(Vocal/instrumental group, 1998–present) Formed after a complicated network of Swiss schooling and gigging frenzy in New York’s Lower East Side, The Strokes – Julian Casablancas (vocals), Nick Valensi, Albert Hammond Jr. (both guitar), Nikolai Fraiture (bass) and Fabrizio Moretti (drums) – have come to signify the mass appeal that revivalist bands from the US can achieve. After a ...
with the head facing downwards, and striking the head with the fingers of both hands. Rhythm Rhythms are vocalized on the dumbek, daf and riq. The three main strokes are a right-handed strike in the centre of the drum, which produces a deep tone called dum; and a right- and left-handed strike at the edge of the drum ...
A musical ensemble is a group of two or more musicians who have come together to play music. In theory, an ensemble could contain any number of instruments in any combination, but in practice, certain combinations just don’t work very well, either for musical reasons or because of the sheer practicality of getting particular instruments and players ...
respond to the vibrations that occur between the two drumheads as the upper, or batter, head is played. The batter head is kept tight to help the bounced strokes that are essential for playing snaredrum rudiments. It also has an internal damper to keep the resonance of the drum to a minimum. An orchestral snare drum (35 cm/14 in ...
March’. In Les Troyens, he scored for a drum called a ‘tarbuka’, a sistrum (a kind of ancient hand-held jingle) and a set of tuned bars, together with strokes of the tam tam. In the 1840s and 50s he began to use the bass tuba, sometimes to replace the ophicleide, sometimes as an alternative. The Te Deum ...
quartet encapsulates the opera’s movement from oppression to liberation, and contains its most thrilling coups, above all the offstage trumpet call that heralds the final denouement. It is strokes like this, together with such moments as Leonore’s aria of hope and resolve ‘Komm, Hoffnung’ (‘Come, Hope’), and the dazed emergence of the prisoners into daylight in ...
(Klod De’-bu-se) 1862–1918 French composer Debussy was one of the father figures of twentieth-century music, often associated with the Impressionist movement. He was not only influential on subsequent French composers such as Ravel and Messiaen, but also on other major European figures, including Stravinsky and Bartók. His early songs experimented with an intimate kind of word-setting, while ...
Country music gained a new face when the Garth Brooks phenomenon swept the stage in the 1990s. Such a huge marketing venture took place that his name virtually became synonymous with country music and the pop crossover style. Yet Brooks’ career had started in unspectacular style in 1989, when his Garth Brooks album shipped only 20,000 copies. Such was ...
1685–1759 English composer George Frideric Handel is one of the best known of all Baroque composers. His gift for melody, his instinctive sense of drama and vivid scene-painting, and the extraordinary range of human emotions explored in his vocal compositions make his music instantly accessible. Works such as Messiah (1741), Water Music (1717) and Music for the Royal Fireworks ...
Brothers Caleb (born 14 January 1982, vocals and rhythm guitar), Jared (born 20 November 1986, bass) and Nathan Followill (born 26 November 1979, drums) and their cousin Matthew Followill (born 10 September 1984, lead guitar) grew up in Tennessee’s deep south with the brothers’ Pentecostal preacher father, learning the way of the Lord. But their love ...
, and the title track made the US and UK Top 10s. An early 1969 single ‘Everyday People’ became the group’s first US No. 1 with its engaging chant ‘Different strokes for different folks’. It was from their fourth LP, the upbeat masterpiece Stand!, an album of joyous psychedelic soul, pop melodies and tight exchanges between performers both ...
to back away from writing original material, preferring to interpret past masters such as Duke Ellington and Fletcher Henderson. In the 1990s he became wheelchair-bound following a series of strokes and died on 30 May 1993, having schooled a further generation of players (including violinist Billy Bang and trombonist Craig Harris). After his death, Evidence Records initiated a ...
The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living), Skinner’s music remains, at the very least, totally unique. Styles & Forms | Twenty-First Century | Rock Personalities | The Strokes | Twenty-First Century | Rock ...
has undergone a revival, a new wave of often besuited upstarts from around the planet re-invigorating the style. Between them, Sweden’s The Hives, New York five-piece The Strokes and the Detroit-based duo White Stripes have somehow injected urgency and fashionability into a form of music that was in danger of becoming redundant. However, Rolling Stone magazine had ...
Western swing is an innovative, free-wheeling yet complex instrumental amalgam drawn from blues, jazz and Dixieland syncopations and harmonies. Central to the style is an emphasis on instrumental solos, often involving the transposition of jazz-style horn parts to fiddle, guitar and steel guitar. It is indicative of western swing’s sophistication that Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, the ...
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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.