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Fresh Aire
''Fresh Aire'' is the first album by new-age musical group Mannheim Steamroller. It was originally released in 1975. Background The record was followed by seven additional albums in the ''Fresh Aire'' series. Each of the first four Fresh Aire albums is based on a season; Fresh Aire's theme is Spring. (There is some evidence that this theme may have been imposed upon the album after the fact, as the rest of the series progressed, since the liner notes for this album clearly link each of the 12 tracks to the 12 months of the year.) Besides the eponymous seventh tune, several of the track names are played on musical terms denoting the form of that song. The title track "Fresh Aire" is an air, "Saras Band" is a sarabande, and "Pass the Keg (Lia)" is a passacaglia. Composer Chip Davis refers to his music as "18th century rock and roll." Track listing All songs written and arranged by Chip Davis. #"Prelude" – 1:33 #"Chocolate Fudge" – 2:54 #"Interlude I" – 2:55 #" ...
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Fresh Aire II
''Fresh Aire II'' is the second album that new-age musical group Mannheim Steamroller originally released in 1977. Each of the first four ''Fresh Aire'' albums is based on a season; ''Fresh Aire II''s theme is fall. ''Fresh Aire II'' is unique in the series in that it is largely based on a single melody, presented consistently in the "Fantasia" music cycle (tracks 1–9) which starts off with 'Chorale,' followed by the seven "doors," ending with the piece 'Fantasy' and in the closing track 'Going To Another Place.' The same melody also occasionally appears in other albums in the series in a form closest to the first few notes in "The First Door." Track listing All songs written and arranged by Chip Davis #"Chorale" – 0:36 #"The First Door – Interrupted Thought" – 1:26 #"The Second Door – The Ugly Head of Greed" – 2:02 #"The Third Door – Pride" – 2:30 #"The Fourth Door – Relaxation" – 3:50 #"The Fifth Door – Frenetic Energy" – 2:59 #"The Sixth Door – Nostalg ...
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Album
An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual Phonograph record#78 rpm disc developments, 78 rpm records collected in a bound book resembling a photograph album; this format evolved after 1948 into single vinyl LP record, long-playing (LP) records played at  revolutions per minute, rpm. The album was the dominant form of recorded music expression and consumption from the mid-1960s to the early 21st century, a period known as the album era. Vinyl LPs are still issued, though album sales in the 21st-century have mostly focused on CD and MP3 formats. The 8-track tape was the first tape format widely used alongside vinyl from 1965 until being phased out by 1983 and was gradually supplanted by the cassette tape during the 1970s and early 1980s; the populari ...
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Mannheim Steamroller
Mannheim Steamroller is an American neoclassical new-age music ensemble founded and directed by percussionist/composer Chip Davis in 1974. The group is known primarily for its ''Fresh Aire'' series of albums, which blend classical music with elements of new age and rock, and for its modern recordings of Christmas music. The group has sold 28 million albums in the U.S. alone. History Beginnings Mannheim Steamroller began as an alias for record producer and composer Chip Davis. The name "Mannheim Steamroller" comes from an 18th-century German musical technique, '' Mannheim roller'' (German: ''Mannheimer Walze''), a crescendo passage having a rising melodic line over an ostinato bass line, popularized by the Mannheim school of composition. Before the fame of Steamroller, Davis had been best known for collaborating with his friend Bill Fries on the songs of the country music character "C. W. McCall", of "Convoy" fame. The song was based on the character created by Fries and musi ...
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New-age Music
New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation technique, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy (emotion), ecstasy rather than trance, or to create a peaceful atmosphere in homes or other environments. It is sometimes associated with environmentalism and New Age, New Age spirituality; however, most of its artists have nothing to do with "New age spirituality", and some even reject the term. New-age music includes both Acoustic music, acoustic forms, featuring instruments such as flutes, piano, acoustic guitar and a wide variety of folk instrument, non-Western acoustic instruments, and electronic music, electronic forms, frequently relying on sustained synth pads or long Music sequencer, sequencer-based runs. Vocal arrangements were initially rare in the genre, but as it has evolved, vocals have become more common, especially tho ...
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Progressive Rock
Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the style was an outgrowth of psychedelic bands who abandoned standard pop traditions in favour of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz, folk, or classical music. Additional elements contributed to its " progressive" label: lyrics were more poetic, technology was harnessed for new sounds, music approached the condition of "art", and the studio, rather than the stage, became the focus of musical activity, which often involved creating music for listening rather than dancing. Progressive rock is based on fusions of styles, approaches and genres, involving a continuous move between formalism and eclecticism. Due to its historical reception, the scope of progressiv ...
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American Gramaphone
American Gramaphone is an American record company based in Omaha, Nebraska. It is best known for releasing Chip Davis' new age solo and Mannheim Steamroller albums. History American Gramaphone was formed in 1974 by Chip Davis. American Gramaphone is also a music publisher affiliated with SESAC, publishing all of Davis' compositions (including his work with Bill Fries (C. W. McCall)). American Gramaphone has also released solo albums by Mannheim Steamroller musicians Jackson Berkey and Ron Cooley, as well as by the bands Checkfield and America. Albums See also * Music in Omaha, Nebraska * List of record labels File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg File:Bingola1011b.jpg Lists of record labels cover record labels, brands or trademarks associated with marketing of music recordings and music videos. The lists are organized alphabetically, b ... References Companies based in Omaha, Nebraska American record labels Record labels established in 1974 ...
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Chip Davis
Louis F. "Chip" Davis Jr. (born September 5, 1947 in Hamler, Ohio) is the founder and leader of the music group Mannheim Steamroller. Davis composed the music for several C. W. McCall albums, including the hit 1975 song "Convoy (song), Convoy". He has also written and made other albums, such as ''Day Parts'', and has written several books. Early life Louis F. Davis was born in Hamler, Ohio. His family later moved to Portland, Ohio, and, when Davis was 11, to Sylvania. He began piano lessons at age 4 and had composed his first piece of music at age 6. He graduated from Sylvania High School and went on to graduate from the University of Michigan School of Music, specializing in bassoon and percussion and playing the University of Michigan Symphony Band. Davis's parents both attended the university, and his father played clarinet in the band. Career After touring with the Norman Luboff Choir, he took a job with Omaha, Nebraska, advertising agency Bozell, Bozell & Jacobs, Inc. writin ...
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Allmusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the database was first made available on the Internet in 1994. AllMusic is owned by RhythmOne. History AllMusic was launched as ''All Music Guide'' by Michael Erlewine, a "compulsive archivist, noted astrologer, Buddhist scholar and musician". He became interested in using computers for his astrological work in the mid-1970s and founded a software company, Matrix, in 1977. In the early 1990s, as CDs replaced LPs as the dominant format for recorded music, Erlewine purchased what he thought was a CD of early recordings by Little Richard. After buying it he discovered it was a "flaccid latter-day rehash". Frustrated with the labeling, he researched using metadata to create a music guide. In 1990, in Big Rapids, Michigan, he founded ''All Music Guide' ...
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Air (music)
An air ( it, aria; also ''ayr'', ''ayre'' in French) is a song-like vocal or instrumental composition. The term can also be applied to the interchangeable melodies of folk songs and ballads. It is a variant of the musical song form often referred to (in opera, cantata and oratorio) as aria. English lute ayres Lute airs were first produced in the royal court of England toward the end of the 16th century and enjoyed considerable popularity until the 1620s. Probably based on Italian monody and French ''air de cour'', they were solo songs, occasionally with more (usually three) parts, accompanied on a lute.G. J. Buelow, ''History of Baroque Music: Music in the 17th and First Half of the 18th Centuries'', Indiana University Press, 2004 (p. 306). Their popularity began with the publication of John Dowland's (1563–1626) ''First Booke of Songs or Ayres'' (1597). His most famous airs include " Come again", "Flow, my tears", " I saw my Lady weepe", and " In darkness let me dwell". The gen ...
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Sarabande
The sarabande (from es, zarabanda) is a dance in triple metre, or the music written for such a dance. History The Sarabande evolved from a Spanish dance with Arab influences, danced by a lively double line of couples with castanets. A dance called ''zarabanda'' is first mentioned in 1539 in Central America in the poem ''Vida y tiempo de Maricastaña'', written in Panama by Fernando de Guzmán Mejía. In 1596, Alonso López, "el Pinciano", traces its origins even to the Dionysian cult. The dance seems to have been especially popular in the 16th and 17th centuries, initially in Spain and in the Spanish colonies. The Jesuit priest Juan de Mariana thought it indecent, describing it in his ''Tratato contra los juegos públicos'' (Treatise Against Public Amusements, 1609) as "a dance and song so loose in its words and so ugly in its motions that it is enough to excite bad emotions in even very decent people".Jane Bellingham, "Sarabande", ''The Oxford Companion to Music'', edited by A ...
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Passacaglia
The passacaglia (; ) is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used today by composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre. Origin The term passacaglia ( es, pasacalle; french: passacaille; Italian: ''passacaglia'', ''passacaglio'', ''passagallo'', ''passacagli'', ''passacaglie'') derives from the Spanish ''pasar'' (to walk) and ''calle'' (street). It originated in early 17th-century Spain as a strummed interlude between instrumentally accompanied dances or songs. Despite the form's Spanish roots (confirmed by references in Spanish literature of the period), the first written examples of passacaglias are found in an Italian source dated 1606. These pieces, as well as others from Italian sources from the beginning of the century, are simple, brief sequences of chords outlining a cadential formula. The passacaglia was redefined in the late 1620s by Italian composer Girolamo F ...
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Recorder (musical Instrument)
The recorder is a family of woodwind musical instruments in the group known as ''internal duct flutes'': flutes with a whistle mouthpiece, also known as fipple flutes. A recorder can be distinguished from other duct flutes by the presence of a thumb-hole for the upper hand and seven finger-holes: three for the upper hand and four for the lower. It is the most prominent duct flute in the western classical tradition. Recorders are made in various sizes with names and compasses roughly corresponding to various vocal ranges. The sizes most commonly in use today are the soprano (also known as descant, lowest note C5), alto (also known as treble, lowest note F4), tenor (lowest note C4), and bass (lowest note F3). Recorders were traditionally constructed from wood or ivory. Modern professional instruments are almost invariably of wood, often boxwood; student and scholastic recorders are commonly of molded plastic. The recorders' internal and external proportions vary, but the bore i ...
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