Perhaps with medieval Persian origins, the glass armonica entered into the Western musical mainstream only in the eighteenth century. A series of glass vessels could be tuned by having the appropriate quantity of water poured into them; they were then struck like bells to produce a ringing sound, or the rims were dampened and then rubbed. Gluck played a ...
Understanding how to use friction to produce sounds in glass goes back to Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), who discussed the singing effect achieved by running a moistened finger around the rim of a glass. In 1743, the Irish musician Richard Puckeridge created an angelic organ, or seraphim, from glasses rubbed with wet fingers. The glasses were filled with water ...
b. 1937, American Philip Glass defies conventions of traditional music and performance practice. A minimalist who is constantly extending musical boundaries, Glass has written several slowly developing, repetitively patterned operas. In the mid-1960s he became fascinated with Indian music when transcribing the work of sitarist Ravi Shankar, and he set off to explore the music of North ...
Composed: 1974–75 Premiered: 1976, Avignon Libretto by Christopher Knowles, Lucinda Childs and Samuel M. Johnson Einstein on the Beach is divided into four acts, separated by five intermezzi, which allow for set changes. The performance is continuous and the audience are at liberty to leave and return as they wish. There is no plot, but there ...
b. 1937 American composer Glass studied with Nadia Boulanger and Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar’s tabla player, but the influence of Indian traditions on his music is not overt; rather they are evident in the additive, repetitive rhythmic processes (Music in Similar Motion, 1969). Parallel lines, simple diatonic harmony and unspecified instrumentation are characteristic of Glass’s early ...
A small free-reed instrument, the harmonica, or mouth organ, is placed between the lips and moved to and fro to reach the rows of channels which house vibrating reeds, played by blowing into it. The arrival of the Chinese sheng in Europe in the eighteenth century encouraged a great deal of experimentation with free-reed instruments. In 1821 ...
The history of musical instruments has always been very closely linked to the history of music itself. New musical styles often come about because new instruments become available, or improvements to existing ones are made. Improvements to the design of the piano in the 1770s, for instance, led to its adoption by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ...
When the player’s fingers press down its keys, the lever mechanism of the fortepiano (meaning ‘loud-soft’) causes the string to be struck once by a covered hammer, rather than plucked as in a harpsichord. The mechanism allowed it to play variously loudly or softly, and in an age producing music of increasing emotional diversity the dynamic range of ...
The theremin was invented by the Franco-Russian physicist Lev Theremin (or Termen) in 1920. It is unique in the manner by which it is played, as the performer never actually touches the instrument. When the player’s hand approaches or retreats from a vertical antenna, the sound generated by two radio-frequency oscillators swings up or down. The pitch can vary ...
(Wôlf’-gäng Am-ä-da’-oos Mot’-särt) 1756–91 Austrian composer The ‘miracle which God let be born in Salzburg’ – to quote his father, Leopold – came into the world on 27 January 1756 and was baptized the next day as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus; he normally used only the last two names, in the forms Wolfgang Amadeus or Wolfgang Amadè. His father, ...
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921) is said to have written the first film score with L’assassinat du duc de Guise (‘The Assassination of the Duke of Guise’, c. 1908). Many composers in the US and Europe followed suit, although few wished to make a career in films. A famous exception was Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957), whose scores include the Academy Award-winning The ...
Bells are a feature of ceremony and ritual. They are used for meditation and prayer, and to mark significant life events such as funerals and weddings. Bells are used to mark out the timetable of our daily lives – appearing as alarm bells, warning signals and in mechanized chimes in clocks. In Japan, bonsho temple bells are rung ...
A range of metal percussion instruments are found in the western orchestra, many of which have ancient and global origins. Triangle The triangle comprises a slim steel bar, circular in cross-section, bent into an equilateral triangle (18 cm/7 in each side) with one corner open. It is played with a metal rod, and is suspended from a ...
In 1905, and probably for several decades before that, there were more pianos in the United States than there were bathtubs. In Europe, throughout the nineteenth century, piano sales increased at a greater rate than the population. English, French and German makers dispatched veritable armies of pianos to every corner of the Earth. It was the ...
Rattles and shakers are ubiquitous untuned percussion instruments in all musical cultures. They are used in many forms of music-making, religious ceremonies, dance and other activities. They are often simple in construction and can be made from natural materials. A rattle comprises a body housing a number of small pellets or beans, which bounce against the internal walls of ...
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