1.
Brass instrument
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A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the players lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones, literally meaning lip-vibrated instruments, there are several factors involved in producing different pitches on a brass instrument. The view of most scholars is that the brass instrument should be defined by the way the sound is made, as above. Thus one finds brass instruments made of wood, like the alphorn, the cornett, the serpent, as valved instruments are predominant among the brasses today, a more thorough discussion of their workings can be found below. The valves are usually piston valves, but can be rotary valves, slide brass instruments use a slide to change the length of tubing. The main instruments in this category are the family, though valve trombones are occasionally used. The trombone familys ancestor, the sackbut, and the folk instrument bazooka are also in the slide family, there are two other families that have, in general, become functionally obsolete for practical purposes. Instruments of both types, however, are used for period-instrument performances of Baroque or Classical pieces. In more modern compositions, they are used for their intonation or tone color. Natural brass instruments only play notes in the harmonic series. These include the bugle and older variants of the trumpet and horn, the trumpet was a natural brass instrument prior to about 1795, and the horn before about 1820. In the 18th century, makers developed interchangeable crooks of different lengths, natural instruments are still played for period performances and some ceremonial functions, and are occasionally found in more modern scores, such as those by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. Keyed or Fingered brass instruments used holes along the body of the instrument and these included the cornett, serpent, ophicleide, keyed bugle and keyed trumpet. They are more difficult to play than valved instruments, Brass instruments may also be characterised by two generalizations about geometry of the bore, that is, the tubing between the mouthpiece and the flaring of the tubing into the bell. Those two generalizations are with regard to the degree of taper or conicity of the bore and the diameter of the bore with respect to its length, cylindrical bore brass instruments are generally perceived as having a brighter, more penetrating tone quality compared to conical bore brass instruments. The trumpet, baritone horn and all trombones are cylindrical bore, in particular, the slide design of the trombone necessitates this. Conical bore brass instruments are those in which tubing of constantly increasing diameter predominates, conical bore instruments are generally perceived as having a more mellow tone quality than the cylindrical bore brass instruments. The British brass band group of instruments fall into this category and this includes the flugelhorn, cornet, tenor horn, horn, euphonium and tuba
2.
English language
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English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩
3.
German Language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
4.
Italian Language
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By most measures, Italian, together with Sardinian, is the closest to Latin of the Romance languages. Italian is a language in Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City. Italian is spoken by minorities in places such as France, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Crimea and Tunisia and by large expatriate communities in the Americas. Many speakers are native bilinguals of both standardized Italian and other regional languages, Italian is the fourth most studied language in the world. Italian is a major European language, being one of the languages of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. It is the third most widely spoken first language in the European Union with 65 million native speakers, including Italian speakers in non-EU European countries and on other continents, the total number of speakers is around 85 million. Italian is the working language of the Holy See, serving as the lingua franca in the Roman Catholic hierarchy as well as the official language of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. Italian is known as the language of music because of its use in musical terminology and its influence is also widespread in the arts and in the luxury goods market. Italian has been reported as the fourth or fifth most frequently taught foreign language in the world, Italian was adopted by the state after the Unification of Italy, having previously been a literary language based on Tuscan as spoken mostly by the upper class of Florentine society. Its development was influenced by other Italian languages and to some minor extent. Its vowels are the second-closest to Latin after Sardinian, unlike most other Romance languages, Italian retains Latins contrast between short and long consonants. As in most Romance languages, stress is distinctive, however, Italian as a language used in Italy and some surrounding regions has a longer history. What would come to be thought of as Italian was first formalized in the early 14th century through the works of Tuscan writer Dante Alighieri, written in his native Florentine. Dante is still credited with standardizing the Italian language, and thus the dialect of Florence became the basis for what would become the language of Italy. Italian was also one of the recognised languages in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Italy has always had a dialect for each city, because the cities. Those dialects now have considerable variety, as Tuscan-derived Italian came to be used throughout Italy, features of local speech were naturally adopted, producing various versions of Regional Italian. Even in the case of Northern Italian languages, however, scholars are not to overstate the effects of outsiders on the natural indigenous developments of the languages
5.
French Language
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French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages, French has evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues doïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to Frances past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, a French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French is a language in 29 countries, most of which are members of la francophonie. As of 2015, 40% of the population is in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas. French is the fourth-most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union, 1/5 of Europeans who do not have French as a mother tongue speak French as a second language. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 17th and 18th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast. In 2015, French was estimated to have 77 to 110 million native speakers, approximately 274 million people are able to speak the language. The Organisation internationale de la Francophonie estimates 700 million by 2050, in 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese. Under the Constitution of France, French has been the language of the Republic since 1992. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland called Romandie, of which Geneva is the largest city. French is the language of about 23% of the Swiss population. French is also a language of Luxembourg, Monaco, and Aosta Valley, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. A plurality of the worlds French-speaking population lives in Africa and this number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050, French is the fastest growing language on the continent. French is mostly a language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages, sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth
6.
Wind instrument
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The pitch of the vibration is determined by the length of the tube and by manual modifications of the effective length of the vibrating column of air. In the case of wind instruments, sound is produced by blowing through a reed. Using different air columns for different tones, such as in the pan flute and this method is used on nearly all brass instruments. Changing the length of the air column by lengthening and/or shortening the tube using a sliding mechanism. This method is used on the trombone and the slide whistle, changing the frequency of vibration through opening or closing holes in the side of the tube. This can be done by covering the holes with fingers or pressing a key which then closes the hole and this method is used in nearly all woodwind instruments. Making the column of air vibrate at different harmonics without changing the length of the column of air, almost all wind instruments use the last method, often in combination with one of the others, to extend their register. A more accurate way to determine whether an instrument is brass or woodwind is to examine how the player produces sound, in brass instruments, the players lips vibrate, causing the air within the instrument to vibrate. For example, the saxophone is typically made of brass, but is classified as an instrument because it produces sound with a vibrating reed. In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, wind instruments are classed as aerophones, sound production in all wind instruments depends on the entry of air into a flow-control valve attached to a resonant chamber. The resonator is typically a long cylindrical or conical tube, open at the far end, a pulse of high pressure from the valve will travel down the tube at the speed of sound. It will be reflected from the end as a return pulse of low pressure. Under suitable conditions, the valve will reflect the pulse back, with increased energy, Reed instruments such as the clarinet or oboe have a flexible reed or reeds at the mouthpiece, forming a pressure-controlled valve. Standing waves inside the tube will be odd multiples of a quarter-wavelength, with a pressure anti-node at the mouthpiece, the reed vibrates at a rate determined by the resonator. For Lip Reed instruments, the controls the tension in their lips so that they vibrate under the influence of the air flow through them. They adjust the vibration so that the lips are most closed, and the air flow is lowest, standing waves inside the tube will be odd multiples of a quarter-wavelength, with a pressure anti-node at the mouthpiece, and a pressure node at the open end. For Air Reed instruments, the thin grazing air sheet flowing across an opening in the pipe interacts with an edge to generate sound. The jet is generated by the player, when blowing through a thin slit, for recorders and flue organ pipes this slit is manufactured by the instrument maker and has a fixed geometry
7.
Aerophone
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Aerophones categorically comprise the largest and most complex group of instruments in the Americas. The first class includes instruments which, when played, do not contain the vibrating air and this class includes free reed instruments, such as the harmonica, but also many instruments unlikely to be called wind instruments at all by most people, such as sirens and whips. The second class includes instruments which contain the air when being played. This class includes almost all instruments generally called wind instruments — including the didgeridoo, brass instruments, additionally, very loud sounds can be made by explosions directed into, or being detonated inside of resonant cavities. Detonations inside the calliope, as well as the pyrophone might thus be considered as class 42 instruments, according to Ardal Powell, flute is a simple instrument found in numerous ancient cultures. There are three legendary and archeologically verifiable birthplace sites of flutes, Egypt, Greece and India, of these, the transverse flute appeared only in ancient India, while the fipple flutes are found in all three. It is likely, states Powell, that the modern Indian bansuri has not changed much since the medieval era. Archaeological studies have found examples of globular flutes in ancient Mexico, Colombia and Peru, the use of shells of Conches as an aerophone have also been found to be prevalent in areas such as Central America and Peru. Examples of aerophone type instruments in China can be dated back to the Neolithic period, fragments of bone flutes can be found at the burial sites of the Jiahu settlements of ancient China, and they represent some of the earliest known examples of playable instruments. The instruments were carved from the wing bone of the red-crowned crane. The flutes were efficient enough to sound in a nearly accurate octave. Examples of flutes made out of bamboo in China date back to 2nd Century BC and these flutes were known as Dizis or simply Di and typically had 6 holes for playing melodies that were framed by scale-modes. Flutes including the famous Bansuri, have been a part of Indian classical music since 1500 BC. A major deity of Hinduism, Krishna, has been associated with the flute, some early flutes were made out of tibias. Free aerophones are instruments where the air is not enclosed by the instrument itself. The air-stream meets a sharp edge, or an edge is moved through the air. Occasionally called percussive aerophones, plosive aerophones are sounded by percussion caused by a single compression, an example of a plosive aerophone is the scraper flute which has tubes with ridged or serrated edges so that they can be scraped with a rod to produce sound. Non-free aerophones are instruments where the air is contained within the instrument
8.
Musical instrument
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A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument, the history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment, Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications. The date and origin of the first device considered an instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some refer to as a musical instrument. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago, many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world, however, contact among civilizations caused rapid spread and adaptation of most instruments in places far from their origin. By the Middle Ages, instruments from Mesopotamia were in maritime Southeast Asia, development in the Americas occurred at a slower pace, but cultures of North, Central, and South America shared musical instruments. By 1400, musical instrument development slowed in areas and was dominated by the Occident. Musical instrument classification is a discipline in its own right, Instruments can be classified by their effective range, their material composition, their size, etc. However, the most common method, Hornbostel-Sachs, uses the means by which they produce sound. The academic study of instruments is called organology. Once humans moved from making sounds with their bodies—for example, by using objects to create music from sounds. Primitive instruments were designed to emulate natural sounds, and their purpose was ritual rather than entertainment. The concept of melody and the pursuit of musical composition were unknown to early players of musical instruments. A player sounding a flute to signal the start of a hunt does so without thought of the notion of making music. Musical instruments are constructed in an array of styles and shapes
9.
French horn
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The French horn is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B♭ is the horn most often used by players in professional orchestras, a musician who plays any kind of horn is generally referred to as a horn player. Most horns have lever-operated rotary valves, but some, especially older horns, use piston valves, the backward-facing orientation of the bell relates to the perceived desirability to create a subdued sound, in concert situations, in contrast to the more piercing quality of the trumpet. A horn without valves is known as a horn, changing pitch along the natural harmonics of the instrument. Pitch may also be controlled by the position of the hand in the bell, the pitch of any note can easily be raised or lowered by adjusting the hand position in the bell. Three valves control the flow of air in the single horn, the more common double horn has a fourth valve, usually operated by the thumb, which routes the air to one set of tubing tuned to F or another tuned to B♭. Triple horns with five valves are made, tuned in F, B♭. Also common are descant doubles, which typically provide B♭ and alto F branches and this configuration provides a high-range horn while avoiding the additional complexity and weight of a triple. A crucial element in playing the horn deals with the mouthpiece, when playing higher notes, the majority of players exert a small degree of additional pressure on the lips using the mouthpiece. It is the goal of all serious brass musicians to develop their technique such that additional mouthpiece pressure is avoided altogether, or at the very least, the name French horn is found only in English, first coming into use in the late 17th century. At that time, French makers were preeminent in the manufacture of hunting horns, as a result, these instruments were often called, even in English, by their French names, trompe de chasse or cor de chasse. The International Horn Society has recommended since 1971 that the instrument be simply called the horn, there is also a more specific use of French horn to describe a particular horn type, differentiated from the German horn and Vienna horn. In this sense, French horn refers to an instrument with three Périnet valves. It retains the narrow bell-throat and mouthpipe crooks of the orchestral hand horn of the late 18th century, and most often has an ascending third valve. This is a whole-tone valve arranged so that with the valve in the up position the valve loop is engaged, the horn is the third-highest-sounding instrument in the brass family, below the trumpet and the cornet. Horns are mostly tuned in B♭ or F, or a combination of both, in some traditions, novice players use a single horn in F, while others prefer the B♭ horn. The F horn is used more commonly than the B♭ horn, sound is produced by vibrating the players lips into the mouthpiece of the instrument. Different partials in the series can be played by adjusting the air pressure and lip tension
10.
German horn
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Its use among professional players has become so universal that it is only in France and Vienna that any other kind of horn is used today. A musician who plays the German horn is called a horn player, the word German is used only to distinguish this instrument from the now-rare French and Viennese instruments. Vienna horns today are played only in Vienna, and are only by Austrian firms. German horns, by contrast, are not all made by German manufacturers, the name German horn is used to distinguish this instrument from other, similar types of orchestral horn, such as the French horn and the Vienna horn. The adjective is normally omitted when referring to the instrument, which in colloquial usage is confusingly referred to as the French horn. Since that time, the true French horns use has been confined mainly to France, in the late seventeenth century, French makers became preeminent in the manufacture of hunting horns, and were credited with the creation of the now-familiar, circular hoop shape of the instrument. As a result, even in England these instruments were referred to by their French names. When, early in the century, crooks were invented in order to make such horns playable in different keys. The national rivalry between French and German makers continued into the era of the valved horn, the French followed by about 1839 with a rival design, using the piston valves perfected by François Périnet. By the middle of the 19th century the most common type of single F horn was the German horn, with three rotary valves and a centrally placed slide crook. This instrument remained the dominant type of orchestral horn until the 1920s, by time it had been supplanted by the double horn. The French horn, using two or three piston valves and with crooks inserted at the mouthpipe end, continued to be preferred by many British orchestral players until the 1930s. By the mid-1940s, however, the German horn was achieving dominance in the UK, though he did not like the sound as much, he said he was paid to get the notes and the German horn was virtually foolproof in contrast to the French horn. His father, Aubrey Brain, also a celebrated horn player and lifelong champion of the French style of instrument, by the 1990s even players in France were turning to the darker-toned German instrument. German horns have lever-operated rotary valves, in contrast to the French horn, which uses piston valves, a horn without valves is known as a natural horn, changing pitch along the natural harmonics of the instrument. Pitch may also be controlled by the position of the hand in the bell, the pitch of any note can easily be raised or lowered by adjusting the hand position in the bell. Three valves control the flow of air in the single horn, the more common double horn has a fourth valve, usually operated by the thumb, which routes the air to one set of tubing tuned to F or another tuned to B♭. Triple horns with five valves are made, tuned in F, B♭
11.
Horn (instrument)
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In horns, unlike some other brass instruments such as the trumpet, the bore gradually increases in width through most of its length—that is to say, it is conical rather than cylindrical. Variations include, As the name indicates, people used to blow on the actual horns of animals before starting to emulate them in metal or other materials. This original usage survives in the shofar, a rams horn, the genus of animal-horn instruments to which the shofar belongs is called קרן in Hebrew, qarnu in Akkadian, and κέρας in Greek. The olifant or oliphant was the name applied in the Middle Ages to ivory hunting or signalling horns made from elephants tusks. Apparently of Asian origin, they reached Europe from Byzantium in the tenth or eleventh century, in Europe they came to be symbols of royalty. From late antiquity there are mentions of alpine horns, but the earliest secure description of the instrument now called an alphorn dates from the sixteenth century. Nevertheless, one authority says that at the time it was a straight instrument eleven feet long. The more familiar form, with a bell, was developed in Switzerland in the eighteenth century. The practice of making these instruments in different sizes, to be played together in part music, similar wooden instruments, used by shepherds for signalling, are known in Romania by the name bucium. They are made in straight, hooked, and S-shaped forms, a variant of the straight version is called tulnic. Metal instruments modelled on animal horns survive from as early as the 10th century BC, nearly fifty of these curved bronze horns have been excavated from burial sites, mostly in Scandinavia, since the first was discovered in 1797. Many are in pairs, curved in opposite directions. Because their makers left no written histories, their use and manner of playing is unknown, depictions of these instruments are found from the 5th century BC onward on Etruscan funerary monuments. The Etruscan name for them is unknown, but the Romans called them buccina, the latter name is the Latin word for horn, and the source of the name of the musical instrument in many Romance languages, French cor, Italian corno, Provençal corn. Early metal horns were less complex than modern horns, marin Mersenne calls these trompe, made in a crescent shape, and the cor à plusieurs tours, a tightly coiled instrument in spiral form. The tightly coiled form of horn was never popular in France. The earliest surviving horn of the tightly spiralled type, dating from about 1570, is by Valentin Springer, around the middle of the seventeenth century instruments began to appear in the form of brass tubes wound into a single open hoop, with a flared exit opening. Although these came to be associated especially with France, the first known example was made in 1667 by the German maker Starck, in French, they were most often called trompe de chasse, though cor de chasse is also frequently found
12.
Vienna horn
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The Vienna horn is a type of musical horn used primarily in Vienna, Austria, for playing orchestral or classical music. It is used throughout Vienna, including the Vienna Philharmonic and Wiener Staatsoper, during the nineteenth century, a number of experiments were made in adding valves to the natural horn to enable it to play chromatically without the need for hand-stopping. These experiments included adding piston valves to a single F horn, the horn was still crooked, by inserting other tubing, to re-tune the instrument for music written in base keys other than F. The Vienna horn uses a form of double-cylinder valve associated with the Viennese firm Uhlmann of the 1840s known as a pumpenvalve. A pumpenvalve is similar to the piston valve, but it is not pushed directly inward. Instead, long push-rods reach across to each key, allowing either a fast or slow change in the valve. The pumpenvalve allows the air to flow straight when the valves are not actuated, when a valve is engaged, each cylinder redirects the air stream 90 degrees in one bend, lessening the resistance felt by the player. This type of valve is one of the contributing factors to the liquid legato that is one of the trademarks of the Viennese school. However, the linkage between the fingers and the valves via can make the action slow and therefore make quick technical passages more difficult for the player. The internal diameter of the Vienna horn is also smaller than modern horns. This bore size and shape is very close to the design of the valve-less natural horns. The removable crooks are also smoothly tapered for the length of the horn, thus, there is no compromise as found in the modern double horn and triple horn. This is due in part to the valves and in part to the larger throated bell-flare still used with these instruments. The Vienna horn has remained unchanged since the mid-nineteenth century. Horn players who use the Vienna horn also use a horn mouthpiece. A standard horn mouthpiece is more concave, partly to facilitate the playing of lower notes because of impedance of the double horn. Media related to Vienna horn at Wikimedia Commons Gregor Widholm, The Vienna Horn - a historic relict successfully used by top orchestras of the 21, century Thomas Jöbstl, The Vienna Horn Viennahorns chamber music ensemble Scottish Vienna Horns
13.
Tuba
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The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced by moving air past the lips and it first appeared in the mid 19th-century, making it one of the newer instruments in the modern orchestra and concert band. The tuba largely replaced the ophicleide, in America a person who plays the tuba is known as a tubaist or tubist. In the United Kingdom a person who plays the tuba in an orchestra is simply as a tuba player. Prussian Patent No.19 was granted to Wilhelm Friedrich Wieprecht, the original Wieprecht and Moritz instrument used five valves of the Berlinerpumpen type that were the forerunners of the modern piston valve. The first tenor tuba was invented in 1838 by Carl Wilhelm Moritz, the addition of valves made it possible to play low in the harmonic series of the instrument and still have a complete selection of notes. Prior to the invention of valves, brass instruments were limited to notes in the harmonic series, harmonics starting three octaves above the fundamental pitch are about a whole step apart, making a useful variety of notes possible. The ophicleide used a brass instrument mouthpiece but employed keys. Another forerunner to the tuba was the serpent, an instrument that was shaped in a wavy form to make the tone holes accessible to the player. Tone holes changed the pitch by providing an intentional leak in the bugle of the instrument, while this changed the pitch, it also had a pronounced effect on the timbre. By using valves to adjust the length of the bugle the tuba produced a tone that eventually led to its popularity. Adolphe Sax, like Wieprecht, was interested in marketing systems of instruments from soprano to bass, the instruments developed by Sax were generally pitched in E♭ and B♭, while the Wieprecht basstuba and the subsequent Cerveny contrabass tuba were pitched in F and C. Saxs instruments gained dominance in France, and later in Britain and America, as a result of the popularity and movements of instrument makers such as Gustave Auguste Besson and Henry Distin. Afterwards there have many other various types of the Tuba including some with different types of valves different numbers. An orchestra usually has a single tuba, though an additional tuba may be asked for and it serves as the bass of the orchestral brass section and it can reinforce the bass voices of the strings and woodwinds. It provides the bass of brass quintets and choirs and it is the principal bass instrument in concert bands, brass bands and military bands, and those ensembles generally have two to four tubas. It is also a solo instrument, tubas are used in marching bands, drum and bugle corps and in many jazz bands. In British style brass bands, two E♭ and two B♭ tubas are used and are referred to as basses, tubas are found in various pitches, most commonly in F, E♭, C, or B♭
14.
Euphonium
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The euphonium is a large, conical-bore, baritone-voiced brass instrument that derives its name from the Ancient Greek word εὔφωνος euphōnos, meaning well-sounding or sweet-voiced. The euphonium is an instrument, nearly all current models are piston valved. The euphonium is an instrument known for its distinctive tone color. A person who plays the euphonium is sometimes called a euphoniumist, euphophonist, or a euphonist, while British players often colloquially refer to themselves as euphists, similarly, the instrument itself is often referred to as eupho or euph. The euphonium is part of the family of brass instruments and it is sometimes confused with the baritone horn. The two instruments are easily interchangeable to the player, with modification of breath and embouchure. The cylindrical baritone offers a brighter sound and the conical euphonium offers a mellower sound, several late 19th century music catalogs sold a euphonium-like instrument called the B♭ bass. In these catalog drawings, the B♭ Bass had thicker tubing than the baritone, along the same lines, drum and bugle corps introduced the Bass-baritone, and distinguished it from the baritone. The thicker tubing of the three-valve B♭ bass allowed for production of strong false-tones, ferdinand Sommers original name for the instrument was the euphonion. It is sometimes called the tenor tuba in B♭, although this can refer to other varieties of tuba. Names in other languages, as included in scores, can be ambiguous as well and they include French basse, saxhorn basse, and tuba basse, German Baryton, Tenorbass, and Tenorbasshorn, Italian baritono, bombardino, eufonio, and flicorno basso. The most common German name, Baryton, may also have caused the American use of the term baritone for the instrument with the influx of German musicians to the United States in the nineteenth century. As a baritone-voiced brass instrument, the euphonium traces its ancestry to the ophicleide, the search for a satisfactory foundational wind instrument that could support masses of sound above it took some time. With the invention of the valve system c. 1818, the construction of instruments with an even sound. While Saxs family of saxhorns were invented at about the same time, the euphonium, like the tenor trombone, is pitched in concert B♭. For a valved brass instrument like the euphonium, this means that when no valves are in use the instrument will produce partials of the B♭ harmonic series. It is generally orchestrated as an instrument like the trombone
15.
Trombone
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The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the players vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate, nearly all trombones have a telescoping slide mechanism that varies the length of the instrument to change the pitch. Many modern trombone models also utilize a rotary valve as a means to lower pitch of the instrument, variants such as the valve trombone and superbone have three valves like those on the trumpet. The word trombone derives from Italian tromba and -one, so the name means large trumpet, the trombone has a predominantly cylindrical bore like its valved counterpart the baritone and in contrast to its conical valved counterparts, the euphonium and the horn. The most frequently encountered trombones are the trombone and bass trombone. The most common variant, the tenor, is an instrument pitched in B♭, an octave below the B♭ trumpet. A person who plays the trombone is called a trombonist or trombone player, the trombone is a predominantly cylindrical tube bent into an elongated S shape. Rather than being completely cylindrical from end to end, the tube is a series of tapers with the smallest at the mouthpiece receiver. The design of these affects the intonation of the instrument. As with other instruments, sound is produced by blowing air through pursed lips producing a vibration that creates a standing wave in the instrument. The detachable cup-shaped mouthpiece is similar to that of the baritone horn and it has the venturi, a small constriction of the air column that adds resistance greatly affecting the tone of the instrument, and is inserted into the mouthpiece receiver in the slide section. The slide section consists of a leadpipe, the inner and outer tubes. Modern stays are soldered, while sackbuts were made with loose, the slide, the most distinctive feature of the trombone, allows the player to extend the length of the air column, lowering the pitch. To prevent friction from slowing the action of the slide, additional sleeves were developed during the Renaissance, and this part of the slide must be lubricated frequently. Additional tubing connects the slide to the bell of the instrument through a neckpipe, for example, second position A is not in exactly the same place on the slide as second position E. Many types of trombone also include one or more rotary valves used to increase the length of the instrument by directing the air flow through additional tubing. This allows the instrument to reach notes that are not possible without the valve as well as play other notes in alternate positions. Like the trumpet, the trombone is considered a cylindrical bore instrument since it has sections of tubing, principally in the slide section
16.
Richard Wagner
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Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas. Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works and he described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen and his advances in musical language, such as extreme chromaticism and quickly shifting tonal centres, greatly influenced the development of classical music. His Tristan und Isolde is sometimes described as marking the start of modern music, Wagner had his own opera house built, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, which embodied many novel design features. The Ring and Parsifal were premiered here and his most important stage works continue to be performed at the annual Bayreuth Festival, until his final years, Wagners life was characterised by political exile, turbulent love affairs, poverty and repeated flight from his creditors. His controversial writings on music, drama and politics have attracted extensive comment, notably, since the late 20th century, where they express antisemitic sentiments. The effect of his ideas can be traced in many of the arts throughout the 20th century, his influence spread beyond composition into conducting, philosophy, literature, Richard Wagner was born to an ethnic German family in Leipzig, where his family lived at No. 3, the Brühl in the Jewish quarter and he was baptized at St. Thomas Church. He was the child of Carl Friedrich Wagner, who was a clerk in the Leipzig police service, and his wife, Johanna Rosine. Wagners father Carl died of typhus six months after Richards birth, afterwards his mother Johanna lived with Carls friend, the actor and playwright Ludwig Geyer. In August 1814 Johanna and Geyer probably married—although no documentation of this has found in the Leipzig church registers. She and her family moved to Geyers residence in Dresden, until he was fourteen, Wagner was known as Wilhelm Richard Geyer. He almost certainly thought that Geyer was his biological father, Geyers love of the theatre came to be shared by his stepson, and Wagner took part in his performances. In his autobiography Mein Leben Wagner recalled once playing the part of an angel, in late 1820, Wagner was enrolled at Pastor Wetzels school at Possendorf, near Dresden, where he received some piano instruction from his Latin teacher. He struggled to play a scale at the keyboard and preferred playing theatre overtures by ear. Following Geyers death in 1821, Richard was sent to the Kreuzschule, at the age of nine he was hugely impressed by the Gothic elements of Carl Maria von Webers opera Der Freischütz, which he saw Weber conduct. At this period Wagner entertained ambitions as a playwright and his first creative effort, listed in the Wagner-Werk-Verzeichnis as WWV1, was a tragedy called Leubald. Begun when he was in school in 1826, the play was influenced by Shakespeare
17.
Opera
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Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. In traditional opera, singers do two types of singing, recitative, a style and arias, a more melodic style. Opera incorporates many of the elements of theatre, such as acting, scenery. The performance is given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble. Opera is a key part of the Western classical music tradition, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, attracting foreign composers such as George Frideric Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Christoph Willibald Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his operas in the 1760s. The first third of the 19th century saw the point of the bel canto style, with Gioachino Rossini, Gaetano Donizetti. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Auber and Meyerbeer, the mid-to-late 19th century was a golden age of opera, led and dominated by Richard Wagner in Germany and Giuseppe Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Giacomo Puccini. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, the 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism, Neoclassicism, and Minimalism. With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso, since the invention of radio and television, operas were also performed on these mediums. Beginning in 2006, a number of opera houses began to present live high-definition video transmissions of their performances in cinemas all over the world. In 2009, an opera company offered a download of a complete performance. The words of an opera are known as the libretto, some composers, notably Wagner, have written their own libretti, others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e. g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Vocal duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action, in some forms of opera, such as singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, the terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in detail below. Over the 18th century, arias were accompanied by the orchestra. Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagners example, though some, the changing role of the orchestra in opera is described in more detail below
18.
Der Ring des Nibelungen
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Der Ring des Nibelungen, WWV86, is a cycle of four German-language epic music dramas composed by Richard Wagner. The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas, the composer termed the cycle a Bühnenfestspiel, structured in three days preceded by a Vorabend. It is often referred to as the Ring Cycle, Wagners Ring, Wagner wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-six years, from 1848 to 1874. The first performance as an opened the first Bayreuth Festival in 1876, beginning with Das Rheingold on 13 August. Wagners title is most literally rendered in English as The Ring of the Nibelung, the Nibelung of the title is the dwarf Alberich, and the ring in question is the one he fashions from the Rhine Gold. The title therefore denotes Alberichs Ring, Nibelungen is occasionally mistaken as a plural, but the Ring of the Nibelungs is incorrect. The cycle is a work of extraordinary scale, the first and shortest work, Das Rheingold, typically lasts two and a half hours, while the final and longest, Götterdämmerung, takes up to five hours, excluding intervals. The cycle is modelled after ancient Greek dramas that were presented as three tragedies and one satyr play, the Ring proper begins with Die Walküre and ends with Götterdämmerung, with Rheingold as a prelude. Wagner called Das Rheingold a Vorabend or Preliminary Evening, and Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung were subtitled First Day, Second Day and Third Day, respectively, the scale and scope of the story is epic. It follows the struggles of gods, heroes, and several mythical creatures over the magic ring that grants domination over the entire world. The drama and intrigue continue through three generations of protagonists, until the final cataclysm at the end of Götterdämmerung, the music of the cycle is thick and richly textured, and grows in complexity as the cycle proceeds. Wagner wrote for an orchestra of gargantuan proportions, including a greatly enlarged brass section with new instruments such as the Wagner tuba, bass trumpet and contrabass trombone. Remarkably, he uses a chorus only relatively briefly, in acts 2 and 3 of Götterdämmerung and he eventually had a purpose-built theatre constructed, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, in which to perform this work. The theatre has a stage that blends the huge orchestra with the singers voices. The result was that the singers did not have to strain themselves vocally during the long performances. The plot revolves around a ring that grants the power to rule the world. Wotans schemes to regain the ring, spanning generations, drive much of the action in the story, Hagen is drowned as he attempts to recover the ring. In the process, the gods and Valhalla are destroyed, details of the storylines can be found in the articles on each music drama
19.
Anton Bruckner
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Josef Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, strongly polyphonic character. Bruckners compositions helped to define contemporary musical radicalism, owing to their dissonances, unprepared modulations, unlike other musical radicals such as Richard Wagner and Hugo Wolf who fit the enfant terrible mould, Bruckner showed extreme humility before other musicians, Wagner in particular. This apparent dichotomy between Bruckner the man and Bruckner the composer hampers efforts to describe his life in a way that gives a straightforward context for his music. On the other hand, Bruckner was greatly admired by subsequent composers including his friend Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner was born in Ansfelden on 4 September 1824. The ancestors of Bruckners family were farmers and craftsmen, their history can be traced to as far back as the 16th century and they lived near a bridge south of Sindelburg, which led to their being called Pruckhner an der Pruckhen. Bruckners grandfather was appointed schoolmaster in Ansfelden in 1776, this position was inherited by Bruckners father, Anton Bruckner senior and it was a poorly paid but well-respected position in the rural environment. Music was a part of the curriculum, and Bruckners father was his first music teacher. Bruckner learned to play the organ early as a child and he entered school when he was six, proved to be a hard-working student, and was promoted to upper class early. While studying, Bruckner also helped his father in teaching the other children, after Bruckner received his confirmation in 1833, Bruckners father sent him to another school in Hörsching. The schoolmaster, Johann Baptist Weiß, was a music enthusiast, here, Bruckner completed his school education and learned to play the organ excellently. Around 1835 Bruckner wrote his first composition, a Pange lingua – one of the compositions which he revised at the end of his life, when his father became ill, Anton returned to Ansfelden to help him in his work. Bruckners father died in 1837, when Bruckner was 13 years old, the teachers position and house were given to a successor, and Bruckner was sent to the Augustinian monastery in Sankt Florian to become a choirboy. In addition to practice, his education included violin and organ lessons. Bruckner was in awe of the great organ, which was built during the late baroque era and rebuilt in 1837. Later, the organ was to be called the Bruckner Organ, despite his musical abilities, Bruckners mother sent her son to a teaching seminar in Linz in 1841. After completing the seminar with an excellent grade, Bruckner was sent as an assistant to a school in Windhaag. The living standards and pay were horrible, and Bruckner was constantly humiliated by his superior, despite the difficult situation, Bruckner never complained or rebelled, a belief of inferiority was to remain one of Bruckners main personal characteristics during his whole life
20.
Symphony No. 7 (Bruckner)
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Anton Bruckners Symphony No.7 in E major is one of his best-known symphonies. It was written between 1881 and 1883 and was revised in 1885 and it is dedicated to Ludwig II of Bavaria. The premiere, given under Arthur Nikisch and the Gewandhaus Orchestra in the house at Leipzig on 30 December 1884. The symphony is sometimes referred to as the Lyric, though the appellation is not the composers own, the symphony has four movements, Allegro moderato. Starts with tremolo strings and the cellos presenting a complete, divinely given melodic whole. Bruckner declared he heard it in a dream, played on a viola, and wrote it down on awakening and this movement was composed between January and April 1883. Bruckner began writing it in anticipation of Wagners death and funeral, the movement features four Wagner tubas, which was their first appearance in a symphony. It also features a contrabass tuba, legend has it that Bruckner wrote the cymbal clash at the climax of this movement upon hearing the news that Wagner had died. A scherzo in A minor, with a trio in F major, in the recapitulation, the subject groups are reversed in order. This was the performed at the works premiere. Unfortunately it survives only in one copy which includes later changes by Bruckner and others. Some changes were made after the 1884 premiere but before the first publication by Gutmann in 1885 and these changes mostly affect tempo and orchestration. Robert Haas attempted to remove the influence of Nikisch, Schalk, Haas used some material from the 1883 autograph but because this autograph also includes later changes much of his work was the product of conjecture. Leopold Nowak kept most of the changes in the 1885 Gutmann edition and he reprinted the tempo modifications from Gutmann but placed them in brackets. Some performances of this edition omit the cymbal clash at the climax of the slow movement, the Society folded before the arrangement could be performed, and it was not premiered until more than 60 years later. If Wagner tubas are not available, they are substituted with euphoniums. 2Except the third movement where the use of timpani figures prominently, a timpani roll enters at the coda of the first movement. In some performance editions, the timpani re-enters along with cymbals, in the last movement, the timpani rolls in brief climaxes before crescendoing with orchestral tutti in the final bars
21.
Richard Strauss
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Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. Strauss was also a prominent conductor in Western Europe and the Americas, enjoying quasi-celebrity status as his compositions became standards of orchestral and operatic repertoire. Strauss was born on 11 June 1864 in Munich, the son of Josephine and Franz Strauss, in his youth, he received a thorough musical education from his father. He wrote his first composition at the age of six and continued to write music almost until his death, during his boyhood Strauss attended orchestra rehearsals of the Munich Court Orchestra, where he received private instruction in music theory and orchestration from an assistant conductor. In 1872 he started receiving violin instruction at the Royal School of Music from Benno Walter, in 1874 Strauss heard his first Wagner operas, Lohengrin and Tannhäuser. The influence of Wagners music on Strausss style was to be profound, but at first his musically conservative father forbade him to study it. Indeed, in the Strauss household, the music of Richard Wagner was viewed with deep suspicion, in later life, Strauss said that he deeply regretted the conservative hostility to Wagners progressive works. Nevertheless, Strausss father undoubtedly had a influence on his sons developing taste. In early 1882 in Vienna he gave the first performance of his Violin Concerto in D minor, playing a piano reduction of the part himself. The same year he entered Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he studied philosophy and art history, Strauss learned the art of conducting by observing Bülow in rehearsal. Bülow was very fond of the man and decided that Strauss should be his successor as conductor of the Meiningen Court Orchestra when Bülow resigned in 1885. Strausss compositions at time were indebted to the style of Robert Schumann or Felix Mendelssohn. 1, Op.11, is representative of this period and is a staple of modern horn repertoire, Strauss married soprano Pauline de Ahna on 10 September 1894. She was famous for being irascible, garrulous, eccentric and outspoken, throughout his life, from his earliest songs to the final Four Last Songs of 1948, he preferred the soprano voice to all others, and all his operas contain important soprano roles. The Strausses had one son, Franz, in 1897, Franz married Alice von Grab-Hermannswörth, daughter of a Jewish industrialist, in a Roman Catholic ceremony in 1924. Franz and Alice had two sons, Richard and Christian, some of Strausss first compositions were solo instrumental and chamber works. After 1890 Strauss composed very infrequently for chamber groups, his energies being almost completely absorbed with large-scale orchestral works and operas. Four of his pieces are actually arrangements of portions of his operas, including the Daphne-Etude for solo violin and the String Sextet
22.
An Alpine Symphony
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An Alpine Symphony, Op.64, is a tone poem written by German composer Richard Strauss in 1915. Though labelled as a symphony by the composer, this piece forgoes the conventions of the traditional multi-movement symphony, the story of An Alpine Symphony depicts the experiences of eleven hours spent climbing an Alpine mountain. An Alpine Symphony is one of Strausss largest non-operatic works in terms of performing forces, a typical performance usually lasts around 50 minutes. Strausss An Alpine Symphony was completed in 1915, eleven years after the completion of its predecessor in the genre of the tone poem. In 1911 Strauss wrote that he was torturing with a symphony – a job that, one point of influence comes from Strausss love of nature. Strauss loved the mountains so much that in 1908 he built a home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria and this interest in nature can also point to Strausss followings of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The original drafts of An Alpine Symphony began in 1899 and it was to be written in memory of the Swiss painter, Karl Stauffer-Bern, and the work was originally titled Künstlertragödie. This fell by the wayside, but Strauss began a new four-movement work called Die Alpen in which he used parts of the original 1899 draft, the first movement of Die Alpen evolved into the core of An Alpine Symphony. Sketches were made, but Strauss eventually left the work unfinished, years later, upon the death of his good friend Gustav Mahler in 1911, Strauss decided to revisit the work. In his journal the day after he learned of Mahlers death, Strauss wrote, The death of this aspiring, Mahler, the Jew, could achieve elevation in Christianity. As an old man the hero Wagner returned to it under the influence of Schopenhauer and it is clear to me that the German nation will achieve new creative energy only by liberating itself from Christianity. I shall call my alpine symphony, Der Antichrist, since it represents, moral purification through ones own strength, liberation through work, worship of eternal, magnificent nature. The resulting draft of the work was to be a work titled Der Antichrist, Eine Alpensinfonie, however. Instead, he dropped the first half of the title and called his single-movement work simply An Alpine Symphony, after so many years of intermittent composition, once Strauss began work on the piece in earnest the progress was quick. Strauss even went so far as to remark that he composed An Alpine Symphony just as a cow gives milk, orchestration for the work began on November 1,1914 and was completed by the composer only three months later. In reference to this, his final purely symphonic work, Strauss famously commented at the rehearsal for An Alpine Symphonys premiere that at last he had learned to orchestrate. The entire work was finished on February 8,1915, the score was dedicated in profound gratitude to Count Nicolaus Seebach, director of the Royal Opera in Dresden, where four of the six operas Strauss had written by that time had been premiered. An Alpine Symphony was premiered on October 28,1915, with Strauss conducting the orchestra of the Dresden Hofkapelle in Berlin, some even called it cinema music
23.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
24.
Adolphe Sax
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Antoine-Joseph Adolphe Sax was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in 1846. He played the flute and clarinet, and his inventions are the saxotromba, saxhorn. Antoine-Joseph Sax was born on 6 November 1814, in Dinant, Belgium, to Charles-Joseph Sax, while his first name was Antoine, he was referred to as Adolphe from childhood. His father and mother were instrument designers themselves, who made changes to the design of the horn. Adolphe began to make his own instruments at an early age and he subsequently studied performance on those two instruments as well as voice at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. According to the biography of Adolphe Sax published on the city of Dinants website and his neighbors called him little Sax, the ghost. After leaving the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Sax began to experiment with new instrument designs, adolphes first important invention was an improvement of the bass clarinet design, which he patented at the age of 24. Sax relocated permanently to Paris in 1841 and began working on a new set of instruments exhibited there in 1844. These were valved bugles, and although he had not invented the instrument itself, his examples were more successful than those of his rivals. They came in seven different sizes, and paved the path to the creation of the flugelhorn. Today, saxhorns are sometimes used in bands and orchestras. The saxhorn also laid the groundwork for the modern euphonium, Sax also developed the saxotromba family, valved brass instruments with narrower bore than the saxhorns, in 1845, though they survived only briefly. The saxhorn valves were accepted as state-of-the-art and are largely unchanged today, the advances made by Adolphe Sax were soon followed by the British brass band movement which exclusively adopted the saxhorn range. The Jedforest Instrumental Band formed in 1854 and The Hawick Saxhorn Band formed in 1855, within the Scottish Borders, the period around 1840 saw Sax inventing the clarinette-bourdon, an early unsuccessful design of contrabass clarinet. Around this time he developed the instrument for which he is best known. The saxophone was invented for use in orchestras and concert bands. Composer Hector Berlioz wrote approvingly of the new instrument in 1842, by 1846 Sax had designed, on paper, a full range of saxophones. Although they never became standard orchestral instruments, the made his reputation and secured him a job
25.
Saxophone
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The saxophone is a family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet, the saxophone family was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1840. He patented the saxophone on June 28,1846, in two groups of seven instruments each, each series consisted of instruments of various sizes in alternating transposition. The series pitched in B♭ and E♭, designed for bands, have proved extremely popular. The saxophone is used in music, military bands, marching bands. The saxophone was developed in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker, flautist, born in Dinant and originally based in Brussels, he moved to Paris in 1842 to establish his musical instrument business. Prior to his work on the saxophone, he had several improvements to the bass clarinet by improving its keywork and acoustics. Sax was also a maker of the ophicleide, a large conical brass instrument in the bass register with keys similar to a woodwind instrument. His experience with two instruments allowed him to develop the skills and technologies needed to make the first saxophones. As an outgrowth of his work improving the bass clarinet, Sax began developing an instrument with the projection of a brass instrument and he wanted it to overblow at the octave, unlike the clarinet, which rises in pitch by a twelfth when overblown. An instrument that overblows at the octave has identical fingering for both registers, Sax created an instrument with a single-reed mouthpiece like a clarinet, conical brass body like an ophicleide, and some acoustic properties of both the horn and the clarinet. Having constructed saxophones in several sizes in the early 1840s, Sax applied for, and received, the patent encompassed 14 versions of the fundamental design, split into two categories of seven instruments each, and ranging from sopranino to contrabass. Although the instruments transposed at either F or C have been considered orchestral, the C soprano saxophone was the only instrument to sound at concert pitch. Saxs patent expired in 1866, thereafter, numerous saxophonists and instrument manufacturers implemented their own improvements to the design, the first substantial modification was by a French manufacturer who extended the bell slightly and added an extra key to extend the range downwards by one semitone to B♭. It is suspected that Sax himself may have attempted this modification and this extension is now commonplace in almost all modern designs, along with other minor changes such as added keys for alternate fingerings. Using alternate fingerings allows a player to play faster and more easily, a player may also use alternate fingerings to bend the pitch. Some of the alternate fingerings are good for trilling, scales, a substantial advancement in saxophone keywork was the development of a method by which the left thumb operates both tone holes with a single octave key, which is now universal on modern saxophones. This enables a chromatic scale to be played two octaves simply by playing the diatonic scale combined with alternately raising and lowering this one digit
26.
Saxhorn
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The saxhorn is a family of valved brass instruments that have conical bores and deep cup-shaped mouthpieces. The saxhorn family was developed by Adolphe Sax, who is known for creating the saxophone family. The sound of the saxhorn has a mellow tone quality. The saxhorns form a family of seven brass instruments, designed for band use, they are pitched alternately in E♭ and B♭, like the saxophone group. Historically, much confusion exists as to the nomenclature of the instruments in different languages. The following table lists the members of the family as described in the orchestration texts of Hector Berlioz and Cecil Forsyth, the J. Howard Foote catalog of 1893. The modern instrument names continue to exhibit inconsistency, denoted by a / between the two names in use, in the table Pitch means the concert pitch of notational Middle C on each instrument in scientific pitch notation. This list is not exhaustive of historic nomenclature for the saxhorns, the saxhorn is based on the same three-valve system as most other valved brass instruments. Each member of the family is named after the note produced by the second partial with no valves actuated. Developed during the mid-to-late 1830s, the family was patented in Paris in 1845 by Adolphe Sax. During the 19th century, the debate as to whether the family was truly new. Throughout the mid-1850s, Sax continued to experiment with the instruments valve pattern, the Trojan March of the Berlioz opera Les Troyens features an on-stage band which includes a family of saxhorns. Saxhorns were popularized by the distinguished Distin Quintet, who toured Europe during the mid-19th century and this family of musicians, publishers and instrument manufacturers had a significant impact on the growth of the brass band movement in Britain during the mid- to late-19th century. The saxhorn was the most common instrument in American Civil War bands. The over-the-shoulder variety of the instrument was used, as the bell of the instrument allowed troops marching behind the band to hear the music. Contemporary works featuring this instrument are Désiré Dondeynes Tubissimo for bass tuba or saxhorn and piano, alto horn Baritone horn Flugelhorn Euphonium Sudrophone J. Howard Foote catalog,1893 Berlioz, Hector. 14 Volumes of saxhorn band are available featuring The First Brigade Band, Saxhorn, Euphonium and Tuba site Dodworth Saxhorn Band Gregs Brass History Page First Brigade Band Galpin Society list of extant Adolphe Sax instruments Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Saxhorn
27.
Das Rheingold
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Das Rheingold, WWV 86A, is the first of the four music dramas that constitute Richard Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen, or in English, The Ring of the Nibelung. Das Rheingold premiered at the National Theatre Munich on 22 September 1869, with August Kindermann in the role of Wotan, Heinrich Vogl as Loge, and Karl Fischer as Alberich. Wagner wanted this work to premiere as part of the entire cycle, the work was first performed as part of the complete cycle on 13 August 1876, in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus. Although Das Rheingold comes first in the sequence of Ring operas, so in August 1851, Wagner wrote in Eine Mittheilung an meine Freunde, I propose to produce my myth in three complete dramas. However, by October, he had decided that this required a prelude. To the sentence quoted above he added the words, which will be preceded by a great prelude, a letter Wagner wrote to Theodor Uhlig confirms that at this time the opera was intended to have three acts. Wagner continued to develop the text and storyline of the prelude in parallel with those of Die Walküre, the prose draft of Das Rheingold was completed between 21 March and 23 March 1852 and its verse draft between 15 September and 3 November. A fair copy of the text was finished by 15 December, during the early years of the 1850s Wagner produced some musical sketches for parts of the Ring and noted down various motifs that were to be used in the work. There also exist three sets of isolated musical sketches for Das Rheingold which were composed between 15 September 1852 and November 1853. The first of these was entered into the draft of the text, the second into Wagners copy of the 1853 printing of the text. All three were used by Wagner. Proper sequential development of the score started on 1 November 1853, by 14 January, Wagner had completed the first draft of the opera on between two and three staves. The next stage involved the development of a detailed draft that indicated most of the vocal and instrumental details. This was completed by 28 May, in parallel with this, Wagner started work on a fair copy of the score on 15 February, a task he completed on 26 September 1854, by which time he had also started work on the sketches of Die Walküre. Das Rheingold was first performed at Munich on 22 September 1869 and its first performance as part of the complete Ring cycle took place at Bayreuth on 13 August 1876. It continues to be performed on a regular basis both in Bayreuth and elsewhere, Das Rheingold, considerably shorter than its three successors, consists of four scenes performed without a break. It has been noted as one of the best-known drone examples in the concert repertory, the curtain rises to show, at the bottom of the Rhine, the three Rhine maidens, Woglinde, Wellgunde, and Flosshilde, playing together. The key shifts to A flat as Woglinde begins an innocent song whose melody is used to characterise the Rhine maidens later in the cycle
28.
Rotary valves
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A rotary valve is a type of valve in which the rotation of a passage or passages in a transverse plug regulates the flow of liquid or gas through the attached pipes. The common stopcock is the simplest form of rotary valve, rotary valves have been applied in numerous applications, including, Changing the pitch of brass instruments. Controlling the steam and exhaust ports of steam engines, most notably in the Corliss steam engine, periodically reversing the flow of air and fuel across the open hearth furnace. Most hydraulic automotive power steering control valves, in the context of brass instruments, rotary valves are found on horns, trumpets, trombones, flugelhorns, and tubas. Many European trumpet players tend to favor rotary valves, trombone F-attachment valves are usually rotary, with several variations on the basic design also in use, such as the Thayer axial-flow valve and Hagmann valve. Joseph Riedl is credited with the first use of valves on brass instruments in 1832. In industry, a valve is used to regulate the flow of a product. Typical applications are for feeding a weighed hopper or for feeding a mill that can be clogged by the product, as part of the material exchange process, the valve is often used as a measuring or metering device. A rotary valve in the pharmaceutical, chemical and food industry is used to dose, airlock type rotary valve is often used to enter or extract material from two chambers with different pressure level. As inlet and exhaust are usually combined special attention should be given to valve cooling to avoid engine knocking, rotary valves have been used in several different engine designs. In Britain, the National Engine Company Ltd advertised its rotary engine for use in early aircraft. From the 1930s, Frank Aspin developed a design with a valve that rotated on the same axis as the cylinder bore. Kawasaki and others have also used rotary valves in two-stroke motorcycle engines, US company Coates International Ltd has developed a spherical rotary valve for internal combustion engines which replaces the poppet valve system. This particular design is four-stroke, with the rotary valves operated by overhead shafts in lieu of overhead camshafts, the first sale of such an engine was part of a natural gas engine-generator. Rotary valves could allow for a compact and lightweight cylinder head design. They rotate at half speed and lack the inertia forces of reciprocating valve mechanisms. This allows for higher speeds, offering approximately perhaps 10% more power. The 1980s MGN W12 F1 engine used rotary valves but never raced, between 2002 and 2004 the Australian developer Bishop Innovation and Mercedes-Ilmor tested rotary valves for a F1 V10 engine
29.
Transposing instrument
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A transposing instrument is a musical instrument whose music is notated at a pitch different from the pitch that actually sounds. Playing a written C on an instrument produces a pitch other than C. For example, a written C on a B♭ clarinet sounds a concert B♭, rather than a property of the instrument, the transposition is a convention of music notation—however, instruments whose music is typically notated in this way are called transposing instruments. As transposing instruments is a convention, the issue of transposition is mainly an issue for genres of music which use sheet music, such as classical music. For some instruments, the pitch is still a C, but in a different octave. There are several reasons that composers, orchestrators and arrangers transpose music for certain instruments, many instruments are members of a family of instruments that differ mainly in size. For example, the fingerings which produce the notes of a C major scale on a standard flute, instruments that transpose this way are often referred to as being in a certain key, such as the A clarinet or clarinet in A. The instruments key tells which pitch will sound when the plays a note written as C. A player of a B♭ clarinet who reads a written C will sound a B♭ while the player of an A clarinet will read the same note, the non-transposing member of the family is thus called a clarinet in C. In the early 20th century, however, instruments with basic scales other than C were sometimes written as transposing instruments, before valves were invented in the 19th century, horns and trumpets could play only the notes of the overtone series from a single fundamental pitch. As a result, all music was written as if for a fundamental pitch of C. The introduction of valves made this unnecessary, though many players and composers found the tone quality of valved instruments inferior. F transposition became standard in the early 19th century, with the horn sounding a fifth below written pitch in treble clef. In bass clef composers differed in whether they expected the instruments to transpose down a fifth or up a fourth, when they played together in an ensemble, the parts of some instruments would then have to be transposed to compensate. In many of Bachs cantatas the organ part is notated a full step lower than the other instruments, a few early-music ensembles of the present day must do something similar if they comprise some instruments tuned to A415 and others to A440, approximately a semitone apart. Modern builders of continuo instruments sometimes include moveable keyboards which can play with either pitch standard. The harpsichord has a string for each note, plucked by a plectrum. Moving the keyboard mechanism right or left causes the A key to play the next string, instruments that transpose at the octave are not playing in a different key from concert pitch instruments, but sound an octave higher or lower than written
30.
Symphony No. 8 (Bruckner)
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Anton Bruckners Symphony No.8 in C minor is the last symphony the composer completed. It exists in two versions of 1887 and 1890. It was premiered under conductor Hans Richter in 1892 in Vienna and it is dedicated to the Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. This symphony is sometimes nicknamed The Apocalyptic, but this was not a name Bruckner gave to the work himself, Bruckner began work on the Eighth Symphony in July 1884. Working mainly during the vacations from his duties at the University of Vienna and the Vienna Conservatory. In September 1887 Bruckner had the copied and sent to conductor Hermann Levi. Levi was one of Bruckners closest collaborators, having given a performance of the Seventh Symphony in Munich that was the greatest triumph Bruckner had yet experienced. He had also arranged for Bruckners career to be supported in ways, including financial assistance from the nobility. However the conductor wrote back to Bruckner that, I find it impossible to perform the Eighth in its current form, I just cant make it my own. As much as the themes are magnificent and direct, their working-out seems to me dubious, indeed, dont lose your courage, take another look at your work, talk it over with your friends, with Schalk, maybe a reworking can achieve something. By January 1888 Bruckner had come to agree with Levi that the symphony would benefit from further work and he began work on the revision in March 1889 and completed the new version of the symphony in March 1890. Once the revision was completed, the composer wrote to Emperor Franz Josef I for permission to dedicate the symphony to him, the emperor accepted Bruckners request and also offered to help pay for the works publication. Bruckner had some trouble finding a publisher for the work, the symphony was eventually published in March 1892. It was the one of Bruckners symphonies to be published before its first performance. The premiere was scheduled to occur under the young conductors direction during 1891. Eventually the conductor told Bruckner that he was unable to undertake the performance because he was about to take up a new position at the Berlin Opera. After a Munich performance by Levi was canceled because of an outbreak of cholera. At last Hans Richter, subscription conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the first performance took place on 18 December 1892
31.
Symphony No. 9 (Bruckner)
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Bruckner dedicated it to the beloved God. The symphony has four movements, although the fourth is incomplete and fragmentary, the placement of the Scherzo second, and the key, D minor, are only two elements this work has in common with Beethovens Ninth Symphony. The symphony is so often performed without any sort of finale that some describe the form of this symphony … a massive arch. The score calls for three each of flutes, oboes, clarinets in B-flat and A, bassoons, with eight horns, an unusually large number of motifs are given in the first subject group, and these are substantially and richly developed on restatement and in the coda. Bruckner also cites material from his works, at a point near the coda. The concluding page of the movement, in addition to the tonic and dominant chords, given out in a blaze of open fifths. The opening chord of the Scherzo, often cited as prophetic of the advances of the 20th century, is tonally ambiguous in regard to the principal D minor tonality of the movement. Bruckner composed three versions of the Trio, The first version, in F major, in Ländler style with solo of viola. Note the pizzicato accompaniment by the quarter-notes at the outset of the Te Deum, the second version, in the remote key of F-sharp major, also in Ländler style with solo of viola, has a somewhat ethereal look. The mid-part contains a reminiscence to the Hallelujah from Händel’s Messiah, the final version, also in F-sharp major, is unusually fast in tempo for a Trio. The slower mid-part contains, as in the version, a reminiscence to the Hallelujah from Händel’s Messiah. The three versions of the Trio have been edited by Cohrs, there is a recent available recording of the three versions of the Trio, Ricardo Luna, Bruckner unknown, CD Preiser Records PR91250,2013. Bruckner called this movement his Farewell to Life and it begins in tonal ambiguity, and is the most troubled opening to a Bruckner adagio yet, though within bars it achieves lyrical serenity and awe. Throughout its course, the movement goes back to some of the moods of the earlier movements. A dolente call by the oboe – a quote of the Kyrie of Mass No.3 – introduces the repeat of the first theme, shortly after, Bruckner also quotes, as a kind of supplication, the Miserere nobis from the Gloria of his Mass in D minor. The following final climax, given by full orchestra, concludes on the most dissonant chord, thereafter, in the most serene coda yet, the music alludes to the coda of the Adagio of the Eighth Symphony, and also hints at the Seventh Symphony. It is these bars of music which conclude most live performances and recordings of the symphony, though Bruckner was insistent that they be succeeded by a final, fourth movement. Bruckner had conceived the entire movement, whether the manuscripts he left would have made up the form of the Finale is debatable
32.
Felix Draeseke
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Felix August Bernhard Draeseke was a composer of the New German School admiring Liszt and Richard Wagner. He wrote compositions in most forms including eight operas and stage works, four symphonies, Felix Draeseke was born in the Franconian ducal town of Coburg, Germany. He was attracted to music early in life and wrote his first composition at age 8 and he encountered no opposition from his family when, in his mid-teens, he declared his intention of becoming a professional musician. In 1862 Draeseke left Germany and made his way to Switzerland, upon his return to Germany in 1876, Draeseke chose Dresden as his place of residence. Though he continued having success in composition, it was only in 1884 that he received an appointment to the Dresden conservatory and, with it. In 1894, two years after his promotion to a professorship at the Royal Saxon Conservatory, at the age of 58, in 1912 he completed his final orchestral work, the Fourth Symphony. On 26 February 1913 Draeseke suffered a stroke and died, he is buried in the Tolkewitz cemetery in Dresden. During his career Draeseke divided his efforts almost equally among compositional genres and composed in most of them, including symphonies, concertos, opera, chamber music and his operas Herrat and Gudrun met with some success, but were subsequently neglected. Draeseke keenly followed new developments in all facets of music, a heavily contrapuntal composer, Draeseke reveled in writing choral music, achieving major success with his B minor Requiem of 1877–1880. According to some, Draesekes Symphonia Tragica deserves a place alongside the symphonies of Brahms, other orchestral works by Draeseke include the Serenade in D major and its companion of the same year, the symphonic prelude after Kleists Penthesilea. During his life, and the period following his death. His compositions were performed frequently in Germany by the artists of the day, including Hans von Bülow, Arthur Nikisch, Fritz Reiner. However, as von Bülow once remarked to him, he was a harte Nuß and despite the quality of his works, Draesekes music was promoted during the Third Reich. After the Second World War, changes in fashion and political climates allowed his name, but as the 20th century ended, new recordings spurred a renewed interest in his music. König Sigurd - opera in 3 acts after Emanuel Geibels Sigurd Dietrich von Bern - opera in 3 acts Gudrun - opera in 3 acts Bertram de Born - opera in 3 acts Christus, mysterium in a Prelude and Three Oratorios, Opp. M. Guiérrez-Denhoff and H. Loos, Eds. Felix Draeseke, S. Döhring, H. John, and H. Loos, Eds. Deutsche Oper zwischen Wagner und Strauss, a Study in Consideration of Developments in Symphonic Form in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century, Zürich Diss. phil 1967. Website of the International Draeseke Society Complete list of Compositions by Draeseke Complete list of Recordings of Draesekes Music Matthias Wolfes, free scores by Felix Draeseke at the International Music Score Library Project
33.
Jerry Goldsmith
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Jerrald King Jerry Goldsmith was an American composer and conductor most known for his work in film and television scoring. A. Confidential, Mulan, The Mummy, three Rambo films, Explorers and five Star Trek films, Goldsmith was nominated for six Grammy Awards, five Primetime Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, and eighteen Academy Awards. Goldsmith, was born 10 February 1929 in Los Angeles, California and his parents were Tessa, a school teacher, and Morris Goldsmith, a structural engineer. He started playing piano at age six, but only got serious by the time he was eleven, at age sixteen, Goldsmith saw the 1945 film Spellbound in theaters and was inspired by veteran composer Miklós Rózsas soundtrack to pursue a career in music. There he was able to coach singers, work as an assistant choral director, play piano accompaniment, in 1950, Goldsmith found work at CBS as a clerk typist in the networks music department under director Lud Gluskin. There he began writing scores for radio shows as CBS Radio Workshop, Frontier Gentleman. In an interview with Andy Velez from BarnesandNoble. com, Goldsmith stated, CBS had a workshop, and once a week the employees, whatever their talents, whether they were ushers or typists, would produce a radio show. But you had to be an employee and they needed someone to do music, and I knew someone there who said Id be great for this. Id just gotten married and needed a job, so they faked a typing test for me, then I could do these shows. About six months later, the music department heard what I did, liked it and he later progressed into scoring such live CBS television shows as Climax. and Playhouse 90. He also scored multiple episodes of the television series The Twilight Zone, Kildare and The Man from U. N. C. L. E. His feature film occurred when he composed the music to the 1957 western Black Patch. He continued with scores to films as the 1957 western Face of a Fugitive. Jerry Goldsmith began the decade composing for television shows as Dr. Kildare. However, he began receiving widespread name recognition after his intimate score to the 1962 classic western Lonely Are the Brave. That same year, Goldsmith composed the mostly atonal and dissonant score to the 1962 pseudo-biopic Freud that focused on a period of the life of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Goldsmiths score went on to him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. Following his success with Lonely Are the Brave and Freud, Goldsmith went on to even more critical recognition with the theme music to The Man from U. N. C. L. E
34.
Sofia Gubaidulina
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Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina is a Russian composer. Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol, Soviet Union to a mixed family of a Volga Tatar father. Her father, Asgat Masgudovich Gubaidulin, was an engineer and her mother and she studied composition and piano at the Kazan Conservatory, graduating in 1954. In Moscow she undertook studies at the Conservatory with Nikolay Peyko until 1959. Her music was deemed irresponsible during her studies in Soviet Russia and she was supported, however, by Dmitri Shostakovich, who in evaluating her final examination encouraged her to continue down her mistaken path. She also composed the score to the well-known Russian animated picture Adventures of Mowgli, in the mid-1970s Gubaidulina founded Astreja, a folk-instrument improvisation group with fellow composers Viktor Suslin and Vyacheslav Artyomov. In 1979, she was blacklisted as one of the Khrennikovs Seven at the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers for unapproved participation in festivals of Soviet music in the West. Gubaidulina became better known abroad during the early 1980s through Gidon Kremers championing of her violin concerto Offertorium and she sprang to international fame in the late 1980s. She later composed an homage to T. S. Eliot, in 2002 she followed this by the Johannes-Ostern, commissioned by Hannover Rundfunk. The two works form a diptych on the death and resurrection of Christ, her largest work to date. Invited by Walter Fink, she was the 13th composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 2003 and her work The Light at the End preceded Beethovens Symphony No.9 in the 2005 proms. In 2007 her second violin concerto In Tempus Praesens was performed at the Lucerne Festival by Anne-Sophie Mutter and its creation has been depicted in Jan Schmidt-Garres film Sophia - Biography of a Violin Concerto. Since 1992, Gubaidulina has lived in Hamburg, Germany and she is a member of the musical academies in Frankfurt, Hamburg and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. For Gubaidulina, music was an escape from the atmosphere of Soviet Russia. These abstract religious and mystical associations are concretized in Gubaidulinas compositions in various ways, Gubaidulina is a devout member of the Russian Orthodox church. The koto, a traditional Japanese instrument is featured in her work In the Shadow of the Tree, the Canticle of the Sun is a cello concerto/choral hybrid, dedicated to Mstislav Rostropovich. The use of the lowest possible registers on the cello opens new possibilities for the instrument while the use of chorus also adds a mystical ambience to the work. Another influence of techniques can be found in her fascination with percussion instruments
35.
Michael Nyman
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He has written six concerti, four string quartets, and many other chamber works, many for his Michael Nyman Band. He is also a performing pianist, Nyman prefers to write opera rather than other forms of music. Nyman was born in Stratford, London to a family of Polish secular Jewish furriers, Nyman was educated at the Sir George Monoux Grammar School, Walthamstow. He won the Howard Carr Memorial Prize for composition in July 1964, in 1965–66 Nyman secured a residency in Romania, to study folk-song, supported by a British Council bursary. It subsequently became the base for his 1977 piece In Re Don Giovanni and he wrote introductions for George Frideric Handels Concerti Grossi, Op.6 and conducted the most important interview with George Brecht in 1976. He wrote settings to various texts by Mozart for Letters, Riddles and Writs and he also produced a soundtrack for the silent film Man with a Movie Camera. Nymans popularity increased after he wrote the score to Jane Campions award-winning 1993 film The Piano, the album became a classical music best-seller. He was nominated for both a British Academy Award and a Golden Globe and his few forays into Hollywood have been Gattaca, Ravenous, and The End of the Affair. In 2000, he produced a new opera on the subject of cloning on a libretto by Victoria Hardie titled Facing Goya, the lead, a widowed art banker, is written for contralto and the role was first created by Hilary Summers. His newest operas are Man and Boy, Dada and Love Counts and he has also composed the music for the childrens television series Titch which is based on the books written and illustrated by Pat Hutchins. Many of Nymans works are written for his own ensemble, the Michael Nyman Band and this line up has been variously altered and augmented for some works. Nyman also published a book in 1974 on experimental music called Experimental Music, Cage and Beyond. In the 1970s, Nyman was a member of the Portsmouth Sinfonia – the self-described Worlds Worst Orchestra – playing on their recordings, Nyman created a similar group called Fosters Social Orchestra, which specialised in the work of Stephen Foster. One of their pieces appeared in the film Ravenous and a work, not used in the film. He has also recorded pop music with the Flying Lizards, a version of his Bird List from the soundtrack to Peter Greenaways The Falls appears on their album Fourth Wall as Hands 2 Take, on 7 July 2007, Nyman performed at Live Earth in Japan. On 2008 Nyman realised, in collaboration with the cultural association Volumina, Sublime, in October 2009, Nyman released The Glare, a collaborative collection of songs with David McAlmont, which cast his work in a new light. The album – recorded with the Michael Nyman Band – finds McAlmont putting lyrics based on news stories to 11 pieces of Nyman music drawn from different phases of his career. In 2012, he made a soundtrack for film Everyday, keith H. Yoo in 2012 commissioned Nyman to write a 26 minutes long piano quintet in four movements titled Through the Only Window
36.
Einojuhani Rautavaara
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Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Finnish composer of classical music. He is among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius, Rautavaara wrote a great number of works spanning various styles. These include 8 symphonies,9 operas and 12 concerti, as well as numerous vocal, having written early works using 12-tone serial techniques, his later music may be described as Neo-romantic and mystical. His major works include Cantus Arcticus and Symphony No.7 Angel of Light, Rautavaara was born in Helsinki in 1928. His father Eino was a singer and cantor, and his mother Elsa was a doctor. Both of his parents died before he reached his 16th birthday, Rautavaara studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki under Aarre Merikanto from 1948 to 1952. There he was taught by Vincent Persichetti, and he took lessons from Roger Sessions. He graduated from the Sibelius Academy in 1957 and he married Heidi Maria Suovanen, an actor, in 1959. They had two sons and a daughter and they separated in 1982 and divorced in 1984, after he fell in love with Sinikka Koivisto, who was 29 years his junior. In 1984 he married Sinikka, who survived him, after an aortic dissection in January 2004, Rautavaara spent almost half a year in intensive care before recovering and continuing his work. He died on 27 July 2016 in Helsinki from complications of hip surgery, Rautavaara was a prolific composer and wrote in a variety of forms and styles. A recurring label given to his opus is mysticism, for his fascination with metaphysical, along with Erik Bergman, Rautavaara was one of pioneers of serial composing in Finland in the early 1950s, although in the end he completed only several serial works. Rautavaara himself referred to the Third as the Bruckners symphony, in the mid-1960s, Rautavaara fell into a creative crisis with serialism, noticing that the composition method was immensely laborious and its distance from the outcome too large. He found a resolution towards the end of the decade, when he began to explore different styles as he had earlier done in the Third Symphony, the Bach-influenced Cello Concerto No.1 and Debussy-influenced Anadyomene opened his creative deadlock. More eclectic works started to emerge, whose style loans and compositional techniques over time became characteristic of his style, the 1970s were Rautavaaras most productive period. In a short time he composed a body of music. The softly-sounding new style was noticed by choirs, who commissioned a number of songs from the composer. His major choral works Vigilia and True and False Unicorn were made during 1971, Cantus Arcticus followed immediately after, in the beginning of 1972, and in the summer he composed an extensive score for male choir, A Book of Life
37.
Esa-Pekka Salonen
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Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. Salonen, born in Helsinki, Finland, studied horn and composition at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and his conducting classmates included Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Osmo Vänskä. Another classmate on the side was the composer Magnus Lindberg and together they formed the new-music appreciation group Korvat auki. Later, Salonen studied with the composers Franco Donatoni, Niccolò Castiglioni and Einojuhani Rautavaara and he was subsequently principal guest conductor of the Philharmonia from 1985 to 1994. Salonen was principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1984 to 1995 and he co-founded the Baltic Sea Festival in 2003 with Michael Tydén and Valery Gergiev. This summer music festival presents new classical music and aims to bring the countries around the Baltic Sea together and it continues to be held annually in one of the countries in the region. Salonen made his U. S. conducting debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1984 and his initial reaction was as follows, I had no idea what to expect. But the one thing that I didnt expect was when a player came to talk to me after the first concert and said. Something was going on, because I felt the same, I sensed with an absolute certainty that this orchestra, in whatever way, was going to be a very important part of my life. Continued friction between Fleischmann and Previn led to Previns resignation in April 1989, four months later, Salonen was named the orchestras tenth Music Director, officially taking the post in 1992 and holding it until 2009. Under Salonens leadership, the Philharmonic became a progressive and well-regarded orchestra. Alex Ross of The New Yorker said this, The Salonen era in L. A. may mark a point in the recent history of classical music in America. In 2007, Salonen and the announced the conclusion of his music directorship in 2009. Before Salonens last concert as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on April 19,2009, at its inception, it was endowed with $1.5 Million. During Salonens tenure as director, the orchestra gave 120 pieces their world or American debuts. By the time he stepped down, he had served as music director longer than anyone else in the orchestras history, in November 2006, the Philharmonia Orchestra announced the appointment of Salonen as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor at the beginning of the 2008/09 season. His initial contract was for 3 years, Salonen has conducted several commercial recordings with the Philharmonia, including music of Berlioz and Schönberg. In November 2010, the Philharmonia announced the extension of Salonens contract to 2014, in September 2013, the orchestra announced the further extension of Salonens contract through the 2016–2017 season
38.
Igor Stravinsky
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Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, pianist, and conductor. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the 20th century, Stravinskys compositional career was notable for its stylistic diversity. His Russian phase which continued with such as Renard, The Soldiers Tale. The works from this tended to make use of traditional musical forms, drawing on earlier styles. In the 1950s, Stravinsky adopted serial procedures, Stravinsky was born on 17 June 1882 in Oranienbaum, a suburb of Saint Petersburg, the Russian imperial capital, and was brought up in Saint Petersburg. It is believed that Stravinsky’s ancestry is traceable back to the 17th and 18th centuries, to the bearers of the Soulima, ivan Sulima, was a famous Ukrainian hetman 1628–1635. Stravinskys family branch most likely came from Stravinskas, polonized Lithuanian land owners and it is still unclear to when exactly the Soulima part of the surname was dropped. Stravinsky recalled his schooldays as being lonely, later saying that I never came across anyone who had any attraction for me. Stravinsky began piano lessons as a boy, studying music theory. In 1890, he saw a performance of Tchaikovskys ballet The Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky Theatre, despite his enthusiasm for music, his parents expected him to study law. Stravinsky enrolled at the University of Saint Petersburg in 1901, Stravinskys father died of cancer that year, by which time his son had already begun spending more time on his musical studies than on law. Thereafter, he concentrated on studying music, in 1905, he began to take twice-weekly private lessons from Rimsky-Korsakov, whom he came to regard as a second father. These lessons continued until Rimsky-Korsakovs death in 1908, in 1905 Stravinsky was betrothed to his cousin Katherine Gavrylivna Nosenko, whom he had known since early childhood. Diaghilev was sufficiently impressed by Fireworks to commission Stravinsky to carry out some orchestrations and then to compose a ballet score. The early period of Igor Stravinsky’s work would be incomplete without a research of his life while in Ukraine. From approximately 1890 till 1914 the composer was frequently visiting Ustyluh, town in Volyn Oblast and he spent most of his summers there and that’s where he met his cousin, Katherine Nosenko who he married in 1906. In 1907 Stravinsky designed and built his own house in Ustyluh where his own family stayed often during summer times until 1914 and his new Ukrainian home he called “My heavenly place”. In this house Igor Stravinsky worked on his seventeen early compositions, among which were orchestral fantasy Fireworks, ballets Firebird, Petrushka, currently, after its renovation this house is the only composers house-museum opened to the public
39.
John Williams
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John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, Jurassic Park, Schindlers List, Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but two of his feature films. Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, with 50 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams score to 1977s Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry, for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowls Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, Williams composed the score for eight movies in the Top 20 highest-grossing films at the U. S. box office. John Towner Williams was born on February 8,1932 in Floral Park, New York, the son of Esther and Johnny Williams, Williams has said of his lineage, My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My fathers parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, people with those roots are not inclined to be lazy. In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950 and he later attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Williams had originally briefly attended Los Angeles City College for one semester as the school had a Studio Jazz Band. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U. S. Air Force, in 1955, following his Air Force service, Williams moved to New York City and entered The Juilliard School where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. During this time Williams worked as a jazz pianist in the many jazz clubs. After moving to Los Angeles he began working as a session musician, Williams has two brothers, Donald and Jerry, both of whom work as percussionists in Los Angeles. After his studies at Juilliard, and the Eastman School of Music, Williams returned to Los Angeles, among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Williams recorded with Henry Mancini the film scores of 1959s Peter Gunn, 1962s Days of Wine and Roses, and 1963s Charade. Williamss first film composition was for the 1958 B movie Daddy-O and he soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first Academy Award nomination for his score for 1967s Valley of the Dolls. Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his score in the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof
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String instrument
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String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when the performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner. Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum—and others by hitting the strings with a wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow. In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord or piano, with bowed instruments, the player rubs the strings with a horsehair bow, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy, the musician operates a wheel that rubs the strings. Bowed instruments include the string instruments of the Classical music orchestra. All of the string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers. Some types of string instrument are mainly plucked, such as the harp, in the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Other examples include the sitar, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, in most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with the air inside it, the vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, some, however—such as electric guitar and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification—may have a solid wood body. Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in Ancient Mesopotamian sites, like the lyres of Ur, the development of lyre instruments required the technology to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen the string tension. During the medieval era, instrument development varied from country to country, Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with a half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern, a four stringed precursor to the guitar and these instruments typically used catgut and other materials, including silk, for their strings. String instrument design refined during the Renaissance and into the Baroque period of musical history, violins and guitars became more consistent in design, and were roughly similar to what we use in the 2000s. At the same time, the 19th century guitar became more associated with six string models. In big bands of the 1920s, the guitar played backing chords. The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a power amplifier, the development of the electric guitar provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have magnetic pickups, volume control knobs and an output jack, in the 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called stacks
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Acoustic guitar
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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
