|
Howard Skempton
Howard While Skempton (born 31 October 1947) is an English composer, pianist, and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped to organise the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music. Skempton's work is characterised by stripped-down, essentials-only choice of materials, absence of formal development and a strong emphasis on melody. The musicologist Hermann-Christoph Müller has described Skempton's music as " the emancipation of the consonance". Life Skempton was born in Chester and studied at Birkenhead School and Ealing Technical College.Potter, Grove. He started composing before 1967, but that year he moved to London and began taking private lessons in composition from Cornelius Cardew. In 1968 Skempton joined Cardew's experimental music class at Morley College, where in spring 1969 Cardew, Skempton and Michael Parsons organised the Scratch Orchestra. This ensemble, which had open membership, was dedicated to performin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brackets
A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'right' bracket or, alternatively, an "opening bracket" or "closing bracket", respectively, depending on the Writing system#Directionality, directionality of the context. Specific forms of the mark include parentheses (also called "rounded brackets"), square brackets, curly brackets (also called 'braces'), and angle brackets (also called 'chevrons'), as well as various less common pairs of symbols. As well as signifying the overall class of punctuation, the word "bracket" is commonly used to refer to a specific form of bracket, which varies from region to region. In most English-speaking countries, an unqualified word "bracket" refers to the parenthesis (round bracket); in the United States, the square bracket. Glossary of mathematical sym ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Systems Music
Systems music is music with sound continua which evolve gradually, often over very long periods of time. Historically, the American minimalists Steve Reich, La Monte Young and Philip Glass are considered the principal proponents of this compositional approach. Works by this group of composers are often characterized by features such as stasis or repetitiveness. A number of English experimental composers have also developed systems based music particularly Michael Parsons, Howard Skempton, John White, and Michael Nyman. In the realm of computer music, "systems music" refers to fractal-based, computer-assisted composition, and in particular iterated function systems music, in which a function "is applied repeatedly, each time taking as argument its value at the previous application", References Sources * * Further reading * Anderson, Virginia (2013a). "Systems and Other Minimalism in Britain". In ''The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses ''tangents''—small wedges, typically made of wood—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible. Most hurdy-gurdies have multiple drone strings, which give a constant pitch accompaniment to the melody, resulting in a sound similar to that of bagpipes. For this reason, the hurdy-gurdy is often used interchangeably or along with bagpipes. It is mostly used in Occitan, Aragonese, Cajun French, Asturian, Cantabrian, Galician, Hungarian, and Slavic folk music. One or more of the drone strings usually passes over a loose bridge that can be made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Images (Skempton)
''Images'' is a cycle of piano pieces composed by Howard Skempton in 1989. This work and a variations set, ''The Durham Strike'', are the only large-scale piano works by Skempton, although he has been composing piano music since the beginning of his career. The work was commissioned by Channel 4's HTV West for "Images", a six-part television series of documentaries dealing with various aspects of photography. The series was created to mark the 150th anniversary of the invention of photography. The producer, Barrie Gavin, wanted the music to be similar in concept to Erik Satie's Gymnopedies: in the words of the composer, the pieces were to be "like a sculpture viewed from different angles in a changing light." The pianist who performed ''Images'' for the TV series was Michael Finnissy. ''Images'' comprises eight preludes, two "songs" (''The Cockfight: a traditional song'' and ''Song 2''), a set of variations, eight interludes and a postlude (''Postlude: The Keel Row''). In conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodblock (instrument)
A woodblock (also spelled as two words, wood block) is a small slit drum made from a single piece of wood. The term generally signifies the Western orchestral instrument, though it is descended from the Chinese woodblock. Alternative names sometimes used in ragtime and jazz are clog box and tap box. In orchestral music scores, woodblocks may be indicated by the French ''bloc de bois'' or ''tambour de bois'', German ''Holzblock'' or ''Holzblocktrommel'', or Italian ''cassa di legno''. The orchestral woodblock of the West is generally made from teak or another hardwood. The dimensions of this instrument vary, although it is either a rectangular or cylindrical block of wood with one or sometimes two longitudinal cavities. It is played by striking it with a stick, which produces a sharp crack. Alternatively, a rounder mallet, soft or hard, may be used, which produces a deeper-pitched and fuller "knocking" sound. On a drum kit, a woodblock is traditionally mounted on a clamp fixed t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morton Feldman
Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School of composers also including John Cage, Christian Wolff, and Earle Brown. Feldman's works are characterized by notational innovations that he developed to create his characteristic sound: rhythms that seem to be free and floating, pitch shadings that seem softly unfocused, a generally quiet and slowly evolving music, and recurring asymmetric patterns. His later works, after 1977, also explore extremes of duration. Biography Feldman was born in Woodside, Queens, into a family of Russian-Jewish immigrants. His parents, Irving Feldman (1893–1985) and Frances Breskin Feldman (1897–1984), emigrated to New York from Pereiaslav (father, 1910) and Bobruysk (mother, 1901). His father was a manufacturer of children's coats. As a child he studied ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erik Satie
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an undistinguished student and obtained no diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabaret in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his ''Gymnopédies'' and '' Gnossiennes''. He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached. After a spell in which he composed little, Satie entered Paris's second music academy, the Schola Cantorum, as a mature student. His studies there were more successful than those at the Conservatoire. From about 1910 he became the focus of successive groups of young composers attracted by his unconventionality and originality. Among them were the group known as Les Six. A meeting with Jean Cocteau in 1915 led to the creation of the ballet '' Par ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aleatoric Music
Aleatoric music (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word ''alea'', meaning "dice") is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s). The term is most often associated with procedures in which the chance element involves a relatively limited number of possibilities. The term became known to European composers through lectures by acoustician Werner Meyer-Eppler at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music in the beginning of the 1950s. According to his definition, "a process is said to be aleatoric ... if its course is determined in general but depends on chance in detail". Through a confusion of Meyer-Eppler's German terms ''Aleatorik'' (noun) and ''aleatorisch'' (adjective), his translator created a new English word, "aleatoric" (rather than using the existing English adjective "aleatory"), which quickly became fashiona ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
String Quartet
The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists, a violist, and a cellist. The string quartet was developed into its present form by composers such as Franz Xaver Richter, and Joseph Haydn, whose works in the 1750s established the ensemble as a group of four more-or-less equal partners. Since Haydn the string quartet has been considered a prestigious form; writing for four instruments with broadly similar characteristics both constrains and tests a composer. String quartet composition flourished in the Classical era, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert each wrote a number of them. Many Romantic and early-twentieth-century composers composed string quartets, including Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, AntonÃn Dvořák, LeoÅ¡ Janà ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mode Records
Mode Records is an American record label in New York City that concentrates on contemporary classical music and other forms of avant-garde music. The label was founded by Brian Brandt in 1984, with a goal of releasing music composed by John Cage. Composers featured include John Cage, Morton Feldman, Iannis Xenakis, Giacinto Scelsi, and Harry Partch. Performers include Steve Lacy, Aki Takahashi, Martine Joste, the Arditti Quartet, and Gerry Hemingway. The label also has a commitment to younger composers with releases featuring Jason Eckardt, Joshua Fineberg, and Lei Liang. An earlier unrelated Mode Records existed for a short time in the 1950s and was involved West Coast jazz. It is now controlled by VSOP. See also * 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 alphab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sony Classical
Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired by Sony in 1988, and in 1990 it was renamed Sony Classical Records. Artists Sony Classical represents artists including: *Alexis Ffrench *James Horner *Yo-Yo Ma *Igor Levit *Jonas Kaufmann *Glenn Gould *Wiener Philharmoniker *Joshua Bell *Hans Zimmer *John Williams *Khatia Buniatishvili *Arthur Rubinstein *Eugene Ormandy *Leonard Bernstein *Teodor Currentzis * Arcadi Volodos *Christian Gerhaher *Vladimir Horowitz *Dirk Maassen *Christoph Koncz *Pasquale Grasso *Ivo Pogorelich *Martin Fröst *Leif Ove Andsnes *Lavinia Meije Presidents * 1997: Peter Gelb (NY) * 2009–2019: Bogdan Roscic * 2019: Per Hauber See also * List of record labels File:Alvinoreyguitarboogie.jpg File:AmMusicBunk78.jpg File:Bingola1011b.jpg Lists of record lab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lento (Skempton)
''Lento'' is a composition for orchestra written by Howard Skempton in 1990. It was Skempton's third work for large forces, and his first major success. The piece was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Skempton was to write a piece to be performed between the Prelude from Richard Wagner's ''Parsifal'' and a Deryck Cooke completion of Gustav Mahler's Tenth Symphony. Skempton initially set out to compose three short pieces to be played in sequence, but afterwards decided on a single large piece. ''Lento'' was completed in November 1990; it was premiered on 12 March 1991 by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre concert hall, conducted by Mark Wigglesworth. The work is scored for 3 flutes, 3 oboes, cor anglais, clarinet, 3 bassoons, contrabassoon, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings. The instrumentation is the same as that of Wagner's ''Parsifal'' prelude, although Skempton's use of instruments is very different. Most of ''Lento'' is scored ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
