1.
String instrument
–
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
String instrument
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Various stringed instruments of Chinese make on display in a shop.
String instrument
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Viol, fidel and rebec (from left to right) on display at Amakusa Korejiyokan in Amakusa, Kumamoto, Japan
String instrument
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Various string instruments on display at the
Museo de Arte Popular in Mexico City.
String instrument
–
The strings of a
piano
2.
Bow (music)
–
In music, a bow is a tensioned stick with hair affixed to it which is moved across some part of a musical instrument causing vibration, which the instrument emits as sound. The vast majority of bows are used with string instruments, such as the violin, although some bows are used with musical saws and other bowed idiophones. A bow consists of a specially shaped stick with other material forming a ribbon stretched between its ends, which is used to stroke the string and create sound, different musical cultures have adopted various designs for the bow. For instance, in some bows a single cord is stretched between the ends of the stick, in the Western tradition of bow making—bows for the instruments of the violin and viol families—a hank of horsehair is normally employed. The manufacture of bows is considered a craft, and well-made bows command high prices. Part of the bow makers skill is the ability to high quality material for the stick. Historically, Western bows have been made of wood from Brazil. Carbon fiber bows have become popular, and some of the better carbon fiber bows are now comparable to fine pernambuco sticks. For the frog, which holds and adjusts the near end of the horsehair, ebony is most often used, but other materials, often decorative, were used as well, such as ivory and tortoiseshell. Materials such as mother of pearl or abalone shell are used on the slide which covers the mortise. Sometimes Parisian eyes are used, with the circle of shell surrounded by a metal ring, near the frog is the grip, which is made of a wire, silk, or whalebone wrap and a thumb cushion made of leather or snakeskin. The tip plate of the bow may be made of bone, ivory, mammoth ivory, or metal, a bow maker or archetier typically uses between 150 and 200 hairs from the tail of a horse for a violin bow. Bows for other members of the family typically have a wider ribbon. There is a widely held belief among string players, neither proven nor disproven scientifically, lower quality bows often use nylon or synthetic hair. Rosin, or colophony, a hard, sticky substance made from resin, is applied to the bow hair to increase friction. In making a bow, the greater part of the woodworking is done on a straight stick. According to James McKean, the bow maker graduates the stick in precise gradations so that it is evenly flexible throughout and these gradations were originally calculated by François Tourte, discussed below. In order to shape the curve or camber of the bow stick, the maker carefully heats the stick in an alcohol flame, a metal or wooden template is used to get the models exact curve and shape while heating
Bow (music)
–
A
cello bow
Bow (music)
–
Frog of a modern violin bow (K. Gerhard Penzel)
Bow (music)
–
Tip of a modern violin bow (K. Gerhard Penzel)
Bow (music)
–
French (top) and German (bottom)
double bass bows
3.
Range (music)
–
In music, the range of a musical instrument is the distance from the lowest to the highest pitch it can play. For a singing voice, the equivalent is vocal range, the range of a musical part is the distance between its lowest and highest note. The terms sounding range, written range, designated range, duration range, a piccolo, for example, typically has a sounding range one octave higher than its written range. The designated range is the set of notes the player should or can achieve while playing, all instruments have a designated range, and all pitched instruments have a playing range. Timbre, dynamics, and duration ranges are interrelated and one may achieve registral range at the expense of timbre, the designated range is thus the range in which a player is expected to have comfortable control of all aspects. The duration range is the difference between the shortest and longest rhythm used, dynamic range is the difference between the quietest and loudest volume of an instrument, part or piece of music. Although woodwind instruments and string instruments have no upper limit to their range. Brass instruments, on the hand, can play beyond their designated ranges. Notes lower than the brass instruments designated range are called pedal tones, the playing range of a brass instrument depends on both the technical limitations of the instrument and the skill of the player. Classical arrangements seldom make woodwind or brass instruments play beyond their designed range, string musicians play the bottom of their ranges very frequently, but the top of a string instruments range is rather fuzzy, and it is unusual for a string player to exceed the designated range. It is quite rare for wind musicians to play the extremes of their instruments, the most common exception is that in many 20th century works, pedal tones are called for in bass trombones. This chart uses standard numberings for octaves where middle C corresponds to C4, in the MIDI language middle C is referred to as MIDI note number 60. The lowest note that an organ can sound is C−1. However, if acoustic combination counts, the lowest note is C−2, *This chart only displays down to C0, though some pipe organs, such as the Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ, extend down to C−1. Also, the frequency of the subcontrabass tuba is B♭−1
Range (music)
–
Written range of a
Saxophone.
4.
Musical instrument
–
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
Musical instrument
–
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Attributes of Music, 1770. This
still life painting depicts a variety of French Baroque musical instruments, such as a
natural horn,
transverse flute,
musette,
violin, and
lute.
Musical instrument
–
Found in
Slovenia, the
Divje Babe Flute is considered the world's
oldest known musical instrument
Musical instrument
–
Two
Aztec slit drums, called teponaztli. The characteristic " H " slits can be seen on the top of the drum in the foreground.
Musical instrument
–
Ancient Egyptian tomb painting depicting lute players,
18th Dynasty (c. 1350 BC)
5.
Nyckelharpa
–
A nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish musical instrument. It is an instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, the nyckelharpa is similar in appearance to a fiddle or the big Sorb geige or viol. Structurally, it is closely related to the hurdy-gurdy, both employing key-actuated tangents to change the pitch. A depiction of two instruments, possibly but not confirmed nyckelharpor, can be found in a relief dating from circa 1350 on one of the gates of Källunge church on Gotland. Early church paintings are found in Siena, Italy, dating to 1408 and in different churches in Denmark and Sweden, such as Tolfta church, Sweden, other very early pictures are to be found in Hildesheim, Germany, dating to circa 1590. The Schlüsselfidel is also mentioned in Theatrum Instrumentorum, a work written in 1620 by the German organist Michael Praetorius. The Swedish province of Uppland has been a stronghold for nyckelharpa music since the early 17th century, changes by August Bohlin in 1929/1930 made the nyckelharpa a chromatic instrument with a straight bow, making it a more violin-like and no longer a bourdon instrument. Composer, player and maker of nyckelharpas Eric Sahlström used this new instrument, in spite of this, the nyckelharpas popularity declined until the 1960s roots revival. Continued refinement of the instrument also contributed to the increase in popularity, with instrument builders like Jean-Claude Condi and Annette Osann bringing innovation to the bow and body. In 1990s, the nyckelharpa was recognised as one of the instruments available for study at the music department of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Elizabeth Weis Nord is a notable Nyckelharpa teacher and performer who resides the US and it has also been used in non-Scandinavian musical contexts, for example by the Spanish player Ana Alcaide. The nyckelharpa is usually played with a strap around the neck, didier François, a violinist and nyckelharpist from Belgium, is noted for using an unusual playing posture, holding the nyckelharpa vertically in front of the chest. This allows a range of motion for both arms. It also affects the tone and sound of the instrument, some players may use a violin bracket to keep the nyckelharpa away from the body so that it can swing freely, causing it to sound more open as its resonance is not dampened. There are four variants of the nyckelharpa still played today, differing in the number and arrangement of keys, number and arrangement of strings. The predominant type is the three-row so-called chromatic nyckelharpa, with the strings tuned A1 - C1 - G, a drone C that is only touched occasionally. The resonance strings, or sympathetic strings, which were added to the instrument during the 2nd half of the 16th century, are not bowed directly, traditional variants of the nyckelharpa used to have one or more drone strings
Nyckelharpa
–
Nyckelharpa
Nyckelharpa
–
Angel with viola a chiavi, Cappellina di Palazzo Pubbico,
Siena,
Italy. Fresco by Taddeo di Bartolo, 1408.
Nyckelharpa
–
A nyckelharpa built by Fredrik Söderström.
Nyckelharpa
–
Schlüsselfidel at the "Knochenhaueramtshaus", Hildesheim, Germany, 1529.
6.
Rosin
–
It is semi-transparent and varies in color from yellow to black. At room temperature rosin is brittle, but it melts at stove-top temperature and it chiefly consists of various resin acids, especially abietic acid. The term colophony comes from colophonia resina, Latin for resin from Colophon, Rosin is an ingredient in printing inks, photocopying and laser printing paper, varnishes, adhesives, soap, paper sizing, soda, soldering fluxes, and sealing wax. Rosin can be used as an agent in medicines and chewing gum. It is denoted by E number E915, a related glycerol ester can be used as an emulsifier in soft drinks. In pharmaceuticals, rosin forms an ingredient in several plasters and ointments, in industry, rosin is a flux used in soldering. It is frequently seen as the burnt or clear residue around new soldering, a mixture of pitch and rosin is used to make a surface against which glass is polished when making optical components such as lenses. Rosin is added in quantities to traditional linseed oil/sand gap fillers. When mixed with waxes and oils, rosin is the ingredient of mystic smoke, a gum which. Extra substances such as beeswax, gold, silver, tin, or meteoric iron are added to the rosin to modify its stiction/friction properties. Powdered rosin can be applied to new hair, for example with a pad or cloth. Rosin is often applied to the bow before playing the instrument, lighter rosin is generally preferred for violins and violas, and in high-humidity climates, while darker rosins are preferred for cellos, and for players in cool, dry areas. There are also specific, distinguishing types for basses—for more see Bow, violin rosin can be applied to the bridges in other musical instruments, such as the banjo and banjolele, in order to prevent the bridge from moving during vigorous playing. Ballet, flamenco, and Irish dancers are known to rub the tips and it was at one time used in the same way in fencing and is still used as such by boxers. Gymnasts and team handball players use it to improve grip, rock climbers have used it in some locations, but it fouls the rock, so usage is now highly discouraged. Olympic weightlifters rub the soles of their boots in rosin to improve traction on the platform. It is applied onto the line of drag racing courses used to improve traction. Bull riders rub rosin on their rope and glove for additional grip, baseball pitchers and ten-pin bowlers may use a small cloth bag of powdered rosin for better ball control
Rosin
–
A cake of rosin, made for use by violinists, used here for
soldering
Rosin
–
Various types of rosin for violins, violas and cellos
Rosin
–
A piece of rosin for violins, violas and cellos
Rosin
–
Pharmaceutical rosin
7.
Musical keyboard
–
A musical keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers or keys on a musical instrument. Depressing a key on the causes the instrument to produce sounds, either by mechanically striking a string or tine, plucking a string, causing air to flow through a pipe. On electric and electronic keyboards, depressing a key connects a circuit, since the most commonly encountered keyboard instrument is the piano, the keyboard layout is often referred to as the piano keyboard. The twelve notes of the Western musical scale are laid out with the lowest note on the left, because these keys were traditionally covered in ivory they are often called the white notes or white keys. The keys for the remaining five notes—which are not part of the C major scale— are raised, because these keys receive less wear, they are often made of black colored wood and called the black notes or black keys. The pattern repeats at the interval of an octave, the arrangement of longer keys for C major with intervening, shorter keys for the intermediate semitones dates to the 15th century. The break was between middle C and C-sharp, or outside of Iberia between B and C, broken keyboards reappeared in 1842 with the harmonium, the split occurring at E4/F4. The reverse-colored keys on Hammond organs such as the B3, C3, the chromatic compass of keyboard instruments has tended to increase. Harpsichords often extended over five octaves in the 18th century, while most pianos manufactured since about 1870 have 88 keys, some modern pianos have even more notes. While modern synthesizer keyboards commonly have either 61,76 or 88 keys, organs normally have 61 keys per manual, though some spinet models have 44 or 49. An organ pedalboard is a keyboard with long pedals that are played by the organists feet, pedalboards vary in size from 12 to 32 notes. In a typical layout, black note keys have uniform width. In the larger gaps between the keys, the width of the natural notes C, D and E differ slightly from the width of keys F, G, A and B. This allows close to uniform spacing of 12 keys per octave while maintaining uniformity of seven natural keys per octave, over the last three hundred years, the octave span distance found on historical keyboard instruments has ranged from as little as 125 mm to as much as 170 mm. Several reduced-size standards have been proposed and marketed, a 15/16 size and the 7/8 DS Standard keyboard developed by Christopher Donison in the 1970s and developed and marketed by Steinbuhler & Company. There have been variations in the design of the keyboard to address technical and musical issues, thus, an octave would have eight white keys and only four black keys. During the sixteenth century, when instruments were tuned in meantone temperament, some harpsichords were constructed with the G♯. The broken octave, a variation of the short octave
Musical keyboard
–
The musical keyboard of a
Steinway concert grand piano
Musical keyboard
–
A typical piano keyboard
Musical keyboard
–
Keyboard of a Letter-Printing Telegraph Set built by
Siemens & Halske in Saint Petersburg, Russia, ca. 1900
Musical keyboard
–
Frequencies of the audible range on a twelve and eight equal tempered scale
8.
Sound board (music)
–
A sound board, or soundboard, is the surface of a string instrument that the strings vibrate against, usually via some sort of bridge. Pianos, guitars, banjos, and many other stringed instruments incorporate soundboards, the resonant properties of the sound board and the interior of the instrument greatly increase the loudness of the vibrating strings. The sound board operates by the principle of forced vibration, the string gently vibrates the board, and despite their differences in size and composition, makes the board vibrate at exactly the same frequency. This produces the sound as the string alone, differing only in timbre. The string would produce the amount of energy without the board present, but the greater surface area of the sound board moves a greater volume of air. Sound boards are made of wood, though other materials are used. Wooden sound boards typically have one or more sound holes of various shapes, round, oval, or F-holes appear on many plucked instruments, such as guitars and mandolins. F-holes are usual in violin family instruments, the upper surface of the sound board, depending on the instrument, is called a top plate, table, sound-table, or belly. It is usually made of a softwood, often spruce, the rear part, known as the back, typically does not contain sound holes and is made of a hardwood such as maple or pear. In a grand piano, the board is part of the case. In an upright piano, the board is a large vertical plate at the back of the instrument. The harp has a sound board below the strings, more generally, any hard surface can act as a sound board. An example is when someone strikes a tuning fork and holds it against a top to amplify its sound. Ernst Chladni Harpsichord Piano Piano acoustics Soundboard Wood Preparation
Sound board (music)
–
Sound board of a harpsichord with
Chladni patterns
Sound board (music)
–
A portion of the sound board of a Vose & Sons upright piano
9.
Drone (music)
–
In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. Burden also refers to a part of a song that is repeated at the end of each stanza, the term comes from the French bourdon, a staff, or a pipe made in the form of a staff. The drone does not take its name from the bee and it is a far older word, sharing an Indo-European root with the Sanskrit dhran, the Greek thren-os, and the English thrum, drum, and dream. Of all harmonic devices, it is not only the simplest, a drone effect can be achieved through a sustained sound or through repetition of a note. It most often establishes a tonality upon which the rest of the piece is built, a drone can be instrumental, vocal or both. Drone can be placed in different ranges of the texture, in the lowest part, in the highest part. The drone is most often placed upon the tonic or dominant, a drone on the same pitch as a melodic note tends to both hide that note and to bring attention to it by increasing its importance. A drone differs from a pedal tone or point in degree or quality. A pedal point may be a form of tone and thus required to resolve unlike a drone, or a pedal point may simply be considered a shorter drone. The systematic use of drones originated in instrumental music of ancient Southwest Asia, and spread north and west to Europe, east to India and it is a key component of much Australian aboriginal music through the didgeridoo. It is used in Indian music and is played with the tanpura and other Indian drone instruments like the ottu, the ektar, the dotara, the surpeti, the surmandal and the shankh. Most of the types of bagpipes that exist worldwide have up to three drones, making one of the first instruments that comes to mind when speaking of drone music. In America, most forms of the African-influenced banjo contain a drone string, since the 1960s, the drone has become a prominent feature in drone music and other forms of avant-garde music. In vocal music drone is particularly widespread in traditional cultures, particularly in Europe. Drones are not uncommon in primitive music, but neither are they characteristic of it and it is also present in some isolated regions of Asia. Drone is also the term for the part of a musical instrument intended to produce the drone effects sustained pitch, different melodic Indian instruments contain a drone. For example, the sitar features three or four resonating drone strings, and Indian notes are practiced to a drone, bagpipes feature a number of drone pipes, giving the instruments their characteristic sounds. A hurdy-gurdy has one or more drone strings, the bass strings of the Slovenian drone zither also freely resonate as a drone
Drone (music)
–
A Lady Playing the Tanpura, ca. 1735.
Drone (music)
–
Highland bagpipes, with drone pipes over the pipers' left shoulders
10.
Bagpipes
–
Bagpipes are a wind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The term bagpipe is equally correct in the singular or plural, though pipers usually refer to the bagpipes as the pipes, a set of bagpipes minimally consists of an air supply, a bag, a chanter, and usually at least one drone. Many bagpipes have more than one drone in various combinations, held in place in stocks—sockets that fasten the various pipes to the bag, the most common method of supplying air to the bag is through blowing into a blowpipe, or blowstick. In some pipes the player must cover the tip of the blowpipe with their tongue while inhaling, an innovation, dating from the 16th or 17th century, is the use of a bellows to supply air. In these pipes, sometimes called cauld wind pipes, air is not heated or moistened by the players breathing, the bag is an airtight reservoir that holds air and regulates its flow via arm pressure, allowing the player to maintain continuous even sound. The player keeps the bag inflated by blowing air into it through a blowpipe or pumping air into it with a bellows, materials used for bags vary widely, but the most common are the skins of local animals such as goats, dogs, sheep, and cows. More recently, bags made of materials including Gore-Tex have become much more common. A drawback of the bag is the potential for fungal spores to colonise the bag because of a reduction in necessary cleaning. An advantage of a bag is that they have a zip which allows the user to fit a more effective moisture trap to the inside of the bag. Bags cut from larger materials are usually saddle-stitched with an extra strip folded over the seam, holes are then cut to accommodate the stocks. The chanter is the pipe, played with two hands. Almost all bagpipes have at least one chanter, some pipes have two chanters, particularly those in North Africa, the Balkans in Southern Europe, and Southwest Asia. A chanter can be bored internally so that the walls are parallel for its full length. The chanter is usually open-ended, so there is no way for the player to stop the pipe from sounding. Thus most bagpipes share a constant, legato sound where there are no rests in the music, primarily because of this inability to stop playing, technical movements are used to break up notes and to create the illusion of articulation and accents. Because of their importance, these embellishments are often highly technical systems specific to each bagpipe, a few bagpipes have closed ends or stop the end on the players leg, so that when the player closes the chanter becomes silent. A practice chanter is a chanter without bag or drones, allowing a player to practice the instrument quietly, the term chanter is derived from the Latin cantare, or to sing, much like the modern French word chanteur. The note from the chanter is produced by a reed installed at its top, the reed may be a single or double reed
Bagpipes
–
Angel playing bagpipes in the
Thistle Chapel, Edinburgh
Bagpipes
–
A detail from the
Cantigas de Santa Maria showing bagpipes with one chanter and a parallel drone (Spain, 13th century).
Bagpipes
–
A detail from a painting by
Hieronymus Bosch showing two bagpipers (15th century).
Bagpipes
–
A Great Highland Bagpipe practice chanter
11.
Music of Catalonia
–
The music of Catalonia comprises one of the oldest documented musical traditions in Europe. In tandem with the rest of Western Europe, it has a musical tradition. The so-called Llibre Vermell de Montserrat stands as an important source for 14th-century music, renaissance polyphony flourished in Catalonia, though local composers never attained the fame of either the Spanish composers to the South and West or the French composers to the North. Joan Pau Pujol wrote four books of polyphonic masses and motets in honor of the saint of Barcelona. Performances of opera, mostly imported from Italy, began in the 18th century, several symphonic orchestras exist in Catalonia today, including the Barcelona Orchestra. Around the beginning of the 20th century, two Catalan composers—Enric Granados and Isaac Albéniz—became the most famous composers in Spain, francisco Tárrega and Miquel Llobet expanded the technical possibilities of guitar. Their music remains in the classical repertory today. Cellist Pau Casals is admired as an outstanding player, frederic Mompou is known for his delicate piano works, which often have a Catalan flavor. He spent most of his life in Paris, returning to his native Barcelona only during, a tradition of Catalan art songs also developed, following a similar popularity in the rest of Spain. These have been performed and promoted by Catalan artists, including an album of Catalan folk-songs by Victoria de los Angeles, originally from northern areas of Catalonia, Sardanes are popular dances, and were especially widespread at the end of the 19th century. Currently, two types, the original sardana curta style and more modern sardana llarga, are generally performed. While music is performed by a musical group, sardanes are danced in a circle dance. Other less common include the sardana de lluïment and the sardana revessa. The cobla itself is an 11-piece band, that includes genuine folk instruments such as the flabiol and tambori, tenora, coblas also frequently play as concert bands without the dance. Other popular music are the ball de bastons, galops, espunyolets, ball de panderetes, ball de gitanes, in areas around the river Ebre, like in nearby Aragon and Valencia, the jota is a popular dance. Sung in both Catalan and Spanish, Havaneres have been popular at parties since the end of the 19th century when sailors returned from the War of the Cuban Independence. In the last half century, the rumba catalana genre has spread in Catalunya, played mostly by Gypsies, including popular performers like Peret, during the end of the Franco period, a movement known as Nova Cançó emerged. Nova Cançó singers sang in Catalan, denouncing the official oppression of the language, grup de Folk and Esquirols were other notable cançó groups
Music of Catalonia
–
The
pipe organ at
Santa Maria del Mar, Barcelona
12.
Cajun music
–
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Acadians of Canada. Cajun music is mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Creole-influenced zydeco form. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for decades, especially country music. Cajun music is relatively harsh with a beat and a lot of forward drive. Besides the voices, only two instruments are heard, the accordion and fiddle, but usually in the background can also be heard the high. The harmonies of Cajun music are simple, basically I, IV, and V, tonic, sub-dominant, the melodic range is just one octave, rising a fifth above the tonic and descending a fourth below. Because the Cajun accordion is an instrument it can only play tunes in a few keys. For example, a C accordion is tuned such that the entire C scale is available on the ten buttons, a C accordion can also play a tune in the key of G, but one note of the G scale will be missing which is F#. So tunes played in the key of G will not have an F# note, a C accordion can also play a few Cajun songs in the key of F however the Bb note will be missing. Also it can play in the key of D with a bluesy sound since the F natural note becomes a third or minor third in the key of D. However a skilled player can play in these other keys. Since an instrument must match the range, much Cajun singing is sung in the singers upper range. The accordionist gives the vocal melody greater energy by repeating most notes and this style comprises the roots of Cajun dance music, involving only a few instruments such as the Cajun accordion, fiddle, and triangle. This form holds firm to a rhythm with staccato style notes. Each fiddle solo is composed of a major scale riff, repeated between verses and this form has existed since the early 1900s and the waltz and two-step are the most common dances of this Cajun music genre. Many songs that became standards in the Cajun music repertoire were first recorded in this period of the 1920s and 1930s, a number of the most prominent traditional Cajun musicians are featured in the 1989 documentary JAi Ete Au Bal. Amédé Ardoin, Canray Fontenot, Wade Frugé, Dewey Segura, Joe Falcon and Cléoma Falcon, and this style involves heavy elements of Texas country music influence and a move away from the traditional accordion. This music has more of a style popularized by Bob Wills
Cajun music
–
Traditional Cajun instruments:
tit-fer,
Cajun accordion, and a
fiddle.
13.
Music of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias
–
The traditional music of Galicia and Asturias, located along Spains north-west Atlantic coast, are highly distinctive folk styles that have some similarities with the neighbouring area of Cantabria. The music is characterized by the use of bagpipes, whether or not this is the case, much modern commercial Galician and Asturian traditional and folk-rock of recent years has become strongly influenced by modern Irish, Scottish and Welsh folk styles. Galicia is nowadays a strong player on the international Celtic folk scene, as a result, elements of the pre-industrial Galician tradition have become integrated into the modern Celtic folk repertoire and style. Many, however, claim that the Celtic appellation is merely a marketing tag, what we make is Galician music. In any case, due to the Celtic brand, Galician music is the only non- Castilian-speaking music of Spain that has a significant audience beyond the countrys borders, some Galicians and Asturians have complained that the Celtic boom was the final death blow to once highly distinctive musical traditions. Celtic culture is known to have extended over a part of the Iberian Peninsula as early as 600BC. During the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, the Roman Empire slowly conquered Iberia, the Celtic regions put up a long and fierce struggle to maintain their independence but were eventually subdued. The departure of the Romans in the 5th century led to the invasions of Germanic tribes, the Suebi people conquered the northwest but the poor documentation from the period has left their cultural impact on the region unclear. In the 6th century, a final small Celtic influx arrived from Britain, Galicia was then taken over by the Visigothic Kingdom when the Suebian kingdom fell apart. Moorish rule ended after two decades when their garrison was driven out by a rebellion in 739, the region was incorporated into the Kingdom of Asturias and, after surviving the assaults of the Moors and Vikings, became the springboard for the Reconquista. In 810, it was claimed that the remains of Saint James and it became Europes premier pilgrimage destination in the Middle Ages. This is assumed to have had a significant effect on the culture of the area, as the pilgrims brought with them musical instruments and styles from as far afield as Scandinavia. Like the earlier periods, little is known about musical traditions from this era, the Cantigas de Santa Maria, a collection of manuscripts written in old Galician, also show illustrations of people playing bagpipes. The Galician folk revival drew on early 20th century performers like Perfecto Feijoo, the first commercial recording of Galician music had come in 1904, by a corale called Aires da Terra from Pontevedra. The middle of the saw the rise of Ricardo Portela, who inspired many of the revivalist performers. When Francos regime ended in 1975, Galician and Asturian music experienced a strong revival, the establishment of the Festival Internacional do Mundo Celta, which helped establish some Galician bands. Some of these then formed their own bands, like Milladoiro. In the 1980s and 1990s, some Galician and Asturian performers began to win fame within Spain, the appearance of Fía na Roca, was undoubtedly one of the key events of the Galician musical scene in the 90s
Music of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias
–
Galician gaiteiros
Music of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias
–
Asturian folk dancers
Music of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias
–
Cantabrians with pitu and tamboril
Music of Galicia, Cantabria and Asturias
–
Music by region
14.
Hungarian folk music
–
Hungarian folk music includes a broad array of styles, including the recruitment dance verbunkos, the csárdás and nóta. Béla Bartók took this departure into the musical world in his appropriation of traditional Hungarian as the basis for symphonic creations. Zoltán Kodály and Béla Bartók observed that Hungarian peasant music use isometric strophe structure and certain pentatonic formations and these features jointly may be considered as altogether typical, and differentiate Hungarian peasant music from that of any other nation. Bartók studied over 300 melodies, and noted that more modern tunes used for dancing featured pentatonic turns with frequent leaps in fourths
Hungarian folk music
–
Kaláka
15.
Bastille Day
–
Bastille Day is the common name given in English-speaking countries/lands to the French National Day, which is celebrated on 14 July each year. In France, it is called la Fête nationale and commonly and legally le 14 juillet. On 19 May 1789, Louis XVI invited Estates-General to air their grievances, the deputies of the Third Estate, representing the common people—the two others were the Catholic clergy and the nobility —decided to break away and form a National Assembly. The Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath, swearing not to separate until a constitution had been established and they were gradually joined by delegates of the other estates, Louis XVI started to recognize the validity of their concerns on 27 June. The assembly renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July, jacques Necker, the finance minister, who was sympathetic to the Third Estate, was dismissed on 11 July. As it happened, at the time of the attack in July 1789 there were only seven inmates, the crowd was eventually reinforced by mutinous Gardes Françaises, whose usual role was to protect public buildings. They proved a match for the forts defenders, and Governor de Launay. However, possibly because of a misunderstanding, fighting resumed, shortly after the storming of the Bastille, late in the evening of 4 August, after a very stormy session of the Assemblée Constituante, feudalism was abolished. On 26 August, the Declaration of the Rights of Man, the Fête de la Fédération on 14 July 1790 was a celebration of the unity of the French nation during the French Revolution. The aim of this celebration, one year after the Storming of the Bastille, was to symbolize peace, the event took place on the Champ de Mars, which was at the time far outside Paris. The place had been transformed on a basis by the population of Paris. A mass was celebrated by Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, the popular General Lafayette, as captain of the National Guard of Paris and a confidant of the king, took his oath to the constitution, followed by King Louis XVI. On 30 June 1878, a feast was arranged in Paris to honour the French Republic. On 14 July 1879, there was another feast, with a semi-official aspect, the days events included a reception in the Chamber of Deputies, organised and presided over by Léon Gambetta, a military review at Longchamp, and a Republican Feast in the Pré Catelan. All through France, Le Figaro wrote, people feasted much to honour the storming of the Bastille, on 21 May 1880, Benjamin Raspail proposed a law to have the Republic choose the 14 July as a yearly national holiday. The Assembly voted in favour of the proposal on 21 May and 8 June, the Senate approved it on 27 and 29 June, favouring 14 July against 4 August. The law was made official on 6 July 1880, and the Ministry of the Interior recommended to Prefects that the day should be celebrated with all the brilliance that the local resources allow, indeed, the celebrations of the new holiday in 1880 were particularly magnificent. This day cannot be blamed for having shed a drop of blood and it was the consecration of the unity of France
Bastille Day
–
Storming of the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre-Louis-Laurent Houel
Bastille Day
–
Claude Monet, Rue Montorgueil, Paris, Festival of 30 June 1878
Bastille Day
–
Horseman of the
French Republican Guard during the 2007
military parade on the Champs-Élysées.
Bastille Day
–
Budapest, Hungary; Bastille Day fireworks
16.
Santiago de Compostela
–
Santiago de Compostela, commonly known as Santiago, is the capital of the autonomous community of Galicia in northwestern Spain. The city has its origin in the shrine of Saint James the Great, now the cathedral, as destination of the Way of St. James. In 1985 the citys Old Town was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Santiago is the local Galician evolution of Vulgar Latin Sanctus Iacobus Saint James. Other etymologies derive the name from Latin compositum, local Vulgar Latin Composita Tella, meaning ground, or simply from Latin compositella. Other sites in Galicia share this toponym, akin to Compostilla in the province of León, the cathedral borders the main plaza of the old and well-preserved city. Legend has it that the remains of the apostle James were brought to Galicia for burial, in 813, according to medieval legend, the light of a bright star guided a shepherd who was watching his flock at night to the burial site in Santiago de Compostela. The shepherd quickly reported his discovery to the bishop of Iria, the bishop declared that the remains were those of the apostle James and immediately notified King Alfonso II in Oviedo. To honour St. James, the cathedral was built on the spot where his remains were said to have been found, along the western side of the Praza do Obradoiro is the elegant 18th century Pazo de Raxoi, now the city hall. The Obradoiro façade of the cathedral, the best known, is depicted on the Spanish euro coins of 1 cent,2 cents, Santiago is the site of the University of Santiago de Compostela, established in the early 16th century. The main campus can be seen best from an alcove in the municipal park in the centre of the city. Within the old town there are many narrow winding streets full of historic buildings, the new town all around it has less character though some of the older parts of the new town have some big flats in them. Santiago de Compostela has a substantial nightlife, both in the new town and the old town, a mix of middle-aged residents and younger students maintain a lively presence until the early hours of the morning. Santiago gives its name to one of the four orders of Spain, Santiago, Calatrava, Alcántara. One of the most important economic centres in Galicia, Santiago is the seat for organisations like Association for Equal, under the Köppen climate classification, Santiago de Compostela has a temperate oceanic climate, with mild to warm and somewhat dry summers and mild, wet winters. The prevailing winds from the Atlantic and the surrounding mountains combine to give Santiago some of Spain’s highest rainfall, about 1,545 millimetres annually. The climate is mild, frosts are common only in December, January and February, with an average of just 8 days per year, while snow is rare, temperatures over 30 °C are exceptional. The population of the city in 2012 was 95,671 inhabitants, in 2010 there were 4,111 foreigners living in the city, representing 4. 3% of the total population. The main nationalities are Brazilians, Portuguese and Colombians, by language, according to 2008 data, 21% of the population always speak in Galician, 15% always speak in Spanish and the rest use both interchangeably
Santiago de Compostela
–
Santiago's Old Town is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Santiago de Compostela
Santiago de Compostela
–
In Compostela it rarely snows more than once or twice a year
Santiago de Compostela
–
UNESCO World Heritage Site
17.
Fiddles
–
Fiddle is another name for the bowed string musical instrument more often called a violin. It is also a term for the instrument used by players in all genres. Fiddle playing, or fiddling, refers to various styles of music, Fiddle is also a common term among musicians who play folk music on the violin. The fiddle is part of traditional styles of music which are aural traditions. There are few distinctions between violins and fiddles, though more primitively constructed and smaller violins are more likely to be considered fiddles. In order to produce a tone, compared to the deeper tones of gut or synthetic core strings. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to produce rhythms focused on dancing, with associated quick note changes, whereas classical music tends to contain more vibrato and it is less common for a classically trained violinist to play folk music, but today, many fiddlers have classical training. The medieval fiddle emerged in 10th-century Europe, deriving from the Byzantine lira, lira spread widely westward to Europe, in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments. During the Renaissance the gambas were important and elegant instruments, they eventually lost ground to the viola da braccio family. The etymology of fiddle is uncertain, the Germanic fiddle may derive from the same early Romance word as does violin, the name seems however to be related to Icelandic Fiðla and also Old English fiðele. A native Germanic ancestor of fiddle may even be the ancestor of the early Romance form of violin, historically, fiddle also referred to a predecessor of todays violin. Like the violin, it tended to have four strings, another family of instruments that contributed to the development of the modern fiddle are the viols, which are held between the legs and played vertically, and have fretted fingerboards. Violins, on the hand, are commonly grouped in sections. The difference was likely compounded by the different sounds expected of violin music, historically, the majority of fiddle music was dance music, while violin music had either grown out of dance music or was something else entirely. Violin music came to value a smoothness that fiddling, with its dance-driven clear beat, in situations that required greater volume, a fiddler could push their instrument harder than could a violinist. In the very late 20th century, a few artists have attempted a reconstruction of the Scottish tradition of violin and big fiddle. Notable recorded examples include Iain Fraser and Christine Hanson, Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hansons Bonnie Lasses and Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas Fire and Grace. In Hungary, a three stringed viola variant with a bridge, called the kontra or háromhúros brácsa makes up part of a traditional rhythm section in Hungarian folk music
Fiddles
–
A fiddler
Fiddles
–
Peter Stampfel from the Holy Modal Rounders
Fiddles
–
Fiddler Kenny Baker.
18.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
19.
Middle East
–
The Middle East is a transcontinental region centered on Western Asia and Egypt. The corresponding adjective is Middle-Eastern and the noun is Middle-Easterner. The term has come into usage as a replacement of the term Near East beginning in the early 20th century. Arabs, Turks, Persians, Kurds, and Azeris constitute the largest ethnic groups in the region by population. Indigenous minorities of the Middle East include Jews, Assyrians and other Arameans, Baloch, Berbers, Copts, Druze, Lurs, Mandaeans, Samaritans, Shabaks, Tats, in the Middle East, there is also a Romani community. European ethnic groups form a diaspora in the region include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Crimean Tatars, Franco-Levantines. Among other migrant populations are Bengalis as well as other Indians, Chinese, Filipinos, Indonesians, Pakistanis, the history of the Middle East dates back to ancient times, with the importance of the region being recognized for millennia. Most of the countries border the Persian Gulf have vast reserves of crude oil. The term Middle East may have originated in the 1850s in the British India Office, however, it became more widely known when American naval strategist Alfred Thayer Mahan used the term in 1902 to designate the area between Arabia and India. During this time the British and Russian Empires were vying for influence in Central Asia, Mahan realized not only the strategic importance of the region, but also of its center, the Persian Gulf. Mahan first used the term in his article The Persian Gulf and International Relations, published in September 1902 in the National Review, a British journal. The Middle East, if I may adopt a term which I have not seen, will some day need its Malta, as well as its Gibraltar, it does not follow that either will be in the Persian Gulf. The British Navy should have the facility to concentrate in force if occasion arise, about Aden, India, mahans article was reprinted in The Times and followed in October by a 20-article series entitled The Middle Eastern Question, written by Sir Ignatius Valentine Chirol. During this series, Sir Ignatius expanded the definition of Middle East to include regions of Asia which extend to the borders of India or command the approaches to India. After the series ended in 1903, The Times removed quotation marks from subsequent uses of the term, in the late 1930s, the British established the Middle East Command, which was based in Cairo, for its military forces in the region. After that time, the term Middle East gained broader usage in Europe, the description Middle has also led to some confusion over changing definitions. Before the First World War, Near East was used in English to refer to the Balkans and the Ottoman Empire, while Middle East referred to Iran, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and Turkestan. The first official use of the term Middle East by the United States government was in the 1957 Eisenhower Doctrine, the Associated Press Stylebook says that Near East formerly referred to the farther west countries while Middle East referred to the eastern ones, but that now they are synonymous
Middle East
–
The
Temple Mount in
Jerusalem
Middle East
–
Map of the Middle East (green).
Middle East
–
The
Kaaba, located in
Mecca,
Saudi Arabia
Middle East
–
Islam is the largest religion in the Middle East. Here, Muslim men are
prostrating during prayer in a mosque.
20.
Rebab
–
The bowed variety often has a spike at the bottom to rest on the ground, and is thus called a spike fiddle in certain areas, but plucked versions like the kabuli rebab also exist. Besides the spike fiddle variant, there exists a variant with a pear-shaped body, quite similar to the Byzantine lyra. This latter variant travelled to western Europe in the 11th century, there is a long thin neck with a pegbox at the end and there are one, two or three strings. The instrument is held upright, either resting on the lap or on the floor, the bow is usually more curved than that of the violin. The rebab, though valued for its tone, has a very limited range. The Iraqi version of the instrument has four strings, the rebab is used in a wide variety of musical ensembles and genres, corresponding with its wide distribution, and is built and played somewhat differently in different areas. The body varies from being carved, as in Java. They may have a made of half a coconut shell, while the more sophisticated versions have a metal soundbox, and the front may be half-covered with beaten copper. The rebab was heavily used, and continues to be used, in Arabic Bedouin music as well traditional Iraqi music under the name joza, there is also a bowed instrument in Persian music named Kamanche which has similar shape and structure. The Rebab is also played in Afghanistan and Pakistan, however they are unrelated in terms of origin, for a famous Iranian singer and rebab player see Hassaan Egzaar Chenani. These are generally used in playing traditional folk tunes, but have become popular in arrangements of contemporary music, including such genres as classical, jazz. In the Indonesian gamelan the rebab is an essential elaborating instrument, a two-string bowed lute consisting of a wooden body, traditionally though now rarely a single coconut shell, covered with very fine stretched skin. Two brass strings are tuned a fifth apart and the hair bow is tied loosely with the proper tension controlled by the players bow hand. There are typically two per ensemble, one for pelog and one for slendro, never played together. The rebab does not have to exactly to the scale of the other gamelan instruments and can be played in relatively free time. The rebab also frequently plays the buka when it is part of the ensemble, in the eastern Malaysian states of Kelantan and Terengganu, the Rebab is used in a healing ritual called Main Puteri. The musician healer is sometimes taken to hospitals in cases where doctors are unable to heal ailing patients, margaret J. Kartomi, On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments. liuteriaetnica. it FERNWOOD, an American music group that uses a Rebab
Rebab
–
Rebabs Mevlâna mausoleum,
Konya, Turkey
Rebab
–
جوزه Iraqi Jawza player Salih Shemayil at the first Cairo Congress of Arab Music (1932)
Rebab
–
Bedouin playing a rebab during
World War II
Rebab
–
Jack Hsu of
The Hsu-nami 's band performing on the
Erhu spike-fiddle to progressive rock music
21.
Persian people
–
The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group that make up over half the population of Iran. They share a cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the ancient Iranian population who entered modern-day Iran by the early 10th century BC. The English term Persian derives from Latin Persia, itself deriving from Greek Persís, in the Bible, it is referred to as Parás —sometimes Paras uMadai —within the books of Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemya. Although Persis was originally one of the provinces of ancient Iran, varieties of this term were adopted through Greek sources, thus, in the Western world, the term Persian came to refer to all inhabitants of the country. 10th-century Iraqi historian Al-Masudi refers to Pahlavi, Dari and Azari as dialects of the Persian language, in 1333, medieval Moroccan traveler and scholar Ibn Battuta, referred to the people of Kabul as a specific sub-tribe of Persians. Lady Mary Sheil, in her observation of Iran during the Qajar era, describes Persians, Kurds and Leks to identify themselves as descendants of the ancient Persians. On March 21,1935, the king of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi, issued a decree asking the international community to use the term Iran. However, the term Persian is still used to designate the predominant population of the Iranian peoples living in the Iranian cultural continent. The earliest known written record attributed to the Persians is from the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, the inscription mentions Parsua as a tribal chiefdom in modern-day western Iran. The ancient Persians were originally a branch of the Iranian population that, in the early 10th century BC. They were initially dominated by the Assyrians for much of the first three centuries after arriving in the region, however, they played a role in the downfall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The Medes, another branch of population, founded the unified empire of Media as the regions dominant cultural and political power in c.625 BC. Meanwhile, the Persian dynasty of the Achaemenids formed a state to the central Median power. In c.552 BC, the Achaemenids began a revolution which led to the conquest of the empire by Cyrus II in c.550 BC. They spread their influence to the rest of what is called the Iranian Plateau, at its greatest extent, the Achaemenid Empire stretched from parts of Eastern Europe in the west, to the Indus Valley in the east, making it the largest empire the world had yet seen. The Achaemenids developed the infrastructure to support their growing influence, including the creation of Pasargadae and its legacy and impact on the kingdom of Macedon was also notably huge, even for centuries after the withdrawal of the Persians from Europe following the Greco-Persian Wars. The empire collapsed in 330 BC following the conquests of Alexander the Great, until the Parthian era, the Iranian identity had an ethnic, linguistic, and religious value, however, it did not yet have a political import
Persian people
–
Costumes of an ancient Persian noblemen and soldiers.
Persian people
–
Geographic distribution of modern Iranian languages: Modern Persian (green) and other related Persian (some descendant of Middle Persian like Luri in Red) also shown in the map
Persian people
–
Greek
hoplite and Persian warrior depicted fighting, on an ancient
kylix, 5th century BC
Persian people
–
Tajiks in
Samarkand,
Uzbekistan
22.
Byzantine lira
–
The Byzantine lyra or lira was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine Empire. In its popular form the lyra was an instrument with three to five strings, held upright and played by stopping the strings from the side with fingernails. Remains of two examples of Byzantine lyras from the Middle ages have been found in excavations at Novgorod. The first known depiction of the instrument is on a Byzantine ivory casket, a notable example is the Italian lira da braccio, a 15th-century bowed string instrument which is considered by many as the predecessor of the contemporary violin. The Byzantine lyra had rear tuning pegs set in a flat peg similarly to the fiddle and unlike the rabāb. However, the strings were touched by the nails laterally and not pressed from above with the flesh of the such as in the violin. The lyra depicted on the Byzantine ivory casket of Museo Nazionale, the soundboard is depicted without soundholes and as a distinct and attached piece, however this might be due to stylistic abstraction. The lyras of Novgorod are closer morphologically to the present bowed lyras, they were pear-shaped and 40 cm long, they had semi-circular soundholes, the lyra of the Byzantine empire survives in many post-Byzantine regions until the present day even closely to its archetype form. The gudok, a historical Russian instrument that survived until the 19th century, is also a variant of the Byzantine lyra, the slightly rounded body of the lyra is prolonged by a neck ending on the top in a block which is also pear-shaped or spherical. In that, are set the pegs facing and extending forward, the soundboard is also carved with a shallower arch and has two small semi-circular, D-shaped soundholes. The Cretan lyra is probably the most widely used surviving form of the Byzantine lyra, currently, numerous models tend to integrate the shape of the scroll, the finger board and other morphology of some secondary characteristics of the violin. On Concepts and Classifications of Musical Instruments, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-42548-7 Grillet, Laurent, Les ancetres du violon v.1, Paris
Byzantine lira
–
Earliest known depiction of lyra in a Byzantine ivory casket (900 – 1100 AD). (Museo Nazionale, Florence)
Byzantine lira
–
Fig.1: Byzantine lyra found in excavations at Novgorod dated to 1190 AD
Byzantine lira
–
Fig.5: Calabrian lyra (in use)
Byzantine lira
–
Fig.6: A Lijerica from
Dalmatia (in use)
23.
Byzantine Empire
–
It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, several signal events from the 4th to 6th centuries mark the period of transition during which the Roman Empires Greek East and Latin West divided. Constantine I reorganised the empire, made Constantinople the new capital, under Theodosius I, Christianity became the Empires official state religion and other religious practices were proscribed. Finally, under the reign of Heraclius, the Empires military, the borders of the Empire evolved significantly over its existence, as it went through several cycles of decline and recovery. During the reign of Maurice, the Empires eastern frontier was expanded, in a matter of years the Empire lost its richest provinces, Egypt and Syria, to the Arabs. This battle opened the way for the Turks to settle in Anatolia, the Empire recovered again during the Komnenian restoration, such that by the 12th century Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest European city. Despite the eventual recovery of Constantinople in 1261, the Byzantine Empire remained only one of several small states in the area for the final two centuries of its existence. Its remaining territories were annexed by the Ottomans over the 15th century. The Fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 finally ended the Byzantine Empire, the term comes from Byzantium, the name of the city of Constantinople before it became Constantines capital. This older name of the city would rarely be used from this point onward except in historical or poetic contexts. The publication in 1648 of the Byzantine du Louvre, and in 1680 of Du Canges Historia Byzantina further popularised the use of Byzantine among French authors, however, it was not until the mid-19th century that the term came into general use in the Western world. The Byzantine Empire was known to its inhabitants as the Roman Empire, the Empire of the Romans, Romania, the Roman Republic, Graikia, and also as Rhōmais. The inhabitants called themselves Romaioi and Graikoi, and even as late as the 19th century Greeks typically referred to modern Greek as Romaika and Graikika. The authority of the Byzantine emperor as the legitimate Roman emperor was challenged by the coronation of Charlemagne as Imperator Augustus by Pope Leo III in the year 800. No such distinction existed in the Islamic and Slavic worlds, where the Empire was more seen as the continuation of the Roman Empire. In the Islamic world, the Roman Empire was known primarily as Rûm, the Roman army succeeded in conquering many territories covering the entire Mediterranean region and coastal regions in southwestern Europe and north Africa. These territories were home to different cultural groups, both urban populations and rural populations. The West also suffered heavily from the instability of the 3rd century AD
Byzantine Empire
–
Tremissis with the image of
Justinian the Great (r. 527–565) (see
Byzantine insignia)
Byzantine Empire
–
Byzantine
lamellar armour klivanium (Κλιβάνιον) - a predecessor of Ottoman krug
mirror armour
Byzantine Empire
–
The Baptism of Constantine painted by
Raphael 's pupils (1520–1524,
fresco, Vatican City,
Apostolic Palace);
Eusebius of Caesarea records that (as
was common among converts of early Christianity) Constantine delayed receiving
baptism until shortly before his death
Byzantine Empire
–
Restored section of the Theodosian Walls.
24.
Guitar
–
The guitar is a musical instrument classified as a fretted string instrument with anywhere from four to 18 strings, usually having six. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a wooden or plastic and wood box, or through electrical amplifier. It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers, the guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. There are three types of modern acoustic guitar, the classical guitar, the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of a guitar is produced by the strings vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar. The term finger-picking can also refer to a tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass. The acoustic bass guitar is an instrument that is one octave below a regular guitar. Early amplified guitars employed a body, but a solid wood body was eventually found more suitable during the 1960s and 1970s. As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of guitars, including hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars and solid-body guitars. The electric guitar has had a influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as an instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar, at least two instruments called guitars were in use in Spain by 1200, the guitarra latina and the so-called guitarra morisca. The guitarra morisca had a back, wide fingerboard. The guitarra Latina had a sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers moresca or morisca and latina had been dropped, and it had six courses, lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist
Guitar
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Illustration in a
Carolingian psalter from the 9th century showing an instrument of the
chordophone family, most probably a
lute
Guitar
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A
classical guitar with nylon
strings
Guitar
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A guitarra latina (left) and a guitarra morisca (right), Spain, 13th century
Guitar
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Guitar collection in
Museu de la Música de Barcelona
25.
Pythagorean tuning
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Pythagorean tuning is a tuning of the syntonic temperament in which the generator is the ratio 3,2, which is 702 cents wide. Hence, it is a system of tuning in which the frequency ratios of all intervals are based on the ratio 3,2. This ratio, also known as the perfect fifth, is chosen because it is one of the most consonant and easiest to tune by ear. As Novalis put it, The musical proportions seem to me to be particularly correct natural proportions, the so-called Pythagorean tuning was used by musicians up to the beginning of the 16th century. The Pythagorean system would appear to be ideal because of the purity of the fifths, Pythagorean tuning is based on a stack of intervals called perfect fifths, each tuned in the ratio 3,2, the next simplest ratio after 2,1. Since notes differing in frequency by a factor of 2 are given the same name, the purpose of this adjustment is to move the 12 notes within a smaller range of frequency, namely within the interval between the base note D and the D above it. This interval is called the basic octave. For instance, the A is tuned such that its frequency equals 3,2 times the frequency of D—if D is tuned to a frequency of 288 Hz, then A is tuned to 432 Hz. Similarly, the E above A is tuned such that its frequency equals 3,2 times the frequency of A, or 9,4 times the frequency of D—with A at 432 Hz, this puts E at 648 Hz. Since this E is outside the basic octave, it is usual to halve its frequency to move it within the basic octave. Therefore, E is tuned to 324 Hz, a 9,8 above D, the B at 3,2 above that E is tuned to the ratio 27,16 and so on. This frequency is doubled to bring it into the basic octave. When extending this tuning however, a problem arises, no stack of 3,2 intervals will fit exactly into any stack of 2,1 intervals. For instance a stack such as this, obtained by adding one note to the stack shown above A♭–E♭–B♭–F–C–G–D–A–E–B–F♯–C♯–G♯ will be similar. More exactly, it will be about a quarter of a semitone larger, thus, A♭ and G♯, when brought into the basic octave, will not coincide as expected. This discrepancy, of about 23.46 cents, or nearly one quarter of a semitone, is known as a Pythagorean comma, to get around this problem, Pythagorean tuning constructs only twelve notes as above, with eleven fifths between them. For example, one may use only the 12 notes from E♭ to G♯. This, as shown above, the remaining interval is left badly out-of-tune, meaning that any music which combines those two notes is unplayable in this tuning. A very out-of-tune interval such as one is known as a wolf interval
Pythagorean tuning
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The syntonic tuning continuum, showing Pythagorean tuning at 702 cents.
26.
Odo of Cluny
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Odo of Cluny was the second abbot of Cluny. He enacted various reforms in the Cluniac system of France and Italy and he is venerated as a Saint by the Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church and his feast day is 18 November. There is only one contemporary biography of him, the Vita Odonis written by John of Salerno, Saint Odo was the son of Abbo, a feudal lord of Deols, near Le Mans. Abbo was a devout man who would frequently recite the precepts of the gospel to those around him. According to Odos later disciple John, before Odo was born, Abbo went on his knees one Christmas in the middle of the night and asked God for the gift of a son, Peter and Paul then said they would do so, but only for a time. The patron saints of Cluny Abbey were in fact Peter and Paul and his father then stopped his education and sent him to work as a page at the court of William the Pious, duke of Aquitaine, where he passed his days in hunting and military exercises. However, Odo felt deeply dissatisfied with his life there, on Christmas Day he felt such deep reproach like his life was not pleasing to Christ and he then turned to the Virgin Mary, praying to her for help. But after he said this prayer he began to have a pain in his head that continued for three years. Abbo then remembered the prayer he had made to Saint Martin when his son was a baby and his son then grew up very healthy and strong, almost like it was an answer to the prayer. But his son was healthy so much so, that Abbo then forgot his original prayer, but his son was now suffering so greatly. Abbo felt like this was all a sign from Martin, and he prayed again to Martin, Behold, truly as is fitting thou art quick to hear our vows but expensive art thou in business. Abbo then told Odo about the story, and Odo left Williams court to go to Tours, the site of Martins shrine and he then went to the monastery of St. Martin of Tours to live a religious life as a canon. In the 9th and 10th centuries, the shrine of St Martin of Tours was treated as one of the holiest sites in western Christendom, huge numbers of pilgrims would come there every year to see the relics of St Martin. Many miracles were said to have occurred within the vicinity of the tomb, when Odo came there, however, he was very upset at what he saw. The fact that such a thing was happening in such a place as Tours convinced Odo that this was a very grand sacrilege taking place. He later called it the abomination of desolation, Odo became a canon in Tours, and at first he lived the same way as the other canons. But after some time passed, he felt disgusted by it and instead he disciplined himself and he would spend days in spiritual reading and nights in prayer. His reading, however, was not limited to spiritual books and he also read the poems of Virgil
Odo of Cluny
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Odo of Cluny, 11th century miniature
27.
Arabic music
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Arabic music or Arab music is the music of the Arab world. Arab music, while independent and flourishing in the 2010s, has a history of interaction with many other regional musical styles and genres. It is an amalgam of the music of the Arab people in the Arabian Peninsula, as was the case in other artistic and scientific fields, Arabs translated Greek texts and works of music and developed the musical theory of the Greeks. Pre-Islamic Arab music was similar to that of Ancient Middle Eastern music, most historians agree that there existed distinct forms of music in the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic period between the 5th and 7th century AD. Arab poets of that time—called shuara al-Jahiliyah or Jahili poets, meaning the poets of the period of ignorance—used to recite poems with a high notes and it was believed that Jinns revealed poems to poets and music to musicians. The choir at the served as a pedagogic facility where the educated poets would recite their poems. The compositions were simple and every singer would sing in a single maqam, among the notable songs of the period were the huda, the nasb, sanad, and rukbani. Both compositions and improvisations in traditional Arabic music are based on the maqam system, maqams can be realized with either vocal or instrumental music, and do not include a rhythmic component. Al-Kindi was the first great theoretician of Arabic music and he proposed adding a fifth string to the oud and discussed the cosmological connotations of music. He built upon the achievements of the Greek musicians in using the alphabetical annotation for one eighth and he published fifteen treatises on music theory, but only five have survived. In one of his treatises the word musiqa was used for the first time in Arabic, abulfaraj wrote a book about music. Kitab al-Aghani is a collection of poems and songs that runs to over 20 volumes in modern editions. Al-Farabi wrote a book on music titled Kitab al-Musiqi al-Kabir. His pure Arabian tone system is used in Arabic music. Al-Ghazali wrote a treatise on music in Persia which declared, Ecstasy means the state comes from listening to music. In 1252, Safi al-Din developed a form of musical notation. A similar geometric representation would not appear in the Western world until 1987, by the 11th century, Islamic Iberia had become a center for the manufacture of instruments. These goods spread gradually throughout France, influencing French troubadours, the English words lute, rebec, and naker are derived from Arabic oud, rabab, and naqareh
Arabic music
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Bayad plays the oud to The Lady. from the
Riyad & Bayad,
Arabic tale
Arabic music
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Musicians in Aleppo (18th century)
Arabic music
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Musicians in
Aleppo, 1915.
Arabic music
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Slovak-style hurdy-gurdy (Ninera) made and played by Tibor Koblicek
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