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Páll Guðmundsson
Páll Guðmundsson (; born 1959) is an Icelandic sculptor and artist. Born in Húsafell in the west of Iceland (where he still lives), he has done part of his studies at the University of Fine Arts in Cologne, Germany. Mostly, he sculptures faces of people out of the rock he finds around Húsafell. He has for example sculptured the faces of Johann Sebastian Bach, Björk and the Icelandic writer Thor Vilhjálmsson. Páll is also working as a musician with a unique idiophone, a large xylophone-like instrument made of stones called the '' Steinharpa''. He crafted the instrument himself using stones found around his home. With the instrument, he has performed along with the Icelandic band Sigur Rós. Páll is also the custodian of the legendary Húsafell Stone The Húsafell Stone is a legendary lifting stone weighing 186 kg (410 lb) located in a west country farming estate in Húsafell, Iceland about northeast of Reykjavík. The slightly triangular, slab shaped ston ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithophone
A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes. Notes may be sounded in combination (producing harmony) or in succession (melody). It is an idiophone comparable to instruments such as the glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone and marimba. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, lithophones are designated as '111.22' – directly-struck percussion plaques. Notable examples A rudimentary form of lithophone is the " rock gong", usually a natural rock formation opportunistically adapted to produce musical tones, such as that on Mfangano Island, in Lake Victoria, Kenya. The Gaval Dash in Gobustan State Historical and Cultural Reserve outside Baku, Azerbaijan is a natural stone that sounds like tambourine when struck with smaller rocks. The Great Stalacpipe Organ of Luray Caverns, Virginia, USA uses 37 stalactites to produce the Western scale. Other stalactite lithophones are at Tenkasi in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Húsafell
Húsafell () is a sprawling farm and church estate and the former site of a rectory. It is the innermost farm in Borgarfjörður in the west county of Iceland, not far from Reykholt and Reykholtsdalur. Húsafell farm now serves as a hub of service for various types of tourists visiting and residing in its surrounding area. The Húsafell surrounding area thus includes a wide array of second homes, tent sites, holiday housing and short term lodgings. Among its amenities are a swimming pool and a golf course. The wider Borgarfjörður region is also renowned for its multitude of lakes where there is trout to be had and salmon to be lured in the many rivers where it is possible to go fishing. The actual estate of Húsafell farm stretches all the way to the roots of Eiríksjökull and Langjökull, covering all in all an area of appr. 100 square kilometers. The farm itself is situated in the midst of Hallmundarhraun, and the Húsafell birch wood of Húsafellsskógur. Due to its ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cologne
Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and over 3.1 million people in the Cologne Bonn Region, Cologne Bonn urban region. Cologne is also part of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, the List of EU metropolitan regions by GDP#2021 ranking of top four German metropolitan regions, second biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. Centered on the left bank of the Rhine, left (west) bank of the Rhine, Cologne is located on the River Rhine (Lower Rhine), about southeast of the North Rhine-Westphalia state capital Düsseldorf and northwest of Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. The city's medieval Cologne Cathedral () was the History of the world's tallest buildings#Churches and cathedrals: Tallest buildings between the 13th and 20th century, world's talles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total population of over 84 million in an area of , making it the most populous member state of the European Union. It borders Denmark to the north, Poland and the Czech Republic to the east, Austria and Switzerland to the south, and France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands to the west. The Capital of Germany, nation's capital and List of cities in Germany by population, most populous city is Berlin and its main financial centre is Frankfurt; the largest urban area is the Ruhr. Settlement in the territory of modern Germany began in the Lower Paleolithic, with various tribes inhabiting it from the Neolithic onward, chiefly the Celts. Various Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the region's westernmost and most list of countries and dependencies by population density, sparsely populated country. Its Capital city, capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which is home to about 36% of the country's roughly 380,000 residents (excluding nearby towns/suburbs, which are separate municipalities). The official language of the country is Icelandic language, Icelandic. Iceland is on a rift between Plate tectonics, tectonic plates, and its geologic activity includes geysers and frequent Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions. The interior consists of a volcanic plateau with sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, and many Glacial stream, glacial rivers flow to the sea through the Upland and lowland, lowlands. Iceland i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, [ˈjoːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ]) ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral ''Brandenburg Concertos''; solo instrumental works such as the Cello Suites (Bach), cello suites and Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin (Bach), sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the ''Goldberg Variations'' and ''The Well-Tempered Clavier''; organ works such as the ' and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the ''St Matthew Passion'' and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Reception of Johann Sebastian Bach's music, Bach Revival, he has been widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music. The Bach family had already produced several composers when Joh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Björk
Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct voice, three-octave vocal range, and eccentric public persona, she has developed an Eclecticism in music, eclectic musical style over a career spanning four decades, drawing on electronica, pop music, pop, dance music, dance, trip hop, jazz, and avant-garde music, avant-garde music. She is one of the most influential pioneers in electronic music, electronic and experimental music. Born and raised in Reykjavík, Björk began her music career at the age of 11 and gained international recognition as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Sugarcubes by the age of 21. After the Sugarcubes disbanded in 1992, Björk gained prominence as a solo artist with her albums ''Debut (Björk album), Debut'' (1993), ''Post (Björk album), Post'' (1995), and ''Homogenic'' (1997), collaborating with artis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thor Vilhjálmsson
Thor Vilhjálmsson (; 12 August 19252 March 2011) was an Icelandic writer. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac .... Over the course of his life Vilhjálmsson wrote novels, plays, and poetry and also did translations. In 1988 he won the Nordic Council Literature Prize for his novel '' Justice Undone'' (Icelandic: ''Grámosinn glóir''). In 1992, he won the Swedish Academy Nordic Prize, known as the 'little Nobel'. Bibliography (partial) *1950 ''Maðurinn er alltaf einn'' *1954 ''Dagar mannsins'' *1957 ''Andlit í spegli dropans'' *1968 ''Fljótt, fljótt sagði fuglinn'' *1970 ''Óp bjöllunnar'' *1972 ''Folda : þrjár skýrslur'' *1975 ''Fuglaskottís'' *1976 ''Mánasigð'' *1977 ''Skuggar af skýjum'' *1979 ''Turnleikhúsið'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idiophone
An idiophone is any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the vibration of the instrument itself, without the use of air flow (as with aerophones), strings (chordophones), membranes (membranophones) or electricity ( electrophones). It is the first of the four main divisions in the original Hornbostel–Sachs system of musical instrument classification (see List of idiophones by Hornbostel–Sachs number). The early classification of Victor-Charles Mahillon called this group of instruments ''autophones''. The most common are struck idiophones, or concussion idiophones, which are made to vibrate by being struck, either directly with a stick or hand (like the wood block, singing bowl, steel tongue drum, handpan, triangle or marimba) or indirectly, with scraping or shaking motions (like maracas or flexatone). Various types of bells fall into both categories. A common plucked idiophone is the Jew's harp. According to Sachs, idiophones Etymology The word ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xylophone
The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Each bar is an idiophone tuned to a pitch of a musical scale, whether pentatonic or heptatonic in the case of many African and Asian instruments, diatonic in many western children's instruments, or chromatic for orchestral use. The term ''xylophone'' may be used generally, to include all such instruments such as the marimba, balafon and even the semantron. However, in the orchestra, the term ''xylophone'' refers specifically to a chromatic instrument of somewhat higher pitch range and drier timbre than the marimba, and these two instruments should not be confused. A person who plays the xylophone is known as a ''xylophonist'' or simply a ''xylophone player''. The term is also popularly used to refer to similar instruments of the lithophone and metallophone types. For example, the Pixiphone and many similar toys described by the makers as xylophones have b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithophone
A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes. Notes may be sounded in combination (producing harmony) or in succession (melody). It is an idiophone comparable to instruments such as the glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone and marimba. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, lithophones are designated as '111.22' – directly-struck percussion plaques. Notable examples A rudimentary form of lithophone is the " rock gong", usually a natural rock formation opportunistically adapted to produce musical tones, such as that on Mfangano Island, in Lake Victoria, Kenya. The Gaval Dash in Gobustan State Historical and Cultural Reserve outside Baku, Azerbaijan is a natural stone that sounds like tambourine when struck with smaller rocks. The Great Stalacpipe Organ of Luray Caverns, Virginia, USA uses 37 stalactites to produce the Western scale. Other stalactite lithophones are at Tenkasi in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós () is an Icelandic post-rock band that formed in 1994 in Reykjavík. It comprises lead vocalist and guitarist Jónsi, Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson, bassist Georg Hólm, and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson. Known for their ethereal sound, frontman Jónsi's falsetto vocals, and their use of bowed guitar, Sigur Rós incorporate Classical music, classical and minimal music, minimal aesthetic elements. Jónsi's vocals are sung in Icelandic and non-linguistic vocalisations the band terms ''Vonlenska''. They have released eight studio albums, and attracted critical and commercial attention with their second album ''Ágætis byrjun''. History 1997–1998: ''Von'' and ''Von brigði'' Jónsi, Jón Þór "Jónsi" Birgisson (guitar and vocals), Georg Hólm (bass) and Ágúst Ævar Gunnarsson (drums) formed Sigur Rós in Reykjavík in January 1994. The band's name, which means "Victory Rose", is taken from the name of Jónsi's younger sister, Sigurrós, born a few days before the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
