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Cascading Strings
Cascading strings (also sometimes known as "tumbling strings") is an arrangement technique of British light music. This technique is associated in the U.S. with the style of easy listening known as beautiful music. The cascading strings effect was first developed by British composer/arranger Ronald Binge in 1951 for Annunzio Paolo Mantovani and his Mantovani Orchestra, with whom the sound would be most associated. In 1951, record label Decca wanted Mantovani's 12-piece orchestra to produce something that would rival the big American concert orchestras. Binge, a musician in Mantovani's orchestra, had already been experimenting with arrangements that might replicate the long reverberating sound of composer Claudio Monteverdi, who had written works to take advantage of the spatial properties of the acoustic in large cathedrals. He now suggested that they dramatically increase the size of the string section of the orchestra. Decca invested in the expensive idea, which Mantovani calle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Easy Listening
Easy listening (including mood music) is a popular music genre and radio format that was most popular during the 1950s to 1970s. It is related to middle-of-the-road (MOR) music and encompasses instrumental recordings of standards, hit songs, non-rock vocals and instrumental covers of selected popular rock songs. It mostly concentrates on music that pre-dates the rock and roll era, characteristically on music from the 1940s and 1950s. It was differentiated from the mostly instrumental beautiful music format by its variety of styles, including a percentage of vocals, arrangements and tempos to fit various parts of the broadcast day. Easy listening music is often confused with lounge music, but while it was popular in some of the same venues it was meant to be listened to for enjoyment rather than as background sound. History The style has been synonymous with the tag "with strings". String instruments had been used in sweet bands in the 1930s and was the dominant sound track ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beautiful Music
Beautiful music (sometimes abbreviated as BM, B/EZ or BM/EZ for "beautiful music/easy listening") is a mostly instrumental music format that was prominent in North American radio from the late 1950s through the 1980s. Easy listening, elevator music, light music, mood music, and Muzak are other terms that overlap with this format and the style of music that it featured. Beautiful music can also be regarded as a subset of the middle of the road radio format. History Beautiful music initially offered soft and unobtrusive instrumental selections on a very structured schedule with limited commercial interruptions. It often functioned as a free background music service for stores, with commercial breaks consisting only of announcements aimed at shoppers already in the stores. This practice was known as "storecasting" and was very common on the FM dial in the 1940s and 1950s. Many of these FM stations usually simulcast their AM station and used a subcarrier ( SCA) to transmit a hitch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ronald Binge
Ronald Binge (15 July 1910 – 6 September 1979) was a British composer and arranger of light music. He arranged many of Mantovani's most famous pieces before composing his own music, which included ''Elizabethan Serenade'' and '' Sailing By''.Ades, David. 'Binge, Ronald', in ''Grove Music Online'' (2001) Biography Binge was born in a working-class neighbourhood in Derby, Derbyshire, in the English Midlands. In his childhood he was a chorister at Saint Andrews Church (Church of England), London Road, Derby – 'the railwaymen's church' (demolished 1970). Binge was educated at the Derby School of Music, where he studied the organ. Early in his career he was a cinema organist, and later worked in summer orchestras in British seaside resorts (including Blackpool and Great Yarmouth), for which he learned to play the piano accordion. Binge's skill as a cinema organist was put to good use, and he played the organ in Mantovani's first band, the Tipica Orchestra. During the Second Wor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani (; 15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980) was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature. The book ''British Hit Singles & Albums'' stated that he was "Britain's most successful album act before the Beatles ... the first act to sell over one million stereo albums and avesix albums simultaneously in the US Top 30 in 1959". Biography Mantovani was born in Venice, Italy, into a musical family. His father, Benedetto Paolo "Bismarck" Mantovani, was a violinist and served as the concertmaster of La Scala opera house's orchestra in Milan, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. The family moved to England in 1912, where young Annunzio studied at Trinity College of Music in London. After graduation, he formed his own orchestra, which played in and around Birmingham. He married Winifred Moss in 1934, having two children: Kenneth (born 12 July 1935) and Paula Irene (born 11 April 1939) ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Decca Records
Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American Decca's president. In 1937, anticipating Nazi Germany, Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca and the link between the U.K. and U.S. Decca labels was broken for several decades. The British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group. The U.S. Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG (Universal Music Group). Label name The name dates back to a portable phonograph, gramophone called the "Decca Dulcephone" patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel and Sons. The name "Decca" was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claudio Monteverdi
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considered a crucial transitional figure between the Renaissance and Baroque periods of music history. Born in Cremona, where he undertook his first musical studies and compositions, Monteverdi developed his career first at the court of Mantua () and then until his death in the Republic of Venice where he was ''maestro di cappella'' at the basilica of San Marco. His surviving letters give insight into the life of a professional musician in Italy of the period, including problems of income, patronage and politics. Much of Monteverdi's output, including many stage works, has been lost. His surviving music includes nine books of madrigals, large-scale religious works, such as his ''Vespro della Beata Vergine'' (''Vespers for the Blessed Virgin'') ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Max Jaffa
Max Jaffa OBE (28 December 1911 – 30 July 1991) was a British light orchestral violinist and bandleader. He is best remembered as the leader of the Palm Court Orchestra and trio, with Jack Byfield (piano) and Reginald Kilbey (cello), which broadcast on BBC Radio. His career lasted 70 years, before retiring in 1990. Childhood and education He was born Max Jaffe in London, the first child of Israel Jaffe, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, and Milly Makoff, his London-born Russian wife. Hearing the début of Jascha Heifetz in 1919 inspired him to take up the violin. After making his solo debut in a concert at the Brighton Palace Pier Theatre at the age of nine, he played in the pit of a silent cinema orchestra, to furnish background and atmosphere for silent films, while still at school. He studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Max Mossel, where he was a favourite of Sir Landon Ronald and where he won the Gold Medal. Early career and wartime In 1928 on leaving Guild ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sidney Sax
Sidney Sax (1913–2005) was a British violinist. He was a noted orchestral leader and also a contractor, arranging personnel for many recording sessions. In 1964, he jointly founded the National Philharmonic Orchestra, London together with Charles Gerhardt. The National Philharmonic Orchestra, which was later incorporated in 1970, was a freelance orchestra that included amongst its players leading musicians from all the London orchestras. Sax had often contracted the leaders of most of London's orchestras to populate his first violin section. Recording career Sax brought together the National Philharmonic Orchestra to make several notable recordings with Leopold Stokowski in the 1970s. Their first recording together (for a 'Desmar' LP in April/May 1975) was of Rachmaninov's Symphony No. 3, which had been premiered by Stokowski in 1936. EMI 7243-5-66759-2-6. There were two albums for PYE Records recorded at West Ham Central Mission, in 1976. Record PCNH4 included Saint-Saà ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hugo And Luigi
Hugo & Luigi were an American record producing team, made up of songwriters and producers Hugo Peretti and Luigi Creatore, who shared an office in New York's Brill Building. Besides their working relationship, they were cousins. Background First coming to attention with singles released on Mercury Records in the mid-1950s, they went on to produce Perry Como, Sam Cooke and several other RCA Victor artists, including the hit records "Twistin' the Night Away", "Another Saturday Night", "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" by the Tokens, " Shout", a classic by the Isley Brothers, and "I Will Follow Him" by Little Peggy March. They co-wrote Elvis Presley's hit " Can't Help Falling in Love", with George David Weiss. They also produced albums by Della Reese including ''The Classic Della'', a collection of pop songs based on classical themes and ''Waltz With Me, Della'', a collection of popular songs in 3/4 time. Their track, "La Plume de Ma Tante" (written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning), reached ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and some Lutheran churches.New Standard Encyclopedia, 1998 by Standard Educational Corporation, Chicago, Illinois; page B-262c Church buildings embodying the functions of a cathedral first appeared in Italy, Gaul, Spain, and North Africa in the 4th century, but cathedrals did not become universal within the Western Catholic Church until the 12th century, by which time they had developed architectural forms, institutional structures, and legal identities distinct from parish churches, monastic churches, and episcopal residences. The cathedral is more important in the hierarchy than the church because it is from the cathedral that the bishop governs the area unde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reverberation
Reverberation (also known as reverb), in acoustics, is a persistence of sound, after a sound is produced. Reverberation is created when a sound or signal is reflected causing numerous reflections to build up and then decay as the sound is absorbed by the surfaces of objects in the space – which could include furniture, people, and air. This is most noticeable when the sound source stops but the reflections continue, their amplitude decreasing, until zero is reached. Reverberation is frequency dependent: the length of the decay, or reverberation time, receives special consideration in the architectural design of spaces which need to have specific reverberation times to achieve optimum performance for their intended activity. In comparison to a distinct echo, that is detectable at a minimum of 50 to 100 ms after the previous sound, reverberation is the occurrence of reflections that arrive in a sequence of less than approximately 50 ms. As time passes, the amplitude of t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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