times, drugs, guns, girls and incisive social comment on what it was like to be young and black in America. As well as building a film career Ice-T stretched himself musically with a Lollapalooza-touring thrash metal band Body Count, whose track ‘Cop Killer’ (which appeared on OG) made Ice-T Public Enemy No. 1 to right-wing America in ...
(Rapper, b. 1968) As one-hit wonders go Vanilla Ice is the exception – as he had two! Born Robert Van Winkle in Florida, this white rapper was crafty enough to transform the Queen/Bowie collaboration ‘Under Pressure’ into the self-advertising rap-pop of ‘Ice Ice Baby’, a UK/US chart-topper in 1990. Despised by the rap hardcore for daring to have ...
Musical Chairs (1998) and, after leaving Atlantic, Looking For Lucky (2005). A Best Of collection was issued in 2004. Styles & Forms | Nineties | Rock Personalities | Ice-T | Nineties | Rock ...
Once hip hop had expanded beyond apparently using the hook lines from Chic’s ‘Good Times’ as the basis for just about everything, it quickly became as diverse as any other black music genre. Its evolution in recording studios took it way beyond the scope of conventional instruments. Can’t play piano like Herbie Hancock or bass like Bootsy ? So what ...
, as N.W.A. became the alma mater for the genre’s two most significant figures, lyricist/rapper Ice Cube and producer Dr. Dre. Also out of Los Angeles was Ice-T, who may ultimately have fallen from grace, but earned respect as one of the genre’s most powerful writers and performers for his OG album alone. Then there was ...
nihilistic era in which lyrical concerns were the supposed reality tales drawn from the street-gang playgrounds of South Central Los Angeles. Artists such as Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, Ice-T, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre took hip hop to new levels of expertise and invention, soon to be matched beat for beat by east coast gangstas Notorious B ...
It has been argued that all rap is political: a genuine black street statement, giving voice to those outside the musical or social establishments in a way that connects with a similarly dispossessed audience, and so its very existence is a political act. While many will be justified in thinking this is patently nonsense, it is, actually ...
‘Orpheus, a Legend in Music’ L’Orfeo, favola in musica consists of a prologue and five acts – a prolonged performance for its time. Monteverdi used several devices to extend the action of the opera. He wrote recitatives to be performed between the duets, as well as polyphonic madrigals, of which he was a master. Further additions included ...
‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ When the Emperor Franz I and his retinue attended the premiere of Orfeo ed Euridice at the Burgtheater in Vienna on 5 October 1762, they were doubtless expecting a lightweight pastoral entertainment. The occasion – the emperor’s name day – and the opera’s billing as an azione teatrale (literally ‘theatrical action’) promised as much. What they got ...
The mid-1730s operas Orlando, Ariodante and Alcina represent the artistic peak of Handel’s operatic career. Their stories all originate in the epic poem Orlando Furioso by the playwright and poet Ariosto, who was born and bred at the Ferrara court in the late fifteenth century. Orlando portrays the destructive insanity of its title-hero, who ignores his destiny by ...
A small number of Handel’s dramatic works are known as the ‘magic operas’, including Rinaldo, Teseo (1712), Amadigi (1715), Orlando (1733) and Alcina. These operas feature protagonists who use sorcery to manipulate love, usually for evil ends. Most common among these operas is the prima-donna sorceress figure, who attempts to compel a castrato hero away from his true ...
1690–1756, Italian The Italian mezzo-soprano castrato Antonio Maria Bernacchi earned fame throughout Europe for his impressive technical virtuosity. Bernacchi performed in operas by most of the important composers of his time, including Handel. In 1716 and 1717, Bernacchi sang at the Haymarket, London, in parts previously sung by women, including Goffredo in Handel’s Rinaldo. However ...
1705–82, Italian Carlo Broschi, known as ‘Farinelli’, studied with Porpora, and made his stage debut as a castrato in Naples when he was only 15 years old. By 1723, he was taking lead roles in his teacher’s operas. Farinelli was remarkably successful across Europe, and in 1734 he reunited with Porpora to work in London for ...
1725–92, Italian The castrato Gaetano Guadagni first sang as a contralto, but later retrained as a soprano. Although he had no early training, Handel hired him to sing in his oratorios Messiah and Samson. In 1754–55, Guadagni made up for his lack of training by studying with Gioacchino Gizziello (1714–61) in Lisbon and with the English actor ...
1740–1821, Italian The Italian soprano castrato Gasparo Pacchierotti made his debut in Venice in 1766 in Achille in Sciro by Gassmann. He had joined the Teatro San Giovanni Grisostomo the previous year and after another six years he moved to the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. Pacchierotti made his first appearance at the King’s Theatre, London in 1778, ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.