1.
Musical instrument classification
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Throughout history, various methods of musical instrument classification have been used. The most commonly used system divides instruments into string instruments, woodwind instruments, brass instruments and percussion instruments, the oldest known scheme of classifying instruments is Chinese and dates from the 3rd millennium BC. It grouped instruments according to the materials they are made of. However, the Chou-Li, an anonymous treatise compiled from sources in about the 2nd century BC, had the following order, metal, stone, clay, leather, silk, wood, gourd. The same order was presented in the Tso Chuan, attributed to Tso Chiu-Ming, more usually, instruments are classified according to how the sound is initially produced. The modern system divides instruments into wind, strings and percussion, the scheme was later expanded by Martin Agricola, who distinguished plucked string instruments, such as guitars, from bowed string instruments, such as violins. Classical musicians today do not always maintain this division, but distinguish between wind instruments with a reed and those where the air is set in motion directly by the lips, many instruments do not fit very neatly into this scheme. The serpent, for example, ought to be classified as a brass instrument, however, it looks more like a woodwind instrument, and is closer to one in many ways, having finger-holes to control pitch, rather than valves. Keyboard instruments do not fit easily into this scheme, for example, the piano has strings, but they are struck by hammers, so it is not clear whether it should be classified as a string instrument or a percussion instrument. Ottoman encyclopedist Hadji Khalifa also recognized the three classes in his Kashf al-Zunun an Asami al-Kutub wa al-Funun, a treatise on the origin. The division pervades Tboli thought about cosmology, social characters of men and women, victor-Charles Mahillon later adopted a system very similar to this. This scheme was taken up by Erich von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs who published an extensive new scheme for classication in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. Their scheme is used today, and is most often known as the Hornbostel-Sachs system. Electrophones, such as the guitar or electric bass, which produce sound through electricity and is required to be plugged in to an amplifier. Later Sachs added a category, electrophones, such as theremins. Modern synthesizers and electronic instruments fall in this category, within each category are many subgroups. The system has been criticised and revised over the years, in 1932, comparative musicologist André Schaeffner developed a new classification scheme that was exhaustive, potentially covering all real and conceivable instruments. The Kpelle of West Africa also use this system and they distinguish the struck, including both beaten and plucked, and the blown
2.
String instrument
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String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord or piano, with bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates a wheel that rubs the strings. Bowed instruments include the string instruments of the Classical music orchestra. All of the string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers. Some types of string instrument are mainly plucked, such as the harp, in the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, in most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it, the vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, some, however—such as electric guitar and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification—may have a solid wood body. Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in Ancient Mesopotamian sites, like the lyres of Ur, the development of lyre instruments required the technology to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen the string tension. During the medieval era, instrument development varied from country to country, Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern, a four stringed precursor to the guitar and these instruments typically used catgut and other materials, including silk, for their strings. String instrument design refined during the Renaissance and into the Baroque period of musical history, violins and guitars became more consistent in design, and were roughly similar to what we use in the 2000s. At the same time, the 19th century guitar became more associated with six string models. In big bands of the 1920s, the guitar played backing chords. The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a power amplifier, the development of the electric guitar provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have magnetic pickups, volume control knobs and an output jack, in the 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called stacks
3.
Musical instrument
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A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument, the history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment, Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered an instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some refer to as a musical instrument. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago, many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world, however, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in areas and was dominated by the Occident. Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc. However, the most common method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of instruments is called organology. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies—for example, by using objects to create music from sounds. Primitive instruments were designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the notion of making music. Musical instruments are constructed in an array of styles and shapes
4.
Barbat (lute)
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The barbat or barbud was a lute of possibly Central Asian origin. As a two-stringed lute, the barbat was an important instrument of the Arab Ghassanids in pre-Islamic times, many instruments such as the Arabic oud are derived from the barbat. The modern Persian Barbat is almost identical to the oud, although differences include a body, longer neck. The barbat is one of the oldest instruments in the world, according to Encyclopedia Iranica, this type of instrument could have been introduced by the Kushans and was later adopted by the Persians. By the 7th century, the barbat was developed by the Sassanid Persians into a rud which after the Islamic Conquest of Persia was Arabized into its current form, after the tanbur, it is the oldest string instrument in Iran. The instrument was abolished in the Safavid period for an unknown reason and it is possible that the earliest ouds were carved from a solid piece of wood in a similar manner to the barbat. By the time of the Moorish period in Spain, the body was in its characteristic staved wood vaulted back design. After the instrument was taken to the Arab world, the body became larger as a result of the new method of construction. In all matters of holding and playing it is recommended that the player use only the muscles needed for any task and to relax as much as possible. This will allow one to play longer, easier and to put the effort into creativity rather than mechanics. In the past many players sat cross-legged on a rug, but now most perform sitting, two methods of left hand fingering are in current usage. Hakki Obadia taught a fingering system that uses finger 1 for several notes, finger 2 for some, but not all strings and finger 3. Another important facet of left hand technique is the employment of the fingernail to help stop the string, giving a clearer tone and this is common to several other fretless instrument, among them the sarod, shamisen and san-xien. As mentioned the right hand employs a method for holding the quill-inspired pick called risha in Arabic. The long flexible pick puts the wrist at a particular angle, the traditional material was an eagle quill, but this is not practical, plastic makes a more durable and standard material for the risha. Players have used things like collar stays, plastic pieces from hardware stores, cut-up plastic bottles and these come in a thin, more-or-less pointed tip style made of lighter gauge translucent plastic and a round tip model made of heavier white opaque stock. The thinner ones are lovely sounding and play very delicately with subtle nuances, variations can be obtained by cutting a new tip on the thinner ones a bit further back where the plastic is a little thicker, adding volume to the attack. The rounded ones can be cut to a shape and thinned a fraction with fine sandpaper adding nuance to the heavier attack produced by this pick
5.
Biwa
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The biwa is a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, often used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is the instrument of Benten, goddess of music, eloquence, poetry. The origin of biwa is Chinese pipa and it arrived in Japan in two forms. Since that time, the number of types has more than quadrupled. Guilds supporting biwa players, particularly the biwa hoshi, helped proliferate biwa musical development for hundreds of years, Biwa hōshi performances overlapped with performances by other biwa players many years before heikyoko and continued until today. This overlap resulted in an evolution of the biwa and its usage. Yet, in spite of its popularity, the Onin War and subsequent Warring States Period disrupted biwa teaching, with the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period, biwa players lost their patronage. Furthermore, reforms stemming from the Meiji Restoration led to massive, Japan modeled its development on Europe and the US, praising everything Western and condemning everything native. Traditions identifiably Japanese became associated with terms like backwards or primitive, such associations even extended into areas like art and music, and the biwa. Japanese and foreign musicians alike have begun embracing traditional Japanese instruments, particularly the biwa, while blind biwa singers no longer dominate the biwa, many performers continue to use the instrument in traditional and modern ways. The biwa came to Japan in the 7th century and it was evolved from the Chinese instrument pipa and this type of biwa is called the gaku-biwa and was used in gagaku ensembles and is the most commonly known type. While the route is unclear, another type of biwa found its way to the Kyushu region, before long, as the Ritsuryō state collapsed, the court music musicians were faced with the reconstruction and sought asylum in Buddhist temples. There they assumed the role of Buddhist monks and encountered the mōsō-biwa, through the next several centuries, players of both traditions intersected frequently and developed new music styles and new instruments. By the Kamakura period, the heike-biwa had emerged as a popular instrument, the heike-biwa could be described as a cross between both the gaku-biwa and mōsō-biwa. It retained the shape of the gaku-biwa and was played with a large plectrum like the mōsō-biwa. The heike biwa was also small, like the mōsō-biwa and was used for similar purposes, not much seems to have been written about biwas from roughly the 16th century to the mid-19th century. What is known is that three main streams of biwa emerged during that time, zato, shifu, and chofu and these styles emphasized 琵琶歌 — vocalization with biwa accompaniment — and formed the foundation for 江戸歌 styles such as shinnai and kota. From these styles also emerged the two survivors of the biwa tradition, satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa
6.
Chitarra Italiana
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Chitarra Italiana is a lute-shaped plucked instrument with 4 or 5 single strings, in a tuning similar to that of the guitar. It was common in Italy during the Renaissance Era and it is believed to have descended from Panduras, the Mediterranean lutes of Antiquity, and to be related to north African Quitra. Its bass variety was known as Chitarrone and he also said that in latter years, when the mandola was popular, the chitarrone was sometimes confused with the mandola. Cithara Italica Chitarra battente Mandore Gittern considered ancestral to Spanish guitar, kwitra, Also spelled kouitra, kaitara, and quitra. This is a North African 4 course lute, similar to the oud, da chitarra italiana a chitarrone, una nuova interpretazione. Enrico Radesca di Foggia e il suo tempo, Atti del Convegno di studi, strumenti della ricerca musicale collana della Società Italiana di Musicologia 5. Lucca, Italy, Libreria Musicale Italiana,2001, 37–57, the theorboed guitar - the Chitarrone Francese. London, Stephen Barber & Sandi Harris, Lutemakers, roberto Meucci recently wrote about small lutes, revealing that in Italy they were called chitarra, so as not to confuse them with the chitarra alla spagnola. Sources from the early 18th Century also declare that the chitarra italiana or chitarrino is in reality a small lute
7.
Lute
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The European lute and the modern Near-Eastern oud descend from a common ancestor via diverging evolutionary paths. The lute is used in a variety of instrumental music from the Medieval to the late Baroque eras and was the most important instrument for secular music in the Renaissance. It is also an instrument, especially in vocal works. The player of a lute is called a lutenist, lutanist or lutist, the words lute and oud possibly derive from Arabic al-ʿud. Recent research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests ʿud may in turn be an Arabized version of the Persian name rud and it has equally been suggested the wood in the name may have distinguished the instrument by its wooden soundboard from skin-faced predecessors. Gianfranco Lotti suggests the wood appellation originally carried derogatory connotations because of proscriptions of all music in early Islam. Lutes are made almost entirely of wood, the soundboard is a teardrop-shaped thin flat plate of resonant wood. In all lutes the soundboard has a single decorated sound hole under the strings called the rose. The sound hole is not open, but rather covered with a grille in the form of a vine or a decorative knot. Robert Lundberg, in his book Historical Lute Construction, suggests ancient builders placed bars according to ratios of the scale length. He further suggests the inward bend of the soundboard is an adaptation by ancient builders to afford the lutenists right hand more space between the strings and soundboard. Soundboard thickness varies, but generally hovers between 1.5 and 2 mm, some luthiers tune the belly as they build, removing mass and adapting bracing to produce desirable sonic results. The lute belly is almost never finished, but in cases the luthier may size the top with a very thin coat of shellac or glair to help keep it clean. After joining the top to the sides, a half-binding is usually installed around the edge of the soundboard, the half-binding is approximately half the thickness of the soundboard and is usually made of a contrasting color wood. The rebate for the half-binding must be precise to avoid compromising structural integrity. The back or the shell is assembled from strips of hardwood called ribs. There are braces inside on the soundboard to give it strength, the neck is made of light wood, with a veneer of hardwood to provide durability for the fretboard beneath the strings. Unlike most modern stringed instruments, the fretboard is mounted flush with the top
8.
Mandola
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The mandola or tenor mandola is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin, the four courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola. The mandola, although now rarer, is the ancestor of the mandolin, the name mandola may originate with the ancient pandura, and was also rendered as mandora, the change perhaps having been due to approximation to the Italian word for almond. The instrument developed from the lute at a date, being more compact and cheaper to build. Historically related instruments include the mandore, mandole, vandola, bandola, bandora, however, significantly different instruments have at times and places taken on the same or similar names, and the true mandola has been strung in several different ways. The mandola has four courses of metal strings, tuned in unison rather than in octaves. The scale length is typically around 42 cm, the mandola is typically played with a plectrum. The double strings accommodate a sustaining technique called tremolando, an alternation of the plectrum on a single course of strings. The mandola is commonly used in folk music—particularly Italian folk music and it is sometimes played in Irish traditional music, but the instruments octave mandola, Irish bouzouki and modern cittern are more commonly used. It is tuned like a viola CGDA, like the guitar, the mandola can be acoustic or electric. Attila the Stockbroker, punk poet and frontman of Barnstormer, uses an electric mandola as his main instrument, alex Lifeson, guitarist of Rush, has also featured the mandola in his work. Mandolas are often played in orchestras, along with other members of the mandolin family, mandolin, mandocello. Sometimes the octave mandolin is included as well, Mandolin Mando-bass Octave mandola - Tuned an octave below the mandolin Mandocello - Tuned an octave below the mandola Irish bouzouki Troughton, John. Mandolin Manual, The Art, Craft and Science of the Mandolin, united States, Crowood Press, Limited, The. The Tenor Mandola Chord Bible, CGDA Standard Tuning 1,728 Chords, Chords for Mandolin, Irish Bango, Bouzouki, Mandola, Mamdocello. — A chord book featuring 20 pages of popular chords, the Mandolin Page theMandolinTuner, a mandolin site focusing on mandolin tuning, chords and tabs
9.
Mandolin
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A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or pick. It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, although five, the courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths. It is the member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello. There are many styles of mandolin, but three are common, the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-back has a bottom, constructed of strips of wood. The carved-top or arch-top mandolin has a shallower, arched back. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music, carved-top instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are used in Irish, British and Brazilian folk music. Some modern Brazilian instruments feature a fifth course tuned a fifth lower than the standard fourth course. There has also been a type and an instrument with sixteen-strings. Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard, pre-mandolin instruments were quiet instruments, strung with as many as six courses of gut strings, and were plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder—using four courses of metal strings, the modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections, there is usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic f. A round or oval sound hole may be covered or bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling, Mandolins evolved from the lute family in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the deep bowled mandolin, produced particularly in Naples, became common in the 19th century. Dating to around c.13,000 BC, a painting in the Trois Frères cave in France depicts what some believe is a musical bow. From the musical bow, families of stringed instruments developed, since each string played a note, adding strings added new notes, creating bow harps, harps. In turn, this led to being able to play dyads and chords, another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a bridge used to lift the strings off the stick-neck, creating the lute
10.
Oud
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In the first centuries of Arabian civilisation, the oud had 4 courses only, tuned in successive fourths. These were called the Bamm, then came the Mathnā, the Mathlath, a fifth string, called ḥād, was sometimes added for theoretical purposes, generally to complement the double octave. The Modern tuning preserves the ancient succession of fourths, with adjunctions which may be tuned differently following regional or personal preferences. The first known description of the ‛ūd and its construction is found in the epistle Risāla fī-l-Luḥūn wa-n-Nagham by 9th-century Philosopher of the Arabs YaꜤqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī. Kindīs description stands thus, length will be, thirty-six joint fingers - with good thick fingers -, and its depth seven and a half fingers. And the measurement of the width of the bridge with the remainder behind, remains the length of the strings, thirty fingers and on these strings take place the division and the partition, because it is the sounding length. This is why the width must be fifteen fingers as it is the half of this length, similarly for the depth, seven fingers and a half and this is the half of the width and the quarter of the length. And the neck must be one third of the length and it is, remains the vibrating body, twenty fingers. And that the back be well rounded and its thinning towards the neck, the first description of the modern oud is by ibn a-ṭ-Ṭaḥḥān. It is very similar to the construction of modern lutes, the modern oud stems most probably from the barbat which, in turn, stems from the Indian lute-type vīnā. The oud, as a difference with the western lute, has no frets. It is the ancestor of the European lute. The oldest surviving oud is thought to be in Brussels, at the Museum of Musical Instruments, the Arabic, العود literally denotes a thin piece of wood similar to the shape of a straw. Henry George Farmer considers the similitude between al-ʿūd and al-ʿawda, research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests that oud may be an Arabic borrowing from the Persian word rōd or rūd, which meant string, stringed instrument, or lute. Another researcher, archaeomusicologist Richard J. Dumbrill, suggests that rud came from the Sanskrit rudrī, the modern hosogal, l, lasga Oud is a derived from the ancient Lute. The lute originates in the crescent at least 5000 years ago. The long-necked variety also was never called a lutebefore the twentieth century, musicologist Richard Dumbrill today uses the word to discuss instruments that existed millennia before the term lute was coined. Dumbrill documented more than 3000 years of evidence for the lutes in Mesopotamia
11.
Pandura
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The pandura was an ancient Greek string instrument belonging in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Musical instruments of this class have been observed in ancient Greek artwork from the 3rd or 4th century BC onward, lute-class instruments were present in Mesopotamia since the Akkadian era, or the third millennium BCE. The ancient Greek pandoura was a medium or long-necked lute with a resonating chamber. It commonly had three strings, such an instrument was known as the trichordon. Renato Meucci suggests that the some Italian Renaissance descendants of Pandura type were called chitarra italiana, information about Roman pandura-type instruments comes mainly from ancient Roman artwork. The word pandura was rare in classical Latin writers, there were at least two distinct varieties of pandura. One type was pear-shaped, used in Assyria and Persia, in this type the body had graceful inward curves which led up gradually from base to neck. These curves changed at the end off the instrument to a more sloping outline. The oval type, an instrument of the Egyptians, was also found in ancient Persia. From the ancient Greek word pandoura, an instrument is found in modern Chechnya and Ingushetia. In Georgia the panduri is a fretted instrument. The modern Georganian panduri instrument is in the tanbur class, tambouras Panduri Baglamas Mandora Bandura Tanbur Bouzouki Mandolin J. W. McKinnon Pandoura in New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments Vol 3 p 10 ed S. Sadie. Picture of a pandura, originally published 1947 in the book The Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors by David Talbot Rice, henry George Farmer calls the instrument a three-stringed pandoura in his 1949 article An Early Greek Pandore. Website that has a history of Pandura with some good photos
12.
Pipa
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The pipa is a four-stringed Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the Chinese lute, the instrument has a wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 26. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a version of the pipa. The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments in East and Southeast Asia are derived from the pipa, these include the Japanese biwa, the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà, there are considerable confusion and disagreements about the origin of pipa. Some researchers such as Laurence Picken and John Myers suggest a non-Chinese origin, the earliest mention of pipa in Chinese texts appeared late in the Han Dynasty around the 2nd century AD. Liu Xi also stated that the instrument called pipa, though written differently in the earliest texts, originated from amongst the Hu people. An instrument called xiantao, made by stretching strings over a drum with handle, was said to have been played by labourers who constructed the Great Wall of China during the late Qin Dynasty. Yet another term used in ancient text was Qinhanzi, perhaps similar to Qin pipa, the pear-shaped pipa is likely to have been introduced to China from Central Asia, Gandhara, and/or India. Pear-shaped lutes have been depicted in Kusana sculptures from the 1st century AD, Pipa from the Han Dynasty is referred to as Han pipa. However, depictions of the pear-shaped pipas in China only appeared after the Han Dynasty during the Jin Dynasty in the late 4th to early 5th century, there are therefore differing opinions about the form of the Han Dynasty pipa. Apart from the pipa, other instruments introduced include the five-stringed, straight-necked, wuxian pipa. From the 3rd century onwards, through the Sui and Tang Dynasty, by the Song Dynasty the word pipa was used to refer exclusively to the four-stringed pear-shaped instrument. The pipa reached a height of popularity during the Tang Dynasty and it may be played as a solo instrument or as part of the imperial orchestra for use in productions such as daqu, an elaborate music and dance performance. During this time Persian and Kuchan performers and teachers were in demand in the capital, some delicately carved pipas with beautiful inlaid patterns date from this period, with particularly fine examples preserved in the Shosoin Museum in Japan. It had close association with Buddhism and often appeared in mural and sculptural representations of musicians in Buddhist contexts, for example, masses of pipa-playing Buddhist semi-deities are depicted in the wall paintings of the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang. Pipa fell from favour in the court during the Song Dynasty. During the Ming period, the plectrum was replaced by fingernails, the early instrument had 4 frets on the neck, but during the early Ming Dynasty extra bamboo frets were affixed onto the soundboard, increasing the range of the instrument
13.
Tambouras
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The tambouras is a Greek traditional string instrument of Byzantine origin. It has existed since at least the 10th century, when it was known in Assyria, at that time, it might have between two and six strings, but Arabs adopted it, and called it a Tanbur. The characteristic long neck and two strings, tuned 5 notes apart and it also similar instrument Tambur in Turkish and each of them have same origin. It is considered that the ancestor is the ancient Greek pandouris, also known as pandoura, pandouros or pandourida. Since modern Greek words do not have a transliteration into the Latin alphabet. Even the final -s may be dropped at the transliteration, since it marks the nominative in Greek. Variations of the word are to be found in Greece, tsambouras, the word ταμπουράς comes from Turkish tambur from Arabic ṭanbūr or Persian tunbūra. The tambouras is a fretted instrument of the lute family, close to Turkish saz. It has movable frets that permit playing tunes in the Greek traditional modes and it was also known as Pandouris, Pandoura and Fandouros in the Byzantine Empire. When the tambouras was tempered, it gave rise to the bouzouki, which is, in fact, a recent development of the tambouras
14.
Tanbur
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The terms Tanbur, Tanbūr, Tanbura, Tambur, Tambura or Tanboor can refer to various long-necked, string instrument originating in Mesopotamia, Southern or Central Asia. According to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, terminology presents a complicated situation, similar or identical instruments are also known by other terms. Tanburs have been present in Mesopotamia since the Akkadian era, or the third millennium BC, three figurines have been found in Susa that belong to 1500 BC, and in hands of one of them is a tanbur-like instrument. Also an image on the rocks near Mosul that belong to about 1000 B shows tanbur players, in the tenth century AD Al-Farabi described two types of tanburs found in Persia, a Baghdad tunbūr, distributed south and west of Baghdad, and a Khorasan tunbūr. The Persian name spread widely, eventually taking in Long-necked string instruments used in Central Asian music such as the Dombura, until the early twentieth century, the names chambar and jumbush were applied to instruments in northern Iraq. In India the name was applied to the tanpura, a fretless drone lute, Tanbur traveled through Al-Hirah to the Arabian Peninsula and in the early Islam period went to the European countries. It travelled through Byzantine Empire to other European countries and was called pandura, mandura, bandura, nowadays Kermanshahan tanbur is played all over Iran, and that is what is called just tanbur in Iran nowadays. Iranian tanbur is mainly designed in Kermanshahan, Kurdistan Province and Lorestan, Kermanshahan tanburs are more famous and accepted and are specially designed in Kermanshahans Goran Region and Sahneh. The tanbur is currently the musical instrument used in Ahl-e Haqq rituals, there is also a Taleshi tanbur in small region Talesh in the north of Iran, and Tanburak in Balochistan in the southeast of Iran. But Kermanshahan tanbur is the main and the most famous tanbur in Iran, the Iranian tanbur has a narrow pear-shaped body that normally is made with 7 to 10 glued together separate ribs. Its soundboard is made of mulberry wood and some patterened holes are burned in it. The long neck is separate, and has three strings that the first course is double. The melody is played on the strings with a unique playing technique with three fingers of the right hand. Iranian tanbur is associated with the Kurdish Sufi music of Western Iran and it measures 80 cm in height and 16 cm in breadth. The resonator is pear-shaped and made of either a piece or multiple carvels of mulberry wood. The neck is made of walnut and has fourteen frets, arranged in a chromatic scale. It has two strings tuned in fifth, fourth, or second intervals. The higher string may be double-coursed, the Afghan tanbur is played mainly in the North of Afghanistan, in Mazar Sharif and Kabul
15.
Turkish tambur
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The Tambur is a fretted string instrument of Turkey and the former lands of the Ottoman Empire. Like the ney, the armudi kemençe and the kudüm, it one of the four instruments of the basic quartet of Turkish classical music a. k. a. Of the two variants, one is played with a plectrum and the other with a bow, the player is called a tamburî. There are several hypotheses as to the origin of the instrument, one suggests that it descended from the kopuz, a string instrument still in use among the Turkic peoples of Central Asia and the Caspian region. The name itself derives from the tanbur, Tanbur in turn might have descended from the Sumerian pantur. In ancient Hittite texts, we come across a string instrument called tibula and this latter hypothesis could also account for the favor the instrument received in the Ottoman court vis-à-vis its rival, the oud. As of the 17th century, the tanbur had already taken its present form and structure, tamburs are made almost entirely of wood. The shell is assembled from strips of hardwood called ribs joined edge to edge to form a body for the instrument. The number of ribs traditionally amounts to 17,21 or 23, yet examples with slightly wider, traditionally, thinner strips called fileto are inserted between the ribs for ornamental purposes, but are not obligatory. Ribs are assembled on the wedge and the heel on which the fingerboard is mounted. The soundboard is a thin flat three-, two- or single-piece plate of resonant wood. This circular plate measuring about 30 to 35 cm in diameter is mounted on the bottom wedge, a soundhole is either wanting or consists of a very small unornamented opening, giving the instrument its peculiar sonority. The neck is a mince 100–110 cm long D-section fingerboard made of light wood, catgut frets are fixed on the neck by means of minute nails. The main bridge is trapezoidal and mobile, and since the shell lacks braces to support the soundboard, the smaller upper bridge between the pegbox and the neck is traditionally made of bone. The plectrum is made of tortoiseshell and is called bağa, cut in an asymmetrical V-form and polished at 45° on the tip, it measures 2-2.5 mm × 5–6 mm × 10–15 cm. Nowadays the tanbur has seven strings, in the past tanburs with eight strings were not uncommon. The yaylı tanbur has a physical appearance, although the shell -a nearly perfect semi-sphere- might be made of metal. It is played with a bow instead of a plectrum, the technique was introduced by Tanburi Cemil Bey in the end of the 19th century
16.
Theorbo
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For his 1607 opera LOrfeo, Claudio Monteverdi lists duoi chitaroni among the instruments required for performing the work. The round-backed chitarra was still in use, often referred to as chitarra Italiana to distinguish it from chitarra alla spagnola in its new flat-backed Spanish incarnation. The etymology of tiorba is still obscure, it is hypothesized the origin may be in Slavic or Turkish torba, according to Athanasius Kircher, tiorba was a nickname in Neapolitan dialect for a grinding board used by perfumers for grinding essences and herbs. It is possible the appearance of new large instrument resulted in jokes. Robert Spencer has noted the confusion the two names were leading to in 1600, Chitarone, ò Tiorba che si dica. In the performance of basso continuo, theorboes were often paired with a pipe organ. The most prominent early composers and players in Italy were Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, little solo music survives from England, but William Lawes and others used theorbos in chamber ensembles and opera orchestras. In France, theorbos were appreciated and used in orchestral or chamber music until the half of the 18th century. Court orchestras at Vienna, Bayreuth and Berlin still employed theorbo players after 1750, the tuning of large theorboes is characterized by the octave displacement, or re-entrant tuning, of the two uppermost strings. Piccinini and Michael Praetorius mention the use of metal strings. The Lang Romanische Theorba, Chitarron also appears to have strings attached to the bridge. The string courses, unlike those of a Renaissance lute or archlute, were often single, typically, theorboes have 14 courses, though some used 15 or even 19 courses. This is theorbo tuning in A, modern theorbo players usually play 14-course instruments. Some players have used a theorbo tuned a step lower in G. Most of the repertoire is in the A tuning. The Italians Kapsberger, Castaldi, Piccinini, Viviani, Melli, Pittoni and Bartolotti, in the French treatises, chords in which a lower note sounds after the bass were also used when the bass goes high. The English theorbo had just the first string at the lower octave, diego Cantalupi, La tiorba ed il suo uso in Italia come strumento per il basso continuo, pre-press version of the dissertation discussed in 1996 at the Faculty of Musicology, University of Pavia. Davide Rebuffa, Il liuto, LEpos, Pelermo 2012, ekkehard Schulze-Kurz, Die Laute und ihre Stimmungen in der ersten Hälfte des 17
17.
Reentrant tuning
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On a stringed instrument, a break in an otherwise ascending order of string pitches is known as a re-entry. A re-entrant tuning, therefore, is a tuning where the strings are not all ordered from the lowest pitch to the highest pitch, most common re-entrant tunings have only one re-entry. In the case of the ukulele, for example, the re-entry is between the third and fourth strings, while in the case of the Venezuelan cuatro it is between the first and second strings. Ukuleles other than the tenor and baritone are most commonly tuned in re-entrant fashion and these conventional re-entrant tunings are sometimes known as high 4th tunings. Non re-entrant tunings, also known as low 4th tunings, exist for these instruments, the Andean charango, a small 5-course, 10-string guitar frequently made from an armadillo shell, is most usually tuned in re-entrant fashion, with re-entry between the third and second courses. Other members of the family, such as the hualaycho and charangon are usually similarly tuned, the ronroco is often. The ten string guitar was originally designed for a specific re-entrant tuning invented by Narciso Yepes. Both this and other re-entrant tunings, such as the Marlow tunings, are now used and these tunings may also be used on related instruments, such as ten string electric and jazz guitars. The Venezuelan cuatro is a member of the family, smaller in size. The cuatro is similar in size and construction to the ukulele and it is one of several South American instruments by the name of cuatro, despite of the name, not all instruments called Cuatro have four strings, but the Venezuelan Cuatro, preserves this number of strings. The traditional Camburpinton tuning is re-entrant, but with the re-entry between the second and first strings, rather than third and fourth as in the ukulele. The results are different in tone. Other tunings of the Venezuelan cuatro are not re-entrant however they are not as popular as the Camburpinton tuning, note that there is also a 10-string/5-course Puerto Rican cuatro which is not tuned re-entrantly, but in straight fourths. A variety of tunings are used for the four string tenor guitar, one example of a re-entrant tuning for tenor guitar is D4–G3–B3–E4 with strings 3–1 as for the normal 6-string guitar, but string 4 tuned to D an octave above the 4th string of the 6 string guitar. The five string banjo is used in bluegrass music and old-time music. The four string plectrum banjo, and the four string tenor banjo, lack this shorter string, see also the detailed articles on particular instruments
18.
Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
19.
Course (music)
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A course, on a stringed musical instrument, is two or more adjacent strings that are closely spaced relative to the other strings, and typically played as a single string. The strings in each course are tuned in unison or an octave. Course may also refer to a single string normally played on its own on an instrument with other multi-string courses, an instrument with at least one course is referred to as coursed, while one whose strings are all played individually is uncoursed. Eventually, however, they came to be employed to alter the characteristics of instruments as well. A typical piano, for example, contains courses with one, all members of the mandolin family, except some versions of the lowest-pitched, have courses each of two or three strings, most commonly eight strings in four courses. The exception is some varieties of mando-bass, which have four individual strings, the baroque guitar has five courses, with the bottom four always double strung, and the top string either double or single. There are also several patterns of modern ten-string guitar but all have ten single strings, the twelve-string guitar has twelve strings, in six courses. The lowest three courses are tuned at octaves, with the primary string uppermost and the octave below it. The G course is either unison or at octaves, on some electric twelve-string guitars, and most notably the Rickenbacker 360/12, the octave strings are below the primary strings. The national instrument of Columbia, the tiple Colombiano, has four courses of three strings each and its higher-pitched relative, the tiple requinto, is similarly triple-strung. The American tiple, a smaller instrument loosely derived from the Columbian tiple, the electric twelve-string bass has twelve strings in four triple courses. Basses have also built with six double courses and other configs
20.
Figured bass
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Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era, provided the harmonic structure of the music. The phrase is shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing the continuo part are called the continuo group. The titles of many Baroque works make mention of the section, such as J. S. Bachs Concerto for Two Violins, Strings. The makeup of the group is often left to the discretion of the performers. At least one instrument capable of playing chords must be included, such as a harpsichord, organ, lute, theorbo, guitar, regal, or harp. In addition, any number of instruments play in the bass register may be included, such as cello, double bass, bass viol. The most common combination, at least in modern performances, is harpsichord and cello for instrumental works and secular works, such as operas. Harps, lutes, and other instruments are more typical of early 17th-century music. The keyboard player realizes a continuo part by playing, in addition to the bass line, notes above it to complete chords. The figured bass notation, described below, is a guide, but performers are expected to use their musical judgment. Experienced players sometimes incorporate motives found in the instrumental parts into their improvised chordal accompaniment. Modern editions of music usually supply a realized keyboard part, fully written out in staff notation for a player. With the rise in historically informed performance, however, the number of performers who are able to improvise their parts from the figures, as Baroque players would have done, has increased. Basso continuo, though a structural and identifying element of the Baroque period, continued to be used in many works, mostly sacred choral works. An example is C. P. E. Bachs Concerto in D minor for flute, strings and basso continuo. Examples of its use in the 19th century are rarer, but they do exist, masses by Anton Bruckner, Beethoven, the phrase tasto solo indicates that only the bass line is to be played for a short period, usually until the next figure is encountered. This instructs the chord-playing instrumentalist not to play any improvised chords for a period, composers were inconsistent in the usages described below. Especially in the 17th century, the numbers were omitted whenever the composer thought the chord was obvious, early composers such as Claudio Monteverdi often specified the octave by the use of compound intervals such as 10,11, and 15
21.
Cello
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The cello or violoncello is a bowed or plucked string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. The strings from low to high are generally tuned to C2, G2, D3 and A3 and it is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin and viola and the double bass. The cello is used as a musical instrument, as well as in chamber music ensembles, string orchestras, as a member of the string section of symphony orchestras. It is the second-largest and second lowest bowed string instrument in the symphony orchestra. Cello parts are written in the bass clef, but both tenor clef and treble clefs are used for higher-range parts, both in orchestral/chamber music parts and in solo cello works. A person who plays the cello is called a cellist or violoncellist, in a small Classical ensemble, such as a string quartet, the cello typically plays the bass part, the lowest-pitched musical line of the piece. In orchestra, in Baroque era and Classical music period, the cello plays the bass part. In Baroque era music, the cello is used to play the basso continuo bassline, in a Baroque performance, the cello player might be joined by other bass instruments, playing double bass, viol or other low-register instruments. The name cello is a contraction of the Italian violoncello, which means little violone, in modern symphony orchestras, it is the second largest stringed instrument. Thus, the name contained both the augmentative -one and the diminutive -cello. By the turn of the 20th century, it had become common to shorten the name to cello and it is now customary to use cello without apostrophe as the full designation. Viol is derived from the viola, which was derived from Medieval Latin vitula. Cellos are tuned in fifths, starting with C2, followed by G2, D3 and it is tuned in the same intervals as the viola, but an octave lower. Unlike the violin or viola but similar to the double bass, the cello is most closely associated with European classical music, and has been described as the closest sounding instrument to the human voice. The instrument is a part of the orchestra, as part of the string section. A large number of concertos and sonatas have been written for the cello, among the most well-known Baroque works for the cello are Johann Sebastian Bachs six unaccompanied Suites. The Prelude from the First Suite is particularly famous, romantic era repertoire includes the Robert Schumann Concerto, the Antonín Dvořák Concerto as well as the two sonatas and the Double Concerto by Johannes Brahms. The cello is increasingly common in traditional music, especially Scottish fiddle music
22.
Viol
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All members of the viol family are played upright between the legs like a modern cello, hence the Italian name viola da gamba was sometimes applied to the instruments of this family. This distinguishes the viol from the violin family, the viola da braccio. A player of the viol is commonly known as a gambist, violist /ˈvaɪəlɪst/, violist shares the spelling, but not the pronunciation, of the word commonly used since the mid-20th century to refer to a player of the viola. It can therefore cause confusion if used in print where context does not clearly indicate that a player is meant, though it is entirely unproblematic. Vihuelists began playing their instruments with a bow in the second half of the 15th century. An influence in the playing posture has been credited to the example of Moorish rabab players, the viol is unrelated to the much older Hebrew stringed instrument called a viol. This ancient harp-like instrument was similar to the kinnor or nabla, Stefano Pio argues that a re-examination of documents in the light of newly collected data indicates an origin different from the vihuela de arco from Aragon. According to Pio, the viol had its origins and evolved independently in Venice, the fifth string, already present in some specimens of these violette as a drone, was incorporated into the neck when they were expanded in size. This was then surpassed by a string, named basso. Initially the family of shared common characteristics but differed in the way they were played. The increase in the dimensions of the viola determined the birth of the viol, Viols most commonly have six strings, although many 16th-century instruments had only four or five strings. Viols were strung with gut strings of lower tension than on the members of the violin family, gut strings produce a sonority far different from steel, generally described as softer and sweeter. Viols are fretted in a similar to early guitars or lutes, by means of movable wrapped-around. A low seventh string was added in France to the bass viol by Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, whose students included the French gamba virtuoso. Also, the painting Saint Cecilia with an Angel by Domenichino shows what may be a seven-string viol. Viols were first constructed much like the vihuela de mano, with all surfaces, top, back, however, some viols, both early and later, had carved tops, similar to those more commonly associated with instruments of the violin family. The ribs or sides of early viols were usually quite shallow, rib depth increased during the course of the 16th century, finally coming to resemble the greater depth of the classic 17th-century pattern. The flat backs of most viols have a sharply angled break or canted bend in their close to where the neck meets the body
23.
Arcangelo Corelli
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Arcangelo Corelli was an Italian violinist and composer of the Baroque era. His music was key in the development of the genres of sonata and concerto, in establishing the preeminence of the violin. Baptismal records indicate that Corelli was born on 17 February 1653 in the small Romagna town of Fusignano, then in the diocese of Ferrara and his family were land-owners who had lived in Fusignano since 1506. Although apparently prosperous, they were almost certainly not of the nobility, Corellis father, from whom he took the name Arcangelo, died five weeks before the composers birth. Consequently, he was raised by his mother, Santa, alongside four elder siblings, the wealth of anecdotes and legends attached to Corelli contrast sharply with the paucity of reliable contemporary evidence documenting events in his life. This gap is especially pronounced for his years, including his musical education. A major centre of culture of the time, Bologna had a flourishing school of violinists associated with Ercole Gaibara and his pupils, Giovanni Benvenuti. Reports by later sources link Corellis musical studies with several master violinists, including Benvenuti, Brugnoli, Bartolomeo Laurenti, although historically plausible, these accounts remain largely unconfirmed, as does the claim that the papal contralto Matteo Simonelli first taught him composition. A remark Corelli later made to a patron suggests that his education focused mainly on the violin. Chronicles of the Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna indicate that Corelli was accepted as a member by 1670, the credibility of this attribution has been disputed. Although the nickname Il Bolognese appears on the title-pages of Corellis first three published sets of works, the duration of his stay in Bologna remains unclear, anecdotes of trips outside Italy to France, Germany and Spain lack any contemporary evidence. In August 1676, he was playing second violin to the renowned Carlo Mannelli at San Luigi dei Francesi. In 1687 Corelli led the performances of music for Queen Christina of Sweden. He was also a favorite of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, grandnephew of another Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni, from 1689 to 1690 he was in Modena. The Duke of Modena was generous to him, in 1708 he returned to Rome, living in the palace of Cardinal Ottoboni. His visit to Naples, at the invitation of the king and it has been said that the paths of all of the famous violinist-composers of 18th-century Italy led to Arcangelo Corelli, who was their iconic point of reference. However, Corelli used only a portion of his instruments capabilities. This may be seen from his writings, the parts for violin very rarely proceed above D on the highest string, sometimes reaching the E in fourth position on the highest string
24.
George Frideric Handel
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George Frideric Handel was a German, later British baroque composer who spent the bulk of his career in London, becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, and organ concertos. Handel received important training in Halle and worked as a composer in Hamburg and Italy before settling in London in 1712 and he was strongly influenced both by the great composers of the Italian Baroque and by the middle-German polyphonic choral tradition. Within fifteen years, Handel had started three commercial opera companies to supply the English nobility with Italian opera, musicologist Winton Dean writes that his operas show that Handel was not only a great composer, he was a dramatic genius of the first order. As Alexanders Feast was well received, Handel made a transition to English choral works, after his success with Messiah he never composed an Italian opera again. Almost blind, and having lived in England for nearly fifty years, he died in 1759 and his funeral was given full state honours, and he was buried in Westminster Abbey in London. Handel was born in 1685 in Halle-on-Saal, Duchy of Magdeburg, to Georg Händel and his father,63 when George Frideric was born, was an eminent barber-surgeon who served the court of Saxe-Weissenfels and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Georg Händel was the son of a coppersmith, Valentin Händel who had emigrated from Eisleben in 1608 with his first wife Anna Belching and they were Protestants and chose reliably Protestant Saxony over Silesia, a Hapsburg possession as religious tensions mounted in the years before the Thirty Years War. Halle was a prosperous city, home of a salt-mining industry. Even the smaller churches all had able organists and fair choirs, and humanities, the Thirty Years War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished. But since the middle of the war the city was under the administration of the Duke of Saxony, the arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata, which did not describe Handels family. Handel was the child of this marriage, the first son died still born. Two younger sisters were born after the birth of George Frideric, Dorthea Sophia, born 6 October 1687 and Johanna Christiana, born 10 January 1690. Early in his life Handel is reported to have attended the gymnasium in Halle, Mainwaring is the source for almost all information of Handels childhood, and much of that information came from J. C. Smith, Jr. Handels confidant and copyist. Whether they came from Smith or elsewhere, Mainwaring frequently relates misinformation and it is from Mainwaring that the portrait of Handels father as implacably opposed to any musical education comes. This did nothing to dampen young Handels inclination, in fact, Mainwaring tells the story of Handels secret attic spinnet, Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately conveyd to a room at the top of the house. To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep, but Handel had to have had some experience with the keyboard to have made the impression in Weissenfels that resulted in his receiving formal musical training. Somehow Handel made his way to the organ, where he surprised everyone with his playing. Overhearing this performance and noting the youth of the performer caused the Duke to recommend to Georg Händel that Handel be given musical instruction, Handels father engaged the organist at the Halle parish church, the young Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, to instruct Handel
25.
Giulio Cesare
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Giulio Cesare in Egitto, commonly known as Giulio Cesare, is a dramma per musica in three acts composed for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724. The libretto was written by Nicola Francesco Haym who used a libretto by Giacomo Francesco Bussani. The opera was a success at its first performances, was revived by Handel in his subsequent opera seasons and is now one of the most often performed Baroque operas. Giulio Cesare in Egitto was first performed at the Kings Theatre in the Haymarket, the opera was an immediate success. The house was just as full at the performance as at the first. Handel revived the opera three times during his lifetime, in 1725,1730, and 1732, the roles of Cesare and Cleopatra were originally sung by the castrato Senesino and the famous soprano Francesca Cuzzoni respectively. Handel composed eight arias and two recitatives accompagnati for each singer, thus making use of their vocal capabilities. Curio and Nireno were not allotted any arias in the version, only singing in recitatives, although they take part in the first. However, Handel composed an aria for Nireno for a revival in 1730. The illustration is probably of a scene from Handels Flavio, presented by the Royal Academy of Music in 1723, the elongated bodies of the castrati tower over Cuzzoni, who was described by Horace Walpole as short and squat. Such costumes were worn by the men in Handel operas whether the setting was ancient Rome or Gothic Europe. Cuzzoni, in contrast, wears a contemporary gown such as might have been suitable for presentation at court, as with most of his other operas, Handel made several revisions to the score of Giulio Cesare for revivals, adding new arias and cutting others. The listing of arias in this synopsis applies to the original 1724 version, Cesare, in pursuit of his enemy Pompeo, has followed him to Egypt. Pompeos wife Cornelia pleads with Cesare to spare her husband and he is about to grant her plea, when the Egyptians led by their boy king Tolomeo bring him the head of Pompeo. Cornelia and Pompeos son Sesto vow to avenge his death, Tolomeos sister Cleopatra desires to depose her brother in order to become the sole ruler of Egypt. She joins Cornelia and Sesto in their plans for vengeance and entreats Cesare to aid her, following her overtures, Cesare falls in love with Cleopatra. Her brother attempts to assassinate Cesare, but he escapes and it is reported to Cleopatra that Cesare has drowned while in flight. She is taken captive by her brother, Caesar, who has escaped drowning, enters to free his beloved
26.
Tiorba
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For his 1607 opera LOrfeo, Claudio Monteverdi lists duoi chitaroni among the instruments required for performing the work. The round-backed chitarra was still in use, often referred to as chitarra Italiana to distinguish it from chitarra alla spagnola in its new flat-backed Spanish incarnation. The etymology of tiorba is still obscure, it is hypothesized the origin may be in Slavic or Turkish torba, according to Athanasius Kircher, tiorba was a nickname in Neapolitan dialect for a grinding board used by perfumers for grinding essences and herbs. It is possible the appearance of new large instrument resulted in jokes. Robert Spencer has noted the confusion the two names were leading to in 1600, Chitarone, ò Tiorba che si dica. In the performance of basso continuo, theorboes were often paired with a pipe organ. The most prominent early composers and players in Italy were Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger, little solo music survives from England, but William Lawes and others used theorbos in chamber ensembles and opera orchestras. In France, theorbos were appreciated and used in orchestral or chamber music until the half of the 18th century. Court orchestras at Vienna, Bayreuth and Berlin still employed theorbo players after 1750, the tuning of large theorboes is characterized by the octave displacement, or re-entrant tuning, of the two uppermost strings. Piccinini and Michael Praetorius mention the use of metal strings. The Lang Romanische Theorba, Chitarron also appears to have strings attached to the bridge. The string courses, unlike those of a Renaissance lute or archlute, were often single, typically, theorboes have 14 courses, though some used 15 or even 19 courses. This is theorbo tuning in A, modern theorbo players usually play 14-course instruments. Some players have used a theorbo tuned a step lower in G. Most of the repertoire is in the A tuning. The Italians Kapsberger, Castaldi, Piccinini, Viviani, Melli, Pittoni and Bartolotti, in the French treatises, chords in which a lower note sounds after the bass were also used when the bass goes high. The English theorbo had just the first string at the lower octave, diego Cantalupi, La tiorba ed il suo uso in Italia come strumento per il basso continuo, pre-press version of the dissertation discussed in 1996 at the Faculty of Musicology, University of Pavia. Davide Rebuffa, Il liuto, LEpos, Pelermo 2012, ekkehard Schulze-Kurz, Die Laute und ihre Stimmungen in der ersten Hälfte des 17
27.
Tablature
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Tablature is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches. Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the lute, vihuela, or guitar, Tablature was common during the Renaissance and Baroque eras, and is commonly used today in notating rock, pop, folk, ragtime, bluegrass, and blues music. Three types of organ tablature were used in Europe, German, Spanish, There are several types of ocarina tabulature. To distinguish standard musical notation from tablature, the former is usually called staff notation or just notation, the word tablature originates from the Latin word tabulatura. Tabula is a table or slate, in Latin, to tabulate something means to put it into a table or chart. The first known occurrence in Europe is around 1300, and was first used for notating music for the organ, Tablature is more easily read by a novice musician but it has some significant deficiencies compared to standard notation. Direct visual representation Fretboard tablature is a visual representation of the instruments fretboard compared to standard notation. It does not require as much training for players to be able to read tablature, therefore, in terms of definition on the instrument. Fingering position determination Fretboard tablature removes the requirement that the player determine the position to use to play the notated. In the case of fretted instruments such complexity makes the relationship between staff notation and playing technique less direct than in the case of the piano and many other instruments. Whilst standard staff notation can remove the ambiguity by further indicating the playing position. First, it identifies the note. Third, for woodwind instruments tablature can be used to discriminate between different tone colours for the same pitch, simple typewriter-font representation Tablature can be represented as ASCII tab. This is a computer file using numbers, letters. This characteristic makes it easy to distribute tablature electronically, a practice that has become very widespread, indication of pitch Fretboard tablature shows how the notes are fingered, but not the pitch itself. This is a limitation because obtaining the actual pitch requires calculation by considering the tuning. It hinders the ability to sense the sound of music directly from reading the tablature alone. In contrast, staff notation allows musicians to sing from sight, making it easier for users to understand the science of harmony, musical analysis, German organ tablature is also note-specific, and even incorporates some staff notation
28.
Baroque music
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Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance music era, and was followed in turn by the Classical era, Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality, an approach to writing music in which a song or piece is written in a particular key, during the Baroque era, professional musicians were expected to be accomplished improvisers of both solo melodic lines and accompaniment parts. A characteristic Baroque form was the dance suite, while the pieces in a dance suite were inspired by actual dance music, dance suites were designed for listening, not for accompanying dancers. During the period, composers and performers used more elaborate ornamentation, made changes in musical notation. Many musical terms and concepts from this era, such as toccata, fugue, dense, complex polyphonic music, in which multiple independent melody lines were performed simultaneously, was an important part of many Baroque choral and instrumental works. The word baroque comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning misshapen pearl, the term Baroque is generally used by music historians to describe a broad range of styles from a wide geographic region, mostly in Europe, composed over a period of approximately 150 years. The systematic application by historians of the baroque to music of this period is a relatively recent development. In 1919, Curt Sachs became the first to apply the five characteristics of Heinrich Wölfflins theory of the Baroque systematically to music, all of these efforts resulted in appreciable disagreement about time boundaries of the period, especially concerning when it began. In English the term acquired currency only in the 1940s, in the writings of Bukofzer, nevertheless, the term has become widely used and accepted for this broad range of music. It may be helpful to distinguish the Baroque from both the preceding and following periods of musical history, the Baroque period is divided into three major phases, early, middle, and late. Although they overlap in time, they are dated from 1580 to 1630, from 1630 to 1680. In reference to music, they based their ideals on a perception of Classical musical drama that valued discourse, the early realizations of these ideas, including Jacopo Peris Dafne and LEuridice, marked the beginning of opera, which were a catalyst for Baroque music. Concerning music theory, the widespread use of figured bass represents the developing importance of harmony as the linear underpinnings of polyphony. Harmony is the end result of counterpoint, and figured bass is a representation of those harmonies commonly employed in musical performance. With figured bass, numbers, accidentals or symbols were placed above the bassline that was read by keyboard instrument players such as players or pipe organists. The numbers, accidentals or symbols indicated to the player what intervals she should play above each bass note. The keyboard player would improvise a chord voicing for each bass note and this led to the idea that certain sequences of chords, rather than just notes, could provide a sense of closure at the end of a piece—one of the fundamental ideas that became known as tonality
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Alessandro Piccinini
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Alessandro Piccinini, was an Italian lutenist and composer. Piccinini was born in Bologna into a family, his father Leonardo Maria Piccinini taught lute playing to Alessandro as well as his brothers Girolamo. He held appointments at the Este court in Ferrara and with Cardinal Pietro Aldobrandini, papal legate at Bologna, Piccinini died around 1638, probably in Bologna. The 1623 collection is of importance because of Piccininis lengthy preface. Piccinini concentrated on toccatas, courantes and galliards, as well as different kinds of variations, no other works by Piccinini are known, his music for La selva sin amor, the first opera performed in Spain, composed by his brother Filippo Piccinini is lost. Biography by Dinko Fabris Piccininis music in tablature in Fronimo 2, free scores by Alessandro Piccinini at the International Music Score Library Project
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Il Giardino Armonico
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Il Giardino Armonico is a pioneering Italian early music ensemble founded in Milan in 1985 by Luca Pianca and Giovanni Antonini, primarily to play 17th- and 18th-century music on period instruments. Il Giardino Armonico performs with soloists such as the mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, duo pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, cellist Christophe Coin and its recordings have met with honors including the Gramophone and Grammy Awards. Il Giardino Armonico performs both in concerts and in stage productions of works such as by Monteverdi, Handel, Pergolesi. In 2014, the ensemble commenced a project aiming to perform and record all of Joseph Haydns symphonies by 2032, media related to Il Giardino Armonico at Wikimedia Commons Il Giardino Armonico Official site with biography of group
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Paul O'Dette
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Paul R. ODette is an American lutenist, conductor, and musicologist specializing in early music. ODette began playing the guitar in a rock band in Columbus, Ohio. He has made more than 120 recordings, earning five Grammy nominations, since 1976, he has served as Professor of Lute and Director of Early Music at the Eastman School of Music. He is the Co-Artistic Director of the Boston Early Music Festival and he lives in Rochester, New York with his wife Christel Thielmann, who is also a baroque music specialist and Eastman professor. H
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Nigel North
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Nigel North is an English lutenist, musicologist, and pedagogue. He studied guitar on a scholarship to the department of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, taking up the lute in 1969. He maintains he was more or less self-taught on the instrument. R. C. M and he completed his studies on the postgraduate course in Early Music at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama 1975–1975 and with one months study with baroque lutenist Michael Schäffer in 1976. At the age of 21, he was appointed Professor of Lute at the Guildhall School for Music and Drama, from 1993 to 1999 he was Professor of Historical Plucked Instruments at the Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, Germany. Continuo playing on the Lute, Archlute and Theorbo, a Comprehensive Guide for Performers, the following textbook is in preparation, Lute and Early Guitar - a Performance Practice Handbook Original didactic sources from 1500 - c.1760, for lute and guitar. Sources in facsimile, with translations and full editorial comment, covering the working repertoire of a modern lutenist and it will be a book in which one may find the answers to performance practice questions taken directly from original sources. From 1974 to 1990 Nigel North played in baroque operas, baroque orchestras and chamber groups and accompanied singers in concerts, participating in over 100 recordings. His solo lute debut was a Bach programme at the Wigmore Hall in 1977, numerous recitals and recordings followed and from 1984 to 2001 he toured worldwide. He has made transcriptions for Baroque lute of Bachs complete solo violin works and solo cello suites, which he has performed at the Wigmore Hall and recorded on a 4-CD set, Bach on the Lute
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Classical guitar with additional strings
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These are also known as extended-range guitars, and should not be confused with harp guitars. There is no question, however, that Sychra was a proponent of the seven-string instrument, having written a method. Seventy-five of these pieces were republished in the 1840s by Stellovsky, some of these were published again in the Soviet Union in 1926. Eight-string classical guitars are tuned with two extra basses that vary in pitch depending on the piece being played. Another common variation is to add a bass and treble string. Galbraith generally tunes EADGBEA which puts standard 6 string guitar chord voicings and scale shapes within the neck, vynograd chooses to tune AEADGCEA which allows him to play the top 6 strings like a guitar a 4th higher. Vynograd writes his music on a staff in a different key. The Brazilian guitarist Raphael Rabello also adopted the 8 string guitar on many of his presentations also Australian guitarist Sirsom Solo-Jazz plays the 8-string Classical guitar. The Brahms guitar was developed by guitarist Paul Galbraith and luthier David Rubio to allow the music of Brahms to be played more comfortably on the guitar. Information,8 string guitar Late 18th and early 19th century method books for nine-string guitars exist, modern nine-string guitars are almost exclusively steel-string or electric instruments. Includes the Decacorde - a historical romantic guitar - which was tuned C2-D2-E2-F2-G2-A2-D3-G4-B4-E4 and the modern 10-string guitar, the Bolin alto guitar most often has eleven strings, but a thirteen-string version also exists. The eleven-string alto guitar is played by such as John Francis, Stefan Östersjö. The Godin Glissentar is another type of eleven-string guitar and is fretless, the 11-string archguitar built by American luthier Walter Stanul is played by guitarists such as Peter Blanchette. External links altoguitar. com, site dedicated to the Bolin altgitarren, user description of their Bolin pattern alto guitar. John Francis Web Page The 13-string Chiavi-Miolin guitar is played by Anders Miolin, luthier Michael Thames has developed the 13-string Dresden designed to function as a baroque lute for guitarists. Bolin created a version of his eleven-string alto guitar. External links Chiavi-Miolin Dresden The harp guitar is a guitar with added strings which are floating, as with extended-range guitars, these additional strings may be lower or higher in pitch than the standard strings. Unlike extended-range instruments, the strings on harp guitars may only be played as open strings
