (1600 to 1750)
- The Classical Period (1730 to 1820)
- The Romantic Period (1815 to 1910)
- 20th Century Classical (1900 to 2000)
- Contemporary Classical (1975 to Present Day)
Miguel Cervantes wrote the sequel to Don Quixote
so that he could kill off the title character and thus deter other
authors from publishing pirated (or copied) versions of his creation.
Soviet poet Anna Akhmatova once held a 17-month vigil outside a prison
awaiting the release of her son. She was inspired to write her
poem Requiem when a woman recognized her and asked if she could describe the scene.
Hanan al-Shaykh is considered the Arab world's leading female novelist. She has written three books: Women of Sand and Myrrh, The Story of Zahra, and Beirut Blues, as well as a collection of short stories, I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops.
The following are considered to be the top 10 books of all time:
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
- Hamlet by William Shakespeare
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
- The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
The height of classical music was from the 1750s to the early 1900s.
The composer Beethoven was deaf when he composed most of his great works. He began to lose his hearing in his twenties.
Ethnomusicology is the study of social and cultural aspects of music and dance in local and global contexts.
Ethnomusicologist Robert E. Brown developed the term world music, in the 1960s, while working on his Ph.D. at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Jazz
according to many ethnomusicologists remains America's only original
living art form. Its origins started in the Black ghettos of New
Orleans at the end of the nineteenth century. In the 1920s, jazz moved
north to Chicago and New York as African Americans migrated to urban
centers in search of a better life. Jazz is a sound and style of music
rooted in gospel and European influences and reflects the mood and
style of its musician. Today, its influence envelops the globe.
Africa produces a huge majority of world music today — from Mali, Algeria, Senegal, and Cote d'Ivoire.
Hip-hop has such a global reach now that some of the top rappers in the world have come out of China and Korea.
The term BC means Before Christ. So when a date of something is referenced as 1000 BC that means the work was done 1000 years before the birth of Christ.
Michelangelo painted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the Sistine Chapel ceiling in only four years — between 1508 and 1512.
Michelangelo is considered one of the world's greatest artists and is well known for his sculpture of David.
Bongos originally came from Africa and South America.
The bongos were made popular in the 1960s with their use in Latin music and jazz.
The didgeridoo is an aboriginal wind instrument from Australia.
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