Western music may refer to:
- Classical music, a genre of art music produced or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music from the 10th century onward. The canonical common practice period was from 1550 to 1900, although the style continues to be performed and developed to this day.
- Music of Western culture (see Music).
- Western music (North America), a style of music that celebrates the life of the cowboy. Originally a form of folk music with English, Irish, Scottish, and Mexican influences that developed in the western areas of the United States and Canada.
Famous quotes containing the words western and/or music:
“We hold on to hopes for next year every year in western Dakota: hoping that droughts will end; hoping that our crops won’t be hailed out in the few rainstorms that come; hoping that it won’t be too windy on the day we harvest, blowing away five bushels an acre; hoping ... that if we get a fair crop, we’ll be able to get a fair price for it. Sometimes survival is the only blessing that the terrifying angel of the Plains bestows.”
—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)
“In benevolent natures the impulse to pity is so sudden, that like instruments of music which obey the touch ... you would think the will was scarce concerned, and that the mind was altogether passive in the sympathy which her own goodness has excited. The truth is,—the soul is [so] ... wholly engrossed by the object of pity, that she does not ... take leisure to examine the principles upon which she acts.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)