Like drama and dance, music is a performing art. It differs from such arts as painting and poetry, in which artists create works and then display or publish them. Musical composers need musicians to interpret and perform their works, just as playwrights need actors to perform their plays. Thus, musical performances are partnerships between composers and performers.

Music also plays a major role in other arts. Opera combines singing and orchestral music with drama. Ballet and other forms of dancing need music to help the dancers with their steps and evoke an atmosphere. Film and TV dramas use music to help set the mood and emphasize the action. Also, composers have set many poems to music.

Music is one of the oldest arts. People probably started to sing as soon as language developed. Hunting tools struck together may have been the first musical instruments. By about 10,000 B.C., people had discovered how to make flutes out of hollow bones. Many ancient peoples, including the Egyptians

The Oxford Junior Companion to Music. Ed. by Michael Hurd. 2nd ed. Oxford 1979.

Some short pieces of music have only one melody. Longer pieces may consist of different melodies to give the music contrast and variety. A melody repeated throughout a composition is called a theme. Composers often use a part of a melody or theme to develop musical ideas. Such a part is called a motive. The first four notes of the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven's fifth symphony form a motive. By repeating and varying these four notes, Beethoven developed a theme for the first part of this work.

A staff signature, or key signature, appears at the right of the clef sign. It consists of sharp signs or flat signs that indicate which notes should always be played sharp or flat. Each staff signature can indicate either of two keys--one major key and one minor key. For example, two sharps can mean the key of either D major or B minor.

Country music is derived from the folk music of rural whites of the Southern United States and other American traditional music. Country music is played from memory or improvised (spontaneously varied) from an existing song. See COUNTRY MUSIC.

Another important element of harmony is the cadence. This is a succession of chords that end a musical work or one of its sections. Most pieces of classical music end with a perfect cadence, which consists of a dominant chord followed by a tonic chord. A plagal cadence consists of a subdominant chord followed by a tonic chord. The "Amen" ending of a hymn is an example of a plagal cadence.

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