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I suck

If anyone is reading, pardon my inaction recently. I've been swamped, though my workload should be lightening considerably soon. So... I should be able to keep this up.

The Telharmonium

The Telharmonium, was patented by its inventor Thaddeus Cahill in 1897 (no. 580035). It is sometimes known as the first significant electric instrument. Its first completed model was exposed to the public in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1906.

The Telharmonium, was itself a series of 145 modified dynamos (some of the first electrical generators capable of providing the power necessary for industrial work) which used numbers of geared shafts and inductors to produce different audio frequencies.

The sound of the instrument itself, came from horns built from piano soundboard (in earlier models), though forthcoming models would use a series of telephone receivers fitted with horns. Such horns were the only way to amplify sound in the pre-amplifier era.

It required two musicians to function as intended, and was used to produce the music of Bach, Grieg, Chopin, etc.

The entire creation weighed around 200 tons, and cost nearly $200,000. It came to occupy the entire floor of "Telharmonic Hall" on 39th and Broadway in New York City. The final model, produced in 1911, was installed at 535 west 56th street.

Despite it's massive size, the tones that could be coaxed from it were, flexible, and amusing. Though admittedly, it was prone to technical issues interfering with its function. It was technically portable, requiring around 30 railroad cars to do so.

(It also employed a 36-note per octave keyboard)

#Telharmonium #Electronic instrument #Thaddeus Cahill #Music

Rondo (or Rondeau)

Starting in the Baroque period, though often connected with Ritornello (meaning to return), Rondo taps into the pleasure of returning to something familiar. The Rondo works with this desire/feeling by setting up an original motif or principal theme that you depart from a number of times, but inevitably return to. it is always in the tonic key, providing that familiar feeling.

The themes (or refrains), may be short phrases, or longer binary forms.

These principal themes, are decoupled by periods of sharply contrasting key and mood.

Dividing the sections as letters, the most common Rondo forms are ABACA (small rondo), and ABACABA (large rondo).

The origin of Rondo, can be identified as an old Medieval song form called "forme fixe". In said form, music could repeat, but text always varied. Rondo itself is often bright, happy, and normally Allegro.

Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca

Beethoven's Rondo e Capriccio "Rage Over a Lost Penny"

#Rondo #Classical #Music #Musical form #History

Rag (India)

Often known as rag, a word connected with the Sanskrit raga meaning "color" or "passion". This is derived from Ranj, which is a verb that means "to color". So, in a way, a rag can be seen as a way to acoustically paint (color?) a mood, emotion, feeling etc. The concept itself is vague, it isn't a tune, nor a melody, scale, or any idea that an English word exists for. It is a combination of characteristics, and the coalescence of these is what creates the rag.

These characteristics are...

The notes of the rag. Called the Swar, which resemble Western solfège (think of do-re-mi-fa-so-la-te-do)

A modal structure (called Thaat in North Indian music). For example.

An ascending and descending form. Arohana, is the pattern with which the rag ascends. Avarohana, is the pattern with which it descends.

Jati, which denotes the number of notes in a rag.

Varying significance in notes, the important notes being called vadi and samavadi. (by my thoughts similar to the I, IV, and V chords in Ionian/Major in Western music)

Characteristic movements to the rag, called Pakad or Swarup. A brief explanation can be found here

There are numerous other defining (though less important) qualities of a rag, for example some are connected with a specific time of the day, or even a gender.

It must be repeated, that a rag is not a modal structure as heard in Western music. As Ravi Shankar puts it here

Though Indian music is modal in character, ragas should not be mistaken as modes that one hears in the music of the Middle and Far Eastern countries, nor be understood to be a scale, melody per se, a composition, or a key. A raga is a scientific, precise, subtle and aesthetic melodic form with its own peculiar ascending and descending movement consisting of either a full seven note octave, or a series of six or five notes (or a combination of any of these) in a rising or falling structure called the Arohana and Avarohana. It is the subtle difference in the order of notes, an omission of a dissonant note, an emphasis on a particular note, the slide from one note to another, and the use of microtones together with other subtleties, that demarcate one raga from the other.

#Indian #Music #Rag #Raga #Ravi Shankar #Indian Classical Music

Intervals

A basic part of music theory, intervals are technically measures of the ratio between the frequencies of two notes, but on a more basic level they measure the distance between two notes. If you think of a guitar neck, each fret represents a note. Say we start on the E string, if we hit the open string and then hit it fretted on the first (an F), we have a minor second interval. If we do the same but fret it at the second (F#), we have a major second. This continues up the neck, the following intervals being named the minor third, major third, perfect fourth,tritone/diminished fifth/augmented fourth(sometimes called diabolus in musica, or the devil in music due to it's strange and oft disturbing sound), perfect fifth,minor sixth, major sixth (also relatively commonly known as the augmented fifth), minor seventh, major seventh, and finally the octave.

Intervals can be classified as Vertical (or harmonic) when they ring as one.

Or, horizontal, linear, or melodic if they are played in succession.

Just some more review for myself, lest I forget.

#Music #Music Theory #Intervals

Hey, I just found you a minute ago, and I have to say this looks pretty fantastic. Keep it up, man, I'll be constantly reading!

Glad you like the idea! I'll admit, this was conjured up rather selfishly as a way for me to learn. But it gives me a good smile that someone else gets something out of it.

Overtones

Overtones, sometimes called harmonics, are the basic parts of a pitch. Each pitch we hear, includes additional pitches (overtones!). The strength and weakness of each overtone, is what determines the timbre, and tonal color of the pitch (no two instruments sound alike due to this).

When a note is played, the "main note", is the fundamental (the note itself, say a C, or a D#, or whatever damned thing you want), while there are a host of higher pitches. The first overtone is an octave, the second is an octave and a fifth, the third two octaves and a third (and so on). Each overtone is closer to the last than the one preceding it.

#Overtones #Music #Physics #Sound

Freddie King

Freddie King was born September 3rd, 1934 under the name Billy Myles. One of the three "Kings of Blues" (the other two being BB and Albert), he had a mellow (though never soulless voice) and a quick fingered guitar style. He learned to play guitar at an early age, influenced by his mother Ella Mae King, and his uncle Leon.

Freddie moved to Chicago sometime in his teens, and was soon influenced by local musicians (particularly Eddie Taylor and Robert Lockwood). He naturally developed his technique, and slowly built up his reputation.

He began recording seriously (with other musicians, along with his own works) around 1960, one of these earlier pieces being his famous Hideaway which would later be covered by John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers (with Eric Clapton, who was a known aficionado), Stevie Ray Vaughan and a host of others.

Freddie's playing, and influence (in my opinion) is often undervalued despite the scores of professionals who were fans. King died December 28th, 1976 of heart failure three days after a performance in his hometown of Dallas.

#Freddie King #Blues #Music #Bio #Music History

Fugue

Fugue is often seen as a (pure) type of counterpoint (this page gives a good definition of it, and a load of others... I just bookmarked it). It is derived from latin (fuga meaning "flight", as in fleeing from something).

It begins with a theme, usually played without accompaniment. This is called the subject, while directly following this a separate voice insinuates itself into the music (a conversation!). Any number of voices may manifest themselves, but they each must restate the subject before joining the fray.

This process of joining voices is known as the "exposition" (exposed, yadda yadda), after which there is often some free counterpoint. Following this is a repetition of the exposition's pattern of introducing voices (which often has a similar counterpoint based free time afterwards).

To terminate a fugue, there are several common ways. One of which is playing the subject over a "Pedal Point" (sustained tone like the E in the bass clef here). Another method is known as stretto, which, in a sense, groups the subjects together so the answers begin before the subject is even completed.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, composers wrote fugues, which were renamed "canons" post creation. Bach is famous for his Fugues, a prime example is his Fugue in D minor (though he spelt it fuge). Another massively monster of composition, Beethoven, was known to include certain fugue-like sections in pieces of his music (look at some of his piano sonatas, there are sections that have that sort of feel).

Fugue can be seen as... imitative counterpoint.

#Fugue #History #Music #Terms #Songwriting #Composing

Parts of a song (refresher for myself!)

Verse: The verse tells a story, it gives information leading up to the main message of the song (if it does have one, unlike certain... Kanye... the list goes here). A song may have a few verses, each of a few lines.

Chorus: The bit that stays in your mind, it varies from the verse, and is often repeated ("Take a load off...right on me" in The Weight )

Bridge (in a verse/chorus/bridge song): Briefer than the verse, the bridge differs from the verse and chorus. It acts as a transitional piece near the end of most songs, and only occurs once. It begs the restatement of the verse.

Brief but a good review of the main bits for me, as they've somehow begun to fade from my memory

#Songs #Parts #Bridge #Verse #Chorus #Music

Tango (the music not the dance)

Tango music, originated in Argentina, and Uruguay through the immigrants (largely from Southern Europe). Tango is often played by a sextet (known as an orquesta típica), and usually includes violins, double bass, piano and bandoneón (an accordion-like instrument).

The earliest of Tango players were known as the "Guardia Vieja" (The Old Guard). It's characteristics lie heavily in African rhythms, while using instruments and techniques of Europe (which the immigrants of the 20th century brought with them).

Carlos Gardel, possibly the most famous tango musician, became associated for raising Tango from lower class music, to a more middle class (and respected) art. He was also known for his stage antics, and lyrical content (often singing of heartaches caused by women). His stage presence, rings of an earlier Elvis Presley, being aggressive and sexual.

The Golden Age of Tango, is placed between 1935 to 1952 (around the same time Duke Ellington was igniting the Big Band era in the United States). The most popular groups of this era, were those of Osvaldo Pugliese, Juan d'Arienzo, and a host of others.

Osvaldo Pugliese's Gallo Ciego

Juan d'Arenzo's El Flete (noted for it's driving rhythm)

#Tango #Music #Dance #Music History #Genre #South America

Arnold Schoenberg's 12-tone technique and serialism

The idea of 12-tone music (also known as dodecaphony), was that before a note could be repeated each other note had to be heard (hence 12-tone). This created a piece of music, that had no discernible key as every note was used equally. Schoenberg himself called it a "Method of composing with twelve tones which are related only one with another."

The resulting creations were often startling, and outlandish. And the 12-tone method is commonly referred to when discussing Serialist music (I'll cover that down below). For example

The aforementioned Serialism, is sometimes seen as an offshoot of 12-tone writing. Though truth be told the 12-tone method is simply a type of serialism.

Serialism, is a heavily mathematical brand of music. The idea being, if Schoenberg could determine what notes to use based on a numeric system, why couldn't you do that for everything else? The composer could have a series of numbers that determined, say the note length, while another determined the note itself (and so on).

Many serialist composers were... naturally, trained mathematicians. their music, to many, would seem disturbingly random. Though it is more foreign than random (it strays from traditional music almost entirely). Iannis Xenakis, was one such mathematically trained serialist.

#12 tone #Serialist #Music #Composition #Classical

Blues Revival of the 1960s

I wrote this a long time ago, it's too long for a tumblr post. It highlights bits of the Blues Revival of the 1960s. There are some stray citations (it was an old school paper), so forgive/ignore those.

You can download it here

Hope that doesn't count as cheating... I'm just rather busy today.

#Blues Revival #1960s #Music #Music History

Storyville

The Red Light District of fin de siècle New Orleans, Storyville provided a melting pot for classical and blues music to form the earliest Jazz. While it employed thousands of prostitutes, Storyville was frequented by such greats as Jelly Roll Morton (who in 1902 claimed to have invented Jazz), and Louis Armstrong.

Storyville (also known as "The District") was set up with the intent of limiting prostitution to one section of the city, where the powers that be could better monitor and control it.

Morton began playing at a "sporting house" (really... it was a whorehouse) at the age of 14, and became known for sexually indecent lyrics (earning him the nickname Jelly Roll, a slang for female genitalia)

While Jazz itself didn't originate in The District (that art was spread all over New Orleans), the art did flourish with the thriving night life.

Worthy of note - A large part of the early development of Jazz may be attributed to racial segregation laws that were enacted (The Jim Crow Laws) within 10 years of the turn of the century. This forced the upper class and frequently conservatory trained Creoles, in with the lower class African Americans (blues influence). The mix of the two may well have spurred the development of the art onward.

On an unrelated note, Storyville is a great band that you may enjoy looking into. Featuring Tommy Shannon and Chris Layton of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble fame.

#Jazz #Jelly Roll Morton #New Orleans #Storyville

Bill Evans

Bill Evans was born in Plainfield New Jersey, on 8/16/1929. At the age of six he began taking Piano lessons (his first instruction being in the area of Classical music), and later took to violin and flute.

In 1950 Evans formed his first trio (one of many he would form), with two friends Connie Atkinson (on bass), and Frank Robell (drums). But in 1955, after guitarist Mundell Lowe’s prodding, he moved to New York with all of $75 in his pocket.

In 1956 Evans recorded “Jazz Workshop” for George Russell (Concerto For Billy The Kid). The album, particularly the aforementioned piece, bought some deference from listeners. Around the same time he arrived in NYC he attended the Mannes School of Music.

Soon after he began working with a man who shared his love of Debussy and Ravel, Miles Davis. They collaborated famously on Davis’s Kind of Blue (clicky clicky!).

Evans became known for his expressive playing, and his innate knowledge of when to play what. He was known to play notes in “the breath in between the phrase”.

Evans died on September 15, 1980 from a stomach ulcer (which was a complication of liver cirrhosis he developed after a life of drug use). The New York Times noted his passing two days later “Bill Evans, jazz pianist praised for lyricism and structure, dies”.

“Music must always be singing” - Bill Evans

This is rather brief, but I can’t begin to memorialize the man better than his music can.

(didn't realize I put this in the wrong one!)

The Quartet For the End of Time

Originally performed on a cold winter’s night of 1941 in the prisoner of war camp Stalag VIII A, Messiaen made do with the strange assortment of instruments he had players for (clarinet, violin, cello, and piano). I find it fantastic. Thank you to Karl-Albert Brüll, the German guard who lacked true devotion to the Nazi regime, and allowed Messiaen to write in peace, and even granted his players and he some freedom and comfort.

The piece in its entirety, all 45 minutes.

Phew, now to get to writing new ones!

#Messiaen #Quartet #Classical #WWII #Music History

The Federal Music Project

The Federal Music Project, may owe it's existence to Eleanor Roosevelt. The charismatic and strong willed first lady promoted the thought that the government had a "responsibility toward art, and toward artists". In 1939 she boldly resigned from the Daughters of the American Revolution (a non-profit organization established for those women who were descendants of any person involved in the United States' independence) as a protest against the organization's rejection of a plan to host a concert by the black singer Marian Anderson. That act actually paving the way for his own landmark show at the Lincoln Memorial.

The FMP itself was part of the Works Progress Administration. The efforts of WPA were undoubtedly witnessed by a young Thelonious Monk, a resident of New York at the time. The WPA hired musicians for numerous projects, though unfortunately its low wages led to a picket line by the Local 802.

Money was dispensed through the programs, administrations, etc that dotted the landscape in copious amounts. In 1935, 27 million dollars went to the Federal Arts Projects, which were also known as the Federal One. Of this sum $7,126,862 went to the FMP. At its peak the FMP employed a total of 16,000 musicians, while operating 125 orchestras, 135 bands, and 32 choral and opera units (some musicians even being placed as teachers in small schools in some areas). Harry Hopkins, the designer of the WPA optimistically hoped the Federal One would become a permanent institution.

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her column My Day wrote "When the arts flourished in the old days it was sufficient for an artist to have a rich patron and then to develop under the protection of his important sponsor. All nobles had their pet artists... Today, for the most part, this method of developing and protecting art has passed out of existence and I am wondering if the WPA art projects may not take their places"

#Federal Music Project #WPA #Depression #Eleanor Roosevelt #Music History

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