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From Mighty Oaks
''From Mighty Oaks'' is the first solo album by Moody Blues flautist Ray Thomas together with Nicky James, Trevor Jones, Dave Potts, John Jones and Mike Moran. It was originally released in July 1975 and reissued on Compact Disc in August 1989. Despite the reissue, the album remains quite rare, particularly on CD. The opening and title track, like the opening to the classical-rock fusion Moody Blues album Days of Future Passed, is a symphonic-style overture incorporating themes from various songs on the album. "Hey Mama Life" is a contemplative piece about hard-earned wisdom ("I was once told the streets were paved with gold / Now I know them for what they are"). "High Above My Head" is an up-tempo number featuring a strong brass accompaniment and Thomas's harmonica. "Adam and I" is dedicated to Thomas's baby son. The final track, "I Wish We Could Fly," with sweeping orchestral backing, encapsulates Thomas's trademark unassuming optimism. Thomas had to wait in line to record his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ray Thomas
Raymond Thomas (29 December 1941 – 4 January 2018) was an English multi-instrumentalist, flautist, singer, founding member and composer in the English progressive rock band the Moody Blues. His flute solo on the band's 1967 hit single "Nights in White Satin" is regarded as one of progressive rock's defining moments. In 2018, he was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Moody Blues. Career Early years Thomas was born at an emergency maternity unit set up during the Second World War in Lickhill Manor, Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, England. His father's family was from the southwest corner of Wales. His grandfather was a Welsh miner and went on to become a carpenter and a wood-carver, at one stage working on the church where Thomas later got married. His father taught him at the age of nine to play harmonica, and this sparked his interest in music. He joined the school choir a year later. He quit schooling at the age of 14, and bri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass Flute
The bass flute is a member of the flute family. It is in the key of C, pitched one octave below the concert flute. Despite its name, its playing range makes it the tenor member of the flute family. Because of the length of its tube (approximately ), it is usually made with a J-shaped head joint, which brings the embouchure hole within reach of the player. Its soft dynamic range means in large ensembles it is easily obscured unless amplified or lightly scored; however its unique timbre in the low register can be very effective, especially in solo works, small ensembles, and flute choirs. The "bass flute in F" produced by Kotato & Fukushima is a contra-alto flute. Alternative terminology Prior to the mid-20th century, the term "bass flute" was sometimes used, especially in Great Britain, to refer to the alto flute; for example, the part for "bass flute in G" in Holst's ''The Planets'', and many works by Britten. In 1910, Abelardo Albisi invented a bass flute known as the albisiph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keyboard Instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument played using a keyboard, a row of levers which are pressed by the fingers. The most common of these are the piano, organ, and various electronic keyboards, including synthesizers and digital pianos. Other keyboard instruments include celestas, which are struck idiophones operated by a keyboard, and carillons, which are usually housed in bell towers or belfries of churches or municipal buildings. Today, the term ''keyboard'' often refers to keyboard-style synthesizers. Under the fingers of a sensitive performer, the keyboard may also be used to control dynamics, phrasing, shading, articulation, and other elements of expression—depending on the design and inherent capabilities of the instrument. Another important use of the word ''keyboard'' is in historical musicology, where it means an instrument whose identity cannot be firmly established. Particularly in the 18th century, the harpsichord, the clavichord, and the early ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mike Moran (music Producer)
Michael Moran (born 4 March 1948) is an English musician, songwriter, composer and record producer. Biography Moran studied at the Royal College of Music in London prior to becoming a session musician and a composer and arranger. His work in the latter field includes scoring music for such HandMade Films productions as ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''The Missionary'' (1982) and ''Water'' (1985). His other film scores included ''Bloodbath at the House of Death'' (1984), ''The Turnaround'' (1995), '' A Fox's Tale'' (2008), ''Blessed'' (2008) and '' A Thousand Kisses Deep'' (2011), as well as arranging the score to ''Death Wish 3'' (1985), and his TV work includes providing music for ''Strangers'' (1978), ''Harry's Game'' (1982), ''The Bombmaker'' (2001) and '' Sherlock: Case of Evil'' (2002). He also played with the Ian Gillan Band. " Rock Bottom", which he wrote in partnership with Lynsey de Paul, was the UK entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, and put him in the spotlight for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bass Guitar
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely replaced the double bass in popular music. The four-string bass is usually tuned the same as the double bass, which corresponds to pitches one octave lower than the four lowest-pitched strings of a guitar (typically E, A, D, and G). It is played primarily with the fingers or thumb, or with a pick. To be heard at normal performance volumes, electric basses require external amplification. Terminology According to the ''New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', an "Electric bass guitar sa Guitar, usually with four heavy strings tuned E1'–A1'–D2–G2." It also defines ''bass'' as "Bass (iv). A contraction of Double bas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic guitar exist). It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities on the amplifier settings or the knobs on the guitar from that of an acoustic guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz and rock guitar playing. Invented in 1932, the electric guitar was adopted by jazz guitar players, who wanted to play single-note guitar solos in large big band ensembles. Early proponents of the electric guitar on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acoustic Guitar
An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, resonating through the air in the body, and producing sound from the sound hole. The original, general term for this stringed instrument is ''guitar'', and the retronym 'acoustic guitar' distinguishes it from an electric guitar, which relies on electronic amplification. Typically, a guitar's body is a sound box, of which the top side serves as a sound board that enhances the vibration sounds of the strings. In standard tuning the guitar's six strings are tuned (low to high) E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4. Guitar strings may be plucked individually with a pick (plectrum) or fingertip, or strummed to play chords. Plucking a string causes it to vibrate at a fundamental pitch determined by the string's length, mass, and tension. (Overtones are also pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Percussion Instrument
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Excluding zoomusicological instruments and the human voice, the percussion family is believed to include the oldest musical instruments.''The Oxford Companion to Music'', 10th edition, p.775, In spite of being a very common term to designate instruments, and to relate them to their players, the percussionists, percussion is not a systematic classificatory category of instruments, as described by the scientific field of organology. It is shown below that percussion instruments may belong to the organological classes of ideophone, membranophone, aerophone and cordophone. The percussion section of an orchestra most commonly contains instruments such as the timpani, snare drum, bass drum, tambourine, belonging to the membranophones, and cym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pedal Steel Guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a Console steel guitar, console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can play unlimited glissando, glissandi (sliding notes) and deep vibrato, vibrati—characteristics it shares with the human voice. Pedal steel is most commonly associated with American country music and Music of Hawaii, Hawaiian music. Pedals were added to a lap steel guitar in 1940, allowing the performer to play a major scale without moving the Steel bar, bar and also to push the pedals while striking a chord, making passing notes slur or bend up into harmony with existing notes. The latter creates a unique sound that has been popular in country and western music— a sound not previously possible on steel guitars before pedals were added. From its first use in Hawaii in the 19th century, the steel guitar sound became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conductor (music)
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties of the conductor are to interpret the score in a way which reflects the specific indications in that score, set the tempo, ensure correct entries by ensemble members, and "shape" the phrasing where appropriate. Conductors communicate with their musicians primarily through hand gestures, usually with the aid of a baton, and may use other gestures or signals such as eye contact. A conductor usually supplements their direction with verbal instructions to their musicians in rehearsal. The conductor typically stands on a raised podium with a large music stand for the full score, which contains the musical notation for all the instruments or voices. Since the mid-19th century, most conductors have not played an instrument when conducting, a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arrangement
In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orchestration in that the latter process is limited to the assignment of notes to instruments for performance by an orchestra, concert band, or other musical ensemble. Arranging "involves adding compositional techniques, such as new thematic material for introductions, transitions, or modulations, and endings. Arranging is the art of giving an existing melody musical variety".(Corozine 2002, p. 3) In jazz, a memorized (unwritten) arrangement of a new or pre-existing composition is known as a ''head arrangement''. Classical music Arrangement and transcriptions of classical and serious music go back to the early history of this genre. Eighteenth century J.S. Bach frequently made arrangements of his own and other composers' piec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Anthony Hewson
Richard Anthony Hewson (born 17 November 1943) is an English producer, arranger, conductor and multi-instrumentalist, who created the studio group RAH Band. Career Hewson began in the late 1960s as an arranger, and has worked with musicians such as the Beatles ("I Me Mine" and "The Long and Winding Road"), the Bee Gees (''Melody''), James Taylor ("Carolina in My Mind"), Herbie Hancock, Clifford T. Ward, Supertramp, Pilot (''Pilot''), Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Art Garfunkel, Leo Sayer, Paul McCartney (''Thrillington''), Mary Hopkin ("Those Were The Days"), Al Stewart, Chris de Burgh, Fleetwood Mac and Chris Rea. He also arranged strings on several Cliff Richard albums, '' I'm Nearly Famous'' (1976),Three songs were arranged by Richard Hewson on the ''I'm Nearly Famous'' album: "Lovers", "Such is the Mystery", "If You Walked Away" - ''Every Face Tells a Story'' (1977) and '' Green Light'' (1978). Hewson also worked with the British band Jigsaw, including arrangements for their h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
