‘Rise and Fall of the city of Mahagonny’ Composed: 1927–29 Premiered: 1930, Leipzig Libretto by Bertolt Brecht Act I Leokadja Begbick, Trinity Moses and Fatty, all wanted by the police, found Mahagonny. They recruit men in search of whisky, gambling and women to join them in the ‘city of gold’. Jenny’s price, thirty bucks, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 2001–present) American four-piece rock band from Illinois comprising lead singer Patrick Stump, bassist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman and drummer Andy Hurley. The band were part of the ‘emo’ wave in the late-mid Noughties, and topped the Billboard 200 with their album Infinity On High in 2007. Lead single ‘This Ain’t A Scene, It’s ...
(Vocal group, 1976–present) Emerging from Manchester in 1976, The Fall are led by vocalist Mark E. Smith who has employed over 50 different musicians. The Fall’s music has, however, remained largely unaltered, a basic garage band throb over which Smith half sings, half rants his frequently obscure lyrics. Apart from a brief period in the ...
it remains less well regarded in art-music circles. Its occasional appearances have been in the lighter side of the repertoire, in works such as Kurt Weill’s (1900–50) Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny (1929). The Modern Banjo The modern banjo is generally made with five steel-wire strings attached to a ring of laminated wood some 28 cm (11 in) in ...
than the trumpet, and for that reason it was quickly adopted as an orchestral instrument where it would give a fully chromatic, mobile treble to the brass section. Fall and Rise The cornet’s sound is mellow and easy, but it lacks brilliance and bite. Consequently a pair of cornets was often used in conjunction with a pair of ...
, which involved bending while damp to achieve the hockey-stick curve, made it a relatively expensive instrument, so it was largely restricted to professional court musicians. Rise and Fall The earliest evidence of the crumhorn is in a painting from 1488, but descriptions of the instrument began to appear as early as 1300. Most popular during the Renaissance ...
order to carry above the sound of other amplified instruments and also how it could be packaged into an instrument more easily transportable than the traditional acoustic piano. Electric pianos fall into three categories. electro-acoustic pianos These instruments simply amplify the sound of what is, essentially, a traditional acoustic piano mechanism – hammers hitting strings. Perhaps the best-known examples ...
from the organ, it was the grandest and most versatile of all keyboard instruments until the advent of the mature fortepiano in the mid- to late-eighteenth century. Rise and Fall of the Harpsichord Its prevalence may be gauged by the fact that the first 14 of Beethoven’s epoch-making piano sonatas, including the famous Moonlight Sonata (1801), were originally published ...
inwards. Across the shortest side lay the keyboard. On depressing any of the keys, the player set in motion a lever device which made a jack jump up and fall immediately back into place. The quill plectrum protruding from the jack thus rose and plucked the strings a single time. Each note sounded much the same every time it was ...
pipes, sounded by air released from a windchest and controlled by valves operated by keys or foot pedals – there is power, but no touch sensitivity. The pipes fall into two distinct categories: • Reed Flue: sounded whenever air strikes the top lip (like a panpipes). • Reed: where the air is vibrated by a metal tongue. From medieval ...
maracas to create a kind of drumroll, banging one maraca into an open hand, or flicking the shot into the top side of the maracas before letting it fall back to the bottom for a double shuffle. Bo Diddley’s right-hand man, maracas player Jerome Green, was an essential component of the distinctively syncopated sound of Diddley’s singles ...
the foundation of the Viennese tradition in piano-building. The most far-reaching of his many contributions was the invention of the ‘hopper action’, or ‘escapement’, whereby the hammer is enabled to fall away from the string while the activating key is still depressed. Stein’s enthusiastic endorsement by Mozart in 1777 set the seal on the perennially fruitful association of piano builders with ...
, with lower-pitched strings being covered in silver or another metal to aid their tone. The bow would be like an archer’s bow and ideally light and of medium tension. Fall and Rise Since neither the bow nor the strings of the viol are at high tension, it is a quiet instrument. Its timbre is light and extremely colourful, ...
When they awake, he tells the Poles how he deliberately misled them. As they beat him to death he sees the first light of day. Sobinin and the peasants fall on the Poles. Epilogue Among the crowds celebrating the tsar’s coronation are Antonida, Sobinin and Vanya, who are told that the tsar will never forget Susanin’s sacrifice. Personalities ...
I Oberon and Tytania, King and Queen of the Fairies, are quarrelling. Oberon orders Puck, his sprite, to find a flower with juice that makes everyone fall in love with the first creature they see on waking. Hermia is to marry Demetrius, but she loves Lysander. They plan to elope and swear fidelity. Oberon encounters Demetrius ...
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David Bowie
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