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Composed: 1918–24 Premiered: 1926, Warsaw Libretto by J. Iwaszkiewicz and the composer Act I The archbishop and the abbess urge King Roger of Sicily to banish a shepherd who is proclaiming an unknown god. Queen Roxana and Edrisi, the King’s Arab counsellor, advise Roger to speak with him. The crowd calls for him to be stoned. He rhapsodizes ...

Source: Definitive Opera Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

James Joseph McGuinn (b. 1942) was raised in Chicago and became a fan of folk music as a teenager. He asked for and received a guitar from his parents after hearing Elvis’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. In 1957, McGuinn entered Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music, where he studied five-string banjo and guitar. McGuinn’s skills and solo performances attracted the ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

(Vocals, songwriter, 1936–92) Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Roger Dean Miller wrote and recorded a string of brilliant novelty hits that earned him 11 Grammy Awards, as well as country and pop stardom during the 1960s. Chief among his self-penned songs are ‘Dang Me’, ‘Chug-A-Lug’ – both hits in 1964 – ‘King Of The Road’ and ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

1896–1985 American composer Influenced early in his career by Stravinsky and Bloch, whose teaching assistant he was in the early 1920s, and resident for some years in Europe (where he encountered Schoenberg’s music and witnessed the rise of Fascism), Sessions was regarded in the US as a more European than American composer. Though friendly with Copland (they organized a ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band started out in 1966 as a student jug band in Los Angeles, and in an early incarnation it included a teenage Jackson Browne. Among the group’s founder members was singer and guitarist Jeff Hanna. Both Hanna and multi-instrumentalist Jimmie Fadden are still Dirt Band members 40 years on. The extremely ambitious Will The Circle Be ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

A drum machine is an instrument that uses synthesized or sampled sound to emulate drums or other percussion, and allows the user to programme rhythmic patterns that can be chained together into songs. Rhythm Machines The history of the drum machine dates back as far as the 1930s, when Leon Theremin (1896–1993) was commissioned by composer Henry Cowell (1897–1965) ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

Bass Guitar In 1951, guitar maker Leo Fender launched the first commercially available electric bass guitar, the Fender Precision. Compared to the cumbersome and often difficult-to-hear acoustic double bass, Fender offered an instrument that had many advantages. Not only was it louder because it was amplified – and more portable – it allowed for more precise intonation because ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

Until the 1970s, most synthesizers were played by means of a traditional, piano-style keyboard. This tended to limit the player’s ability to expressively control the sound in real time and manufacturers sought to include additional means of control, such as modulation wheels and touch-sensitive ribbon controllers. Wind and brass players, however, realized that their experience of ...

Source: The Illustrated Complete Musical Instruments Handbook, general editor Lucien Jenkins

When Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family became country music’s first superstars in 1927, their audience was the farmers, miners, wives and other blue-collar workers of the rural South. It was an audience that left school early for a life of hard work in isolated communities. When those men and women gathered at a tavern or schoolroom on ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

European culture lay in ruins after the end of World War II. There were many who, in company with the philosopher Theodor Adorno, felt that Nazi atrocities such as Auschwitz rendered art impossible, at least temporarily. Others, though, felt that humanity could only establish itself anew by rediscovering the potency of art, including opera. On ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Al-yek-san’-der Skre-a’-bin) 1872–1915 Russian composer and pianist Scriabin’s early music, nearly all for piano, is close to Chopin, but his philosophical and religious views (he was influenced by Nietzsche and, more strongly, by theosophy) brought a rhapsodic and visionary quality that continued to intensify throughout his short life. Convinced that music has a religious power and ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(An-ton’-yo Ve-val’-de) 1678–1741 Italian composer and violinist Vivaldi was born in Venice. After learning the violin with his father, and possibly other teachers too, he joined the orchestra of St Mark’s. He was ordained in 1703, later acquiring the nickname Il prete rosso (‘the Red Priest’), because of his red hair. Partly because of fragile health and partly perhaps ...

Source: Classical Music Encyclopedia, founding editor Stanley Sadie

(Vocal/instrumental group, 1972–82, 1989–present) The blue-eyed soul of Scots Alan Gorrie (vocals, bass), Malcolm Duncan (saxophone), Owen McIntyre (vocals, guitar), Hamish Stuart (vocals, guitar), Roger Ball (keyboards) and Robbie McIntosh (drums) topped the US charts in 1975 with the album AWB and single ‘Pick Up The Pieces’. After dabbling in disco with ‘Let’s Go Round Again’, ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

Queen guitarist Brian May is among the most recognizable players in the world. His distinctive tones, created by the home-made guitar he built when he was 16 and has used throughout his career, are integral to the sound of Queen. Many of the sounds he produced were so innovative that the first seven Queen albums pointedly stated that no ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin

In his short life, California guitarist-mandolinist Clarence White (1944–73) conceived innovations that would inspire country and rock guitarists from both a stylistic and technical perspective long after his death. He brought bluegrass picking to the forefront of rock, turning acoustic guitar into a solo instrument. He developed a device for electric guitar that let traditional guitarists sound like pedal-steel ...

Source: Rock Guitar Heroes, consultant editor Rusty Cutchin
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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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