Fadi Ayat


Classical Music

“Classic Music” is a term used to refer to a wide range of music that is produced in or rooted in the traditions of Western art, ecclesiastical and concert music. It has been spanning the ages from the 9th century to the present time. Classical music is still played by many of today’s artist and reaches a select group of individuals. The term “classical music” was coined during the 19th Century as an attempt to identify the period from Johann Sebastian Bach to Ludwig van Beethoven which was considered as the “Golden Age” of Classical Music. It was during 1863 that the term classical music was recorded in the Oxford English Dictionary.

One of the main characteristics that distinguish Classical Music from Popular Music is the choice of instrumentation. The instruments used to play classical music were invented before the middle of the 19th Century. The instruments used were the same as those found in an Orchestra, with a few added solo instruments like the Piano, Harpsichord and the Organ.

A few modern electronic instruments have found their way into contemporary Classic Music during the current and last century. In Medieval Times, musical instruments were divided into two categories: Loud and Soft. Louder instruments were used outdoors and in church while Softer toned instruments were used to play music indoors. Classical works often display a certain degree of complexity through the use of development, modulation, variation rather than exact repetition (as seen in Popular Music), Counter point, polyphony and sophisticated harmonies.

Public adoration for classical music has dropped since the 1900s, most particularly in more developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. Classical music has taken a back seat behind popular forms of music like: jazz, pop, rock, rap, and many more. Despite the drop in popularity, parents can be seen sending their children to learn Classical Music at a young age in order to incorporate a sense of discipline that is supposedly learned when playing classical music.

Attempts by Classical artist to get their craft to reach a broader audience have seen collaborations between Classical Singers and Pop Music. Notable with this is the work of the late Pavarotti who sang pop songs alongside their artist. In Popular culture, we are able to find classical music along with everyday thing: From movie soundtracks and young Classically trained artists like Josh Groban and Charlotte Church to the smaller things like the music in a music box and TV commercials.

Adam Singleton


For too long, classical music has been regarded as the domain of instrumentalists, composers, academic musicologists and, typically, anyone over 40 years old. But while the majority of today’s youth would rather listen to Britney Spears’ greatest hits or watch My Chemical Romance on MTV, the view that young people are completely uninterested in classical music is not just erroneous – it’s simply not grounded in historical reality.

Mozart, widely regarded as one of the greatest classical composers of all time, wrote his first symphony at age eight and was dead by the age of 35. Schubert also died when he was 31, while Chopin famously didn’t live past the age of 39. Moreover, the phenomenon of the castrato in classical music in the 1700s shows that young people haven’t just been interested in classical music throughout the years – they’ve practically been canonised as part of a classical music tradition that, although lost, is not forgotten.

Today’s orchestras, choirs and opera houses are packed with young singers and musicians, many of whom are still in their twenties. Moreover, almost all modern, successful classical musicians will have undergone training from a very young age. Charlotte Church may have made headlines when she released her debut album “Voice of an Angel” in 1998 aged just thirteen, but while her phenomenal mainstream success was not typical, the fact that she was such a young musician in the classical industry was.

In the twenty-first century, the likes of Katherine Jenkins and “male soprano” Michael Maniaci, 28 and 29 years of age respectively, are making headlines the world over for their innovative approach to classical music and their stunning vocal range. Edward Gardner, the new Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour (one of the UK’s premier operatic fixtures), is also only 28, proving that there is certainly no dearth of young people performing classical music, although there may be fewer youths than OAPs listening to it.

But as classical music institutions and performing arts organisations try their best to reduce their median audience age, classical music isn’t just becoming more accessible to young people – it’s also becoming more affordable. Scottish Opera, for instance, offer special ticket deals for people under 26, while many music-specialist booksellers are making classical music books and guides that will help younger classical listeners learn more about the craft. So while many may lament the loss or decline of youth interest in classical music in today’s world, they need only look towards the country’s concert halls to see where the future lies.

Ashley h


I heard that letting your baby listen to mozart while your pregnant can make him smart. Does anyone know the actual effects of letting your baby listen to mozart? im just wondering if its true based on facts.

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Lanny Hintz


Playing a musical instrument is a gift to all those who hear it. Does it really matter if you play a classical musical instrument or a contemporary musical instrument? It can. First and foremost, playing a musical instrument should be fun and rewarding. If it’s not, you are not likely to practice it at all and eventually you will lose interest.

Playing classical music with a classical instrument can be remarkably challenging and rewarding. As a general standard, classical music is more intricate that contemporary music, although there are naturally exceptions to every rule.

Playing contemporary music with contemporary instruments can also be tremendously satisfying and rewarding. While not everyone may agree that contemporary music is a gift when they hear it, those who appreciate it will appreciate it deeply.

One of my favorite trends as of late is to either play contemporary music with a classical instrument or classical music with a contemporary instrument. Both sounds are considerably remarkable and both aspects take quite a bit of talent and practice. Creating this interesting twist can ultimately please more crowds, as classical music played with a contemporary instrument can reach the younger generations and actually turn them on to classical styles. The same can be said about contemporary music that is played with classical instruments.

When choosing between classical or contemporary instruments, the best method of decision making is simple preference. When choosing for a child, or helping a child make the decision, preference of course still matters, but opening the doors to new music and different experiences can really benefit the child tremendously. The basic goal for choosing an instrument, either classical or contemporary, is finding an expression that works well with the personality. Children who learn at least a little of both classical and contemporary expression are more equipped to make the decision for themselves later on.

Classical music and instrumentation can teach strong basic skills, while venturing into contemporary music and instrumentation can be both inspiring and fun for kids, especially older children.

Being well versed in classical music can actually provide a better platform for kids or adults who want to play a more contemporary instrument. Contemporary music is often written with the use of only a few chords and a basic beat while classical music demands a higher level of instrumentation. If we never teach kids the classical instruments or the classical music, the classical arts are destined to die.

Rebecca Jordan


I am doing a science project on this topic – and whatever info or answers I get, help!! (So basically I’m just wondering what you think the effect of classical music is on the nervous system or what you do know about this. REMEMBER, your opinion helps…a lot!! -Thanks!

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StHoly


just want to get to know the opinions from people who listen to baroque and jazz music. some find baroque music soothing and relaxing and some find jazz is fun and cheerful, so what do you think? and how do you feel?

thank you
eg for baroque composers – js bach, george frederich handel

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Malcolm Blake


The warp and woof of music are rhythm and melody, and the drums are the rhythm instruments par excellence. It is easier to recognize a song by its rhythm without melody than it is by its melody without rhythm, which shows what a basic part of music is rhythm.

Primitive music is more rhythm than it is melody, Some of this primitive music is tremendously expressive. Melody could add very little to the foreboding pulsations of the African war drums.

In fact, melody would detract more than it would add. There is something in the constantly recurring rhythmical beat of the drums which pulsates in the blood. There is something in the incessant and ominous boom of the drums which pounds in the brain.

Melody would relieve the tension, would break the spell. But the dread rhythm of the war drums, beating in the ears, booming in the brain, speaks a terrible message which could be spoken in no other way.

If it be a dirge, how little is melody missed when the drums begin their lament! With a rhythm peculiarly expressive of grief and sorrow, the drums beat out a mournful elegy which asks nothing of either words or melody.

By contrast, what can be gayer than the castanets and tambourines of Spain or the bongas and maracas of Cuba? The quickened rhythm, the joyous accents of these instruments sing a song of gaiety and happiness which melody could scarcely supplement.

What can the melody of the bugle add to the stirring rattle of the military drum, sounding assembly or commanding a charge? The weird, the mysterious, the terrible all can be portrayed with tremendous drama and reality by bare rhythm without melody.

It is no wonder that all peoples, from the most primitive and barbarous to the most educated and cultured, have been lovers of the drum and other percussion instruments.

In earliest history we learn that the Egyptians, Assyrians, Hebrews, Greeks and Romans all used instruments corresponding to our kettledrums, tenor drums, tambourines and cymbals. Of these, the most important soon came to be the kettledrums.

In early Europe they were used not only in military affairs, but in the court of Edward I as musical instruments. Later, in 1347, when Edward III celebrated his triumphal march into Calais, kettledrums helped make the music.

Chaucer often speaks of the “nakers” in his Canterbury Tales, and nakers is an Arabic word meaning “kettledrums.” In a carving in Worcester Cathedral, believed to have been done in 1396, a pair of kettledrums is shown strapped to the waist of a player, one on each side.

These were small kettledrums, similar to those brought by the Moors into Spain and carried by the Crusaders from Arabia, but larger-size kettles were developed by the Germans, which are practically like our modern tympani. Henry VIII introduced these larger kettledrums into England in the first half of the sixteenth century.

The German historian of music, Virdung, writing in 1511, describes the kettledrums of his day. He even draws some pictures of them which look much like the modern kettledrums. About a hundred years later, Praetorius, another German historian of music, talks about the kettledrums; and so does the Frenchman Mersennus, writing in 1627.

These ancient kettledrums were hemispherical and had skin heads stretched across the top by hoops which were held in place and tightened by adjusting screws around the rim.

Kettledrums graduated from the army and the military band into the orchestra during the time of Lully and were used commonly by him and other French composers of the seventeenth century.

As early as 1713 kettledrums had become popular in Germany, for Johann Mattheson, of Hamburg, composer and musical authority, writing of the musical instruments of his day, says that kettledrums were often used in both church and opera.

These he says were used in pairs and were tuned a fourth apart, a practice which existed for many years. Handel knew about kettledrums, using them in his “Water Music.” Bach also used them, as did Haydn and Mozart and all the other great masters who came later.

These early kettledrums, or tympani, as they are now called, were hand tuned and were pitched in C and G, the tonic and dominant of the key in which the music was written.

The large kettle was tuned to the G below the C, while the small kettle was tuned to the C, making them a fourth apart. The reason for this inversion was the limitations of the instruments.

If the tonic had been given to the large kettle and the dominant to the small kettle, the dominant would generally have been higher than the small kettle’s compass. Therefore, the tonic was given to the small kettle, and the dominant an octave below was given to the large kettle.

Kettledrums were treated mostly as military instruments, for they were hardly ever allowed to play except with the trumpets, in marches, overtures and other such music. This is only another example of following custom.

Trumpeters and kettledrummers used to accompany royalty wherever it went and were used to signify rank, much as rank is signified today by cannons, a certain number for each rank.

Later, when trumpets were admitted to the orchestra, the kettledrums naturally followed; also, when the trumpets played, the early composers thought it appropriate that the kettledrums play, too.

It was Beethoven who freed the tympani from these shackles, not only those imposed by the custom of pairing the kettledrums with the trumpets, but also the universal tuning to G and C, a fourth apart.

In his First Symphony in 1800, Beethoven startled the tympani player and the audience by having the tympani play a sort of bass part to a melody of violins and flutes. Seven years later, in his Fourth Symphony, he elects the tympani to the great honor of stating a theme of two notes which was repeated by the other instruments.

The following year, in his great Fifth Symphony, the same symphony in which the piccolo, trombone and contrabassoon all make their debut in the symphony, Beethoven causes the tympani to make their debut as a solo instrument, creating for the tympani a solo effect in the scherzo movement.

In 1814, in his Eighth Symphony, he tries still another innovation by having the tympani play in unison with the bassoons. By this time the fatal tie between the Siamese twins had been broken and the tympani was no longer restricted to duets with the trumpet.

Eric de Fontenay


Michael Perlowin breaks new ground with innovative and enjoyable music performed primarily and surprisingly on the pedal steel guitar.

As with his forays into the world of Debussy, Stravinsky and Broadway with his Firebird Suite and West Side Story albums, Michael Perlowin is again shattering the stereotype of the pedal steel guitar as a country-and-western-only instrument. In his new album, Spanish Steel, he presents 20 tracks from or about Spain, featuring works by Manuel de Falla, Isaac Albéniz, Joaquín Rodrigo, Julio Martinez Oyanguren, and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

This new album sees Perlowin continuing to alternate between the use of the pedal steel as both a featured and ensemble instrument. However, this CD features Perlowin’s guitar work more than his previous outings, as the guitar is such an integral part of Spanish music. It is fair to say that this is not so much a “pedal steel guitar album” as it is an album of music in which the steel is predominantly featured for its unique expressive sound.

Perlowin, a veteran guitarist of the folk and rock music scene around L.A., became enamored of the pedal steel guitar after unexpectedly finding himself working on a country and western band during the mid-70s. His infatuation blossomed into an all-consuming love affair, an intensely passionate obsession that continues to this day. Perlowin jokingly calls himself a “steel-aholic,” and adds that the intricacies and mysteries of the instrument cause most other players to feel the same way.

As a working guitarist, Perlowin had played just about every type of popular music, from standards, to folk, rock, country, blues, reggae and even disco. Playing pedal steel guitar, however, Perlowin found he was unhappy when confined to country and western music. He began playing the steel with musicians from various genres, including an all instrumental experimental music band, and a blues rock band ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkSnoeTWR4I ).

Eventually, it was the world of classical music that attracted Perlowin’s interest. A recording of Debussy’s “The Maid With the Flaxen Hair” by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith introduced him to the world of literate music. Perlowin explains, “As soon as I heard this piece, I realized that this was what I wanted to play.” Perlowin’s own recording of the piece, which clearly shows Smith’s influence, can be heard on his first classical pedal steel album Firebird Suite.

“Everyone who plays classical music should be required to listen to this recording,” said Mark Laycock, Music Director, Orchestra London, The Princeton Chamber Symphony and Guest Conductor of The Philadelphia Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra and Indianapolis Symphony. “Mike Perlowin is a musical genius who I am proud to know and learn from, and honored to have for a friend. I love this instrument, and this music and the beauty of these sounds delights my soul.”

Perlowin had been marginally exposed to classical music when he was young, and has no formal musical or production training. Perlowin’s second album, West Side Story, shows his growth not as a player, since he had already mastered the instrument, but as a producer, arranger, and recording engineer.

However, it is with this third album that his mastery of the recording studio blossomed to match his talents as a virtuoso musician. On Spanish Steel, Dave Beyer played drums and percussion, while Bill Watkins contributed timpani samples to complement Perlowin on pedal and lap steel guitars, electric and acoustic guitars, fretted and fretless basses, sitar, mandolin, mandocello, 5-string banjo, autoharp and additional percussion.

Spanish Steel is a totally unique and original album fulfilling Perlowin’s goal of showing the beauty and expressiveness of the pedal steel guitar. Replete with fascinating liner notes, it is the best example to date of the depths of Perlowin’s enormous talent. Find it along with his other albums at CDBaby.com, SteelGuitarMusic.com, Amazon.com; for reviews and images visit his artist website at http://www.mikeperlowin.com

TRACK LIST:

Michael Perlowin, SPANISH STEEL: Music from Spain by Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Rodrigo, Isaac Albéniz and others.

El Amour Brujo (Manuel de Falla)

1. Introduccion Y Escena (0:30)

2. En La Cueva (1:46)

3. Cancion Del Amor Dolido (1:25)

4. Danze Del Terror (2:03)

5. El Circulo Magico (2:45)

6. Danza Ritual Del Fuego (3:52)

7. Escena (1:00)

8. Cancion Del Fuego Fatuo (1:21)

9. Pantmima (4:14)

10. Danza Del Juego De Amor (2:23)

11. Las Campanas Del Amanecer (1:18)

Asturias (Isaak Albéniz)

12. Asturias (Leyenda) (5:43)

Conceirto Andeluz for 4 guitars (Joaquín Rodrigo).

13. Conceirto Andeluz for 4 guitars- Third Movement ( 7:05)

Fantasia Inca (Julio Martinez Oyanguren)

14. Fantasia Inca (3:12)

Capriccio Espagnol (Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov)

15. Alborada (1:15)

16. Variazioni (4:20)

17. Alborada (1:17)

18. Scena (2:16)

19. Canto Gatano (2:22)

20. Fandango Asturiano (3:38)

Lollie


I want to download some classical music to help me relax and wined down especially when I am studying. But I want a free site with free downloads and you don’t have to sign up or enter any details. Is there such a place???

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hayley


I want to apply for the Arts Concentration program at my school for music, which puts a lot of emphasis on the classical genre.

I was just wondering, how relevant is classical music to rock, alternative, hard rock, and metal? I know the rules of music should apply to all genres, but will I be able to apply what I learn about classical music to the rock music I hope to compose in the future?

Just wondering.

Thanks!

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