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Paraguayan Harp
The Paraguayan harp is the national instrument of Paraguay, the result of the confluence of European and Guarani musical cultures. Derived from the classical angular harp, introduced during the Spanish colonization in the Jesuit Guarani Missions. It is a diatonic harp with 32, 36, 38 or 40, 42 or 46 strings, made from tropical wood, pine and cedar, with a rounded neck-arch, played with the fingernail. It accompanies traditional songs in the Guarani language. It stands 4.5–5 feet tall and weighs 8–10 pounds. Construction The Paraguayan harp is constructed in three parts which are never glued or attached in fixed form; the head (also called the neck) the arm and the body. Characterized by a long cone shaped sound box constructed in three parts with face attached and with a flat oval base and two to three sound oval holes on the backside ranging 3–4 inches in diameter each. It has two legs on the bottom which are 4  inches long. The Paraguayan Harp weighs appr ...
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List Of National Instruments (music)
This list contains musical instruments of symbolic or cultural importance within a nation, state, ethnicity, tribe or other group of people. In some cases, national instruments remain in wide use within the nation (such as the Puerto Rican '' cuatro''), but in others, their importance is primarily symbolic (such as the Welsh triple harp). Danish ethnologist Lisbet Torp has concluded that some national instrument traditions, such as the Finnish '' kantele'', are invented, pointing to the "influence of intellectuals and nationalists in the nationwide promotion of selected musical instruments as a vehicle for nationalistic ideas". Governments do not generally officially recognize national instruments; some exceptions being the Paraguayan harp, the Japanese '' koto'' and the Trinidadian steelpan. This list compiles instruments that have been alleged to be a ''national instrument'' by any of a variety of sources, and an instrument's presence on the list does not indicate th ...
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Harp
The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or concerts. Its most common form is triangular in shape and made of wood. Some have multiple rows of strings and pedal attachments. Ancient depictions of harps were recorded in Mesopotamia (now Iraq), Persia (now Iran) and Egypt, and later in India and China. By medieval times harps had spread across Europe. Harps were found across the Americas where it was a popular folk tradition in some areas. Distinct designs also emerged from the African continent. Harps have symbolic political traditions and are often used in logos, including in Ireland. Historically, strings were made of sinew (animal tendons). Other materials have included gut (animal intestines), plant fiber, braided hemp, cotton cord, silk, nylon, and wire. In pedal harp scor ...
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Paraguayan Musical Instruments
Paraguayans () are the citizens of Paraguay. Though the majority of Paraguayans reside in Paraguay, significant communities have been established in multiple countries, most noticeably Argentina, Spain, United States, Brazil. History The first inhabitants of Paraguay were the Guarani people. Racial and ethnic groups As in other Latin American countries, in Paraguay, from the onset of Spanish colonization and settlement, miscegenation or ''mestizaje'' was the norm rather than the exception. Paraguay has one of the most homogeneous populations in South America. About 75% of the people are mestizo (mixed Spanish and Guaraní Native American descent), 20% are Whites, and the rest are small minorities of Indigenous or Afro Paraguayan origin. European or white Indigenous While only a 1.7% of Paraguay's population is fully indigenous according to the 2012 national census, 75% of the population identifies as being partially of indigenous descent; Spanish, an Indo-European lan ...
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Diatonic Scale
In music theory a diatonic scale is a heptatonic scale, heptatonic (seven-note) 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. In other words, the half steps are maximally separated from each other. 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 designed so that the white-key notes form a diatonic scale, though transpositions of this diatonic scale require one or more black keys. A diaton ...
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Glissando
In music, a glissando (; plural: ''glissandi'', abbreviated ''gliss.'') is a wikt:glide, glide from one pitch (music), pitch to another (). It is an Italianized Musical terminology, musical term derived from the French ''glisser'', "to glide". In some contexts, it is equivalent to portamento, which is a continuous, seamless glide between notes. In other contexts, it refers to discrete, stepped glides across notes, such as on a piano. Some terms that are similar or equivalent in some contexts are slide, sweep bend, smear, rip (for a loud, violent glissando to the beginning of a note), lip (in jazz terminology, when executed by changing one's embouchure on a wind instrument), plop, or falling hail (a glissando on a harp using the back of the fingernails). On wind instruments, a scoop is a glissando ascending to the onset of a note achieved entirely with the embouchure, except on instruments that have a slide (such as a trombone). Notation The glissando is indicated by following the ...
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Bare-throated Bellbird
The bare-throated bellbird (''Procnias nudicollis'') is a species of bird in the family Cotingidae. It is found in moist subtropical and tropical forests in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. The male has white plumage and bristly bluish-black bare skin around its eye, beak and throat. The female is more drab, being olive-brown above with streaked yellow underparts. The male has one of the loudest known bird calls, producing a metallic sound similar to a hammer striking an anvil. This bird feeds strictly on fruit and plays a part in dispersing the seeds of forest trees. It is considered Near Threatened because of loss of its forest habitat and collection for the pet bird trade The male bird has striking white plumage and a bare bluish-black patch of skin around its eyes and beak and on its throat. The female is duller in colour with a black crown, olive-brown upper parts and yellowish underparts streaked with olive green. This bird is about long. Like other bellbirds (''Procnias ...
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Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest contemporary male order), an order for nuns known as the Order of Saint Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis, a Third Order of Saint Francis#Third Order Regular, religious and Secular Franciscan Order, secular group open to male and female members. Franciscans adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of the founder and of his main associates and followers, such as Clare of Assisi, Anthony of Padua, and Elizabeth of Hungary. Several smaller Franciscan spirituality in Protestantism, Protestant Franciscan orders have been established since the late 19th century as well, particularly in the Lutheranism, Lutheran and Anglicanism, Anglican traditions. Certain Franciscan communities are ecumenism, ecumenical in nat ...
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Order Of Friars Minor Capuchin
The Order of Friars Minor Capuchin (; postnominal abbr. OFMCap) is a religious order of Franciscan friars within the Catholic Church, one of three " First Orders" that reformed from the Franciscan Friars Minor Observant (OFMObs, now OFM), the other being the Conventuals (OFMConv). Franciscans reformed as Capuchins in 1525 with the purpose of regaining the original Habit (tunic) of St. Francis of Assisi and also for returning to a stricter observance of the rule established by Francis of Assisi in 1209. History Origins The Order arose in 1525 when Matteo da Bascio, an Observant Franciscan friar native to the Italian region of Marche, said he had been inspired by God with the idea that the manner of life led by the friars of his day was not the one which their founder, St. Francis of Assisi, had envisaged. He sought to return to the primitive way of life of solitude and penance, as practised by the founder of their Order. His religious superiors tried to suppress the ...
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Catgut
Catgut (also known as gut) is a type of cord that is prepared from the natural fiber found in the walls of animal intestines. Catgut makers usually use sheep or goat intestines, but occasionally use the intestines of cattle, hogs, horses, mules, or donkeys. Despite the name, catgut is not made from cat intestines. Etymology The word ''catgut'' may have been an abbreviation of the word ''cattlegut''. Alternatively, it may derive by folk etymology from ''kitgut'' or ''kitstring'' — the dialectal word ''kit'', meaning fiddle, having at some point been confused with the word ''kit'' for a young cat, the word "kit" being possibly derived from Welsh. In the 16th century a ''kit'' was a "small fiddle used by dancing teachers," a name probably derived from a shortening of Old English ''cythere'', from Latin , from Greek (see guitar). Common uses Musical instruments Historically, catgut was the most common material for the strings of harps, lutes, violins, violas, cellos, ...
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Guarani Language
Guarani (Avañe'ẽ), also called Paraguayan Guarani, is a language of South America that belongs to the Tupi–Guarani branch of the Tupian languages, Tupian language family. It is one of the two official languages of Paraguay (along with Spanish language, Spanish), where it is spoken by the majority of the population, and where half of the rural population are monolingual speakers of the language. Variants of the language are spoken by communities in neighboring countries including parts of northeastern Argentina, southeastern Bolivia and southwestern Brazil. It is a second official language of the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Corrientes Province, Corrientes since 2004 and in the Municipalities of Brazil, Brazilian city of Tacuru since 2010. Guarani is also one of the three official languages of Mercosur, alongside Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Guarani is one of the most widely spoken indigenous languages of the Americas, Native American langu ...
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Diatonic Scale
In music theory a diatonic scale is a heptatonic scale, heptatonic (seven-note) 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. In other words, the half steps are maximally separated from each other. 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 designed so that the white-key notes form a diatonic scale, though transpositions of this diatonic scale require one or more black keys. A diaton ...
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