|
Calling All Dawns
''Calling All Dawns'' is a classical crossover album by Christopher Tin released in 2009. The album won two Grammys at the 53rd Grammy Awards for Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album, Best Classical Crossover Album and Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s) for the song "Baba Yetu", the theme for the 2005 video game ''Civilization IV''. The win marks the first time in history that a Grammy has been awarded to a composition written for a video game. The album is a song cycle in three movements: day, night, and dawn (corresponding to life, death, and rebirth). Twelve songs are featured on the album, each sung in a different language. Many of the lyrics find their sources in important pieces of world literature, including excerpts of long works such as the Hebrew Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and ''The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam'', and also smaller verses such as the Lord's Prayer, Māori language, Māori proverbs, and Japanese haiku. The album features a simil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baba Yetu
"Baba Yetu" (Swahili language, Swahili: "Our father, Our Father") is the theme song for the 2005 video game ''Civilization IV''. It was composed by Christopher Tin and performed by Ron Ragin and the Stanford Talisman. For its re-release in Tin's debut album ''Calling All Dawns'', it was performed by the Soweto Gospel Choir. The song, when rereleased, became the first piece of video game music to be nominated for and to win a Grammy Award. Composition Tin is a fan of the ''Civilization'' series. During his five-year college reunion at Stanford University, he reconnected with his former roommate Soren Johnson; both had been part of an overseas program during their studies at Oxford University, with Johnson studying history and Tin studying music. Johnson told Tin at the reunion he had been working on ''Civilization III'', and Tin expressed his love of the series to him. Some months after the reunion, Johnson contacted Tin and told him they were looking for music for the introductio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Tin
Christopher Chiyan Tin (born May 21, 1976) is an American composer of art music, often composed for film and video game soundtracks. His work is primarily orchestral and choral, often with a world music influence. He has won two Grammy Awards for his classical crossover album ''Calling All Dawns''. Tin is perhaps best known for his choral piece ''Baba Yetu'' from the video game ''Civilization IV'', which in 2011 became the first piece of video game music to win a Grammy Award. His Grammy win was considered a significant milestone for the critical acceptance of music from video games as a legitimate art form, and following his win the Recording Academy retitled their visual media categories to become more inclusive of video game soundtracks, before eventually creating a dedicated Grammy award for 'Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media'. Early life and education Christopher Tin was raised in Palo Alto, California by immigrant parents from Hong Kon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keening
Keening (Irish: Caointeoireacht) is a traditional form of vocal lament for the dead in the Gaelic Celtic tradition, known to have taken place in Ireland and Scotland. Keening, which can be seen as a form of sean-nós singing, was performed in the Irish and Scottish Gaelic languages (the Scottish equivalent of keening is known as a coronach). Keening was once an integral part of the formal Irish funeral ritual, but declined from the 18th century and became almost completely extinct by the middle of the 20th century. Only a handful of authentic keening songs were recorded from traditional singers. Etymology "Keen" as a noun or verb comes from the Irish and Scottish Gaelic term ("to cry, to weep"), as well as ("gentleness, pleasantness, beauty"), and references to it from the 7th, 8th, and 12th centuries are extensive. Probably at the origin of "couiner" in French. Melody and text The tune and lyrics rely on the repetition of a couple of basic motifs which can be variably e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Portuguese Language
Portuguese ( or, in full, ) is a western Romance language of the Indo-European language family, originating in the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is an official language of Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe, while having co-official language status in East Timor, Equatorial Guinea, and Macau. A Portuguese-speaking person or nation is referred to as " Lusophone" (). As the result of expansion during colonial times, a cultural presence of Portuguese speakers is also found around the world. Portuguese is part of the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia and the County of Portugal, and has kept some Celtic phonology in its lexicon. With approximately 250 million native speakers and 24 million L2 (second language) speakers, Portuguese has approximately 274 million total speakers. It is usually listed as the sixth-most spoken language, the third-most sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dulce Pontes
Dulce José Silva Pontes (; born 8 April 1969) is a Portuguese songwriter and singer who performs in many musical styles, including pop, folk, and classical music. She is usually defined as a world music artist. Her songs contributed to the 1990s revival of Portuguese urban folk music called fado. Biography Pontes was born in 1969 in Montijo, a town in the District of Setúbal, near Lisbon. She trained as a pianist, and started a career in singing after entering a competition in her hometown at the age of 18. She soon became an actress on Portuguese television and theatre.Biography listed on ''Portal do Fado'', (accessed December 22, 2014). In 1991, she won the national music festival with her song " Lusitana Paixão", (known in |
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of China. Because Mandarin originated in North China and most Mandarin dialects are found in the north, the group is sometimes referred to as Northern Chinese (). Many varieties of Mandarin, such as those of the Southwest (including Sichuanese) and the Lower Yangtze, are not mutually intelligible with the standard language (or are only partially intelligible). Nevertheless, Mandarin as a group is often placed first in lists of languages by number of native speakers (with nearly one billion). Mandarin is by far the largest of the seven or ten Chinese dialect groups; it is spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretches from Yunnan in the southwest to Xinjiang in the northwest and Heilongjiang in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jia Ruhan
Jia Ruhan () is a Chinese soprano who performs in plays, as well as in opera, musicals, films, and solo recitals. She was born in Shijiazhuang and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. She sang the roles of Queen Mother of Heaven and Guan Yin in the world premiere performance of Damon Albarn's opera, '' Monkey: Journey To The West'' on 28 June 2007 at the Palace Theatre, Manchester and later reprised the roles at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in September and October of that year. In March 2008, she recorded the BBC Olympic Theme Song for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, also composed by Albarn. Awards and prizes In May 2009, she won the First Prize at the XVIII edition of the Discovery International Pop Music Festival in Varna. The following July, she won the Second Prize in the solo vocal competition at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod (UK). In July 2009, American Chinese producer, Christopher Tin, invited Ruhan t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japanese Language
is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as the Ainu, Austroasiatic, Koreanic, and the now-discredited Altaic, but none of these proposals has gained widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), there was a massive influx of Sino-Japanese vocabulary into the language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese. Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords. The basis of the standard dialect moved f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kaori Omura
Kaori ( "scent/aroma, fabric/weave" and occasionally rendered "perfume", ) is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *Kaori (voice actress) (born 1976), Japanese voice actress and singer *, musician known as Bonnie Pink *Kaori Asoh (born 1967), Japanese actress and voice actress *Kaori Chiba (born 1981), field hockey player *, Go player *, author *, Japanese voice actress * Kaori Hamura, artist and illustrator *, Japanese professional wrestler *, Japanese sport wrestler *, musician and former Morning Musume member *, Japanese volleyball player *Kaori Ito (伊藤 郁女, born 1979), Japanese dancer and choreographer *Kaori Ishihara (born 1993), idol, actress, voice actress and singer *, Japanese ski jumper *, Japanese swimmer * Kaori Kato (born 1977), Japanese women cricketer *Kaori Kawamura (1971–2009), Japanese singer *Kaori Kobayashi, Japanese jazz saxophonist and flautist *, Japanese voice actress *Kaori Manabe (born 1981), Japanese television ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aoi Tada
is a Japanese singer and former voice actress. She formerly belonged to Gekidan Himawari. Her most noted voice role is that of Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV in '' Cowboy Bebop''. She also performed an insert song to the series, "Wo Qui Non Coin". In March 2005, she signed on to Moon-Bunny Entertainment and began her singer-songwriting career. She has performed the theme songs for '' Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino'' and ''Angel Beats!''. She is also affiliated with the group Veil. She is credited for her Veil-related songs as Veil ∞ Aoi. As of 2005, she has retired from voice acting but is still active as a singer. Discography Singles *"Doll/Human" (Released 30 January 2008) **Split single with Lia, theme song for the '' Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-'' anime series. *"Shirley" (Released 9 May 2008) *" My Soul, Your Beats!/Brave Song" (Released 26 May 2010) #3 on Oricon **Split single with Lia, theme song for the ''Angel Beats!'' anime series. *" Bravely You / Yake Ochina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lia (singer)
Lia (born December 20; also stylized in all caps as LIA) is a Japanese singer-songwriter. Lia recorded "Tori no Uta" for Key's 2000 visual novel ''Air'', which was reused in its 2005 anime adaptation and became influential in popular culture. She additionally recorded two other tracks for the visual novel, which were commercially successful. Lia has continued to work with Key by performing songs for their 2004 visual novel ''Clannad'' and its 2008 anime adaptation, ''Clannad After Story'', the 2005 adult visual novel '' Tomoyo After: It's a Wonderful Life'', as well as the opening themes for Key's original anime series ''Angel Beats!'' in 2010 and ''Charlotte'' in 2015. Her other songs used in anime include '' RF Online'' and ''Initial D Fourth Stage''. In 2012, the Vocaloid software IA was released, which sampled Lia's voice and earned a large fanbase. Career Lia graduated from the Berklee College of Music. Afterwards, she lived in Los Angeles and recorded demo tapes with t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Swahili Language
Swahili, also known by its local name , is the native language of the Swahili people, who are found primarily in Tanzania, Kenya and Mozambique (along the East African coast and adjacent litoral islands). It is a Bantu language, though Swahili has borrowed a number of words from foreign languages, particularly Arabic, but also words from Portuguese, English and German. Around forty percent of Swahili vocabulary consists of Arabic loanwords, including the name of the language ( , a plural adjectival form of an Arabic word meaning 'of the coast'). The loanwords date from the era of contact between Arab slave traders and the Bantu inhabitants of the east coast of Africa, which was also the time period when Swahili emerged as a lingua franca in the region. The number of Swahili speakers, be they native or second-language speakers, is estimated to be approximately 200 million. Due to concerted efforts by the government of Tanzania, Swahili is one of three official languages (th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
