World Music Day is on June the 21st. It is actually known as the Fete de la Musique, because it began in France. In 1976, an American musician, Joel Cohen, suggested the idea of an all-night music celebration. He wanted the festival to take place on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice. His idea was adopted in France in 1982. It quickly spread to over one hundred cities around the world. The idea behind World Music Day is to promote music. This happens in two different ways. People play their music and perform, or busk, in the streets. These buskers can be professional or amateur musicians. The second way is to hold free concerts. These are free for concert-goers and free for organizers the artists receive no fee.

Music is defined as “the art or science of combining vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.” All music shares some common elements including pitch, rhythm and tempo. The word ‘music’ originally comes from Greek. Music is a part of all cultures. Many of us cannot live without it. We have to listen to it or produce it. We sing in the shower, download digital music from the Internet, and the lucky ones make a living from making it. Each country has its own music traditions and culture. This gives the music from each country its own unique and distinctive sound. We know instantly whether a piece of music comes from India, Africa, Australia or South America.

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