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Zortziko
The zortziko is a dance rhythm that originates in the Basque Country. It is also used as an accompaniment rhythm for vocal melodies, such as "Gernikako arbola", the unofficial anthem of the Basques, composed in 1853 by José María Iparraguirre . The zortziko has a distinctive 5/8 time signature, consisting of three subdivisions of 1, 2, and 2 beats. Some theories hold that it is in 5/4 time, "like the Rueda except that the 2nd and 4th beats are almost always dotted notes" , or that it actually is a double compound meter combining an irregular binary (5/16 divided 2 + 3) and an irregular ternary (8/16 divided 2 + 3 + 3), creating an ostinato pattern of "irregular bichrome" measures, which in Constantin Brăiloiu's terminology is called an aksak rhythm . Despite the zortziko's origins and continued popularity in folk music, some composers (including Isaac Albéniz, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Aita Donostia, Jesús Guridi, Gabriel Pierné, Joaquín Turina, Maurice Ravel (in his pia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piano Trio (Ravel)
Maurice Ravel's Piano Trio for piano, violin, and cello is a chamber work composed in 1914. Dedicated to Ravel's counterpoint teacher André Gedalge, the trio was first performed in Paris in January 1915, by Alfredo Casella (piano), Gabriel Willaume (violin), and Louis Feuillard (cello). A typical performance of the work lasts about 30 minutes. Composition Ravel had been planning to write a trio for at least six years before beginning work in earnest in March 1914. At the outset, Ravel remarked to his pupil Maurice Delage, "I’ve written my trio. Now all I need are the themes." During the summer of 1914, Ravel did his compositional work in the French Basque commune of Saint-Jean-de-Luz. Ravel was born across the bay in the Basque town of Ciboure; his mother was Basque, and he felt a deep identification with his Basque heritage. During the Trio's composition, Ravel was also working on a piano concerto based on Basque themes entitled ''Zazpiak Bat'' (Basque for "The Seven are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basque Country (greater Region)
The Basque Country ( eu, Euskal Herria; es, País Vasco; french: Pays basque) is the name given to the home of the Basque people. Trask, R.L. ''The History of Basque'' Routledge: 1997 The Basque country is located in the western Pyrenees, straddling the border between France and Spain on the coast of the Bay of Biscay. ''Euskal Herria'' is the oldest documented Basque name for the area they inhabit, dating from the 16th century. It comprises the Autonomous Communities of the Basque Country and Navarre in Spain and the Northern Basque Country in France. The region is home to the Basque people ( eu, Euskaldunak), their language ( eu, Euskara), culture and traditions. The area is neither linguistically nor culturally homogeneous, and certain areas have a majority of people who do not consider themselves Basque, such as the south of Navarre. The concept is still highly controversial, and the Supreme Court of Navarre has ruled against scholarly books that include the Navarre c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer. Born to a music-loving family, Ravel attended France's premier music college, the Paris Conservatoire; he was not well regarded by its conservative establishment, whose biased treatment of him caused a scandal. After leaving the conservatoire, Ravel found his own way as a composer, developing a style of great clarity and incorporating elements of modernism, baroque, neoclassicism and, in his later works, jazz. He liked to experiment with musical form, as in his best-known work, ''Boléro'' (1928), in which repetition takes the place of development. Renowned for his abilities in orchestration, Ravel made some orchestral arrangements of other compose ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stanley Sadie
Stanley John Sadie (; 30 October 1930 – 21 March 2005) was an influential and prolific British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the '' Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (1980), which was published as the first edition of ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians''. Along with Thurston Dart, Nigel Fortune and Oliver Neighbour he was one of Britain's leading musicologists of the post-World War II generation. Career Born in Wembley, Sadie was educated at St Paul's School, London, and studied music privately for three years with Bernard Stevens. At Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge he read music under Thurston Dart. Sadie earned Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in 1953, a Master of Arts degree in 1957, and a PhD in 1958. His doctoral dissertation was on mid-eighteenth-century British chamber music. After Cambridge, he taught at Trinity College of Music, London (1957–1965). Sadie then turned to musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Finnissy
Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue. An immensely prolific composer, his music is "notable for its dramatic urgency and expressive immediacy". Although he rejects the label, he is often regarded as the foremost composer of the New Complexity movement. Biography Early life Michael Finnissy was born at 77 Claverdale Road in Tulse Hill, London at roughly two in the morning on 17 March 1946 to Rita Isolene (''née'' Parsonson) and George Norman Finnissy. His father was employed at the London City Council. When he was four, he received his first piano lessons from his great aunt Rose Louise (Rosie) Hopwood, soon after writing his first compositions, He attended Hawes Down Infant and Junior schools, Bromley Technical High, and Beckenham and Penge Grammar schools and excelled in graphic art, mathematics, and English literature. Student years Finnissy received the William Hurlstone composition prize at the Croydon Music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Classical Music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" also applies to non-Western art music. Classical music is often characterized by formality and complexity in its musical form and harmonic organization, particularly with the use of polyphony. Since at least the ninth century it has been primarily a written tradition, spawning a sophisticated notational system, as well as accompanying literature in analytical, critical, historiographical, musicological and philosophical practices. A foundational component of Western Culture, classical music is frequently seen from the perspective of individual or groups of composers, whose compositions, personalities and beliefs have fundamentally shaped its history. Rooted in the patronage of churches and royal courts in Western Europe, surviving earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
José María Usandizaga
José María Usandizaga (31 March 1887–5 October 1915) was a Spanish Basque composer. A native of San Sebastián, Usandizaga began his musical studies in his hometown before moving to the Schola Cantorum in Paris. There, he was a composition pupil of Vincent d'Indy, and he took piano lessons from Gabriel Grovlez. From 1906 he was back in Spain, where he won success with his works for the stage and a number of other pieces. Usandizaga succumbed to tuberculosis in 1915. Most of Usandizaga's music is based on Basque themes; among his works are several chamber pieces, some rhapsodies, and the opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...s '' Mendi Mendiyan'' ("''High in the Mountains''", a Basque language folk opera) and '' Las golondrinas'' (The Swallows), init ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pablo Sorozábal
Pablo Sorozábal Mariezcurrena (18 September 1897 – 26 December 1988) was a Spanish composer of zarzuelas, operas, symphonic works, and the popular ''romanza'', " No puede ser". He was born in San Sebastián, in a working-class family. Trained in San Sebastián, Madrid and Leipzig; then in Berlin, where he preferred Friedrich Koch as composition teacher to Arnold Schönberg, whose theories he disliked. It was in Germany that he made his conducting debut, and the rostrum remained at the centre of his working life. His Leipzig concert works include the choral ''Suite vasca'' (1923); ''Dos apuntes Vascos'' (1925) and ''Symphonic Variations on a Basque Theme'' (1927); of later works the funeral march ''Gernika'' for chorus and orchestra (1966) is outstanding. The ''Siete Lieder'', 1929 settings of Heinrich Heine for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, are perhaps the finest works he produced in Germany. Two short but powerful compositions for chorus and orchestra, ''Maite'' (‘Ou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pablo De Sarasate
Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués (; 10 March 1844 – 20 September 1908), commonly known as Pablo de Sarasate, was a Spanish (Navarrese) violin virtuoso, composer and conductor of the Romantic period. His best known works include ''Zigeunerweisen'' (''Gypsy Airs''), the ''Spanish Dances'', and the '' Carmen Fantasy''. Biography Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre in 1844, the son of Don Miguel Sarasate, a local artillery bandmaster. Apparently, after seeing his father struggle with a passage for a long time, he picked up the violin and played it perfectly. He began studying the violin with his father at the age of five and later took lessons from a local teacher. His musical talent became evident early on and he appeared in his first public concert in A Coruña at the age of eight. His performance was well-received, and caught the attention of a wealthy patron who provided the funding for Sarasate to study under Manuel Rodríguez Saez in Madrid, where he gain ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée
Don Quichotte à Dulcinée is a song cycle by Maurice Ravel based on the story of ''Don Quixote''. It was first composed for voice and piano but later orchestrated. The songs are traditionally performed by a baritone or bass(-baritone). The cycle is made up of three independent pieces: ''Chanson Romanesque, Chanson épique,'' and ''Chanson à boire.'' The text was written by the librettist Paul Morand. It was composed between the years of 1932 and 1933. Composition history This was the last of Maurice Ravel's compositions, commissioned by the celebrated film director G. W. Pabst for a cinema version of ''Don Quixote'' starring the legendary bass Fyodor Chaliapin. The score was to include four songs (one more than the final version) along with background music for several episodes. As Ravel worked on the project in 1932, however, he suffered the increasingly disabling effects of Pick’s disease, a cerebral-neurological condition that gradually robbed him of motor skills and me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joaquín Turina
Joaquín Turina Pérez (9 December 188214 January 1949) was a Spanish composer of classical music.''Encyclopædia Britannica'' online (2014)"Joaquín Turina"/ref> Biography Turina was born in Seville. He studied in Seville as well as in Madrid. He lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914 where he took composition lessons from Vincent d'Indy at his Schola Cantorum de Paris and studied the piano under Moritz Moszkowski. Like his countryman and friend, Manuel de Falla, while there he got to know the impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, whom he was heavily inspired by. Marco, Tomás (1993)''Spanish Music in the Twentieth Century'' pp. 36–44. Harvard University Press On 10 December 1908 he married Obdulia Garzón and together they had five children. She was the dedicatee of the '' Danzas fantásticas'', which he completed in 1919. Along with de Falla, he returned to Madrid in 1914, working as a composer, teacher and critic. On 28 March 1916, he joined the Madri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gernikako Arbola
''Gernikako Arbola'' ("the Tree of Gernika" in Basque) is an oak tree that symbolizes traditional freedoms for the Biscayan people, and by extension for the Basque people as a whole. The Lords of Biscay (including kings of Castile and Carlist pretenders to the throne) swore to respect the Biscayan liberties under it, and the modern Lehendakari of the Basque Country swears his charge there. Dynasty In the Middle Ages, representatives of the villages of Biscay would hold assemblies under local big trees. As time passed, the role of separate assemblies was superseded by the Guernica Assembly in 1512, and its oak would acquire a symbolic meaning, with actual assemblies being held in a purpose-built hermitage-house (the current building dates from 1833). It was the Spanish regent Maria Christina accompanied by her infant daughter Queen Isabella II the last Spanish monarch to swear an oath to the ''charters'' under the iconic oak in 1839. The known specimens El Mundo, 26 Februa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
