Reading - Part 3

Music was an important part of culture and social life in ancient Greece. Choruses performed for entertainment, celebration and spiritual ceremonies, and musicians and singers had an important role in Greek theatre. Music was also part of children's basic education in ancient Greece.

Birdsong sounds like music to our ears, but these sounds have a greater purpose to birds. Birds sing longer and more complex songs to attract a mate. They make shorter sounds as alarm in the time of danger or as a way of keeping contact with the members of a flock.

Benjamin Britten was born on the feast day of Saint Cecilia, the patron saint of music, and he showed musical gifts very early in life. He began to write music as a child, and he later studied at the Royal College of Music. The first of his works to attract wide attention were the opera Sinfonietta and a set of choral variations A Boy Was Born, written in 1934.

Early instrumental section in an orchestra has principals who are responsible for leading the group and playing orchestral solos. The violins are divided into two groups, first violin and second violin, each with its own principal. The principal first violin is considered the leader not only of the string section, but of the entire orchestra, answering only to the conductor.

Music training in schools is common in North America and Europe because involvement in music is thought to teach important basic skills such as concentration, listening, and cooperation as well as improving the understanding of language and the ability to recall information.

The human body, generating both vocal and percussive sounds, may have been the first musical instrument. Percussion instruments such as stones and hollow logs are also possible examples. For instance, nine-thousand-year-old bone flutes or recorders have been found in Chinese archaeological sites.