The Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model is one of their most loved guitars. Players of Gibson guitars often wonder how the great Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model is made. Made in Nashville, Tennessee, the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model is made much like their other models. To begin with, the wood is chosen for the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model.
The top of the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model is glued up into 2" thick block, and most of the backs are solid. Machines put the front and backs together for the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model. Most are surprised by the machine assembly of the guitars, however, the Gibson Guitar Hummingbird and all other models have been built by machines for over 100 years.
The Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model's neck is made of up to three different pieces. The pieces of the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird are laminated and cut. The wing blocks are added to the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird and the fingerboards are assembled. Most of the fingerboards on the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird are made of rosewood or ebony. The Gibson Guitar Hummingbird, like all other Gibson guitars, is hand-fretted. When everything is put together, the Gibson Guitar Hummingbird is ready to go.
Many musicians have loved the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird over the years. The Gibson Guitars Hummingbird is one that offers the signature Gibson sound and quality. Durability is one thing that draws artists to the Gibson Guitars Hummingbird. The Gibson Guitars Hummingbird model is a lovely instrument that is also a piece of art.
If you ask someone to think of a musical instrument, most likely French horns are not the first instrument that comes to mind. Yet, it is quite an interesting, beautiful, and exceptional looking music instrument. It brings with it a mysterious quality that projects a mellow and subdued sound to any orchestra, marching band, concert band, or even a brass ensemble.
It is quite intriguing actually, to look at the historical underpinnings of French horns. Looking back at their birth and development brings to light how they acquired their sound and unique features. It also explains why even today they are not the most popular musical instrument in any type of music group.
The most primitive form of french horns were megaphones. They were made from a hollow branch or cane and the player sang, spoke, or made vocal noises into them to produce a harsh sound to frighten away evil spirits. Megaphones evolved into the early trumpets which could produce only one or two notes and made a terrifying sound. These trumpets were used at circumcisions, funerals, and sunset rites.
It was not until the Renaissance period, about 1550, that a music instrument was developed which bears the most resemblance to the present day French horns. This was the close-coiled helical horn, established in Central Europe. About one hundred years later, the parent of French horns was constructed in the form of a thin conical tube with two or more circular coils.
There is no evidence that French horns were used for purely musical purposes with other music instruments prior to the eighteenth century, only for hunting in France, Germany, and Italy. Their introduction in Germany by Graf Franz Anton von Sporck in 1681 and their inclusion in a German orchestra score in 1705 helped them to gain a position in the music world. In England, however, they were used mainly in the form of an entertaining duet in the gardens or along the river versus attaining the prestigious right to be in an orchestra. France continued to restrict their use to the chase for hunting until 1735.
To play French horns during the early 1700's, musicians would point the widely flared bell upwards like a bugle horn. The length of the tubing varied according to the pitch needed, so separate horns were needed for every key change. This problem was solved by the crook system, developed in 1715, which consisted of various lengths of tube rings fitting into the end of the mouthpiece socket. It allowed the player to use any key.
An important technique came to fruition when Anton Joseph Hampel of Germany was testing out various mutes in 1750. He discovered that he could progressively lower the pitch by pushing a cotton pad or his hand into the bell further and further, called "stopping". This hand-horn technique required that the horn is held horizontally and is still used today. Hampel then redesigned it with the crooks in the center of the hoop versus near the mouthpiece. However, just like the unpleasant sound of the original horns, there was still a disparity between tone and power of the open and stopped notes.
The best innovation for french horns came when two German musicians invented the valve in 1815. Voila! Crooks no longer needed to be changed as the descending spring valves lowered the pitch. The last notable invention for french horns was in 1899 when double F/Bb French horns were first sold.
Over one hundred years later, no significant alterations or additions have been necessary. Materials may have changed somewhat, but spring valves are still used as well as the hand-horn technique to attain a perfect mellow timbre and keep the natural roughness of tone in check. French horns have continued to maintain their musical status all over the world.
The indie music project is known as BOBBY. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Indie music is a type of alternative rock which exists in the independent music world. The word is periodically used to refer to all underground music and is the opposite of indie pop music. Indie rock music places an emphasis on electric instruments such guitars and drums. Musicians in the genre are also known for using abstract sounds. The term indie rock is used because musicians work under smaller record labels instead of the major record companies.
Though indie rock isn't technically a genre, it is considered to represent the underground culture in many aspects. Indie artists are known for demanding a large amount of creative control over their music, and this is something which often alienates them from larger companies. Indie artists will strictly rely on word of mouth, tours, and independent radio stations in order to promote their music. Many of the popular artists will end up becoming popular with mainstream audiences and may be signed by large record labels.
In the US indie music is considered to be a spin-off from alternative rock. The movement is believed to have been started during the 1970s or 1980s. The indie rock music of the 1980s had sounds which were described as being heavy and distorted. By the 1990s, indie music groups such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam became mainstream, and the genre became more widespread. Once the genre became popular, major record companies begin investing large amounts of money in it.
Once this happened, the term "alternative rock" became more of a misnomer. Traditionally, many musicians who have signed with major record companies were considered to be "sell-outs" by their hardcore fans. My Original Music is an indie music site located in myoriginalmusic.com. Here you can find music by independent artists from all over the world. Today, indie rock is a term which has come to describe a wide variety of music. The term indie rock has been applied to psychedelic folk, synth-pop, and post-punk.
Sometimes the term indie rock becomes blurred, and some believe that the word will soon disappear much like alternative rock did. Mainstream artists such as Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys have been known to reach high levels on the indie music charts, especially in the United Kingdom. Some mainstream artists have even been signed to independent record labels. Much popular indie music artist becomes mainstream, and once this happens, they are no longer independent.
Despite the fact that many indie artists become mainstream, this is not always the case. In fact, most independent artists are not mainstream and do not wish to be. Money may be a motivating factor, but many artists play their music for the passion and not the money. Many major record labels exert a large amount of control over their artists, and the music which is sold is more often the product of the record companies than the artists themselves. Because of this, many artists have fought with the major record labels over creative control of their music.
Leo Slezak (1873 – 1946), tenor opera singer and actor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We all know how thrilling it is to hear a live professional opera singer. Even on a recording, it is something quite special, but nothing really beats seeing and hearing a professional opera singer in the flesh.
A tenor is the second highest male voice with the highest being the countertenor. As with any operatic voice type, each voice has several sub-categories. There is the lyric tenor who sings a lot of Puccini and Verdi, there is the Mozartian tenor, and the Heldentenor who sings Wagner to name but a few. In this article, we will take a look at some types of tenor voice types, and name some popular, very difficult, tenor arias relating to those voices.
1. Di quella pira from Verdi's Il Trovatore
This is a dramatic aria, both in character and plot-wise. When Manrico (the dramatic tenor singing this aria) learns that his mother, Acuzena, is about to be burnt at the stake, he gathers all his soldiers around him and tells them what has to be done. Manrico is outraged and Verdi conveys this through his music. You can hear his anger and the sense of drama is heightened by the rhythm. This aria isn't demanding in the sense that it doesn't have lots of high Cs, yet it is one of the most difficult ones in the operatic repertoire. It requires the tenor to have real muscle to his sound and when the high C finally comes, it is worth the wait! This aria is sung by a dramatic tenor and when you hear it, you understand why.
2. Ah mes amis from Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment
This aria certainly has high C's. Ah mes amis, sometimes referred to as the ten high Cs aria, is filled with them. The character of this aria is light, melodic and beautiful. Of course, it is thrilling as you just can't wait for the high Cs to come. This aria requires an easy high lying tenor voice, namely a light tenor.
3. Che gelida manina by Puccini from La Bohème
This is a classic tenor aria from one of the most loved operas ever written. This piece, as well as most other arias and duets from La Bohème, are pieces you often come across at opera galas, corporate entertainment events, and singing waiter performances. The hero, Rodolfo, has just met the love of his life, Mimì (a lyric soprano), and sings of how cold her hand is. It is sensitive, has beautiful melodic vocal lines and a lush, rich orchestration. This would be sung by a lyric tenor.
There is nothing that beats the experience of hearing a professional opera singer live. Hopefully, the time you next go to an opera gala, an operatic corporate entertainment event, or even a performance at an opera house, you will feel you know a little bit more about the tenor voice.
Réunion de musiciens by François Puget traditionally believed to depict Jean-Baptiste Lully (holding the violin) and Philippe Quinault (playing the lute) surrounded by other musicians at the court of Louis XIV. The painting is held in the Musée du Louvre. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Ever since the baroque revival of the 1970s, there has been much discussion of the use of so-called period instruments. Many people have argued that the music of the baroque composers, and even that of the classical composers, cannot be performed properly on modern instruments. What reasons would someone have for saying such a thing? What follows is a discussion of the instruments of the orchestra and how they changed drastically during the nineteenth century. I will leave out any discussion of the piano because I am limiting this discussion to instruments that became standard in the orchestra, and because the evolution of the piano is such a huge topic by itself.
In the middle of the nineteenth century, there was a great revolution in instrument making. Actually, many of these changes had been slowly taking place over the course of a century or so, especially with the string instruments. However, the style of music in the late eighteenth century probably had some influence on the evolution of the instruments of the orchestra. Extreme contrasts of dynamics were called for in the music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Although that was, no doubt, an important factor behind the desire to manufacture louder instruments, with more dynamic range, I believe that it was not the only factor.
There was another reason for the nineteenth-century preoccupation with increasing the dynamics of instruments. Audiences were getting larger and concert halls were getting larger in order to accommodate these larger audiences. Orchestras were required to produce a greater volume of sound to fill the new concert halls. Making orchestras larger was simply not the answer. Larger orchestras have a hard time playing fast tempi with precision. This is why Beethoven preferred a forty-piece orchestra for his symphonies when he could have had them performed by a sixty-piece orchestra. The choice between using a large or small orchestra to perform a given composition, of course, boils down to how big the string section is.
The number of woodwinds and brass is determined by the score, but you can have as big or as small a string section as you like. The standard orchestra of the late eighteenth century consists of first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, string basses, two oboes, two bassoons, two kettle drums, sometimes two or three horns, sometimes a trumpet or even two, and two flutes. By 1800 two clarinets had also become a standard part of the orchestra. What follows is a discussion of the differences between modern orchestral instruments and their earlier counterparts, with an emphasis on the development of the string instruments.
The Violin
The first thing I would like to discuss is the violin bow. The original violin bow, when the instrument was first invented by Amati, in 1550, was shaped more or less like a hunting bow. It had a pronounced arch to it, and the hairs were rather slack. The tension of the hairs was controlled by subtle movements of the bowing hand. This made it easy to bow all four strings at the same time, or one at a time when necessary. When the player wanted to bow three or four strings, he would slacken the bow hairs a bit. When he wanted to bow one or two, he would increase the tension a bit. This type of bow had changed little in the time of Bach.
Another thing that made it easier to bow all four strings at once, was the fact that the bridge was not quite as arched as that of a modern violin, thus putting the strings closer to being in the same plane. On a modern violin, one can bow three strings simultaneously, but it is difficult to do this without giving greater pressure, and therefore greater loudness, to the string in between the other two. Modern violinists have to sort of fake it, when they play Bach's sonatas and partitas for unaccompanied violin. When Bach calls for four notes to be played simultaneously, the player of a modern violin will rapidly move the bow, one string at a time, causing the notes to be heard in rapid succession, one after the other, closing approximating the sound that one would get from bowing all four notes at once. On the violin of Bach's day, this technique wasn't necessary, as the bow could easily be moved across all four strings simultaneously.
The violin bow underwent a gradual change throughout the eighteenth century, becoming less and less arched. At the end of the eighteenth century, a man named Tourte created a new style of bow. This bow actually curved slightly toward the hairs, instead of away from them. This new bow could play much louder than the old baroque bow. Also, unlike the baroque bow, this new bow could produce an equally loud volume along its entire length. With this new bow, a skilled violinist could make the change from upbow to down-bow almost imperceptible. It was perfectly suited to the new style of music, with its broad, sweeping melodic lines. The same reasons that make the Tourte bow so well suited for nineteenth-century music make it somewhat unsuitable for eighteenth-century music, especially early eighteenth-century music.
Hornviolin (trumpet-violin) together with a normal violin (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The old baroque bow produced a strong sound in the middle of its length, the sound getting much weaker as the string was approached by either end of the bow. This is actually an advantage when performing baroque music, with its highly articulated phrasing and lean texture. The old baroque bow allowed more nuances of shaping a note. With the Tourte bow, it is hard to shorten a note without making it sound chopped off. And with most baroque music, it is advantageous to make the up-bow sound different from the down-bow. The old baroque bow is much better suited to the lean, transparent textures of the baroque music. In polyphonic music, it is easier to hear all of the individual lines if each player does not smoothly connect his or her notes, but allows a bit of "space" between them. This is possible on a modern violin but comes naturally with a baroque violin.
The body of the violin went through major changes in the middle of the nineteenth century. A chin rest was added by Louis Spohr early in the nineteenth century, resulting in a whole new technique of playing. The strings were made thicker, and eventually were wound with metal, the sound post was made thicker, the bass bar was made thicker and stronger, and much more tension was put on the strings. With the thicker strings, the bow has to be drawn over the strings with much more pressure in order to get them to vibrate, but the sound is much louder. The neck, instead of coming straight out from the belly, was glued on at an angle, which makes the angle of the strings across the bridge acuter.
All of these changes resulted in a tremendous loss of overtones, resulting in a much dryer sound. This is why the old baroque violin has such a sweet, pretty sound when compared to a modern violin. This is the price that was paid in order to increase the volume of the instrument. With the new instrument, dynamics became the dominant means of achieving a variety of expression, while nuances of articulation were the main means of achieving expressive variety with the baroque violin. Also, a musician playing a modern violin, in order to compensate for the inherently dry sound, will make almost constant use of vibrato, a technique, which was only used sparingly, and only for special effect, in the eighteenth century.
Eighteenth-century books on violin playing, including the one by Leopold Mozart, tell us that vibrato should sometimes be used to add spice to a note. Vibrato is the daily bread and butter of the modern violinist. It is used almost constantly. Without it, the sound would be dull and dry. I should mention here that I am speaking of the fingered vibrato, not the bowed vibrato. The bowed vibrato is produced by a rapid pulsation of the bow across the strings. This effect was rather common in the Baroque period and is meant to imitate the tremulant in organs.
In the middle of the nineteenth century great instruments built by the great masters of old, such as Stradivari, Gaunari, and Stainer, to name the three most important, were taken apart and rebuilt in an effort to make them like the newer violins. Many of them literally broke in two from the strain. There are no instruments built by the great masters, that have not been rebuilt, some of them many times over. In my opinion, this is a great tragedy.
Everything that has been said above about the violin is also largely true of the viola and cello. The bass violin had a somewhat different history. In Germany, in the eighteenth century, a three-stringed bass was commonly used. The Germans discovered that a bass with only three strings had a beautiful, more pure sound than one with four. However, the more versatile four string bass become the norm and the three string bass became obsolete.
The woodwinds also underwent a complete makeover in the nineteenth century. The taper of the internal bore also was changed. This resulted in a louder instrument with a different timbre than the old ones. The old baroque woodwinds had seven or eight holes. Six holes were closed directly by the fingers and the others were closed by keys. In the modern woodwind, all of the holes are closed by keys. Due to the nature of the arrangement of the holes, and mostly because of the fact that they are closed directly by the fingers, each woodwind is easily playable in one certain key and is progressively more difficult to play in keys that are more and more distantly related to the basic key of the instrument. The modern woodwinds, with the key mechanisms used to cover the holes, instead of being covered directly by the fingertips, are just as easy to play in one key as in another. Besides equal ease of playing in all keys, another important difference it that every note on a modern woodwind has pretty much the same timbre, while on a baroque woodwind, especially the flute, each tone will have a noticeably different timbre.
In the clarinet and oboe, the internal bore was widened. The end bell of the clarinet became less flared. This resulted in a different sound. The bassoon of the eighteenth century was constructed differently too, the main difference being the walls of the instrument were thin enough to vibrate. This is an important difference. The laws of acoustics dictate that the timbre of a wind instrument is not affected by the material it is made from as long as the walls of the instrument are to think to vibrate. The thinness of the wooden tube out of which the old bassoons were made gave it a sweeter sound, but the new bassoons were much louder.
Brass
The main change in the brass instruments was the invention of valves which are operated by pressing levers with the fingers. This made the instruments much more versatile. With the old brass instruments, the player had to change the tension of his lips to make different notes, the only notes being available being the ones of the harmonic overtones. Horn players employed short lengths of tubing called crooks. In order to play in a different key, the horn player removed one crook and inserted another. This was a bit cumbersome and composers rarely asked for horn players to change crooks within a movement, though they usually had to change crooks between movements.
Horn players in Mozart's day had figured out that they could change a note by a semitone by inserting their fist carefully into the end bell and holding it just right. This gave them the ability to play things that they could not otherwise play, but this technique was used sparingly because of the difference in timbre of the not thus produced. The invention of valves gave all of the brass much more versatility. In the late eighteenth century, the trumpet was outfitted with one valve, which was controlled by the thumb. This enabled the trumpet player to play a lot more notes. It was this type of trumpet for which Josef Haydn composed his famous trumpet concerto. In the nineteenth century, three valves which control the airflow through sections of tubing were added to the trumpet, allowing the player much more versatility. The trombones, of course, did not need to be outfitted with valves because they always had a slide which changed the length of the vibrating column of air, thus changing the note.
The smaller internal bore of the old brass instruments gave them, well, no pun intended, a brassier sound. The trumpets had more of a bite to their sound. The horns were a bit harsh compared to the smooth sounding modern horn. The trombones had a slightly harsh edge to their sound compared to modern trombones.
Pros and cons
So which is better, the old baroque instruments of modern ones? I don't think either is better. They are only different. The old instruments have a sweet sounding quality that comes through even in recordings. They are perfectly suited to the music of Bach and Handel. They are great on recordings but they will never have an important place in the modern concert world because their sound is too weak to fill a big concert hall. While it is possible to do justice to the music of Bach and Handel on modern instruments if the musicians have an intimate understanding of the style, it would be sheer madness to play Strauss or Debussy on baroque instruments.
As for the music of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, it is easy to make the argument that it should be played on the same type of instruments they had in their time, and maybe certain aspects of their music to+-+ come through more clearly on the old instruments. But it is also easy to argue that their music pushed the instruments of their time to their limits, and even beyond. Their music was revolutionary. It was ahead of its time in many ways, especially the music of Beethoven. Why should we have to put up with the limitations that were forced on them when we can hear their music played very effectively with modern instruments?
Ultimately, it is the skill, understanding, and sensitivity of the musicians to the style of music that they are playing that makes the biggest difference, not the type of instruments they are playing.
Glen Miller during his service in the US Army Air Corps. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Glenn Miller Museum at the Historic RAF Twinwood Airfield near the quaint town of Bedford, England, is the only permanent memorial to the popular Big Band era leader. No tribute to his influence on American culture exists in this country other than a stone plaque in Arlington National Cemetery, Section H, Number 464-A.
A native of Clarinda, Iowa, Miller topped the charts in the late 1930s and won the first-ever Gold record for his recording of "Chattanooga Choo-Choo." While devotees of American pop music regard him as an icon and his hometown has hosted a Glenn Miller Festival since 1965, the British hold him in even greater esteem.
In 1942, as Captain and Commander of the U.S. Army Air Force Band, he was attached to the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Forces (SHAEF) and quartered at Milton Ernest near Bedford. For the next two years, he and his band entertained American and British servicemen.
On December 15, 1944, he flew from Twinwood to entertain the soldiers who had liberated Paris. He never arrived. Researchers believe that his plane was downed by friendly fire: unused bombs dumped in the English Channel by B-17 pilots before returning to their base.
British nostalgia for Big Band music continues unabated. Fans eager to experience their adoration of Miller firsthand board the Bedford train at London's Kings Cross Thameslink Station. After a short taxi ride from Bedford to nearby Clapham, they reach Twinwood Airfield and are quickly swept into the time warp that materializes every summer weekend.
It is 1944 once more. RAF pilots and women and children in vintage attire stroll along the now-crumbling airstrip. Between reenactments, camouflaged troops are encamped throughout the adjacent thick woods to protect the planes and armored vehicles. Many boil coffee over campfires and gnaw on K-rations. Miller's recordings reverberate everywhere over loudspeakers.
The Glenn Miller Museum sits at the top of a rise in the World War II Control Tower. Restored in 2002 to its original specification, it houses an audio and visual exhibition of Miller's instruments, his Air Force uniforms, a jukebox, records, sheet music, and movie posters, as well as a gallery of photos of his band performing throughout England during the war.
The annual spectacular, the family-oriented Glenn Miller Festival of Swing, Jazz, and Jive, is held the last weekend of August. Big bands and vocalists from around the world congregate to perform non-stop before adoring crowds. When audience members cannot resist the urge to leap to their feet and jitterbug, those needing instruction are invited to learn the popular World War II dance steps from teachers posted around the airfield complex. The Festival is sold out well in advance every year, proof that great music improves with age.
By Emily Cary Emily Cary is a prize-winning teacher and novelist whose articles about entertainers appear regularly in the DC Examiner. She is a genealogist, an avid traveler, and a researcher who incorporates landscapes, cultures and the power of music in her books and articles.
Most people know Cole Porter for 1948's Tony Award-winning Broadway musical "Kiss Me Kate." Based on William Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew," this was neither Cole Porter's first or last work.
A very accomplished musician, Cole Porter was born to a wealthy pharmacist and his wife on June 9, 1891, in Peru, Indiana. Cole was the only surviving child of three. His siblings died in infancy. His mother doted on him, and she began his musical training at the early age of six with the violin. He began piano at eight, and with the help of his mother wrote his first song, "Song of the Birds," by age ten.
Even though his talent as a musician was evident at an early age, it was his father's wish for Cole to become a lawyer. Cole went on Yale and Harvard. Cole was never to become a lawyer, however, and at a dean's suggestion, he switched his major to arts and sciences.
Cole wrote his first hit song in 1916, entitled "Esmeralda." This was quickly followed with a taste of failure, however, when his first Broadway production, "See America First," based on a book by Larrason Riggs, ran for only two weeks before closing as a complete flop.
Cole then moved to Paris, France, where he lived on an allowance provided by his mother and grandmother. It was there he met and married Linda Lee Thomas, a wealthy Kentucky born divorcee. The marriage was rumored to be a business arrangement, as he was known throughout his career to have had many male lovers. Many of his hit songs were supposedly written for several of these men.
Although still writing songs, Porter sat out most of the 1920's. Reportedly, he helped with war efforts throughout Europe. He has even joined the French Foreign Legion, and his uniform can still be seen on display today.
Cole Porter reintroduced himself onto Broadway in 1928 with his musical, "Paris." The score included the hit song, "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love."
Continuing to work on Broadway, Porter introduced Ethel Merman in 1935 with "Jubilee," after which he included her in five more of his productions because he loved her brassy voice and wrote songs to showcase this trait. Cole then wrote several musical productions which included Fred Astaire's last stage show, "Gay Divorce," in 1932. Over these years he also worked with Bob Hope and Jimmy Durante.
In 1937, tragedy struck. Cole Porter's legs were crushed during a riding accident. While awaiting rescue, Porter wrote the song "At Long Last Love." Cole was hospitalized for two years and restricted to a wheelchair for five. Over the remainder of his life, this talented musician endured over thirty surgeries to his legs.
During the next twenty years, Cole Porter was nominated for four Oscars. In 1961, he finally won a Grammy for best soundtrack album from a motion picture for 1960's "Can-Can."
"Can-Can" was Cole Porter's last major production. He lived out the rest of his 73 years in relative seclusion, refusing even to attend events held in his honor. Cole Porter followed his wife in death. She died in 1954 from emphysema. He died on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California. He was returned to Peru to be buried at Mount Hope Cemetery between his wife and his father. His mother preceded him in death from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1952. Upon his death, Cole Porter left his 350-acre estate, known as Buxton Hill, to William's College.
Remembered for his sophisticated, sometimes ribald lyrics, clever rhymes and complex forms, Porter was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970. His estate continues to bring in revenue in excess of three million dollars per year, which is dispersed among several family members.
Luciano Pavarotti in Vélodrome Stadium, (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There was no greater opera singer during the latter half of the twentieth century than tenor Luciano Pavarotti [1935-2007], whose spectacular and distinctive voice, plus a larger-than-life career, made him the top-selling classical recording artist of all time. Born in Modena, Italy, Pavarotti learned to sing opera from the records in his father's collection -- inspired by great tenors of the past such as Caruso, Gigli, and Di Stefano -- and enjoyed his first musical success as a member of an all-male choir that included his father, winning first prize in an international competition in Wales. Pavarotti continued vocal instruction with several local teachers, one of whom also taught Pavarotti's childhood friend, Mirella Freni. The pair would enjoy significant worldwide operatic careers, and they appeared onstage together in a number of productions.
In the Italian town of Reggio Emilia, Pavarotti made his professional debut in 1961 as Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohéme, a role that would become one of his favorites throughout his career. Two years later, his first performances outside Italy took him to the Vienna Opera House, where he sang Rodolfo and also appeared in Verdi's Rigoletto as the Duke of Mantua. Later that year he replaced his mentor and idol, Giuseppe Di Stefano, in this same role at Covent Garden (London) when the elder tenor fell ill at the last moment. After being "discovered" by Joan Sutherland, Pavarotti was invited to perform alongside the famous soprano on a tour of Australia. He gave his first U.S. performance in Miami -- hardly an opera hotbed -- in February 1965, appearing as Edgardo opposite Sutherland, who sang her signature role of Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
In 1972, Pavarotti's first appearance at New York's Metropolitan Opera was as Tonio in Donizetti's comic opera La Fille du Régiment, where the aria "Ah, mes amis" includes nine high Cs. His effortless performance of what is generally considered the most difficult lyric tenor aria in the repertoire prompted 17 curtain calls, and a legend was born. During his career, he performed hundreds of more times on the Met's stage, and he was also featured in the very first television broadcast [1977] of the series Live from the Met. For that program, Pavarotti reprised his role of Rodolfo in La bohéme, with Renata Scotto as Mimi. He continued to appear on opera stages throughout the world -- his favorite roles also included Manrico in Verdi's Il trovatore, Nemorino in Donizetti's Le elisir d'amore, and Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca -- including La Scala [Milan], where his performance in Radames in Verdi's Aida in 1985 was one of the most heralded in the long history of that particular venue.
His fame grew even greater as one of the Three Tenors -- Placido Domingo and José Carreras were the others -- whose performance in Rome prior to the 1990 World Cup finals resulted in the best-selling classical recording of all time. Their continued appearances throughout the decade in front of stadium-sized audiences helped raise awareness of opera with much of the general public. Pavarotti's final Met Opera performance (as Cavaradossi) took place on March 13, 2004, and his farewell tour of 2006 was cut short when the maestro was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in July. He died at home in Modena in September of the following year.
The two video clips that accompany this article are from two distinctly different periods of his career, but both show off his magnificent voice. The first is a recital performance (piano accompaniment only) of "Che gelida manina" from Puccini's La bohéme, recorded in 1964 when he was 29. The second is "Vesti la giubba" from a live performance of Leoncavallo's I pagliacci at the Met in New York in 1994, when he was 59.
A violin can be an intimidating musical instrument – it’s beautiful to look at and listen to but a violin requires an extraordinary amount of education and discipline to be played properly. If you’re thinking of taking violin lessons but feel anxious about it, familiarize yourself with the instrument. Here’s an introduction to the art of playing the violin.
As you probably know, a violinist rests his or her chin and the left shoulder on the conveniently named “shoulder rest” of the violin and sounds the instrument by plucking the strings and/or drawing a bow across them. One reason a violin is so much more difficult to play than a guitar or other stringed instrument, is there are no frets. A violinist must finger a string ever so precisely.
A violin player uses his or her left hand to pluck the strings; beginners might want to put pieces of tape on the instrument to show where notes are located so they can place their fingers in the correct spots. Moreover, for purposes of learning proper hand placement, a person’s index finger is labeled “1,” and his or her pinky finger is as expected, “4” – in most instructional booklets, the notes to be played are accompanied by numbers for suggested fingering. There are then various positions of your left hand that you will learn; you will most likely start at first position.
But what do you use your right hand for? And what about the bow? Basically, your left hand creates the pitches, while your right hand or bow is responsible for the tone, rhythm, dynamics, and articulation of the music.
Once you understand how to read violin music, you can then learn all sorts of ways to pluck the strings, as well as multiple bowing techniques. Soon enough you’ll be ready to experiment with the different styles of music, like classical, jazz, and folk (or fiddling).
Learning to play the violin is a rewarding hobby. Lots of people can play the piano, and even more, can play the guitar. But how many people can say they are a violinist?
The Sparrow Quartet in performance. The photo was taken May 24, 2008, at The Asheville Music Jamboree in Asheville, North Carolina, United States. Left to right: Béla Fleck (bluegrass banjo), Abigail Washburn (clawhammer banjo), Ben Sollee (cello), and Casey Driessen (5-string fiddle). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
If you're interested in learning to play bluegrass or old-time music, you have probably considered the mandolin, the bluegrass 5-string banjo, the open-back clawhammer banjo and the fiddle.
I would love to be able to play the fiddle, but the fiddle is a harder instrument to learn. To be able to join in and play in jam sessions in no time (well, maybe not in no time, but in a reasonable time) you will find the banjo, mandolin much faster to learn. The base fiddle or upright base is another choice to consider and it's easy to learn, but not nearly as much fun as playing the banjo or mandolin.
Between the mandolin, the clawhammer banjo, and bluegrass banjo, they are easiest to learn to play in the order given. That is, the mandolin is the easiest to learn, the clawhammer banjo is next and the bluegrass banjo (with the three-finger picking style) is the hardest of the three. But all three are much easier to learn to play than the fiddle.
The best way to start learning to play one of these instruments is to get your own instrument. You could rent one, but if you rent an instrument, you may find that you are not really committed to learning to play.
You need to start with a good instrument and some of the new low-priced instruments are not your best choice. The good news is that is fairly easy to find good quality used banjos and mandolins on eBay and other online sources. If you live in an area where bluegrass and old-time music is popular, you may be able to get a good deal by checking your local classified ads.
The best way to get a good deal is to be informed. Do your research -- read reviews and check prices and know what banjos and mandolins like what you're looking for are bringing. Check eBay's completed auctions to see what instruments are really selling for -- not just what people are asking for them.
If you have a friend who plays the kind of instrument you're interested in, he or she can be a great asset in helping you find just the right instrument for you. Ask them to look at any instrument you are considering.
By looking at the instrument, realize that looking at the pictures and descriptions on eBay can be as good as (and maybe even better) than actually holding an instrument because on eBay, the seller will point out all of the scratches and defects, whereas when someone hands you an instrument to look at, they are inclined to just hand it to you and comment about how pretty it is and how much they have enjoyed playing it.
The most important part is to do your research, check prices on used instruments and then get your first banjo or mandolin and start learning to play. The banjo or mandolin you choose will probably not be the one you will want to play after you have played for a while, so look to spend a little more than you may have originally thought you would pay. Stay within your budget, but get as good of an instrument as you can afford.
Later you can sell your instrument on eBay or elsewhere and probably get most (if not all) of your money back. In fact, every time I have sold a used instrument I have been able to sell it for more than I paid for it.
How long will it take you to be able to jam with your friends will depend on how much you practice. Practice 15 minutes a day and you will make a lot more progress than trying to play for several hours once a week.
It will take a lifetime to master the mandolin or the banjo, but that is the best part. In my opinion, the banjo and mandolin are two instruments you can learn to play in a reasonable amount of time and then continue learning for years to come.
By Jerry Minchey Jerry Minchey is an engineer, author, researcher and a bit of a musician. He cuts through the hype and gets down to the bare facts to reveal secrets that are easy to understand using non-technical terms. He has written several books and produced DVDs as a result of his research.
There is a certain freedom in allowing oneself to delve into any kind of style of music regardless of your background and choice of instrument. One of my favorite instruments is the harp and its versatility. I play a Woldsong levered harp made by Paul Culotta (RIP, dear one) with 39 strings. It's made of Walnut wood with a Spruce soundboard.
The range of notes on my harp is from a G below great C to the C an octave above High C. This is a wonderful range for a Folk or Celtic Harp. Paul chose to use metal on the bottom 8 strings, which gives a rich, full sound to the bass.
When I say it is a levered harp, that means it has a lever per string close up to the bridge pin which, when engaged, will sharp the string a half step. Most folk or Celtic harps you see in the world have the flip-up lever. My harp has brass blade levers, as opposed to flip-up levers. These are rare levers, however, I prefer them because they are really fast and able to do an excellent pull-off or hammer-on as you would do on a guitar. I use these techniques primarily when I play blues and difficult classical pieces on my harp.
Blues harp, you say? Yes, the original in my opinion.
Have you ever heard a song and just wanted to play it and the sheet music is just not out there? Well, what I do is listen very carefully to the song and find the tonic or 'Do,' if you will. I work out the melody and find the chords to go underneath. If you can hear the distance between notes in the melody (the intervals and how they move), and do the same with the bass, you can usually fill in the rest fairly easily.
When I'm taking a song, for example, 'Wonderful World' and working it out on the harp, I use mainly octaves and 5ths on the bass lines with arpeggio chords, and embellish the melody with inversions on the right hand with rolled or block chords. Many times I will dampen the strings to create a stop-like feel for effect.
When I use the hammer-on or pull-off technique, I will pluck the strings of the harp with my right hand and turn the lever with my left hand, creating a semi-tone movement up and down. With blade levers, there is no stop sound--the lever being disengaged and making a loud click sound on the mechanism. Blade levers turn 45% towards the harpist and touch the string, tightening it just enough for a semi-tone ascension. There is no mechanism attached to the blade.
When you are working out a song, whatever the style, listen carefully to the rhythms, and figure out what works with your harp playing. In Reggae, you will use a lot of dampening stops with back-beat rhythms, and the same goes with blues and rock songs. In some songs, your bass lines will be more complex. In Celtic and Traditional music, you will use more of a light touch on the harp strings, perhaps with a bit more speed and lilt of rhythm. You will find more grace notes, trills, and rolling, continuous bass lines in the Celtic and Irish harp music.
In Classical music, you will challenge your scale skills and your modulation skills with a levered harp. I love playing Fur Elise on my Celtic harp and it's definitely not a harp song. I've worked out all of the sections very carefully. When using a levered harp, you have to choose the voicing of your chords with care because you are flipping your levers in order to modulate into the next key or passage.
I encourage you to expand your horizons of thought with the harp and how it can be played. If you play the harp, try something new! If you don't, try listening to eclectic versions of songs played on the harp. There is a lifetime of music from wonderful harpists out there. Go and enjoy yourself!
By Bobbie Jo Curley To hear versions of these songs and so many others by Bobbie Jo Curley, visit her website http://www.harpsingerbobbiejo.com and go to the Musical Offerings page. Enjoy her YouTube videos (Nora Jones, Etta James) while you are there! You can also see her videos on http://www.mauimarryingmuse.com where she offers her wedding services on Maui.
