|
Simon Rackham
Simon Rackham (born 1964) is an English composer and artist. He is probably best known for his work;‘Which ever way your nose bends’ the first commission by the six piano ensemble Piano Circus, composed as a companion piece to Steve Reich’s ‘Six Pianos’ & released on their eponymous album by Argo Records (UK) in 1992. Early life From 1983-1988, he studied composition and French horn at the Royal Academy of Music (London). Career In the late eighties he co-founded the group ‘3 or 4 composers’ (with Laurence Crane, Helen Ottaway, Melanie Pappenheim and Jocelyn Pook). He has released over seventy albums (mainly music for piano) through CD Baby, recorded using Finale (software) to write the score and then 'Pianissimo' virtual piano software for the performance. In 2012 his authorized arrangement for solo piano of Steve Reich's ‘Clapping Music’ was released on the album ''Which way is up?''. Musical work His music is broadly described as postminimalist or mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Circus
Piano Circus is a musical ensemble consisting of six pianists. The original six-piano ensemble formed in 1989 to perform Steve Reich's ''Six Pianos''. Founding members included Kirsteen Davidson-Kelly, Richard Harris, Kate Heath, Max Richter, Ginny Strawson and John Wood. As of 2016, membership was Dawn Hardwick, James Young, Paul Cassidy, Neil Georgeson, Leo Nicholson and Nathan Williamson Since then they have created a repertoire of over one hundred works, the majority of which have been written specially for the ensemble. These include pieces by Kevin Volans, Graham Fitkin, Brian Eno, Louis Andriessen, Erkki-Sven Tüür, Terry Riley, Nikki Yeoh, Michael Nyman, Robert Moran, Peter Bengtson, and Heiner Goebbels. Piano Circus has released seven CDs with Decca and now has three CDs available on its own label. The six pianists have a broad range of experience, from traditional western classical music to jazz, pop and rock, African and Asian traditional music, improvisation an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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] |
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. Internationally, it is known as the National Theatre of Great Britain. Founded by Laurence Olivier in 1963, many well-known actors have performed at the National Theatre. Until 1976, the company was based at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo. The current building is located next to the Thames in the South Bank area of central London. In addition to performances at the National Theatre building, the National Theatre tours productions at theatres across the United Kingdom. The theatre has transferred numerous productions to Broadway and toured some as far as China, Australia and New Zealand. However, touring productions to European cities was suspended in February 2021 over concerns about uncertainty over work permits, additional costs and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Trackers Of Oxyrhynchus
''The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus'' is a 1990 play by English poet and playwright Tony Harrison. It is partially based on ''Ichneutae'', a satyr play by the fifth-century BC Athenian dramatist Sophocles, which was found in fragments at the Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus. In addition to its classical content, Harrison's play is also a dramatised account of the discovery of the papyrus fragments containing Sophocles' play by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt. The play had a one-performance première on 12 July 1988 in the ancient stadium of Delphi, Greece with a follow-up performance at the Royal National Theatre two years later on 27 March 1990. The 1988 premiere at Delphi starred Jack Shepherd as Grenfell, Barrie Rutter as Hunt and Juliet Stevenson in the role of the mountain nymph Kyllene. No filming was allowed during the 1988 performance. Before appearing on the stage in London the play also had a "homecoming" performance at Salt's Mill, a former textile mill, at Saltaire, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Harrison
Tony Harrison (born 30 April 1937) is an English poet, translator and playwright. He was born in Beeston, Leeds and he received his education in Classics from Leeds Grammar School and Leeds University. He is one of Britain's foremost verse writers and many of his works have been performed at the Royal National Theatre. He is noted for controversial works such as the poem " V", as well as his versions of dramatic works: from ancient Greek such as the tragedies ''Oresteia'' and ''Lysistrata'', from French Molière's ''The Misanthrope'', from Middle English ''The Mysteries''. He is also noted for his outspoken views, particularly those on the Iraq War. In 2015, he was honoured with the David Cohen Prize in recognition for his body of work. In 2016, he was awarded the Premio Feronia in Rome. Works Adaptation of the English Medieval Mystery Plays, based on the York and Wakefield cycles, ''The Mysteries'', were first performed in 1985 by the Royal National Theatre. Interviewed by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Borchert
Wolfgang Borchert (; 20 May 1921 – 20 November 1947) was a German author and playwright whose work was strongly influenced by his experience of dictatorship and his service in the ''Wehrmacht'' during the Second World War. His work is among the best-known examples of the Trümmerliteratur movement in post-World War II Germany. His most famous work is the drama ''Draußen vor der Tür'' (''The Man Outside''), which he wrote soon after the end of World War II. His works are uncompromising on the issues of humanity and humanism. He is one of the most popular authors of the German postwar period; his work continues to be studied in German schools. Life Borchert was born in Hamburg, the only child of teacher Fritz Borchert, who also worked for the Dada magazine ''Die Rote Erde'', and author Hertha Borchert, who worked for the Hamburg radio and was famous for her dialect poetry. Borchert's family was liberal and progressive, and they moved in Hamburg's intellectual social circles. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Man Outside
''The Man Outside'' (, literally ''Outside, at the door'') is a play by Wolfgang Borchert, written in a few days in the late autumn of 1946. It made its debut on German radio on 13 February 1947. ''The Man Outside'' describes the hopelessness of a post-war soldier called Beckmann who returns from Russia to find that he has lost his wife and his home, as well as his illusions and beliefs. He finds every door he comes to closed; even nature seems to reject him. Due to its release during the sensitive immediate postwar period, Borchert subtitled his play "''A play that no theatre wants to perform and no audience wants to see.''" Despite this, the first radio broadcast (February 1947) was very successful. The first theatrical production of ''The Man Outside'' (at the ''Hamburger Kammerspiele'') opened on the day after Borchert's death, 21 November 1947. The play consists of five scenes in one act. It makes use of expressionist forms and Brechtian techniques, such as the '' Verfre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ambient Music
Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody.The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast, Bloomsbury, London, 2003. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual",Prendergast, M. ''The Ambient Century''. 2001. Bloomsbury, USA or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer. The genre originated in the 1960s and 1970s, when new musical instruments were being introduced to a wider market, such as the synthesizer. It was presaged by Erik Satie's furniture music and styles such as musique concrète, minimal music, and German electronic music, but was prominently named and popularized by British mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dynamics (music)
In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer depending on the musical context: for instance, the ''forte'' marking (meaning loud) in one part of a piece might have quite different objective loudness in another piece or even a different section of the same piece. The execution of dynamics also extends beyond loudness to include changes in timbre and sometimes tempo rubato. Purpose and interpretation Dynamics are one of the expressive elements of music. Used effectively, dynamics help musicians sustain variety and interest in a musical performance, and communicate a particular emotional state or feeling. Dynamic markings are always relative. never indicates a precise level of loudness; it merely indicates that music in a passage so marked should be considerably quieter than . There are ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tempo
In musical terminology, tempo (Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (often using conventional Italian terms) and is usually measured in beats per minute (or bpm). In modern classical compositions, a "metronome mark" in beats per minute may supplement or replace the normal tempo marking, while in modern genres like electronic dance music, tempo will typically simply be stated in BPM. Tempo may be separated from articulation and meter, or these aspects may be indicated along with tempo, all contributing to the overall texture. While the ability to hold a steady tempo is a vital skill for a musical performer, tempo is changeable. Depending on the genre of a piece of music and the performers' interpretation, a piece may be played with slight tempo rubato or drastic variances. In ensembles, the tempo is often ind ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diatonic Scale
In music theory, a diatonic scale is any heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps, depending on their position in the scale. This pattern ensures that, in a diatonic scale spanning more than one octave, all the half steps are Maximal evenness, maximally separated from each other (i.e. separated by at least two whole steps). The seven pitch (music), pitches of any diatonic scale can also be obtained by using a Interval cycle, chain of six perfect fifths. For instance, the seven natural (music), natural pitch classes that form the C-major scale can be obtained from a stack of perfect fifths starting from F: :F–C–G–D–A–E–B Any sequence of seven successive natural notes, such as C–D–E–F–G–A–B, and any Transposition (music), transposition thereof, is a diatonic scale. Modern musical keyboards are des ... [...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] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Tempo")
