1.
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
2.
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
3.
Mandolin
–
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or pick. It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, although five, the courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths. It is the member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello. There are many styles of mandolin, but three are common, the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-back has a bottom, constructed of strips of wood. The carved-top or arch-top mandolin has a shallower, arched back. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music, carved-top instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are used in Irish, British and Brazilian folk music. Some modern Brazilian instruments feature a fifth course tuned a fifth lower than the standard fourth course. There has also been a type and an instrument with sixteen-strings. Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard, pre-mandolin instruments were quiet instruments, strung with as many as six courses of gut strings, and were plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder—using four courses of metal strings, the modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections, there is usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic f. A round or oval sound hole may be covered or bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling, Mandolins evolved from the lute family in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the deep bowled mandolin, produced particularly in Naples, became common in the 19th century. Dating to around c.13,000 BC, a painting in the Trois Frères cave in France depicts what some believe is a musical bow. From the musical bow, families of stringed instruments developed, since each string played a note, adding strings added new notes, creating bow harps, harps. In turn, this led to being able to play dyads and chords, another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a bridge used to lift the strings off the stick-neck, creating the lute
4.
Harpsichord
–
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed, Harpsichord designates the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals, muselar, and spinet. The harpsichord was used in Renaissance and Baroque music. During the late 18th century, it disappeared from the musical scene with the rise of the piano. In the 20th century, it made a resurgence, being used in historically informed performances of music, in compositions. Harpsichords vary in size and shape, but all have the basic functional arrangement. The player depresses a key that rocks over a pivot in the middle of its length, the other end of the key lifts a jack that holds a small plectrum, which plucks the string. When the player releases the key, the far end returns to its rest position, the plectrum, mounted on a tongue that can swivel backwards away from the string, passes the string without plucking it again. As the key reaches its rest position, a felt damper atop the jack stops the strings vibrations and these basic principles are explained in detail below. The keylever is a pivot, which rocks on a balance pin that passes through a hole drilled through the keylever. The jack is a thin, rectangular piece of wood that sits upright on the end of the keylever, the jacks are held in place by the registers. These are two strips of wood, which run in the gap between pinblock and bellyrail. The registers have rectangular mortises through which the pass as they can move up. The registers hold the jacks in the location needed to pluck the string. In the jack, a plectrum juts out almost horizontally and passes just under the string, historically, plectra were made of bird quill or leather, many modern harpsichords have plastic plectra. When the front of the key is pressed, the back of the key rises, the jack is lifted, the vertical motion of the jack is then stopped by the jackrail, which is covered with soft felt to muffle the impact. When the key is released, the falls back down under its own weight. This is made possible by having the plectrum held in a tongue attached with a pivot and a spring to the body of the jack
5.
Guitar pick
–
A guitar pick is a plectrum used for guitars. Picks are generally made of one uniform material—such as some kind of plastic, rubber, felt, tortoiseshell, wood, metal, glass, tagua and they are often shaped in an acute isosceles triangle with the two equal corners rounded and the third corner less rounded. They are used to strum chords or to individual notes on a guitar. In British English, guitar picks are referred to as plectrums reserving the term pick to identify the difference between this and finger picks, musicians have used plectrums to play stringed instruments for thousands of years. Feather quills were likely the first standardized plectra and became widely used until the late 19th century, other alternatives had come and gone, but tortoiseshell provided the best combination of tonal sound and physical flexibility for plucking a taut string. There have been innovations in the design of the guitar pick. Most of these were out of the issue of guitar picks slipping and flying out of the hand of the player. In 1896, a Cincinnati man affixed two rubber disks to either side of a pick, which made it the first popular solution to the problem. Over the next two decades more innovations were made, such as corrugating the rounded surface of the pick or drilling a hole through the center to fit the pad of a players thumb. A more notable improvement was attaching cork to the part of the pick. Some of these new designs made picks undesirably expensive, eventually, pickers realized that all they needed was something to sink their fingerprints into so the pick wouldnt slip, such as a high relief imprinted logo. Celluloid was a material on which this could easily be done, tony DAndrea was the one of the first people to use celluloid to produce and sell guitar picks. From the 1920s through the 1950s, DAndrea Manufacturing would dominate the worlds international pick market, providing to major businesses such as Gibson, Fender, and Martin. One of the main reasons celluloid was so popular as guitar pick material was that it very closely imitated the sound and flexibility of a tortoise shell guitar pick. Musicians had been partial to shell picks, and when DAndrea provided an alternative, DAndrea Manufacturing became very successful, Celluloid provided a good alternative in many ways. Tortoise shell was rare, expensive, and had a tendency to break, Celluloid was made from cellulose, one of the most abundant raw materials in the world, and nitrocellulose combined with camphor under heat and pressure produced celluloid. Later, other materials, such as nylon and less popularly wood, glass, or metal would become popular for making guitar picks for their increased grip, flexibility, or tonal qualities. Pick shapes started with guitarists shaping bone, shell, wood, cuttlebone, metal, amber, most of todays guitar pick shapes were created by the company that made the first plastic pick in 1922, DAndrea Picks
6.
Electric guitar
–
The vibrations of the strings are sensed by a pickup, of which the most common type is the magnetic pickup, which uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction. The signal generated by a guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is plugged into a guitar amplifier before being sent to a loudspeaker. The output of a guitar is an electric signal. Invented in 1931, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitarists. Early proponents of the guitar on record included Les Paul, Lonnie Johnson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, T-Bone Walker. During the 1950s and 1960s, the guitar became the most important instrument in pop music. It has evolved into an instrument that is capable of a multitude of sounds and styles in genres ranging from pop and rock to country music, blues and jazz. It served as a component in the development of electric blues, rock and roll, rock music, heavy metal music. Electric guitar design and construction vary greatly in the shape of the body and the configuration of the neck, bridge, Guitars may have a fixed bridge or a spring-loaded hinged bridge that lets players bend the pitch of notes or chords up or down or perform vibrato effects. The sound of a guitar can be modified by new playing techniques such as string bending, tapping, hammering on, using audio feedback, in a small group, such as a power trio, one guitarist switches between both roles. In larger rock and metal bands, there is often a rhythm guitarist, many experiments at electrically amplifying the vibrations of a string instrument were made dating back to the early part of the 20th century. Patents from the 1910s show telephone transmitters were adapted and placed inside violins, hobbyists in the 1920s used carbon button microphones attached to the bridge, however, these detected vibration from the bridge on top of the instrument, resulting in a weak signal. With numerous people experimenting with electrical instruments in the 1920s and early 1930s, Electric guitars were originally designed by acoustic guitar makers and instrument manufacturers. Some of the earliest electric guitars adapted hollow-bodied acoustic instruments and used tungsten pickups, the first electrically amplified guitar was designed in 1931 by George Beauchamp, the general manager of the National Guitar Corporation, with Paul Barth, who was vice president. The maple body prototype for the one-piece cast aluminum frying pan was built by Harry Watson, commercial production began in late summer of 1932 by the Ro-Pat-In Corporation, in Los Angeles, a partnership of Beauchamp, Adolph Rickenbacker, and Paul Barth. In 1934, the company was renamed the Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company, in that year Beauchamp applied for a United States patent for an Electrical Stringed Musical Instrument and the patent was issued in 1937. The Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts provided players a full 25 scale, with 17 frets free of the fretboard and it is estimated that fewer than 50 Electro-Spanish Ken Roberts were constructed between 1933 and 1937, fewer than 10 are known to survive today. The need for the guitar became apparent during the big band era as orchestras increased in size, particularly when acoustic guitars had to compete with large
7.
Acoustic guitar
–
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that produces sound acoustically—by transmitting the vibration of the strings to the air—as opposed to relying on electronic amplification. The sound waves from the strings of an acoustic guitar resonate through the guitars body and this typically involves the use of a sound board and a sound box to strengthen the vibrations of the strings. The main source of sound in a guitar is the string. The string vibrates at a frequency and also creates many harmonics at various different frequencies. The frequencies produced can depend on string length, mass, gitterns, a small plucked guitar were the first small guitar-like instruments created during the Middle Ages with a round back like that of a lute. Modern guitar shaped instruments were not seen until the Renaissance era where the body, the earliest string instruments that related to the guitar and its structure where broadly known as the vihuelas within Spanish musical culture. Vihuelas where string instruments that were seen in the 16th century during the Renaissance. Later, Spanish writers distinguished these instruments into 2 categories of vihuelas, the vihuela de arco was an instrument that mimicked the violin, and the vihuela de penola was played with a plectrum or by hand. When it was played by hand it was known as the vihuela de mano, vihuela de mano shared extreme similarities with the Renaissance guitar as it used hand movement at the sound hole or sound chamber of the instrument to create music. The real production of guitars kicked off in France where the popularity, the production became so large that early famous creators such as Gaspard Duyffooprucgars instruments were being sold as copies by other guitar makers in Lyon. Benoist Lejeune, a maker, offered and sold guitar copies of Duyffoprucgars instruments and was later imprisoned for using his mark and work. During this time, the production was increasing tremendously but it was not until Robert and Claude Denis appeared overproducing the early Renaissance guitar in Paris, as father and son, Robert and Claude produced hundreds of guitars that increased the popularity of the instrument greatly. Because of them and the great many guitar inventors of this time, by 1790 only six-course vihuela guitars were being created and had become the main type and model of guitar used in Spain. Most of the older 5-course guitars where still in use but were also being modified to a six-coursed acoustical guitar, by the 19th century, coursed strings where evolved into 6 single-stringed instruments much like that of the guitar today. It had evolved into the modern look except for size, retaining a smaller frame, the acoustic guitars soundboard, or top, also has a strong effect on the loudness of the guitar. No amplification actually occurs in this process, because no energy is added to increase the loudness of the sound. All the energy is provided by the plucking of the string, but without a soundboard, the string would just cut through the air without actually moving it much. The soundboard increases the surface of the area in a process called mechanical impedance matching
8.
Bass guitar
–
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb, by plucking, slapping, popping, strumming, tapping, thumping, or picking with a plectrum, often known as a pick. The bass guitar is similar in appearance and construction to a guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length. The four-string bass, by far the most common, is tuned the same as the double bass. The bass guitar is an instrument, as it is notated in bass clef an octave higher than it sounds to avoid excessive ledger lines. Like the electric guitar, the guitar has pickups and it is plugged into an amplifier and speaker on stage, or into a larger PA system using a DI unit. Since the 1960s, the guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music as the bass instrument in the rhythm section. While types of basslines vary widely from one style of music to another, many styles of music utilise the bass guitar, including rock, heavy metal, pop, punk rock, country, reggae, gospel, blues, symphonic rock, and jazz. It is often a solo instrument in jazz, jazz fusion, Latin, funk, progressive rock and other rock, the adoption of a guitar form made the instrument easier to hold and transport than any of the existing stringed bass instruments. The addition of frets enabled bassists to play in more easily than on acoustic or electric upright basses. Around 100 of these instruments were made during this period, around 1947, Tutmarcs son, Bud, began marketing a similar bass under the Serenader brand name, prominently advertised in the nationally distributed L. D. Heater Music Company wholesale jobber catalogue of 1948, however, the Tutmarc family inventions did not achieve market success. In the 1950s, Leo Fender, with the help of his employee George Fullerton and his Fender Precision Bass, which began production in October 1951, became a widely copied industry standard. This split pickup, introduced in 1957, appears to have been two mandolin pickups, the pole pieces and leads of the coils were reversed with respect to each other, producing a humbucking effect. Humbucking is a design that electrically cancels the effect of any AC hum, the Fender Bass was a revolutionary new instrument, which could be easily transported, and which was less prone to feedback when amplified than acoustic bass instruments. Monk Montgomery was the first bass player to tour with the Fender bass guitar, roy Johnson, and Shifty Henry with Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five, were other early Fender bass pioneers. Bill Black, playing with Elvis Presley, switched from bass to the Fender Precision Bass around 1957. The bass guitar was intended to appeal to guitarists as well as upright bass players, following Fenders lead, in 1953, Gibson released the first short scale violin-shaped electric bass with extendable end pin, allowing it to be played upright or horizontally. In 1959 these were followed by the more conventional-looking EB-0 Bass, the EB-0 was very similar to a Gibson SG in appearance
9.
Fingerpick
–
A fingerpick is a type of plectrum used most commonly for playing bluegrass style banjo music. Most fingerpicks are composed of metal or plastic, generally three are used, one for the thumb, and one each for the middle and index fingers. Fingerpicks worn on the thumb are generally called thumbpicks, most players use a plastic thumbpick while using metal fingerpicks. Fingerpicks come in a variety of thicknesses to accommodate different musicians styles of playing, thin picks produce a quieter, more delicate sound, while thick picks produce a heavier sound. Fingerpicks are also used by guitar, Hawaiian guitar, lap steel, autoharp, pedal steel guitar, fingerpicks generally take quite some time to adapt to, even for people who come from the more common fingerstyle techniques. Tone wise, they are the most similar to standard guitar picks, some players combine a thumb pick and bare fingers/fingernails. Classical guitar players, who use their fingernails to pluck the guitars strings
10.
Celluloid
–
Celluloids are a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, with added dyes and other agents. Generally considered the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856 and as Xylonite in 1869, Celluloid is easily molded and shaped, and it was first widely used as an ivory replacement. The main use was in movie and photography industries, which used only celluloid films prior to acetate films that were introduced in the 1950s. Celluloid is highly flammable, difficult and expensive to produce and no longer used, although its most common uses today are in table tennis balls, musical instruments. Collodion, invented in 1848 and used as a wound dressing, Parkes patented his discovery after realising a solid residue remained after evaporation of the solvent from photographic collodion. Parkes patented it as a clothing waterproofer for woven fabrics in the same year, later Parkes showcased Parkesine at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where he was awarded a bronze medal for his efforts. The introduction of Parkesine is generally regarded as the birth of the plastics industry and he used cloth, ivory dust, and shellac, and on April 6,1869, patented a method of covering billiard balls with the addition of collodion. With assistance from Peter Kinnear and other investors, Hyatt formed the Albany Billiard Ball Company in Albany, New York, in 1870, John and his brother Isaiah patented a process of making a horn-like material with the inclusion of cellulose nitrate and camphor. Isaiah Hyatt dubbed his material celluloid in 1872, english inventor Daniel Spill had worked with Parkes and formed the Xylonite Co. to take over Parkes patents, describing the new plastic products as Xylonite. He took exception to the Hyatts claims and pursued the brothers in a number of cases between 1877 and 1884. The judge ruled all manufacturing of celluloid could continue both in Spills British Xylonite Company and Hyatts Celluloid Manufacturing Company, Hyatt used heat and pressure to simplify the manufacture of these compounds. Over the years, celluloid has become the term used for this type of plastic. English photographer John Carbutt founded the Keystone Dry Plate Works in 1879 with the intention of producing gelatin dry plates, the Celluloid Manufacturing Company was contracted for this work by means of thinly slicing layers out of celluloid blocks and then removing the slice marks with heated pressure plates. After this, the strips were coated with a photosensitive gelatin emulsion. It is not certain exactly how long it took for Carbutt to standardize his process, a 15-inch-wide sheet of Carbutts film was used by William Dickson for the early Edison motion picture experiments on a cylinder drum Kinetograph. However, the film base produced by this means was still considered too stiff for the needs of motion picture photography. By 1889, more flexible celluloids for photographic film were developed and this ability to produce photographic images on a flexible material was a crucial step toward the advent of motion pictures. Most movie and photography films prior to the move to acetate films in the fifties were made of celluloid
11.
Polyoxymethylene
–
POM is characterized by its high strength, hardness and rigidity to −40 °C. POM is intrinsically opaque white, due to its high crystalline composition, POM has a density of 1. 410–1.420 g/cm3. The material is used in the automotive and consumer electronics industry. Polyoxymethylene was discovered by Hermann Staudinger, a German chemist who received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and he had studied the polymerization and structure of POM in the 1920s while researching macromolecules, which he characterized as polymers. Due to problems with stability, POM was not commercialized at that time. Around 1952, research chemists at DuPont synthesized a version of POM, DuPont credits R. N. MacDonald as the inventor of high-molecular-weight POM. Patents by MacDonald and coworkers describe the preparation of high-molecular-weight hemiacetal-terminated POM, in 1960, DuPont completed construction of a plant to produce its own version of acetal resin, named Delrin, at Parkersburg, West Virginia. Also in 1960, Celanese completed its own research, both remain in production under the auspices of Celanese and are sold as parts of a product group now called Hostaform/Celcon POM. Different manufacturing processes are used to produce the homopolymer and copolymer versions of POM, to make polyoxymethylene homopolymer, anhydrous formaldehyde must be generated. The formaldehyde is then polymerized by anionic catalysis and the polymer stabilized by reaction with acetic anhydride. Due to the process, large diameter cross sections may have pronounced centerline porosity. A typical example is DuPont’s Delrin, the polyoxymethylene copolymer replaces about 1–1. 5% of the –CH2O– groups with –CH2CH2O–. To make polyoxymethylene copolymer, formaldehyde is generally converted to trioxane and this is done by acid catalysis followed by purification of the trioxane by distillation and/or extraction to remove water and other active hydrogen containing impurities. Typical copolymers are Hostaform from Celanese and Ultraform from BASF, the co-monomer is typically dioxolane but ethylene oxide can also be used. Dioxolane is formed by reaction of ethylene glycol with aqueous formaldehyde over an acid catalyst, other diols can also be used. Trioxane and Dioxolane are polymerized using an acid catalyst, often boron trifluoride etherate, the polymerization can take place in a non-polar solvent or in neat trioxane. After polymerization, the acidic catalyst must be deactivated and the polymer stabilized by melt or solution hydrolysis to remove unstable end groups, stable polymer is melt compounded, adding thermal and oxidative stabilizers and optionally lubricants and miscellaneous fillers. POM is supplied in a form and can be formed into the desired shape by applying heat
12.
Felt
–
Felt is a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of fibers such as wool, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood pulp-based rayon. Felt from wool is considered to be the oldest known textile, many cultures have legends as to the origins of felt making. Sumerian legend claims that the secret of feltmaking was discovered by Urnamman of Lagash, the story of Saint Clement and Saint Christopher relates that while fleeing from persecution, the men packed their sandals with wool to prevent blisters. At the end of their journey, the movement and sweat had turned the wool into felt socks, feltmaking is still practised by nomadic peoples in Central Asia, where rugs, tents and clothing are regularly made. Some of these are items, such as the classic yurt, while others are designed for the tourist market. Wrapping the properly arranged fiber in a sturdy, textured material, such as a mat or burlap. The felted material may be finished by fulling, only certain types of fiber can be wet felted successfully. Most types of fleece, such as those taken from the alpaca or the Merino sheep, one may also use mohair, angora, or hair from rodents such as beavers and muskrats. These types of fiber are covered in scales, similar to the scales found on a strand of human hair. Heat, motion, and moisture of the causes the scales to open, while agitating them causes them to latch onto each other. There is a theory that the fibers wind around each other during felting. Plant fibers and synthetic fibers will not wet felt, needle felting is a method of creating felted objects without using water. The special needles used to make 3D sculpture, jewelry, adornments and 2D art have notches along the shaft of the needle that catch fibers and tangle them with other fibers to produce felt. These notches are sometimes erroneously called barbs, but barbs are protrusion, there are many sizes and types of notched needles for different uses while working. Needle felting is used in processes as well as in individual crafting. Invented in the mid 17th century and used until the mid-20th centuries, beaver, rabbit or hare skins were treated with a dilute solution of the mercury compound mercuric nitrate. The skins were dried in an oven where the fur at the sides turned orange
13.
Ukulele
–
The ukulele, sometimes abbreviated to uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments, it generally employs four nylon or gut strings or four courses of strings. Some strings may be paired in courses, giving the instrument a total of six or eight strings and it gained great popularity elsewhere in the United States during the early 20th century and from there spread internationally. The tone and volume of the instrument vary with size and construction, ukuleles commonly come in four sizes, soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone. The ukulele is commonly associated with music from Hawaii where the name translates as jumping flea. Legend attributes it to the nickname of the Englishman Edward William Purvis, one of King Kalākauas officers, because of his size, fidgety manner. According to Queen Liliʻuokalani, the last Hawaiian monarch, the means the gift that came here, from the Hawaiian words uku. Three immigrants in particular, Madeiran cabinet makers Manuel Nunes, José do Espírito Santo, one of the most important factors in establishing the ukulele in Hawaiian music and culture was the ardent support and promotion of the instrument by King Kalākaua. A patron of the arts, he incorporated it into performances at royal gatherings,50,000 schoolchildren and adults learned ukulele through the Doane program at its peak. Today, a program created by James Hill and J. Chalmers Doane continues to be a staple of music education in Canada. The ukulele came to Japan in 1929 after Hawaiian-born Yukihiko Haida returned to the country upon his fathers death, Haida and his brother Katsuhiko formed the Moana Glee Club, enjoying rapid success in an environment of growing enthusiasm for Western popular music, particularly Hawaiian and jazz. During World War II, authorities banned most Western music, but fans and players kept it alive in secret, in 1959, Haida founded the Nihon Ukulele Association. Today, Japan is considered a home for Hawaiian musicians. Demand surged in the new century because of its simplicity and portability. The ukulele was popularized for an audience during the Panama Pacific International Exposition. The Hawaiian Pavilion featured a guitar and ukulele ensemble, George E. K. Awai and his Royal Hawaiian Quartet, the popularity of the ensemble with visitors launched a fad for Hawaiian-themed songs among Tin Pan Alley songwriters. The ensemble also introduced both the lap steel guitar and the ukulele into U. S. mainland popular music, where it was taken up by vaudeville performers such as Roy Smeck and Cliff Ukulele Ike Edwards. On April 15,1923 at the Rivoli Theater in New York City, Smeck appeared, playing the ukulele, in Stringed Harmony, a short film made in the DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. On August 6,1926, Smeck appeared playing the ukulele in a short film His Pastimes, made in the Vitaphone sound-on-disc process, the ukulele soon became an icon of the Jazz Age
14.
Rock and roll
–
While elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s. For the purpose of differentiation, this deals with the first definition. The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars, a double bass or string bass or an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Beyond simply a style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teens enjoyed the music and it went on to spawn various genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply rock music or rock. The term rock and roll now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s. In 1934, the song Rock and Roll by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, in 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term rock-and-roll to describe upbeat recordings such as Rock Me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the Rock and Roll Inn in South Merchantville, in 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it. The origins of rock and roll have been debated by commentators. The migration of former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called race music, particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk. The 1940s saw the use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics. In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll. Rock and roll arrived at a time of technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock. Because the development of rock and roll was a process, no single record can be identified as unambiguously the first rock. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
15.
Blues
–
Blues is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also a part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove, Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times, Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the troubles experienced in African-American society. Many elements, such as the format and the use of blue notes. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later and it is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century, the first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues, World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a form called blues rock evolved. The term blues may have come from blue devils, meaning melancholy and sadness, the phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, by the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, in lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The lyrics of traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. Two of the first published songs, Dallas Blues and Saint Louis Blues, were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times, the lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody
16.
Jazz
–
Jazz is a music genre that originated amongst African Americans in New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and developed from roots in Blues and Ragtime. Since the 1920s jazz age, jazz has become recognized as a form of musical expression. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms, Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime, as well as European military band music. Although the foundation of jazz is deeply rooted within the Black experience of the United States, different cultures have contributed their own experience, intellectuals around the world have hailed jazz as one of Americas original art forms. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on different national, regional, and local musical cultures, New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass-band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz, bebop emerged in the 1940s, shifting jazz from danceable popular music toward a more challenging musicians music which was played at faster tempos and used more chord-based improvisation. Cool jazz developed in the end of the 1940s, introducing calmer, smoother sounds and long, modal jazz developed in the late 1950s, using the mode, or musical scale, as the basis of musical structure and improvisation. Jazz-rock fusion appeared in the late 1960s and early 1970s, combining jazz improvisation with rock rhythms, electric instruments. In the early 1980s, a form of jazz fusion called smooth jazz became successful. Other styles and genres abound in the 2000s, such as Latin, the question of the origin of the word jazz has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. It is believed to be related to jasm, a term dating back to 1860 meaning pep. The use of the word in a context was documented as early as 1915 in the Chicago Daily Tribune. Its first documented use in a context in New Orleans was in a November 14,1916 Times-Picayune article about jas bands. In an interview with NPR, musician Eubie Blake offered his recollections of the slang connotations of the term, saying, When Broadway picked it up. That was dirty, and if you knew what it was, the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century. Jazz has proved to be difficult to define, since it encompasses such a wide range of music spanning a period of over 100 years. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditions, in the opinion of Robert Christgau, most of us would say that inventing meaning while letting loose is the essence and promise of jazz. As Duke Ellington, one of jazzs most famous figures, said, although jazz is considered highly difficult to define, at least in part because it contains so many varied subgenres, improvisation is consistently regarded as being one of its key elements
17.
Bluegrass music
–
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a related genre of country music. Settlers from Britain and Ireland arrived in Appalachia during the 18th century and these traditions consisted primarily of English and Scottish ballads—which were essentially unaccompanied narrative—and dance music, such as Irish reels, which were accompanied by a fiddle. Many older bluegrass songs come directly from the British Isles, several Appalachian bluegrass ballads, such as Pretty Saro, Barbara Allen, Cuckoo Bird and House Carpenter, come from England and preserve the English ballad tradition both melodically and lyrically. Others, such as The Two Sisters, also come from England, however, some bluegrass fiddle songs popular in Appalachia, such as Leather Britches, and Pretty Polly, have Scottish roots. The dance tune Cumberland Gap may be derived from the tune that accompanies the Scottish ballad Bonnie George Campbell and this is in contrast to old-time music, in which all instruments play the melody together or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide accompaniment. Breakdowns are often characterized by rapid tempos and unusual instrumental dexterity, there are three major subgenres of bluegrass and one unofficial subgenre. Traditional bluegrass has musicians playing folk songs, tunes with traditional chord progressions, progressive bluegrass groups may use electric instruments and import songs from other genres, particularly rock & roll. Examples include Cadillac Sky and Bearfoot, another subgenre, Bluegrass gospel uses Christian lyrics, soulful three- or four-part harmony singing, and sometimes the playing of instrumentals. Bluegrass music has attracted a following worldwide. Bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe characterized the genre as, Scottish bagpipes and its Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. Its blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound, unlike mainstream country music, bluegrass is traditionally played on acoustic stringed instruments. The fiddle, five-string banjo, guitar, mandolin, and upright bass are often joined by the resonator guitar and this instrumentation originated in rural dance bands and is the basis on which the earliest bluegrass bands were formed. The guitar is now most commonly played with a style referred to as flatpicking, unlike the style of bluegrass guitarists such as Lester Flatt. Banjo players often use the three-finger picking style made popular by such as Don Reno. Fiddlers frequently play in thirds and fifths, producing a sound that is characteristic to the bluegrass style, bassists almost always play pizzicato, occasionally adopting the slap-style to accentuate the beat. A bluegrass bass line is generally a rhythmic alternation between the tonic and dominant of each chord, with walking bass excursions. Instrumentation has been a topic of debate. Traditional bluegrass performers believe the correct instrumentation is used by Bill Monroes band
18.
Fingerstyle guitar
–
Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking. The term is used synonymously with fingerpicking, although fingerpicking can also refer to a specific tradition of folk, blues. Often, the guitarist will play the notes, interspersed with the melodys accompanying chords. Some fingerpicking guitarists also intersperse percussive tapping along with the melody, chords and this enables a single guitarist to provide all of these important song elements. This enables singer-guitarists to accompany themselves, and it enables smaller groups which have only a single guitarist to use one guitarist to provide all of these musical elements. Fingerpicking is a technique on the classical or nylon string guitar. Fingerpicking is less common on electric guitars, except in the metal music virtuoso style of lead guitar playing known as shred guitar. Because individual digits play notes on the rather than the hand working as a single unit. Deep bass notes, harmonic accompaniment, melody, and percussion can all be played simultaneously when playing Fingerstyle, players do not have to carry a plectrum, but fingernails may have to be maintained at the right length and in good condition. It is possible to play multiple non-adjacent strings at exactly the same time and this enables the guitarist to play a very low bass note and a high treble note at the same time. This enables the guitarist to play double stops, such as an octave, a fifth, (an exception to this may be found in the flamenco technique of rasgueado. It is easy to play arpeggios, but the techniques for tremolo and it is possible to play chords without any arpeggiation, because up to five strings can be plucked simultaneously. There is less need for fretting hand damping in playing chords, a greater variation in strokes is possible, allowing greater expressiveness in timbre and dynamics. A wide variety of strums and rasgueados are possible, less energy is generally imparted to strings than with plectrum playing, leading to lower volume when playing acoustically. Playing on heavier gauge strings can damage nails, fingerstyle is more suited to nylon strings or lighter gauge steel strings Nylon string guitars are most frequently played fingerstyle. The term Classical guitar music can refer to any kind of art music played on a nylon string guitar, or more narrowly to music of the classical period, as opposed to baroque or romantic music. The major feature of classical fingerstyle technique is that it enables solo rendition of harmony, the technique is intended to maximise the degree of control over the musical dynamics, texture, volume and timbral characteristics of the guitar. Careful attention is paid to the posture of the player
19.
Japan
–
Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
20.
Biwa
–
The biwa is a Japanese short-necked fretted lute, often used in narrative storytelling. The biwa is the instrument of Benten, goddess of music, eloquence, poetry. The origin of biwa is Chinese pipa and it arrived in Japan in two forms. Since that time, the number of types has more than quadrupled. Guilds supporting biwa players, particularly the biwa hoshi, helped proliferate biwa musical development for hundreds of years, Biwa hōshi performances overlapped with performances by other biwa players many years before heikyoko and continued until today. This overlap resulted in an evolution of the biwa and its usage. Yet, in spite of its popularity, the Onin War and subsequent Warring States Period disrupted biwa teaching, with the abolition of Todo in the Meiji period, biwa players lost their patronage. Furthermore, reforms stemming from the Meiji Restoration led to massive, Japan modeled its development on Europe and the US, praising everything Western and condemning everything native. Traditions identifiably Japanese became associated with terms like backwards or primitive, such associations even extended into areas like art and music, and the biwa. Japanese and foreign musicians alike have begun embracing traditional Japanese instruments, particularly the biwa, while blind biwa singers no longer dominate the biwa, many performers continue to use the instrument in traditional and modern ways. The biwa came to Japan in the 7th century and it was evolved from the Chinese instrument pipa and this type of biwa is called the gaku-biwa and was used in gagaku ensembles and is the most commonly known type. While the route is unclear, another type of biwa found its way to the Kyushu region, before long, as the Ritsuryō state collapsed, the court music musicians were faced with the reconstruction and sought asylum in Buddhist temples. There they assumed the role of Buddhist monks and encountered the mōsō-biwa, through the next several centuries, players of both traditions intersected frequently and developed new music styles and new instruments. By the Kamakura period, the heike-biwa had emerged as a popular instrument, the heike-biwa could be described as a cross between both the gaku-biwa and mōsō-biwa. It retained the shape of the gaku-biwa and was played with a large plectrum like the mōsō-biwa. The heike biwa was also small, like the mōsō-biwa and was used for similar purposes, not much seems to have been written about biwas from roughly the 16th century to the mid-19th century. What is known is that three main streams of biwa emerged during that time, zato, shifu, and chofu and these styles emphasized 琵琶歌 — vocalization with biwa accompaniment — and formed the foundation for 江戸歌 styles such as shinnai and kota. From these styles also emerged the two survivors of the biwa tradition, satsuma-biwa and chikuzen-biwa
21.
Shamisen
–
The shamisen or samisen, also called sangen, is a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument derived from the Chinese instrument sanxian. It is played with a called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually shamisen but sometimes jamisen when used as a suffix, the construction of the shamisen varies in shape, depending on the genre in which it is used. The instrument used to accompany kabuki has a neck, facilitating the agile. The instrument used to accompany puppet plays and folk songs has a longer and thicker neck to match the more robust music of those genres, the shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument. Its construction follows a similar to that of a guitar or a banjo, with a neck. The neck of the shamisen is fretless and slimmer than that of a guitar or banjo, the body, called the dō, resembles a drum, having a hollow body that is covered front and back with skin, in the manner of a banjo. The skin used depends on the genre of music and the skill of the player, student shamisen often use dog skin, and sometimes plastic, as they are cheaper to replace, and more durable. The shamisen of professional players are often covered in cat skin, as it is more delicate and it is said that the best sound quality is produced from a shamisen bound in cat skin. In the past a special type of paper was used and recently various types of plastics are being tried, on the skin of some of the best shamisen, the position of the cats nipples can still be seen. The sao, or neck of the shamisen is usually divided into three or four pieces that fit and lock together, indeed, most shamisen are made so that they can be easily disassembled and stowed to save space. The neck of the shamisen is a rod that crosses the drum-like body of the instrument, partially protruding at the other side of the body. The pegs used to wind the strings are long, thin and they were traditionally fashioned out of ivory, but as it has become a rare resource, they have been recently fashioned out of other materials, such as various kinds of wood and plastic. The three strings are made of silk, or, more recently, nylon. They are stretched between the pegs at the head of the instrument, and a cloth tailpiece anchored at the end of the rod which protrudes on the side of the body. The strings are stretched across the dō, raised from it by means of a bridge, or koma, the lowest string is purposefully laid lower at the nut of the instrument, so that it buzzes, creating a characteristic timbre known as sawari. The head of the instrument known as a tenjin may also be protected by a cover, the material of the strings will depend on the skill of the player. However, silk breaks easily over a time, so this is reserved for professional performances
22.
Oud
–
In the first centuries of Arabian civilisation, the oud had 4 courses only, tuned in successive fourths. These were called the Bamm, then came the Mathnā, the Mathlath, a fifth string, called ḥād, was sometimes added for theoretical purposes, generally to complement the double octave. The Modern tuning preserves the ancient succession of fourths, with adjunctions which may be tuned differently following regional or personal preferences. The first known description of the ‛ūd and its construction is found in the epistle Risāla fī-l-Luḥūn wa-n-Nagham by 9th-century Philosopher of the Arabs YaꜤqūb ibn Isḥāq al-Kindī. Kindīs description stands thus, length will be, thirty-six joint fingers - with good thick fingers -, and its depth seven and a half fingers. And the measurement of the width of the bridge with the remainder behind, remains the length of the strings, thirty fingers and on these strings take place the division and the partition, because it is the sounding length. This is why the width must be fifteen fingers as it is the half of this length, similarly for the depth, seven fingers and a half and this is the half of the width and the quarter of the length. And the neck must be one third of the length and it is, remains the vibrating body, twenty fingers. And that the back be well rounded and its thinning towards the neck, the first description of the modern oud is by ibn a-ṭ-Ṭaḥḥān. It is very similar to the construction of modern lutes, the modern oud stems most probably from the barbat which, in turn, stems from the Indian lute-type vīnā. The oud, as a difference with the western lute, has no frets. It is the ancestor of the European lute. The oldest surviving oud is thought to be in Brussels, at the Museum of Musical Instruments, the Arabic, العود literally denotes a thin piece of wood similar to the shape of a straw. Henry George Farmer considers the similitude between al-ʿūd and al-ʿawda, research by Eckhard Neubauer suggests that oud may be an Arabic borrowing from the Persian word rōd or rūd, which meant string, stringed instrument, or lute. Another researcher, archaeomusicologist Richard J. Dumbrill, suggests that rud came from the Sanskrit rudrī, the modern hosogal, l, lasga Oud is a derived from the ancient Lute. The lute originates in the crescent at least 5000 years ago. The long-necked variety also was never called a lutebefore the twentieth century, musicologist Richard Dumbrill today uses the word to discuss instruments that existed millennia before the term lute was coined. Dumbrill documented more than 3000 years of evidence for the lutes in Mesopotamia
23.
Sanxian
–
The sanxian is a Chinese lute — a three-stringed fretless plucked musical instrument. It has a fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in sizes for different purposes and in the late 20th century a four-stringed version was also developed. The northern sanxian is generally larger, at about 122 cm in length, the sanxian has a dry, somewhat percussive tone and loud volume similar to the banjo. The larger sizes have a range of three octaves and it is primarily used as an accompanying instrument, as well as in ensembles and orchestras of traditional Chinese instruments, though solo pieces and concertos also exist. The sanxian is used in nanguan and Jiangnan sizhu ensembles, as well as other folk. Traditionally the instrument is plucked with a thin, hard plectrum made from animal horn but today most players use a plectrum or, alternatively. This use of fingers to pluck the instrument often shares technique with that of the pipa and is most commonly used in performance of sanxian arrangements of works written for the pipa. This allows for techniques such as tremolo to be used. Other techniques for sanxian include the use of harmonics and hitting the skin of the instrument with the plectra or fingernail, a closely related musical instrument is the Japanese shamisen, which originated from the Chinese sanxian. Even more closely related is the Okinawan sanshin, which is covered in snakeskin. Additionally, the sanshin and sanxian share a similar body part consisting of a round-edged square of wood. In the Japanese shamisen, the body is made of four pieces of wood instead of one, the Mongolian shanz and the Vietnamese đàn tam are also very similar to the sanxian. In addition to its use in traditional and classical Chinese music, some popular and rock musicians have used the sanxian, most notably the singer He Yong, as many Chinese orchestras exclude the sanxian, many people are unwilling to learn this instrument. For the most part, use of the sanxian in the Chinese orchestra is as a provider of a de facto bass line. Also, as the neck of the da sanxian is particularly long and this is not an issue in the smaller saxian, which are closer in size to the Japanese shamisen. One likely reason for the decline in the popularity is that it is extremely over priced. A similar 3-string instrument, the qinqin sells for about 1/10 the price, the sanxian is not fretted, and is actually a better instrument as the qinqin fretting is very odd, being based on a non-equal temperament diatonic scale
24.
Coconut
–
The coconut tree is a member of the family Arecaceae and the only species of the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the coconut palm or the seed, or the fruit. The spelling cocoanut is a form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning head or skull, coconuts are known for their great versatility, as evidenced by many traditional uses, ranging from food to cosmetics. They form a part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are distinct from other fruits for their quantity of water. When mature, they can be used as seed nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell, the endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are used in cooking and frying, as well as in soaps. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, the coconut also has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in India, where it is used in Hindu rituals. Cocos nucifera is a palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long. Coconuts are generally classified into two types, tall and dwarf. On fertile soil, a coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. Like other fruits, it has three layers, the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, the exocarp and mesocarp make up the husk of the coconuts. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp removed, the mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores or eyes that are visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed. A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg and it takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra
25.
Alcaeus of Mytilene
–
Alcaeus of Mytilene was a lyric poet from the Greek island of Lesbos who is credited with inventing the Alcaic stanza. He was included in the canonical list of nine lyric poets by the scholars of Hellenistic Alexandria and he was an older contemporary and an alleged lover of Sappho, with whom he may have exchanged poems. He was born into the governing class of Mytilene, the main city of Lesbos. The broad outlines of the life are well known. Alcaeus and his brothers were passionately involved in the struggle. Sometime before 600 BC, Mytilene fought Athens for control of Sigeion and it is thought that Alcaeus travelled widely during his years in exile, including at least one visit to Egypt. His older brother, Antimenidas, appears to have served as a mercenary in the army of Nebuchadnezzar II, Alcaeus reference to Sappho in terms more typical of a divinity, as holy/pure, honey-smiling Sappho, may owe its inspiration to her performances at the festival. Alexandrian scholars numbered him in their canonic nine, among these, Pindar was held by many ancient critics to be pre-eminent, but some gave precedence to Alcaeus instead. Even the private reflections of Alcaeus, ostensibly sung at dinner parties, critics often seek to understand Alcaeus in comparison with Sappho, The Roman poet, Horace, also compared the two, describing Alcaeus as more full-throatedly singing — see Horaces tribute below. The works of Alcaeus are conventionally grouped according to five genres, commenting on Alcaeus as a political poet, the scholar Dionysius of Halicarnassus once observed that. if you removed the meter you would find political rhetoric. Drinking songs, According to the grammarian Athenaeus, Alcaeus made every occasion an excuse for drinking, the latter poem in fact paraphrases verses from Hesiod, re-casting them in Asclepiad meter and Aeolian dialect. Hymns, Alcaeus sang about the gods in the spirit of the Homeric hymns, to entertain his companions rather than to glorify the gods, there are for example fragments in Sapphic meter praising the Dioscuri, Hermes and the river Hebrus. According to Porphyrion, the hymn to Hermes was imitated by Horace in one of his own sapphic odes, love songs, Almost all Alcaeus amorous verses, mentioned with disapproval by Quintilian above, have vanished without trace. There is a reference to his love poetry in a passage by Cicero. Horace, who wrote in imitation of Alcaeus, sketches in verse one of the Lesbian poets favourite subjects — Lycus of the black hair. It is possible that Alcaeus wrote amorously about Sappho, as indicated in an earlier quote, miscellaneous, Alcaeus wrote on such a wide variety of subjects and themes that contradictions in his character emerge. — possibly imitated by Horace in an ode in the same meter and he also wrote Sapphic stanzas on Homeric themes but in unHomeric style, comparing Helen of Troy unfavourably with Thetis, the mother of Akhilles. Like many of his poems, it begins with a verb, Alcaeus rarely used metaphor or simile and yet he had a fondness for the allegory of the storm-tossed ship of state
26.
Sappho
–
Sappho was an archaic Greek poet from the island of Lesbos. Sapphos poetry was lyric poetry, and she is best known for her poems about love, most of Sapphos poetry is now lost, and survives only in fragmentary form. As well as poetry, three epigrams attributed to Sappho are preserved, but these are in fact Hellenistic imitations. Little is known of Sapphos life and she was from a wealthy family from Lesbos, though the names of both of her parents are uncertain. Ancient sources say that she had three brothers, the names of two of them are mentioned in the Brothers Poem discovered in 2014 and she was exiled to Sicily around 600 BC, and may have continued to work until around 570. Sapphos poetry was well-known and greatly admired through much of antiquity, today, Sapphos poetry is still considered extraordinary, and her works have continued to influence other writers up until the modern day. Beyond her poetry, she is known as a symbol of love. There are three sources of information about Sapphos life, her own poetry, other ancient sources. The only contemporary source for Sapphos life is her own poetry, despite this, though they are a valuable source on the reception of Sappho in antiquity, it is difficult to assess how accurate a picture they paint of Sapphos life. The testimonia are almost entirely derived from Sapphos poetry, and the inferences made by ancient scholars, Sappho was from Mytilene on the island of Lesbos, and was probably born around 630 BC. Tradition names her mother as Cleïs, though ancient scholars may simply have guessed this name for Sapphos mother, Sapphos fathers name is less certain. The Suda gives eight possible names, suggesting that he was not explicitly named in any of Sapphos poetry, in Ovids Heroides, Sapphos father died when she was seven, Campbell suggests that this may have been based on a now-lost poem of Sappho. Sappho was said to have three brothers, Erigyius, Larichus, and Charaxus, according to Athenaeus, Sappho often praised Larichus for pouring wine in the town hall of Mytilene, an office held by boys of the best families. This indication that Sappho was born into a family is consistent with the sometimes rarefied environments that her verses record. One ancient tradition tells of a relation between Charaxus and the Egyptian courtesan Rhodopis, herodotus, the oldest source of the story, reports that Charaxus ransomed Rhodopis for a large sum and that Sappho wrote a poem rebuking him for this. Sappho may have had a daughter called Cleïs, who is referred to in two fragments, therefore, it has been suggested, Cleïs was one of Sapphos younger lovers, rather than her daughter. Judith Hallett argues, however, that the used in fragment 132 suggests that Sappho was referring to Cleïs as her daughter. According to the Suda, Sappho was married to Kerkylas of Andros, thus, the name can be translated as Dick Allcock from the Isle of Man
27.
Lyre
–
The lyre is a string instrument known for its use in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The lyre is similar in appearance to a small harp but with distinct differences, the word comes via Latin from the Greek, the earliest reference to the word is the Mycenaean Greek ru-ra-ta-e, meaning lyrists and written in the Linear B script. The lyres of Ur, excavated in ancient Mesopotamia, date to 2500 BC, the earliest picture of a lyre with seven strings appears in the famous sarcophagus of Hagia Triada. The sarcophagus was used during the Mycenaean occupation of Crete, the recitations of the Ancient Greeks were accompanied by lyre playing. The lyre of classical antiquity was ordinarily played by being strummed with a plectrum, the fingers of the free hand silenced the unwanted strings in the chord. However, later lyres were played with a bow in Europe, one example from Wales that has been resurrected recently is the crwth. In organology, lyres are defined as yoke lutes, being lutes in which the strings are attached to a yoke which lies in the plane as the sound-table. A classical lyre has a body or sound-chest, which. Extending from this sound-chest are two raised arms, which are hollow, and are curved both outward and forward. They are connected near the top by a crossbar or yoke, an additional crossbar, fixed to the sound-chest, makes the bridge which transmits the vibrations of the strings. They were stretched between the yoke and bridge, or to a tailpiece below the bridge, according to ancient Greek mythology, the young god Hermes stole a herd of sacred cows from Apollo. In order not to be followed, he made shoes for the cows which forced them to walk backwards, Apollo, following the trails, could not follow where the cows were going. Along the way, Hermes slaughtered one of the cows and offered all, from the entrails and a tortoise/turtle shell, he created the Lyre. Apollo, figuring out it was Hermes who had his cows, Apollo was furious, but after hearing the sound of the lyre, his anger faded. Apollo offered to trade the herd of cattle for the lyre, hence, the creation of the lyre is attributed to Hermes. Other sources credit it to Apollo himself, locales in southern Europe, western Asia, or north Africa have been proposed as the historic birthplace of the genus. The instrument is played in north-eastern parts of Africa. Some of the cultures using and developing the lyre were the Aeolian and Ionian Greek colonies on the coasts of Asia bordering the Lydian empire, some mythic masters like Musaeus, and Thamyris were believed to have been born in Thrace, another place of extensive Greek colonization
28.
Attica
–
Attica is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece. The historical region is centered on the Attic peninsula, which projects into the Aegean Sea, the modern administrative region of Attica is more extensive than the historical region and includes the Saronic Islands, Cythera, and the municipality of Troizinia on the Peloponnesian mainland. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It is naturally divided to the north from Boeotia by the 10 mi long Cithaeron mountain range, to the west, it is bordered by the sea and the canal of Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south, and the island of Euboea lies off the north, mountains separate the peninsula into the plains of Pedias, Mesogaia, and Thriasion. The mountains of Attica are the Hymettus, the portion of the Geraneia, the Parnitha, the Aigaleo. Four mountains—Aigaleo, Parnitha, Penteli and Hymettus —delineate the hilly plain on which the Athens-Piraeus metroplex now spreads, Athens water reservoir, Lake Marathon, is an artificial lake created by damming in 1920. Pine and fir forests cover the area around Parnitha, Hymettus, Penteli, Myrrhinous and Laurium are forested with pine trees, whereas the rest are covered by shrubbery. The Kifisos is the longest river of Attica, according to Plato, Atticas ancient boundaries were fixed by the Isthmus, and, toward the continent, they extended as far as the heights of Cithaeron and Parnes. The boundary line came down toward the sea, bounded by the district of Oropus on the right, during antiquity, the Athenians boasted about being autochthonic, which is to say that they were the original inhabitants of the area and had not moved to Attica from another place. The traditions current in the classical period recounted that, during the Greek Dark Ages, Attica had become the refuge of the Ionians, who belonged to a tribe from the northern Peloponnese. Supposedly, the Ionians had been forced out of their homeland by the Achaeans, supposedly, the Ionians integrated with the ancient Atticans, who, afterward, considered themselves part of the Ionian tribe and spoke the Ionian dialect. Many Ionians later left Attica to colonize the Aegean coast of Asia Minor, during the Mycenaean period, the Atticans lived in autonomous agricultural societies. The main places where prehistoric remains were found are Marathon, Rafina, Nea Makri, Brauron, Thorikos, Agios Kosmas, Eleusis, Menidi, Markopoulo, Spata, Aphidnae, all of these settlements flourished during the Mycenaean period. According to tradition, Attica comprised twelve small communities during the reign of Cecrops, strabo assigns these the names of Cecropia, Tetrapolis, Epacria, Decelea, Eleusis, Aphidna, Thoricus, Brauron, Cytherus, Sphettus, Cephisia, and possibly Phaleron. These were said to have been incorporated in an Athenian state during the reign of Theseus. Modern historians consider it likely that the communities were progressively incorporated into an Athenian state during the 8th. Until the 6th century BC, aristocratic families lived independent lives in the suburbs, only after Peisistratoss tyranny and the reforms implemented by Cleisthenes did the local communities lose their independence and succumb to the central government in Athens
29.
Staatliche Antikensammlungen
–
The Staatliche Antikensammlungen in the Kunstareal of Munich is a museum for the Bavarian states antique collections for Greek, Etruscan and Roman art. The Bavarian state collection of Ancient Egyptian art is placed in its own museum. Also Roman art from Bavaria is on display in a separate museum, the Staatliche Antikensammlungen museum however is complemented by the sculptures collection, which is located in the opposite Glyptothek. The neo-classical building at Königsplatz with Corinthian columns was established in 1848 as counterpart to the opposite Glyptothek, the architect was Georg Friedrich Ziebland. Already from 1869 to 1872 the building housed the royal antiquarium before the Munich Secession resided here from 1898 to 1912, from 1919 the building contained the New State Gallery. The museum building was damaged by bombing in World War II but was reconstructed and reopened to the public in the late 1960s to display the State Collection of Antiques. The State Collection of Antiquities is based on the Wittelsbach antique collections, the king acquired also antique gold jewellery from the collection of Caroline Murat, Etruscan bronzes excavated in Perugia and Greek terra-cottas from South Italy. After the kings death in 1868 his collection was united with the Wittelsbach antique collection which was founded already by Albert V, later the museum got extended by purchase and donations. Among these private collections are the donations of Paul Arndt, of James Loeb and these comprehensive collections specialised in smaller antique objects, glassware, bronzes, terra-cottas, jewelry, gold and silver. During World War II the museum lost especially Etruscan pottery, which was stored in the bombed Neue Pinakothek, the internationally renowned collection of antique pottery is outstanding, comparable only with the collections of the Louvre and the British Museum. The Mycenaean pottery is represented as well as the pottery from the geometric, the archaic, the classical, the collection contains numerous masterpieces such as the Belly Amphora by the Andokides Painter. The Standing Woman is a statuette of terracotta. An outstanding example for antique jewellery is the gold Funerary Garland from Armento, a famous Roman Goblet from Cologne made of reticella glass still shows its Latin inscription BIBE MULTIS ANNIS. It was a present of the City of Cologne in return for King Ludwigs support for the completion of Cologne Cathedral, part of the Staatliche Antikensammlungen is also a comprehensive collection of ca 800 engraved gems donated by Helmut Hansmann
30.
Crow
–
A crow is a bird of the genus Corvus. The term crow is used both as part of the name of many species, and collectively for all of Corvus
31.
Raven
–
A raven is one of several larger-bodied species of the genus Corvus. These species do not form a taxonomic group within the genus. The largest raven species are the common raven and the thick-billed raven, the modern English word raven has cognates in all other Germanic languages, including Old Norse hrafn and Old High German raban, all of which descend from Proto-Germanic *hrabanaz. Obsolete collective nouns for a group of ravens include unkindness and conspiracy, in practice, most people use the more generic flock
32.
Bartolomeo Cristofori
–
Bartolomeo Cristofori di Francesco was an Italian maker of musical instruments, generally regarded as the inventor of the piano. The available source materials on Cristoforis life include his birth and death records, from the latter, both Maffeis notes and the published journal article are preserved. Cristofori was born in Padua in the Republic of Venice, nothing is known of his early life. A tale is told that he served as an apprentice to the violin maker Nicolò Amati. Pollens also gives strong reasons to doubt the authenticity of the cello, probably the most important event in Cristoforis life is the first one of which we have any record, in 1688, at age 33, he was recruited to work for Prince Ferdinando de Medici. Ferdinando, a lover and patron of music, was the son and heir of Cosimo III, Tuscany was at a time still a small independent state. It is not known what led Ferdinando to recruit Cristofori, the Prince traveled to Venice in 1688 to attend the Carnival, so he may have met Cristofori passing through Padua on his way home. Ferdinando was looking for a new technician to take care of his musical instruments. However, it possible that the Prince wanted to hire Cristofori not just as his technician. It would be surprising if Cristofori at age 33 had not already shown the inventiveness for which he became famous. The evidence—all circumstantial—that Cristofori may have hired as an inventor is as follows. Moreover, Pollens notes, curiously, there are no records of bills submitted for Cristoforis pianofortes and this could mean that Cristofori was expected to turn over the fruits of his experimentation to the court. Lastly, the Prince was evidently fascinated with machines, and would thus be naturally interested in the mechanical action that was at the core of Cristoforis work on the piano. Maffeis interview reports Cristoforis memory of his conversation with the Prince at this time, che fu detto al Principe, che non volevo, in any event, Cristofori agreed to the appointment, for a salary of 12 scudi per month. He moved rather quickly to Florence, was issued a house, complete with utensils and equipment, by the Grand Dukes administration, and set to work. For the Prince, he tuned, maintained, and transported instruments, worked on his various inventions, at this time, the Grand Dukes of Tuscany employed a large staff of about 100 artisans, who worked in the Galleria dei Lavori of the Uffizi. Cristoforis initial work space was probably in this area, which did not please him, during the remaining years of the 17th century, Cristofori invented two keyboard instruments before he began his work on the piano. These instruments are documented in an inventory, dated 1700, of the many instruments kept by Prince Ferdinando, Stewart Pollens conjectures that this inventory was prepared by a court musician named Giovanni Fuga, who may have referred to it as his own in a 1716 letter
33.
Vulture
–
Some traditional Old World vultures are not closely related to the others, which is why the vultures are to be subdivided into three taxa rather than two. A particular characteristic of many vultures is a head, devoid of normal feathers. Although it has been believed to help keep the head clean when feeding. Vultures have been observed to hunch their bodies and tuck in their heads in the cold, a group of vultures is called a wake, committee, kettle, venue, or volt. The term kettle refers to vultures in flight, while committee refers to vultures resting in trees, wake is reserved for a group of vultures that are feeding. The word Geier does not have a meaning in ornithology, it is occasionally used to refer to a vulture in English. The Old World vultures found in Africa, Asia, and Europe belong to the family Accipitridae, which includes eagles, kites, buzzards. Old World vultures find carcasses exclusively by sight, however, recent DNA evidence suggests that they should be included among the Accipitriformes, along with other birds of prey. However, they are not closely related to the other vultures. Several species have a sense of smell, unusual for raptors. When a carcass has too thick a hide for its beak to open, vast numbers have been seen upon battlefields. They gorge themselves when prey is abundant, until their crops bulge and these birds do not carry food to their young in their claws, but disgorge it from their crops. Vultures are of value as scavengers, especially in hot regions. New World vultures often vomit when threatened or approached, new World vultures also urinate straight down their legs, the uric acid kills bacteria accumulated from walking through carcasses, and also acts as evaporative cooling. Vultures in south Asia, mainly in India and Nepal, have declined dramatically since the early 1990s and it has been found that this decline was caused by residues of the veterinary drug Diclofenac in animal carcasses. The government of India has taken very late cognizance of this fact and has banned the drug for animals, the same problem is also seen in Nepal where government has taken some late steps to conserve remaining vultures. A recent study in 2016, reported that of the 22 vulture species, nine are critically endangered, three are endangered, four are near threatened, and six are least concern
34.
Leather
–
Leather is a durable and flexible material created by tanning animal rawhide and skin, often cattle hide. It can be produced at manufacturing scales ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry, people use leather to make various goods—including clothing, bookbinding, leather wallpaper, and as a furniture covering. It is produced in a variety of types and styles. Several tanning processes transform hides and skins into leather, Chrome-tanned leather, invented in 1858, is tanned using chromium sulfate and it is more supple and pliable than vegetable-tanned leather and does not discolor or lose shape as drastically in water as vegetable-tanned. It is also known as wet-blue for its color derived from the chromium, more exotic colors are possible when using chrome tanning. The chrome tanning method usually only takes a day to finish, and it is reported that chrome-tanned leather adds up to 80% of the global leather supply. Vegetable-tanned leather is tanned using tannins and other found in different vegetable matter, such as tree bark prepared in bark mills, wood, leaves, fruits. It is supple and brown in color, with the exact shade depending on the mix of chemicals and it is the only form of leather suitable for use in leather carving or stamping. Vegetable-tanned leather is not stable in water, it tends to discolor, so if left to soak and then dried it shrinks, in hot water, it shrinks drastically and partly congeals—becoming rigid, and eventually brittle. Boiled leather is an example of this, where the leather has been hardened by being immersed in hot water, historically, it was occasionally used as armour after hardening, and it has also been used for book binding. Aldehyde-tanned leather is tanned using glutaraldehyde or oxazolidine compounds and this is the leather that most tanners refer to as wet-white leather due to its pale cream or white color. It is the type of chrome-free leather, often seen in shoes for infants. Formaldehyde tanning is another aldehyde tanning method, brain-tanned leathers fall into this category, and are exceptionally water absorbent. Brain tanned leathers are made by a process that uses emulsified oils, often those of animal brains such as deer, cattle. They are known for their softness and washability. Chamois leather also falls into the category of aldehyde tanning, and like brain tanning, produces a porous, chamois leather is made using marine oils that oxidize easily to produce the aldehydes that tan the leather to color it. Rose-tanned leather is a variation of oil tanning and brain tanning. Rose-tanned leather tanned leaves a powerful rose fragrance even years from when it is manufactured and it has been called the most valuable leather on earth, but this is mostly due to the high cost of rose otto and its labor-intensive tanning process
35.
Pascal Taskin
–
Pascal Joseph Taskin was a French harpsichord and piano maker. Born in Theux, near Liège, he lived most of his life in Paris, pascal Joseph II went on to work in the Blanchet workshop in 1763 and, like his uncle, married into the family in 1777 with his wedding to François Etienne Blanchet IIs daughter. Pascal Taskin was succeeded after his death in 1793 by his masters son, Armand François Nicolas Blanchet. Pascal Taskin built on and refined the already excellent Blanchet harpsichord-making tradition and he is credited with introducing genouillères with which to control the stop combinations, and a new register of jacks using peau de buffle plectra, instead of the usual quill, in 1768. Unlike other makers, his instruments were always of excellent quality and he began to build fortepianos with Blanchet in the 1760s, probably originally modelled after those of Gottfried Silbermann, with a Bartolomeo Cristofori-type action. None of his early pianos survives, the earliest date from the late 1780s and have a simple action without escapement. These instruments have luxuriant veneering of the Louis XVI style and his 1769 double and the 1763/1783–1784 Goermans/Taskin have both been praised as ideal instruments for the late French baroque repertoire such as the works of Rameau and Armand-Louis Couperin. The Yale University Collection of Musical Instruments houses a 1770 double and these instruments have been studied and copied many times by modern makers. Paris,1769 — in the Russell Collection, Edinburgh Double-manual harpsichord, Paris, 1763/1783–1784 — in the Russell Collection, Edinburgh PASCAL THE RASCAL. — information about how Taskin altered the Goermans to make it look like a Couchet
36.
Chamois
–
The chamois has also been introduced to the South Island of New Zealand. Some subspecies of chamois are strictly protected in the EU under the European Habitats Directive, the English name comes from French chamois. The latter is derived from Gaulish camox, itself perhaps borrowing from some Alpine language, the Gaulish form also underlies German Gemse, Gams, Gämse, Italian Camoscio, Ladin Ciamorz. The usual pronunciation for the animal is UK /ˈʃæmwɑː/ or US /ʃæmˈwɑː/, however, when referring to chamois leather, and in New Zealand often for the animal itself, it is /ˈʃæmi/, and sometimes spelt shammy or chamy. The plural of chamois is spelled the same as the singular, however, as with many other quarry species, the plural for the animal is often pronounced the same as the singular. The Dutch name for the chamois is gems, and the male is called a gemsbok, in Afrikaans, the name gemsbok came to refer to a species of Subsaharan antelope of the genus Oryx, and this meaning of gemsbok has been adopted into English. The chamois are in the subfamily of the family Bovidae. A fully grown chamois reaches a height of 70–80 cm and measures 107–137 cm, males, which weigh 30–60 kg, are slightly larger than females, which weigh 25–45 kg. Both males and females have short, straightish horns which are hooked backwards near the tip, in summer, the fur has a rich brown colour which turns to a light grey in winter. Distinct characteristics are white contrasting marks on the sides of the head with pronounced black stripes below the eyes, a white rump, female chamois and their young live in herds of up to 15 to 30 individuals, adult males tend to live solitarily for most of the year. During the rut, males engage in battles for the attention of unmated females. An impregnated female undergoes a period of 170 days, after which a single kid is usually born in May or early June - on rare occasions, twins may be born. If a mother is killed, other females in the herd may try to raise the kid, the kid is weaned at six months of age and is fully grown by one year of age. However, the kids do not reach maturity until they are three to four years old, although some females may mate at as early two years old. Chamois eat various types of vegetation, including grasses and herbs during the summer and conifers, barks. Primarily diurnal in activity, they often rest around mid-day and may actively forage during moonlit nights, Chamois can reach an age of 22 years in captivity, although the maximum recorded in the wild is from 15 to 17 years of age. Common causes of mortality can include avalanches, epidemics and predation, at present, humans are the main predator of Chamois. In the past, the predators were Eurasian lynxes, Persian leopards and gray wolves, with some predation possibly by brown bears
37.
European bison
–
The European bison, also known as wisent or the European wood bison, is a Eurasian species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, alongside the American bison, three subspecies existed in the recent past, but only one survives today. B. b. hungarorum was hunted to extinction in the mid-1800s, the Białowieża or lowland European bison was kept alive in captivity, and has since been reintroduced into several countries in Europe. The species has had few recent predators besides humans, with only scattered reports from the 19th century of wolf, European bison were first scientifically described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Some later descriptions treat the European bison as conspecific with the American bison and it is not to be confused with the aurochs, the extinct ancestor of domestic cattle. In 1996, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified the European bison as an endangered species and its status has since been changed to being a vulnerable species. In the past, especially during the Middle Ages, it was killed for its hide. The European bison is the heaviest surviving land animal in Europe, a typical European bison is about 2.1 to 3.5 m long, not counting a tail of 30 to 80 cm long. At birth, calves are quite small, weighing between 15 and 35 kg, an occasional big bull European bison can weigh up to 1,000 kg or more. On average, it is lighter in body mass and yet taller at the shoulder than the American bison. Compared to the American species, the wisent has shorter hair on the neck, head, and forequarters, but longer tail and horns. The modern English word wisent was borrowed in the 19th century from modern German Wisent, itself from Old High German wisunt, wisant, related to Old English wesend, weosend, and Old Norse vísundr. The Old English cognate disappeared as the bisons range shrank away from English-speaking areas by the Late Middle Ages, the English word bison was borrowed around 1611 from Latin bisōn, itself from Germanic. The root *wis-, also found in weasel, originally referred to the animals musk, the word bonasus was first mentioned by Aristotle in the fourth century BC when he precisely described the animal, calling it βόνασος in Greek. He also noted that the Paeonians called it μόναπος, historically, the lowland European bisons range encompassed most of the lowlands of northern Europe, extending from the Massif Central to the Volga River and the Caucasus. It may have lived in the Asiatic part of what is now the Russian Federation. The European bison is known in southern Sweden only between 9500 and 8700 BP, and in Denmark similarly is documented only from the Pre-Boreal and it is not recorded from Britain or Ireland nor from Italy or the Iberian Peninsula. Cave paintings appear to distinguish between B. bonasus and B. priscus, within mainland Europe, its range decreased as human populations expanded and cut down forests
38.
Dynamics (music)
–
In music, dynamics are instructions in musical notation to the performer about the loudness at which to play a note or phrase. More generally, dynamics may also include aspects of the execution of a given piece. The two basic dynamic indications in music are, p or piano, meaning soft, more subtle degrees of loudness or softness are indicated by, mp, standing for mezzo-piano, meaning half soft. Mf, standing for mezzo-forte, meaning half loud, più p, standing for più piano and meaning softer. Più f, standing for più forte and meaning louder, use of up to three consecutive fs or ps is also common, pp, standing for pianissimo and meaning very soft. Ff, standing for fortissimo and meaning very loud, ppp, standing for pianississimo and meaning very very soft. Fff, standing for fortississimo and meaning very loud. Some pieces contain dynamic designations with more than three consecutive fs or ps, in Holsts The Planets, ffff occurs twice in Mars and once in Uranus often punctuated by organ and fff occurs several times throughout the work. It also appears in Heitor Villa-Lobos Bachianas Brasileiras No,4, and in Liszts Fantasy and Fugue on the chorale Ad nos, ad salutarem undam. Igor Stravinsky used ffff at the end of the finale of the Firebird Suite, ffff is also found in a prelude by Rachmaninoff, op. 3-2. Shostakovich even went as loud as fffff in his fourth symphony, gustav Mahler, in the third movement of his Seventh Symphony, gives the celli and basses a marking of fffff, along with a footnote directing pluck so hard that the strings hit the wood. On another extreme, Carl Nielsen, in the movement of his Symphony No. 5, marked a passage for woodwinds a diminuendo to ppppp, another more extreme dynamic is in György Ligetis Études No. 13, which has at one point a ffffff and progresses to a ffffffff, in the baritone passage Era la notte from his opera Otello, Verdi uses pppp. Steane and others suggest that such markings are in reality a strong reminder to less than subtle singers to at least sing softly rather than an instruction to the singer actually to attempt a pppp, dynamic indications of this kind are relative, not absolute. Mp does not indicate a level of volume, it merely indicates that music in a passage so marked should be a little louder than p. Interpretations of dynamic levels are mostly to the performer, in the Barber Piano Nocturne. Another instance of performers discretion in this piece occurs when the hand is shown to crescendo to a f
39.
Homopolymer
–
A polymer is a large molecule, or macromolecule, composed of many repeated subunits. Because of their range of properties, both synthetic and natural polymers play an essential and ubiquitous role in everyday life. Polymers range from familiar synthetic plastics such as polystyrene to natural biopolymers such as DNA and proteins that are fundamental to biological structure, Polymers, both natural and synthetic, are created via polymerization of many small molecules, known as monomers. The units composing polymers derive, actually or conceptually, from molecules of low molecular mass. The term was coined in 1833 by Jöns Jacob Berzelius, though with a distinct from the modern IUPAC definition. The modern concept of polymers as covalently bonded macromolecular structures was proposed in 1920 by Hermann Staudinger, Polymers are studied in the fields of biophysics and macromolecular science, and polymer science. Polyisoprene of latex rubber is an example of a polymer. In biological contexts, essentially all biological macromolecules—i. e, proteins, nucleic acids, and polysaccharides—are purely polymeric, or are composed in large part of polymeric components—e. g. Isoprenylated/lipid-modified glycoproteins, where small molecules and oligosaccharide modifications occur on the polyamide backbone of the protein. The simplest theoretical models for polymers are ideal chains, Polymers are of two types, Natural polymeric materials such as shellac, amber, wool, silk and natural rubber have been used for centuries. A variety of natural polymers exist, such as cellulose. Most commonly, the continuously linked backbone of a used for the preparation of plastics consists mainly of carbon atoms. A simple example is polyethylene, whose repeating unit is based on ethylene monomer, however, other structures do exist, for example, elements such as silicon form familiar materials such as silicones, examples being Silly Putty and waterproof plumbing sealant. Oxygen is also present in polymer backbones, such as those of polyethylene glycol, polysaccharides. Polymerization is the process of combining many small molecules known as monomers into a covalently bonded chain or network, during the polymerization process, some chemical groups may be lost from each monomer. This is the case, for example, in the polymerization of PET polyester, the distinct piece of each monomer that is incorporated into the polymer is known as a repeat unit or monomer residue. Laboratory synthetic methods are divided into two categories, step-growth polymerization and chain-growth polymerization. However, some methods such as plasma polymerization do not fit neatly into either category
40.
DuPont
–
In the 20th century, DuPont developed many polymers such as Vespel, neoprene, nylon, Corian, Teflon, Mylar, Kapton, Kevlar, Zemdrain, M5 fiber, Nomex, Tyvek, Sorona, Corfam, and Lycra. DuPont developed Freon for the refrigerant industry, and later more environmentally friendly refrigerants and it also developed synthetic pigments and paints including ChromaFlair. In 2014, DuPont was the fourth largest chemical company based on market capitalization. Its stock price is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, DuPont was founded in 1802 by Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, using capital raised in France and gunpowder machinery imported from France. It began as a manufacturer of gunpowder, as du Pont noticed that the industry in North America was lagging behind Europe, the Eleutherian Mills site is now a museum and a National Historic Landmark. DuPont continued to expand, moving into the production of dynamite, in 1902, DuPonts president, Eugene du Pont, died, and the surviving partners sold the company to three great-grandsons of the original founder. Charles Lee Reese was appointed as director and the company began centralizing their research departments, the company subsequently purchased several smaller chemical companies, and in 1912 these actions gave rise to government scrutiny under the Sherman Antitrust Act. The courts declared that the dominance of the explosives business constituted a monopoly. The court ruling resulted in the creation of the Hercules Powder Company, at the time of divestment, DuPont retained the single base nitrocellulose powders, while Hercules held the double base powders combining nitrocellulose and nitroglycerine. DuPont subsequently developed the Improved Military Rifle line of smokeless powders, in 1910, DuPont published a brochure entitled Farming with Dynamite. DuPont also established two of the first industrial laboratories in the United States, where began the work on cellulose chemistry, lacquers. DuPont Central Research was established at the DuPont Experimental Station, across the Brandywine Creek from the powder mills. In 1914, Pierre S. du Pont invested in the automobile industry. The following year he was invited to sit on GMs board of directors, the DuPont company would assist the struggling automobile company further with a $25 million purchase of GM stock. In 1920, Pierre S. du Pont was elected president of General Motors, under du Ponts guidance, GM became the number one automobile company in the world. However, in 1957, because of DuPonts influence within GM, in the 1920s, DuPont continued its emphasis on materials science, hiring Wallace Carothers to work on polymers in 1928. Carothers invented neoprene, a rubber, the first polyester superpolymer. The invention of Teflon followed a few years later, DuPont introduced phenothiazine as an insecticide in 1935
41.
Copolymer
–
When two or more different monomers unite together to polymerize, their result is called a copolymer and its process is called copolymerization. Commercially relevant copolymers include acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, styrene/butadiene co-polymer, nitrile rubber, styrene-acrylonitrile, styrene-isoprene-styrene, since a copolymer consists of at least two types of constituent units, copolymers can be classified based on how these units are arranged along the chain. Block copolymers comprise two or more homopolymer subunits linked by covalent bonds, the union of the homopolymer subunits may require an intermediate non-repeating subunit, known as a junction block. Block copolymers with two or three blocks are called diblock copolymers and triblock copolymers, respectively. Copolymers may also be described in terms of the existence of or arrangement of branches in the polymer structure, linear copolymers consist of a single main chain whereas branched copolymers consist of a single main chain with one or more polymeric side chains. Other special types of branched copolymers include star copolymers, brush copolymers, in gradient copolymers the monomer composition changes gradually along the chain. A terpolymer is a copolymer consisting of three distinct monomers, the term is derived from ter, meaning thrice, and polymer. Stereoblock copolymers A special structure can be formed from one monomer where now the distinguishing feature is the tacticity of each block, statistical copolymers are dictated by the reaction kinetics of the two chemically distinct monomer reactants, and are commonly referred to interchangeably as “random” in the polymer literature. As with other types of copolymers, random copolymers can have interesting, examples of commercially relevant random copolymers include rubbers made from styrene-butadiene copolymers and resins from styrene-acrylic or methacrylic acid derivatives. A number of parameters are relevant in the composition of the product, namely. Reactivity ratios describe whether the monomer reacts preferentially with a segment of the type or of the other type. For example, a reactivity ratio that is less one for component 1 indicates that this component reacts with the other type of monomer more readily. When both reactivity ratios are less than one, there is a point in the Mayo-Lewis plot. At this point, the fraction of monomer equals the composition of the component in the polymer. There are several ways to synthesize random copolymers, free radical polymerization is less expensive than other methods, and produces high-molecular weight polymer quickly. Several methods offer better control over dispersity, additionally, anionic polymerization is expensive and requires very clean reaction conditions, and is therefore difficult to implement on a large scale. These methods are favored over anionic polymerization because they can be performed in similar to free radical polymerization. The reactions require longer periods than free radical polymerization
42.
Celanese
–
Celanese Corporation, also known as Hoechst Celanese, is a Fortune 500 global technology and specialty materials company with its headquarters in Irving, Texas, United States. The company is a producer of acetyl products, which are intermediate chemicals for nearly all major industries. Celaneses operations are located in North America, Europe. Its largest plant is in the Clear Lake area of Pasadena, Texas, in 2012, Celanese reported net sales of $6.42 billion. In 1918, the American Cellulose & Chemical Manufacturing Company was founded in New York City by Camille Dreyfus, the American Cellulose and Chemical Manufacturing Co. Ltd plant was set up during World War I to produce fabric for airplane manufacturing. The plant location was chosen inland to protect against Zeppelin attacks and it was also situated in proximity to a ready source of water at the Potomac River, and easy access to coal supplies and railroad lines. After a series of delays, actual production began in 1924 with a series of cellulose acetate commercial fabrics, the plant was closed in 1983, and was later torn down to provide a space for a new state prison. In 1927, the American Cellulose & Chemical Manufacturing Company changed its name to Celanese Corporation of America, on 16 December 2003, the U. S. private equity firm Blackstone Group announced a takeover offer for Celanese, after two years of wooing management. Shareholders formally approved the offer from Blackstone on 16 June 2004, the company was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange, and Blackstone changed the entitys name to Celanese Corporation. Under Blackstone, a number of streamlining initiatives were undertaken, on 21 January 2005, Celanese Corporation conducted an initial public offering and became a publicly traded corporation traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CE. When Blackstone sold the last of its shares in 2007, it had five times what it had invested and it. Celanese has a process to make ethanol from natural gas, Acetyl intermediates is Celaneses largest segment, with a product range consisting of basic chemicals such as acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and vinyl acetate. Customers of Acetyl Intermediates and Industrial Specialties are in the chemical, paint and coatings, construction, advanced engineered materials offers plastic polymers to customers in the automotive, electronics, telecommunications, and medical industries. Major products include, engineered plastics for fuel system components, conveyor belts, electronics, safety systems, emissions filtration, the food ingredients business Nutrinova produces the high intensity sweetener Sunett, the preservatives Nutrinova potassium sorbate and sorbic acid, and other food ingredients. Major end-use markets include beverages, confections, baked goods, Celanese is one of the worlds largest producers of cellulose acetate. Acetate products are used in cigarette filters, as well as in the production of fashion apparel. Industrial specialties using the feedstock from acetyl intermediates manufactures polymer and emulsions, such as polyvinyl acetate emulsions, major end-use markets include polyvinyl alcohol producers, paper, mortar and gypsum, textiles, paints, coatings, adhesives manufacturers
43.
X-Acto
–
X-Acto is a brand name for a variety of cutting tools and office products owned by Elmers Products, Inc. Cutting tools include hobby and utility knives, saws, carving tools and many small-scale precision knives used for crafts, an X-Acto knife may be called a utility knife, precision knife or hobby knife. It is a blade mounted on an aluminium body, used for crafting and hobbies. A knurled collar loosens and tightens an aluminium collet with one slot, there are numerous other knives on the market with very similar designs. Blades are typically interchangeable between different brands, the original knife was invented in the 1930s by Sundel Doniger, a Jewish Polish immigrant to the United States. He had planned to sell it to surgeons as a scalpel but it was not acceptable and his brother-in-law, Daniel Glück, suggested that it might be a good craft tool. In addition to knives, blades and tools, X-Acto produces office supplies including pencil sharpeners, paper trimmers, staplers, X-Acto sharpeners are electric, battery or manual. X-Acto has three types of trimmers, razor, rotary, and guillotine, through 2012, X-Acto sold ceramic and convection space heaters and fans under the Boston brand name. Knife Scalpel Arts and crafts Wood carving Office supplies Olfa Official website X-Acto on Facebook
44.
Ancient Greek
–
Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
45.
Mezrab
–
A mezrāb or zakhmeh or is a plectrum which is used for several Iranian and Indian string instruments. For sitar, a mezrab is worn on the finger of a sitar player and it is a plectrum made by hand from a continuous strand of iron used to strike the strings of the sitar. Although it is worn on the index finger, a second mezrab is sometimes worn on the middle or little finger. The mezrab fits tightly on the end of the finger so that it not move while playing. Mezrab is also the name for the lightweight hammer used to play the Persian santur. There are four different Bols used when playing sitar, Da, Ra, Dir, Da Bol - When the stroke is from outward to inward on the first string. Ra Bol - When the stroke is from inward to outward on the first string, Dir Bol - When the first string is stroked rapidly from both sides. Dra Bol - when the first string is stroked from inward and then immediately outward very fast, giving the outward stroke more power/emphasis than inward stroke
46.
Flatpicking
–
Flatpicking is the technique of striking the strings with a pick held between the thumb and one or two fingers. It can be contrasted to fingerstyle guitar, which is playing with individual fingers, musicians who use a flat pick in other genres such as rock and jazz are not commonly described as flatpickers or even plectrum guitarists. As the use of a pick in those traditions is commonplace, although early guitarists such as Riley Puckett used a thumb pick to emphasize bass notes, this part of the style was adapted into flatpicking. The melodic style in bluegrass is often fast and dynamic, with slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, powerful strumming, bluegrass flatpickers usually prefer guitars with a flat top rather than an arch top, and steel strings rather than nylon. The chief exponents of the country and bluegrass flatpicking styles included George Shuffler, Alton Delmore, Johnny Bond, Don Reno. The lead guitar was used, and sometimes was considered a novelty. Other instruments may also be used in flatpicking, such as the mandolin, however, banjo styles such as plectrum banjo and tunes played on tenor banjos can be played either by strumming or with a plectrum but they are not commonly known as flatpicking. This style can be typified by such as Eddie Peabody. The foundation of Puckett, Reno and others were built upon heavily in the 1960s by Doc Watson, Watson and White both legitimized the acoustic guitar as a lead instrument in bluegrass and old-time country music. White brought guitar flatpicking to the forefront of bluegrass, while Watson brought flatpicking to folk audiences as he played fiddle tunes, blues, country, Rice likely had the most profound impact on bluegrass guitar playing of anyone since his musical hero, Clarence White. Rices tone, rhythm, phrasing, and improvisational skills have influenced a generation of bluegrass guitarists. While there have been several songs using the Dorian mode in Appalachian roots music, for instance, he is very well known for playing an F major scale during a song written in G major. The use of this technique introduces the flat 3rd and the flat 7th over the G chord which has a unique sound popular in bluegrass. In recent years, players such as David Grier, Bryan Sutton, Beppe Gambetta, also, current young guns like Cody Kilby, John Chapman, Chris Eldridge, Andy Falco and Sean Watkins continue to explore this style of guitar playing. These players are still defining new standards and reaching wider audiences, pioneers Rice, Blake, Barenberg, and Crary continue to produce music featuring flatpicking as well. The annual US National Flatpicking Championship is held at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas
