symphony

A symphony is a large piece of music written for an orchestra (Like the New York Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra). They started with Haydn during the Classical period, and are still written today. They consist usually of 3 main movements, or sections each lasting several minutes. (the number does vary depending on composer-- Olivier Messiaen wrote one that is 10 movements long!). In classical music, a symphony is an extended musical composition, scored almost always for orchestra. "Symphony" does not necessarily imply a specific form though most are composed according to the sonata principle. ...

In Western classical music, a symphony is an extended musical composition, scored almost always for orchestra. "Symphony" does not necessarily imply a specific form, though most are composed according to the sonata principle. Many symphonies are tonal works in four movements with the first in sonata form, which is often described by music theorists as the structure of a "classical" symphony, although many symphonies by the acknowledged classical masters of the form, Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven do not conform to this model.

A symphony is any piece of music played by an orchestra - usually in several movements. Done!

Well that was simple enough - but now I have two more words to define...

A movement is a complete section of music (usually all one overall speed and style) that you DON'T clap after. I know it may feel as though you should clap after some movements are done - but don't. You may be shunned by society and ridiculed behind your back for years should you commit such a musical mistake (yes, it IS possible to commit a musical mistake while in the audience.)

I guess you could applaud between movements at home where no one could hear you, but I don't recommend it - inter movement clapping could be habit forming and you wouldn't want to mess up if you actually go out in public. Also the people who recorded the music you are listening to in your home can't hear you!

You're just like those people who clap at the end of movies. THE ACTORS CAN'T HEAR YOU!!!! If you feel the need to applaud a lot - go down to your local jazz club. There you can clap after every solo (five, maybe six times each song!) And the live performers CAN hear you. And they like to hear clapping. Anyway...

An orchestra is a group of musicians - frequently in tuxes and black dresses who play a variety of instruments. The first orchestras had the fewest people (there were just less people around back then...) But they had strings! (violin, viola, cello, and bass) All orchestras have string sections. It is a rule. Later, as more musicians became available, more were added. Mozart and Haydn added trumpets, drums, flutes, and more.

Then Beethoven came along and added a whole load of new people - musicians and also singers.* Sometimes you'll see a 180+ piece orchestra playing Mozart (this happened a lot in the 1950's - I don't know why.) It's wrong. Mozart had somewhere around 40 people in his orchestras.

Symphonies started round about 1720 - but you probably wouldn't recognize those early ones. The "modern" symphony started with Haydn in about 1745. Haydn is THE symphony man He wrote 108** of them. Mozart is also a big name in the symphony scene - he only wrote 41 - but then again, Mozart died early (age 38). The next big name is Beethoven. He only wrote 9 symphonies but each of his is much longer than any of Haydn's symphonies.

Some other people to remember are Dvorak, Bruckner, and Zappa. Yes, Frank Zappa wrote one (I have the CD). The point here is symphonies are not dead. People still write them. I doubt though that a modern symphony - no matter how good - would ever be as popular as Beethoven's 9th or 5th.

folk

Folk music is a term for musical folklore which originated in the 19th century. It has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by word of mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers. It has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. Since the middle of the 20th century, the term has also been used to describe a kind of popular music that is based on traditional music. Fusion genres include folk rock, electric folk, folk metal, and progressive folk music. Likewise it is traditional melodies, words, and songs of the common people that are often handed down from one generation to the next. Folk music songs deal with almost every kind of human activity. Folk music often expresses the character of ethnic and social groups and sometimes a nation. It is the music of the people. A folk song can express political or religious beliefs, tell a story or describe history, or just provide amusement.

Folk music is usually learned by listening rather than by reading the notes or words. The music is shared from person to person, from place to place, and from generation to generation. Folk song sometimes change either by accident or from a purposeful alteration. Folk song melodies and words often evolve over time. Tunes are shortened or lengthened, pitches and rhythms are altered, and portions of one song may be combined with part of another. Words of a song may also change over time.

Folk songs can often be classified into different types. The ballad, a song that tells a story often about real events, is one of the main types of folk song. Ballads are in stanza form, where a melody is repeated for each of several verses, and may have a refrain that is repeated several times. Another type of folk song is those that deal with a particular activity, occupation, or set of circumstances. This group includes work songs, prison songs, war songs, and the like. There are also spiritual songs, songs for children, songs about life's stages, and many songs are just for celebration, dance, and enjoyment.

While the Romantic nationalism of the folk revival had its greatest influence on art-music, the "second folk revival" of the later 20th century brought a new genre of popular music with artists marketed by amplified concerts, recordings and broadcasting. The American Woody Guthrie collected folk music in the 1930s and 1940s and also composed his own songs, as did Pete Seeger. In the 1930s Jimmie Rodgers, in the 1940s Burl Ives and in the 1950s Seeger's group The Weavers, Harry Belafonte, The Kingston Trio, and The Lime liters found a popularity that culminated in the Hootenanny television series and the associated magazine ABC-TV Hootenanny in 1963–1964. Sing Out! magazine helped spread both traditional and composed songs, as did folk-revival-oriented record companies.

In 1950 Alan Lomax came to Britain and met A.L.'Bert' Lloyd and Ewan MacColl, a meeting credited as inaugurating the second British folk revival. In London the colleagues opened The Ballads and Blues Club, eventually renamed the Singers' Club, possibly the first folk club: it closed in 1991. As the 1950s progressed into the 1960s, the folk revival movement built up in both Britain and America.
In the 1960s, folk singers and songwriters such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Tom Paxton followed in Guthrie's footsteps, writing "protest music" and topical songs and expressing support for the American Civil Rights Movement. The Canadians Gordon Lightfoot, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn and Joni Mitchell were all invested with the Order of Canada. Dylan's use of electric instruments helped inaugurate the genres of folk rock and country rock, particularly by his album John Wesley Harding and his support for the music of The Band. Many of the acid rock bands of San Francisco began by playing acoustic folk and blues.

In the United Kingdom, the folk revival fostered young artists like The Watersons, Martin Carthy and Roy Bailey and a generation of singer-songwriters such as Bert Jansch, Ralph McTell, Donovan and Roy Harper. Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and Tom Paxton visited Britain for some time in the early 1960s, the first two, particularly, making later use of the traditional English material they heard.

The late 1960s saw the advent of electric folk groups, a key moment being the release of Fairport Convention's album Liege and Lief. Guitarist Richard Thompson declared that the music of The Band demanded a corresponding "English Electric" style, while bassist Ashley Hutchings formed Steeleye Span in order to pursue a wholly traditional repertoire. In the second half of the 1990s, once more, folk music made an impact on the mainstream music via a younger generation of artists such as Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby and Spiers and Boden.

blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the Deep South of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. The blues form ubiquitous in jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll is characterized by specific chord progressions—the twelve-bar blues chord progressions being the most common—and the blue notes, notes that for expressive purposes are sung or played flattened or gradually bent (minor 3rd to major 3rd) in relation to the pitch of the major scale.

The blues genre is based on the blues form but possesses other characteristics such as specific lyrics, bass lines and instruments. Blues can be subdivided into several subgenres ranging from country to urban blues that were more or less popular during different periods of the 20th century. Best known are the Delta, Piedmont, Jump and Chicago blues styles. World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience. In the 1960s and 1970s, a hybrid form called blues rock evolved.

The term "the blues" refers to the "blue devils", meaning melancholy and sadness; an early use of the term in this sense is found in George Colman's one-act farce Blue Devils (1798). Though the use of the phrase in African American music may be older, it has been attested to since 1912, when Hart Wand's "Dallas Blues" became the first copyrighted blues composition.In lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood.Most blues fans are very familiar with the work of blues guitar legend Jimmy Dawkins. Not everyone is aware of his work as a record producer with his own label, Leric Records. In the 1980s, the label released 45s by Tail Dragger, Queen Sylvia Embry, Little Johnny Christian and Nora Jean Wallace, to name a few.

Since the 1980s, there has been a resurgence of interest in the blues among a certain part of the African-American population, particularly around Jackson, Mississippi and other deep South regions. Often termed "soul blues" or "Southern soul", the music at the heart of this movement was given new life by the unexpected success of two particular recordings on the Jackson-based Malaco label: Z. Z. Hill's Down Home Blues (1982) and Little Milton's The Blues is Alright (1984). Contemporary African-American performers who work this vein of the blues include Bobby Rush, Denise LaSalle, Sir Charles Jones, Bettye LaVette, Marvin Sease and Peggy Scott-Adams.

During the 1980s, blues also continued in both traditional and new forms. In 1986, the album Strong Persuader revealed Robert Cray as a major blues artist. The first Stevie Ray Vaughan recording, Texas Flood, was released in 1983, and the Texas-based guitarist exploded onto the international stage. 1989 saw a revival of John Lee Hooker's popularity with the album The Healer. Eric Clapton, known for his performances with the Blues Breakers and Cream, made a comeback in the 1990s with his album Unplugged, in which he played some standard blues numbers on acoustic guitar. However, beginning in the 1990s, digital multitrack recording and other technological advances and new marketing strategies that include video clip production have increased costs, and challenge the spontaneity and improvisation that are an important component of blues music.

In the 1980s and 1990s, blues publications such as Living Blues and Blues Revue began to be distributed, major cities began forming blues societies, outdoor blues festivals became more common, and more nightclubs and venues for blues emerged.

In the 1990s, blues performers explored a range of musical genres, as can be seen, for example, from the broad array of nominees of the yearly Blues Music Awards, previously named W. C. Handy Awards or of the Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary and Traditional Blues Album. Contemporary blues music is nurtured by several blues labels such as: Alligator Records, Ruf Records, Chess Records (MCA), Delmark Records, Northern Blues Music, and Vanguard Records (Artemis Records). Some labels are famous for their rediscovering and remastering of blues rarities such as Arhoolie Records, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings (heir of Folkways Records) and Yazoo Records (Shanachie Records).

Trumpet

The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family.Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments,dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape, and are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the trumpet.Its a kind of soprano brass wind instrument consisting of a long metal tube looped once and ending in a flared bell, the modern type being equipped with three valves for producing variations in pitch.There are several types of trumpet; the most common is a transposing instrument pitched in B?. The tube length of the most common B-trumpet is about 134 cm. The predecessors to trumpets did not have valves, but modern trumpets have either three piston valves or three rotary valves. Each valve increases the length of tubing when engaged, thereby lowering the pitch.The trumpet is used in many forms of music, including classical music and jazz.
A trumpet is a brass wind instrument noted for its powerful tone sounded by lip vibration against its cup-shaped mouthpiece. A trumpet consists of a cylindrical tube, shaped in a primary oblong loop that flares into a bell. Modern trumpets also have three piston valves as well as small, secondary tubing that act as tuning slides to adjust the tone. Almost all trumpets played today are B-flat. This is the tone naturally played when the trumpet is blown. They have a range between the F-sharp below middle C to two and a half octaves above (ending at B), and are comparatively easier to play than other brass instruments.

The first trumpets were probably sticks that had been hollowed out by insects. Numerous early cultures, such as those in Africa and Australia, developed hollow, straight tubes for use as megaphones in religious rites. These early "trumpets" were made from the horns or tusks of animals, or cane. By 1400 B.C. the Egyptians had developed trumpets made from bronze and silver, with a wide bell. People in India, China, and Tibet also created trumpets, which were usually long and telescoped. Some, like Alpine horns, rested their bells on the ground. Assyrians, Israelites, Greeks, Etruscans, Romans, Celts, and Teutonic tribes all had some form of horn, and many were decorated. These instruments, which produced low, powerful notes, were mainly used in battle or during ceremonies. They were not usually considered to be musical instruments. To make these trumpets, the lost-wax method was used. In this process, wax was placed in a cavity that was in the shape of a trumpet. This mold was then heated so that the wax melted away, and in its place molten bronze was poured, producing a thick-walled instrument.

The trumpet is constructed of brass tubing bent twice into an oblong shape. The trumpet and trombone share a roughly cylindrical bore which results in a bright, loud sound. The bore is actually a complex series of tapers, smaller at the mouthpiece receiver and larger just before the flare of the bell begins; careful design of these tapers is critical to the intonation of the instrument. By comparison, the cornet and flugelhorn have conical bores and produce a more mellow tone. Bore sizes generally range from 0.430 to 0.472 inches and are usually listed as medium, medium large and large from various manufacturers

Trumpet is strategy, content, action and analytics that connect brands and communities. Our focus is on start ups, launches and turnarounds, or brands that realize the value of thinking like one. We apply creativity and innovation to all aspects of business. And while that can certainly be advertising, it’s also product development, social or digital strategy, publicity, events, design or sponsored content.

sitar

The sitar is a plucked stringed instrument predominantly used in Hindustani classical music, where it has been ubiquitous since the Middle Ages. It derives its resonance from sympathetic strings, a long hollow neck and a gourd resonating chamber.

Sitar is perhaps the most well known of the Indian instruments. Artists such as Ravi Shankar have popularized this instrument around the world. Sitar is a long necked instrument with an interesting construction. It has a varying number of strings but 17 is usual. It has three to four playing strings and three to four drone strings. The approach to tuning is somewhat similar to other Indian stringed instruments. These strings are plucked with a wire finger plectrum called mizrab. There are also a series of sympathetic strings lying under the frets. These strings are almost never played but they vibrate whenever the corresponding note is sounded. The frets are metal rods which have been bent into crescents. The main resonator is usually made of a gourd and there is sometimes an additional resonator attached to the neck.The sitar's curved frets are movable, allowing fine tuning, and raised so that sympathetic strings (tarb, also known as "taarif" or "tarafdaar") can run underneath them. A sitar can have 21, 22, or 23 strings, among them six or seven played strings which run over the frets: the Gandhaar-pancham sitar (used by Vilayat Khan and his disciples) has six playable strings, whereas the Kharaj-pancham sitar, used in the Maihar gharana ,to which Pt. Ravi Shankar belongs, has seven. Three of these (or four on a Kharaj-pancham sitar), called the chikaari, simply provide a drone: the rest are used to play the melody, though the first string (baajtaar) is most used.

Used throughout the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Northern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the sitar became known in the western world through the work of Pandit Ravi Shankar beginning in the late 1950s, particularly after George Harrison of The Beatles took lessons from Shankar and Shambhu Das[1] and played sitar in songs including "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Shortly after, The Rolling Stones used sitar in "Paint It Black" and a brief fad began for using the instrument in pop songs.Hence,it gives a kind of different melody in music specially in the field of classic.It is now being modified n used in the rock music too which has made the rock music a different kind of music n gives a heavy satisfaction for the listener.

Bass Guitar

The bass guitar (also called electric bass, or simply bass; pronounced /'be?s/, as in "base") is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb (either by plucking, slapping, popping, tapping, or thumping), or by using a plectrum.The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and four, five, or six strings. The four string bass—by far the most common—is usually tuned the same as the double bass,[5] which correspond to pitches one octave lower than the four lower strings of a guitar (E, A, D, and G). The bass guitar is a transposing instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds (as is the double bass) to avoid excessive ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the electric bass guitar is plugged into an amplifier and speaker for live performances.

Since the 1950s, the electric bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While the types of bass lines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role in most types of music: anchoring the harmonic framework and laying down the beat. The bass guitar is used in many styles of music including rock, metal, pop, ska, reggae, dub, punk rock, country, blues, and jazz. It is used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, Latin, funk, and in some rock and heavy metal styles.

Since the 1950s, the electric bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While the types of bass lines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role in most types of music: anchoring the harmonic framework and laying down the beat. The bass guitar is used in many styles of music including rock, metal, pop, ska, reggae, dub, punk rock, country, blues, and jazz. It is used as a soloing instrument in jazz, fusion, Latin, funk, and in some rock and heavy metal styles.

In traditional country music, folk rock, and related styles, the bass often plays the roots and fifth of each chord in alternation. In Chicago blues, the electric bass often performs a walking bass line made up of scales and arpeggios. In blues rock bands, the bassist often plays blues scale-based riffs and chugging boogie-style lines. In metal, the bass guitar may perform complex riffs along with the rhythm guitarist or play a low, rumbling pedal point to anchor the group's sound.

The types of bass lines performed by the bass guitarist vary widely from one style of music to another. Despite all of the differences in the styles of bass line, in most styles of popular music, the bass guitarist fulfills a similar role: anchoring the harmonic framework (often by emphasizing the roots of the chord progression) and laying down the beat (in collaboration with the drummer). The importance of the bass guitarist and the bass line varies in different styles of music. In some pop styles, such as 1980s-era pop and musical theater, the bass sometimes plays a relatively simple part, and the music forefronts the vocals and melody instruments. In contrast, in reggae, funk, or hip-hop, entire songs may be centered on the bass groove, and the bass line is usually very prominent in the mix.

The bass guitarist sometimes breaks out of the strict rhythm section role to perform bass breaks or bass solos. The types of bass lines used for bass breaks or bass solos vary by style. In a rock band, a bass break may consist of the bassist playing a riff or lick during a pause in the song. In some styles of metal, a bass break may consist of "shred guitar"-style tapping on the bass. In a funk or funk rock band, a bass solo may showcase the bassist's percussive slap and pop playing. In genres such as progressive rock, art rock, or progressive metal, the bass guitar player may play melody lines along with the lead guitar (or vocalist) and perform extended guitar solos. Other contemporary musicians such as Edo Castro have taken the electric bass, including 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9 strings, into a new and evolving genre centered entirely around the bass itself.

Flutes

Flute is a high-pitched woodwind instrument; a slender tube closed at one end with finger holes on one end and an opening near the closed end across which the breath is blown.So,the flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reed less wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of Hornbostel-Sachs, flutes are categorized as Edge-blown aerophones.A flute is an aerophone that is played by blowing air across a sharp edge in the mouthpiece of the instrument. The flute family is a large family of instruments that includes widely-recognized instruments such as the orchestral flute and piccolo, panpipes, and recorders, as well as unusual instruments such as nose flutes and ocarinas. Although many particular kinds of flutes are not widely known, flutes in general are probably the most common non-percussion instrument found in music traditions around the world.

Flutes are usually (but not always) long, thin cylinders that are open at both ends. (Even if the flute appears to be closed at the mouthpiece end, air can usually escape at the blow hole, making the flute effectively an open-open cylindrical tube instrument.) If the player blows into one end of the cylinder, the flute is called end-blown; if the blow hole is in the side of the instrument, it is side-blown, or transverse. Flutes that are not cylindrical (such as ocarinas) are usually classified as vessel flutes.

The flute family is also the most widespread aerophone family, with representatives in more Non-Western music traditions around the world than any other non-percussion instrument. Bamboo flutes are common throughout Asia. Panpipes, which have many different-sized tubes bound together rather than finger holes in a single tube, are particularly popular in South America. Many variations of the side-blown and end-blown flutes (including double and triple flutes) have been developed in many cultures. Vessel flutes have been made in many different shapes, including animals and people, out of many different materials, including bone, wood, fruit shells, and pottery. Whistles are usually used for signals rather than music, but bird whistles, which are filled with water to get a bubbling whistle that sounds very much like the trill of a bird, are sometimes found in the percussion section of orchestras and bands. Nose flutes, played with the nose rather than the mouth, are popular in some South Pacific and Indian Ocean countries.

Aside from the voice, flutes are the earliest known musical instruments. A number of flutes dating to about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Alb region of Germany. These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.

The standard members of the transverse flute family are as follows, arranged from lowest pitched to highest pitched. Each of the various flutes has a several-octave range. They are all written at more or less the same place on the staff, but their sounding pitches are different. Notice that there are two that extend the flute’s range downwards, and two that extend it upwards. Related instruments are the end blown flutes, a group that includes the recorder or fipple flute, the Native American flute, the flageolet, and the tin whistle or penny whistle. The ocarina is also related; as is the transverse flute called the fife, the primary use of which is in combination with drums in marching or military bands; and various pan flutes, usually made of multiple pipes that are used to change pitch, rather than using holes or keys.

The flute is used in both band and orchestra. In both ensembles, one of the flute players usually doubles on piccolo. The flute is also a member of the wind ensemble, woodwind ensemble, and the woodwind quintet, in which it performs along with clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and French horn. It is also characteristically found in woodwind trios and quartets, though these do not have fixed membership, as the woodwind quintet does.

The flutes are the oldest category of woodwind instrument. There were flutes as early as the ninth century BCE. The basic design is a tube with an embouchure hole into which the player blows and finger holes to control the pitch. The modern flute was developed in 1830 by Theobald Boehm and incorporates his fingering system. Flutes and piccolos were both originally made of wood, but now they are generally metal.The holes in early transverse flutes were spaced to give mean tone tuning. This tuning system was popular in Europe from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, but it made it difficult for one instrument to play well in more than one key. This limited the flute's usefulness to orchestra.The recorder, a wooden, end-blown, whistle-mouthpiece type flute was very popular in early Western music. It was particularly popular in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. But it is not an ideal orchestral instrument because of its quiet sound.

Meanwhile, the key work on transverse flutes was gradually being improved and equal temperament, which allows an instrument to play equally well in all keys, became the accepted tuning standard. At that point, the transverse flute, with its wider range of timbre, pitch, and dynamics, became more popular than the recorder. Eventually the flute replaced the recorder so completely that the recorder nearly died out, until an interest in early music and early instruments helped spark a revival in the twentieth century.

The fife is a small transverse flute that - like the piccolo - sounds an octave higher than the orchestral flute. Its history since the middle ages is one of military rather than concert use, however. There were at one time fife "calls" used as signals (similar to the bugle calls still in use), and fife and drum corps still play military music.