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Washint
Washint (Amharic: ዋሽንት) is an end-blown wooden flute originally used in Ethiopia. Traditionally, Amharic musicians would pass on their oral history through song accompanied by the ''washint'' as well as the krar, a six stringed lyre, and the masenqo, a one string fiddle. Occurrence Along with the ''Krar'' and the ''Masenqo'', the ''Washint'' flute is one of the most widespread and ubiquitous musical instruments of the Amharas. The washint is a favorite among the shepherds and cowherders. Construction and design The ''washint'' can be constructed using bamboo, wood or other cane, and increasingly flutes of metal and plastic tubes can be seen. Varieties exists in different lengths and relative fingerhole placement, and a performer might use several different flutes over the course of a performance to accommodate different song types. It generally has four finger-holes, which allows the player to create a pentatonic scale. See also * Ney, a flute of similar constru ...
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Krar
Krar (Amharic: ክራር) is a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale. A modern ''Krar'' may be amplified, much in the same way as an electric guitar or violin. The ''Krar'', along with ''Masenqo'' and the ''Washint'', is one of the most widespread musical instruments of the Amhara ethnic group. Role in Amhara society Historical In Amhara society the ''krar'' was viewed as an instrument inspired by the Devil and was therefore inferior, whereas the '' Begena'' was for praising God and seen as sacred. The ''krar'' was used to adulate feminine beauty, to create sexual arousal and to eulogize carnal love. The instrument has been associated with brigands, outlaws and wanderers. Wanderers played the ''krar'' to solicit food, and outlaws played it to sing an Amhara war song called ''Fano''. Contemporary Today, the ''krar'' which used to be the plaything of the Amharas, has become one of the most popular Ethiopian stri ...
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Krar
Krar (Amharic: ክራር) is a five-or-six stringed bowl-shaped lyre from Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is tuned to a pentatonic scale. A modern ''Krar'' may be amplified, much in the same way as an electric guitar or violin. The ''Krar'', along with ''Masenqo'' and the ''Washint'', is one of the most widespread musical instruments of the Amhara ethnic group. Role in Amhara society Historical In Amhara society the ''krar'' was viewed as an instrument inspired by the Devil and was therefore inferior, whereas the '' Begena'' was for praising God and seen as sacred. The ''krar'' was used to adulate feminine beauty, to create sexual arousal and to eulogize carnal love. The instrument has been associated with brigands, outlaws and wanderers. Wanderers played the ''krar'' to solicit food, and outlaws played it to sing an Amhara war song called ''Fano''. Contemporary Today, the ''krar'' which used to be the plaything of the Amharas, has become one of the most popular Ethiopian stri ...
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Amharic
Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other populations residing in major cities and towns of Ethiopia. The language serves as the official working language of the Ethiopian federal government, and is also the official or working language of several of Ethiopia's federal regions. It has over 31,800,000 mother-tongue speakers, with more than 25,100,000 second language speakers. Amharic is the most widely spoken language in Ethiopia, and the second most spoken mother-tongue in Ethiopia (after Oromo). Amharic is also the second largest Semitic language in the world (after Arabic). Amharic is written left-to-right using a system that grew out of the Geʽez script. The segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units is called an ''abugida'' (). The ...
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Masenqo
The Masenqo ( am, ማሲንቆ; Tigrinya: ጭራ-ዋጣ (ዋጣ) is a single-stringed bowed lute commonly found in the musical traditions of Ethiopia. As with the krar, this instrument is used by Ethiopian minstrels called ''azmaris'' ("singer" in Amharic) . Although it functions in a purely accompaniment capacity in songs, the masenqo requires considerable virtuosity, as azmaris accompany themselves while singing. Construction and design The square or diamond-shaped resonator is made of four small wooden boards glued together, then covered with a stretched parchment or rawhide. The single string is typically made of horse hair, and passes over a bridge. The instrument is tuned by means of a large tuning peg to fit the range of the singer's voice. It may be bowed by either the right or left hand, and the non-bow hand sits lightly on top of the upper part of the string. See also * Music of Ethiopia * Music of Eritrea The music of Eritrea, is a diverse mix of traditional an ...
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Amharas
Amharas ( am, አማራ, Āmara; gez, ዐምሐራ, ʾÄməḥära) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group which is indigenous to Ethiopia, traditionally inhabiting parts of the northwest Highlands of Ethiopia, particularly inhabiting the Amhara Region. According to the 2007 national census, Amharas numbered 19,867,817 individuals, comprising 26.9% of Ethiopia's population, and they are mostly Oriental Orthodox Christian (members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church). They are also found within the Ethiopian expatriate community, particularly in North America. They speak Amharic, an Afro-Asiatic language of the Semitic branch which serves as one of the five official languages of Ethiopia. As of 2018, Amharic has over 32 million native speakers and 25 million second language speakers. Various scholars have classified the Amharas and neighboring populations as Abyssinians. Origin The earliest extants of the Amhara as a people, dates to the early 12th century in the middle ...
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Pentatonic Scale
A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient civilizations and are still used in various musical styles to this day. There are two types of pentatonic scales: those with semitones (hemitonic) and those without (anhemitonic). Types Hemitonic and anhemitonic Musicology commonly classifies pentatonic scales as either ''hemitonic'' or ''anhemitonic''. Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones. (For example, in Japanese music the anhemitonic ''yo'' scale is contrasted with the hemitonic ''in'' scale.) Hemitonic pentatonic scales are also called "ditonic scales", because the largest interval in them is the ditone (e.g., in the scale C–E–F–G–B–C, the interval found between C–E and G–B). (This should not be confu ...
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Ney (Turkish)
The Turkish ney is an end-blown flute made of reed, an Ottoman variation on the ancient ney. Together with the Turkish tanbur lute and Turkish kemençe fiddle are considered the most typical instruments of Classical Turkish music. The ney also plays a primary role in the music of the Mevlevi Sufi rites (''semâ''). Description A rim-blown, oblique flute made of giant reed (''Arundo donax''), the Turkish ney has six finger-holes on the front and a high-set thumb-hole on the back. The thumb hole is not centered, but rather is angled to the left or right depending on whether the instrument was intended to be played with the left or right hand on top. A feature that distinguishes it from similar instruments of other cultures is the flared mouthpiece or lip-rest, called a ''bashpare'', traditionally made of water buffalo horn, ivory, or ebony, but in modern times many are plastic or similar durable material. The Turkish ney is played by pressing the ''bashpare'' against nearly- ...
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Kaval
The kaval is a chromatic end-blown flute traditionally played throughout the Balkans (in Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, Southern Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Northern Greece, and elsewhere) and Anatolia (including Turkey and Armenia). The kaval is primarily associated with mountain shepherds. Unlike the transverse flute, the kaval is fully open at both ends, and is played by blowing on the sharpened edge of one end. The kaval has eight playing holes (seven in front and one in the back for the thumb) and usually four more unfingered intonation holes near the bottom of the kaval. As a wooden rim-blown flute, kaval is similar to the ''kawala'' of the Arab world and ''ney'' of the Middle East. Construction While typically made of wood ( cornel cherry, apricot, plum, boxwood, mountain ash, etc.), kavals are also made from water buffalo horn, ''Arundo donax'' 1753 (Persian reed), metal and plastic. A kaval made without joints is usually mounted on a wooden holder, which pro ...
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Music Of Ethiopia
Ethiopian music is a term that can mean any music of Ethiopian origin, however, often it is applied to a genre, a distinct modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes. The music of the Ethiopian Highlands uses a fundamental modal system called ''qenet'', of which there are four main modes: , , , and . Three additional modes are variations on the above: tezeta minor, bati major, and bati minor.Abatte Barihun, liner notes of the album Ras Deshen, 200. Some songs take the name of their qenet, such as tizita, a song of reminiscence. When played on traditional instruments, these modes are generally not tempered (that is, the pitches may deviate slightly from the Western-tempered tuning system), but when played on Western instruments such as pianos and guitars, they are played using the Western-tempered tuning system. Music in the Ethiopian highlands is generally monophonic or heterophonic. In certain southern areas, some music is polyph ...
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Masenqo
The Masenqo ( am, ማሲንቆ; Tigrinya: ጭራ-ዋጣ (ዋጣ) is a single-stringed bowed lute commonly found in the musical traditions of Ethiopia. As with the krar, this instrument is used by Ethiopian minstrels called ''azmaris'' ("singer" in Amharic) . Although it functions in a purely accompaniment capacity in songs, the masenqo requires considerable virtuosity, as azmaris accompany themselves while singing. Construction and design The square or diamond-shaped resonator is made of four small wooden boards glued together, then covered with a stretched parchment or rawhide. The single string is typically made of horse hair, and passes over a bridge. The instrument is tuned by means of a large tuning peg to fit the range of the singer's voice. It may be bowed by either the right or left hand, and the non-bow hand sits lightly on top of the upper part of the string. See also * Music of Ethiopia * Music of Eritrea The music of Eritrea, is a diverse mix of traditional an ...
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YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the List of most visited websites, second most visited website, after Google Search. YouTube has more than 2.5 billion monthly users who collectively watch more than one billion hours of videos each day. , videos were being uploaded at a rate of more than 500 hours of content per minute. In October 2006, YouTube was bought by Google for $1.65 billion. Google's ownership of YouTube expanded the site's business model, expanding from generating revenue from advertisements alone, to offering paid content such as movies and exclusive content produced by YouTube. It also offers YouTube Premium, a paid subscription option for watching content without ads. YouTube also approved creators to participate in Google's Google AdSens ...
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