Charles Avison
Charles Avison (; 16 February 1709 (baptised)9 or 10 May 1770) was an English composer during the Baroque and Classical periods. He was a church organist at St John The Baptist Church in Newcastle and at St. Nicholas's Church (later Newcastle Cathedral). He is most known for his ''12 Concerti Grossi after Scarlatti'' and his ''Essay on Musical Expression'', the first music criticism published in English. He composed in a transitional style that alternated between Baroque and Classical idioms. Life The son of Richard and Anne Avison, Charles Avison was baptised on 16 February 1709, at St John the Baptist Church, in Newcastle. According to '' The New Grove Dictionary'', he was also born in this city. His educational history, though unclear, could have been at one of the two charity schools serving St John's parish. Some sources claim that Charles was the fifth of nine children, while others claim that he was the seventh of ten children. Regardless, Avison was born into a fami ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Avison Ensemble
The Avison Ensemble is one of England's leading exponents of classical music on period instruments. It is named after Charles Avison (1709–1770), the Newcastle-born composer, conductor and organist, considered ‘the most important English concerto composer of the 18th Century’. Comprising some of Europe's leading musicians and soloists, the Ensemble is directed by violinist Pavlo Beznosiuk. It varies in numbers depending on the repertoire being performed, and is typically of chamber ensemble or concerto grosso size, expanding to full chamber orchestra when needed. Formation of the Avison Ensemble The Ensemble was formed in 1985 by Newcastle-born cellist and musical director Gordon Dixon after discovering a collection of 18th-century music at the back of a cupboard which was found to be a number of concertos by the long-neglected Avison. Avison wrote more than eighty concertos, which drew the great musicians of the day to perform in Newcastle. He worked with figures such as ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Newcastle Cathedral
Newcastle Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Nicholas, is a Church of England cathedral in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Newcastle and is the mother church of the Diocese of Newcastle. It is the most northerly diocese of the Anglican Church in England, reaching from the River Tyne as far north as Berwick-upon-Tweed and as far west as Alston in Cumbria. The cathedral is a grade I listed building. Founded in 1091 during the same period as the nearby castle, the Norman church was destroyed by fire in 1216 and the current building was completed in 1350, so is mostly of the Perpendicular style of the 14th century. Its tower is noted for its 15th-century lantern spire. Heavily restored in 1777, the building was raised to cathedral status in 1882, when it became known as the Cathedral Church of St Nicholas. History The cathedral is named after St Nicholas, the patron saint of sailors and boats. This may reflect the cathed ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Avison , one of England's foremost exponents of classical music on period instruments
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Avison is a name. Notable people with that name include: ; As a surname * Al Avison (192084), American comic book artist *Charles Avison (170970), English composer during the Baroque and Classical periods * David Avison (19372004), American photographer and physicist *John Avison (191583), Canadian conductor and pianist *Margaret Avison (19182007), Canadian prizewinning poet ; As a personal name * André Avison Tsitohery (active 2009), Malagasy politician * Avison Scott (18481925), English first class cricketer See also *Avison Ensemble The Avison Ensemble is one of England's leading exponents of classical music on period instruments. It is named after Charles Avison (1709–1770), the Newcastle-born composer, conductor and organist, considered ‘the most important English conce ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Carl Maria von Weber and Giacomo Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the ''Gesamtkunstwerk'' ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama. He described this vision in a series of essays published between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle ''Der Ring des Nibelungen'' (''The Ring of the Nibelung''). His compositions, particularly those of his later period, are notable for their complex textures, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Period Instrument
In the historically informed performance movement, musicians perform classical music using restored or replicated versions of the instruments for which it was originally written. Often performances by such musicians are said to be "on authentic instruments". This article consists of a list of such instruments in the European tradition, including both instruments that are now obsolete and early versions of instruments that continued to be used in later classical music. Renaissance (1400–1600) Strings * Violin * Viol * Viola * Cello * Lira da braccio * Contrabass * Violone * Lute * Theorbo * Archlute * Gittern * Mandore * Harp * Cittern * Vihuela Woodwinds * Cornamuse * Cromorne * Crumhorn * Rauschpfeife * Recorder * Shawm * Dulcian Brasses * Trumpet * Cornett * Sackbut * Serpent * Natural horn * Slide trumpet * Natural trumpet * Horn Keyboards * Clavichord * Harpsichord * Regal * Virginal * Ottavino * Organ Percussion * Drum * Timpani * Cymbals * Bass drum * Tabor Bar ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Psalm 57
Psalm 57 is the 57th psalm of the Book of Psalms, beginning in English in the King James Version: "Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me". In the slightly different numbering system of the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible and the Latin Vulgate, this psalm is Psalm 56. In Latin, it is known as " Miserere mei Deus". It is attributed to King David, and is described as a '' Michtam'' of David, when he fled from the face of Saul, in the cave, recalling either the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel 22), or the cave in the wilderness of En-gedi, on the western shore of the Dead Sea (1 Samuel 24).Kirkpatrick, A. (1906)Cambridge Bible for Schools and Collegeson Psalm 57, accessed 27 November 2021 The psalm forms a regular part of Jewish, Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Protestant liturgies. It has been set to music. Text Hebrew Bible version The following is the Hebrew text of Psalm 57: King James Version To the chief Musician, Altaschith, Michtam of David, when he ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Felice Giardini
Felice de Giardini (12 April 1716 – 8 June 1796) was an Italian composer and violinist. Early life Felice Giardini was born in Turin. When it became clear that he was a child prodigy, his father sent him to Milan. There he studied singing, harpsichord and violin but it was on the latter that he became a famous virtuoso. By the age of 12, he was already playing in theatre orchestras. In a famous incident about this time, Giardini, who was serving as assistant concertmaster (i.e. leader of the orchestra) during an opera, played a solo passage for violin which the composer Niccolò Jommelli had written. He decided to show off his skills and improvised several bravura variations which Jommelli had not written. Although the audience applauded loudly, Jommelli, who happened to be there, was not pleased and suddenly stood up and slapped the young man in the face. Giardini, years later, remarked, "it was the most instructive lesson I ever received from a great artist." In London Du ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oratorio
An oratorio () is a large musical composition for orchestra, choir, and soloists. Like most operas, an oratorio includes the use of a choir, soloists, an instrumental ensemble, various distinguishable characters, and arias. However, opera is musical theatre, while oratorio is strictly a concert piece – though oratorios are sometimes staged as operas, and operas are sometimes presented in concert form. In an oratorio, the choir often plays a central role, and there is generally little or no interaction between the characters, and no props or elaborate costumes. A particularly important difference is in the typical subject matter of the text. Opera tends to deal with history and mythology, including age-old devices of romance, deception, and murder, whereas the plot of an oratorio often deals with sacred topics, making it appropriate for performance in the church. Protestant composers took their stories from the Bible, while Catholic composers looked to the lives of saints, as w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sacred Music
Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence. It may overlap with ritual music, which is music, sacred or not, performed or composed for or as ritual. Religious songs have been described as a source of strength, as well as a means of easing pain, improving one's mood, and assisting in the discovery of meaning in one's suffering. While style and genre vary broadly across traditions, religious groups still share a variety of musical practices and techniques. Religious music takes on many forms and varies throughout cultures. Religions such as Islam, Judaism, and Sinism demonstrate this, splitting off into different forms and styles of music that depend on varying religious practices. Religious music across cultures depicts its use of similar instruments, used in accordance to create these melodies. drums (and drumming), for example, is seen commonly in numerous religions such as Rastafari and ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau (; – ) was a French composer and music theorist. Regarded as one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the 18th century, he replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer of his time for the harpsichord, alongside François Couperin. Little is known about Rameau's early years. It was not until the 1720s that he won fame as a major theorist of music with his ''Treatise on Harmony'' (1722) and also in the following years as a composer of masterpieces for the harpsichord, which circulated throughout Europe. He was almost 50 before he embarked on the operatic career on which his reputation chiefly rests today. His debut, ''Hippolyte et Aricie'' (1733), caused a great stir and was fiercely attacked by the supporters of Lully's style of music for its revolutionary use of harmony. Nevertheless, Rameau's pre-eminence in the field of French opera was soon acknowledge ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chamber Music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part (in contrast to orchestral music, in which each string part is played by a number of performers). However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances. Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends". For more than 100 years, chamber music was played primarily by amateur musicians in their homes, and even today, when chamber music performance has migrated from the home to the concert hall, many musicians, amateur and professional, still play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Concerto Grosso
The concerto grosso (; Italian for ''big concert(o)'', plural ''concerti grossi'' ) is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists (the '' concertino'') and full orchestra (the ''ripieno'', ''tutti'' or ''concerto grosso''). This is in contrast to the solo concerto which features a single solo instrument with the melody line, accompanied by the orchestra. History The form developed in the late seventeenth century, although the name was not used at first. Alessandro Stradella seems to have written the first music in which two groups of different sizes are combined in the characteristic way. The name was first used by Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori in a set of ten compositions published in Lucca in 1698. The first major composer to use the term ''concerto grosso'' was Arcangelo Corelli. After Corelli's death, a collection of twelve of his ''concerti grossi'' was published. Not long after, composers such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |