The Musician
In most of the world's societies, musicianship talent, special knowledge or training, and effort, and the view is that a successful musical work or performance is difficult to . There is no that superior musical abilities arise in one society or race as opposed to another; rather, in are the result of differences in , in the degree of specialisation of musicians, and in the value placed on music. talent, however, is recognised among most peoples, and the musical specialist exists everywhere: as a true in the West, India, the Far East, and Africa; as an informal leader and singer in folk ; and as someone who also has supernatural power in tribal societies. But if music is regarded as indispensable everywhere, the musician has rarely enjoyed great prestige. In certain early societies in Europe and America, for example, musicians were regarded as undesirable social deviants; this remains the case in the present-day Middle East. In many societies music is relegated to outsiders - foreigners or members of religious and . Many modern social systems, including those in the West, inordinately reward the outstanding star performer but pay little attention to the average musician. , musicianship in most parts of the world long of study, extending in the case of European and Indian virtuosos to some 20 years.

Musical
Each culture has its own music, and the , folk, and popular of a are usually closely related and easily recognised as part of one system. The peoples of the world can be grouped musically into several large , each with its characteristic musical dialect. These include Europe and the West; the Middle East with North Africa; Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent; South-East Asia and Indonesia; Oceania; China, Korea, and Japan; and the indigenous of the Americas. All roughly with determined by and historical relationship, but, surprisingly, they do not well with determined by language relationships.

The history of Western music - the one most easily because of Western musical notation - is conveniently divided into eras of relative separated by short periods of more change. The periods accepted are the Middle Ages (to c. 1450), the Renaissance (1450-1600), the Baroque era (1600-1750), the era (1750-1820), the Romantic era (1820-1920), and the modern period. Other , less well documented, have experienced change and development (not necessarily always in the direction of greater ), so that the simplest tribal musics also have their histories. In the 20th century, however, rapid travel and mass have led to a great decrease in the musical of the world.