To begin with, song is music for the voice or the sound made while speaking. It should be heard otherwise it becomes only lyrical without the use of voice. In this case the instrumentality of voice is vital and it is the only way a song can be sung. A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetition and variation of sections.
In comparison with humans, the song of animals is the musical phrases uttered by some birds, whales, and insects, typically forming a recognizable and repeated sequence and used chiefly for territorial defense or for attracting mates. But when man sings, there are various purposes depending on the situation – love songs, hymns, war cry and the like.
While man sings, there should often be listeners or the audience to grasp the message the singer intends to convey. It is wise to understand why people sing: As such history suggests, songs are used for many purposes: to tell stories, express emotions, or convey a belief in faith. Sometimes they give instructions or help make difficult, repetitive work a little less tiresome.
It is natural that songs help a person who is overworked to relax. In the middle of a very busy work and when the person is about to get exhausted, a break for listening to a song becomes a time of rest or relief. Song has several social functions: To entertain the listeners. The unique nature of man is his innate desire to be entertained, its central point being amusement. While listening to song the listener pleasantly passes his time. Songs are used to teach moral values through their lyrics. At this point, we need to ask ourselves what moral values songs help us to maintain.
Human beings are social beings though many refer to them as social animals. Our tendency is to co-exist and live with others in harmony. Stability in our social relations is built around certain shared principles, belief systems and ways of life.
These are known as values and are important for our growth and evolution. They ground us and challenge us as individuals as well as collectives. By adopting the right values, we can create the kind of life that is most true to ourselves. Our life’s flow is directed by the decisions we make on a daily basis. However, these decisions are governed by our values. Since the values differ from one person to another, people make different decisions and have different life outcomes in songs affirm these to us.
Moral values provide a way of managing the relationship between our public and private emotional life. While we interact with other prople, our emotional state and expressions must be controlled and manageable and tolerated by those we interact with. We cannot show our feelings as crude as they are if we mean to peacefully coexist with others. We need to earnestly maintain refined emotional state since people expect that elevated moral standard from us. Privately, how we handle our emotion is up to us as long as it does not affect others. Thus, a song while it is enjoyable to hear, it has a duty in maintaining moral standard as it is vividly indicated above.
Love song: Even if you’re not currently in love, however, even less deniable is the power of a good love song, which is exactly the reason why you hear so many of the same songs, often insufferable ones at weddings. But whether you find them tacky or not it is beside the point because the true importance of love songs is that they have the power to connect people in incomparable, unforgettable ways. Come on, do not lie; you absolutely remember what song sound tracked your first kiss, first time, first date, or first slow dance. The question here is if music can make you feel in love. Music is also the neurochemical that gets released when we’re love-struck. In one study, participants registered a dopamine increase of up to 21 percent when listening to an enjoyable piece of music. That’s pretty intense pleasure.
A great love song can elevate an intimate moment from simply romantic to absolutely cinematic, and listeners can thank musicians for crafting some that have not only topped the charts but touched hearts and stood the test of time. We should remember that love song is one of the strongest, greatest forces in the world.
It is a kind of strong adhesive that binds two loving couple inseparably. They cannot survive when one is away from the other. It is said that the first impression is always right. Thus, spouses, tenaciously cling to the first love song they enjoyed, the remembrance of it is that makes them live together for the rest of their life. the fact is that we subconsciously form an impression of people we meet for the first time. When we see a person for the first time, we take in his gender, height, weight, color of the eye, skin color, and even the symmetry of his face.
The Song of Solomon in the Bible affirms this. The king in his song shows how with great anticipation, the Shulamite looks forward to the next visit from Solomon and can hardly believe it when he shows up. He says, “Come with me… Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, come with me.” She accepts his proposal, exclaiming, “My beloved is mine and I am his” She can hardly wait for her wedding day and she badly misses her beloved when he is not near her. But again, the couple is cautioned against yielding to the temptation of premarital sex like everybody else should.
Honeymoon: This is where the book gets steamy (in a sanctified sense). The groom in his song describes his wife’s body in exquisite detail, and he calls her his “bride” five times. The bride invites her groom to “come into his garden and taste its choice fruits.” He does. He tells us, “I have come into my garden, my bride; I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey; I have drunk my wine and my milk.” Their friends encourage them to drink they fill of love. Notice how explicit the Scriptures are, and yet how discreet.
Throughout this honeymoon passage, the language is very graphic yet veiled in figurative terms that appropriately covey the beauty of the intimacy of marriage without being at all vulgar or course. While true enlightening love song creates the bliss that spouses crave for, but love based on money like the one we witness these days spoils the brew mercilessly.
There is another type of song that serves social and political purpose in defending the country against an invading enemy. For instance, battle cry can be justly considered because of its honorable value. Battle cry is word or phrase shouted by soldiers going into battle to express solidarity and intimidate the enemy. It is often heard as a yell or chant taken up in battle, usually by members of the same combatant. Battle cry is a way of boosting the heroic spirit of those in action so that they bravely fight to defeat the enemy. In other way, it is a slogan used to encourage those in a battlefield.
National anthem is one of the most revered types of songs by all countries of the world. Wikipedia defines a national anthem as a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style.
To sum it up, a song is a God-given sentimental mechanism by which man musically expresses his feelings of various kinds.
BY JOSEPH SOBOKA
The Ethiopian Herald 15 August 2021
