1.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
2.
Mariachi
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Mariachi is a musical expression that dates back to at least 18th century Western Mexico. Modifications of the music include influences from music such as polkas and waltzes, the addition of trumpets. The musical style began to take on national prominence in the first half of the 20th century, with its promotion at presidential inaugurations, in 2011 UNESCO recognized mariachi as an Intangible Cultural Heritage, joining six others of this list from Mexico. The origin of the word is disputed, but prominent theories attribute it to indigenous roots, one states that it comes from the name of the wood used to make the dance platform. Another states that mariachi comes from the name of a tree called pilla or cirimo. In many Mexican cultures they are also called Marietti, Mariachi can refer to the music, the group, or just one musician. The word mariachi was thought to have derived from the French word marriage, dating from the French intervention in Mexico in the 1860s and this was a common explanation on record jackets and travel brochures. This theory was disproven with the appearance of documents that showed that the word existed before this invasion, prior to the arrival of the Spanish, indigenous music was played with rattles, drums, flutes, and conch-shell horns as part of religious celebrations. The Spanish introduced violins, guitars, harps, brass instruments, and woodwinds, the Europeans introduced their instruments to use during Mass, but they were quickly adapted to secular events. Indigenous and mestizo peoples learned to play and make these instruments, often giving them modified shapes, in addition to instruments, the Spanish introduced the concept of musical groups—which, in the colonial period, generally consisted of two violins, a harp, and various guitars. This grouping gave rise to a number of musical styles in Mexico. One of these musical styles was the son. Modern mariachi music developed from this son style, with “mariachi” as a name for son jaliscense. Those who could play the son jaliscense/mariachi music could find work at haciendas at a higher rate than those who could not, the distinction of mariachi from the older son jaliscense occurred slowly sometime during the 19th century. The music originated in the center-west of Mexico, most claims for its origin lie in the state of Jalisco but neighboring states of Colima, Nayarit, and Michoacán have also claimed it. However, by the late 19th century, the music was firmly centered in Jalisco, most legends put the origin of the modern mariachi in the town of Cocula, Jalisco. The distinction from son to modern mariachi comes from the modification of the music, one variety was the salon orchestras called orquestas típicas that performed in more rural settings, notably in charro outfits. This use of the outfit was repeated with urban mariachi in the 1920s
3.
Ernie Ball
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Ernie Ball was an American entrepreneur, musician, and innovator, widely acclaimed as a revolutionary in the development of guitar-related products. He began as a club and local musician and small business entrepreneur, building an international business in guitars. Ball was born Roland Sherwood Ball in Santa Monica, California, U. S. and grew up in a musical family, the son of Frances and Roland Adelbert Ball. His paternal grandfather, Ernest Ball, wrote the standard, When Irish Eyes Are Smiling, although Ball initially picked up the steel at age nine to please his father, he became bored and gave it up. In his early teens he began to take a renewed interest in the instrument, within a year he was a member of the Musicians Union. While still in his teens, Ball began playing professionally in South Central Los Angeles beer bars. By age 19 he joined the Tommy Duncan Band playing pedal steel guitar, Duncan, the former lead singer with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, took the band on tour through the Southwestern United States. During the Korean War, he did a tour of duty in the United States Air Force Band, playing guitar, after the military he returned to Los Angeles and continued playing in barrooms and lounges, until landing a job on the 1950s Western Varieties program at KTLA television. The position soon gained him recognition in the Los Angeles music scene and led to studio work. Sometime in 1957 or 1958, Ball opened what was arguably the first music store in the United States to sell guitars exclusively, in Tarzana, California. When music sales representatives criticized him for refusing to sell drumsticks and other equipment, Ball replied. He was repeatedly told that a store would never be a success. Eventually, the products spawned from his company would sell in more than 5,500 stores, at the time, it was common for a set of strings to have a wound third string. He approached the Fender company with the problem, suggesting a lighter gauge but was rebuffed, Ball convinced a string manufacturer to make him custom sets with a 24-gauge third string which he sold in his store. It was the beginning of the Ernie Ball brand, located not far from Hollywood, the store began to attract a large patronage of professional musicians, including The Beach Boys, Merle Travis, and The Ventures. Ball also began to notice the practice of slack stringing among players who discarded the bottom sixth string and this resulted in an overall lighter gauge set with a plain third string. Again, he contacted Fender with a suggestion for a set and was turned down. He then approached Gibson, who turned him down
4.
Mexican vihuela
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The Mexican vihuela is a guitar-like string instrument from 19th-century Mexico with five strings and typically played in mariachi groups. Although the Mexican vihuela has the name as the historic Spanish plucked string instrument. The Mexican vihuela has more in common with the Timple Canario due to both having five strings and both having vaulted backs, the Vihuela Mexicana is tuned similar to the guitar. The difference is that the open G, the D and the A strings are tuned an octave higher than a guitar thus giving it a sound or a higher pitch. The gauge of the strings and the order in which they are applied is important in producing a sound or a punchy bold sound when the instrument is strummed. The optimal spot to strum this instrument is between the hole and the point where the fret board or neck meets the body of the instrument. This area is where a pick gaurd can be installed The Mexican vihuela is a small, the Mexican vihuela is / should used by all mariachi groups. This instrument is strummed with all of the tips to produce a rich, full. A finger pick on the pointer finger gives it a brighter and clearer sound when strummed, many vihuela players have longer than normal fingernails on their strumming hand to facilitate their playing technique and to also get a clear crystal sound. The vihuela has five nylon strings in reentrant tuning, similar to the first five strings of a guitar, but with the third, fourth and fifth an octave above what one might expect. Tuning, ADGBE – The A, D, and G are tuned one octave above a guitar. Mariachi Embraced in Our World ASTON MAGNA, Viola da Gamba and Theorbo Relatives of the Lute, Vihuela, some collected knowledge of The Lute Society of America, music sheets for vihuela in the Mariachi orchestra
5.
Microtonal music
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Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones—intervals smaller than a semitone, which are also called microintervals. It may also be extended to any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal intervals per octave. Microtonal music can refer to any music containing microtones, therefore it is important to comprehend what a microtone is, the words microtone and microtonal were coined before 1912 by Maud MacCarthy Mann in order to avoid the misnomer quarter tone when speaking of the srutis of Indian music. Prior to this time the quarter tone was used, confusingly, not only for an interval actually half the size of a semitone. 1998, Wallon 1980,13, Whitfield 1989,13, microinterval is a frequent alternative in English, especially in translations of writings by French authors and in discussion of music by French composers. In English, the two terms microtone and microinterval are synonymous, microtone is also sometimes used to refer to individual notes, microtonal pitches added to and distinct from the familiar twelve notes of the chromatic scale, as enharmonic microtones, for example. In English the word microtonality is mentioned in 1946 by Rudi Blesh who related it to microtonal inflexions of the blues scales. It was used earlier by W. McNaught with reference to developments in modernism in a 1939 record review of the Columbia History of Music. The term microinterval is used alongside microtone by American musicologist Margo Schulter in her articles on medieval music, the term microtonal music usually refers to music containing very small intervals but can include any tuning that differs from Western twelve-tone equal temperament. Microtonal variation of intervals is standard practice in the African-American musical forms of spirituals, blues, many microtonal equal divisions of the octave have been proposed, usually in order to achieve approximation to the intervals of just intonation. Terminology other than microtonal has been used or proposed by some theorists, in 1914, A. H. Fox Strangways objected that heterotone would be a better name for śruti than the usual translation microtone. Modern Indian researchers yet write, microtonal intervals called shrutis, a similar term, subchromatic, has been used recently by theorist Marek Žabka. Ivor Darreg proposed the term xenharmonic, another Russian authors use more international adjective microtonal and rendered it in Russian as микротоновый, but not microtonality. However are used микротональность and микротоника also, some authors writing in French have adopted the term micro-intervallique to describe such music. Italian musicologist Luca Conti dedicated two his monographs to microtonalismo, which is the term in Italian, and also in Spanish. The analogous English form, microtonalism, is found occasionally instead of microtonality. At the time when serialism and neoclassicism were still incipient a third movement emerged, the term macrotonal has also been used for musical form. The Hellenic civilizations of ancient Greece left fragmentary records of their music—e. g, ancient Greek intervals were of many different sizes, including microtones
