Posts Tagged ‘Brief’

Sharing You With A Good Brief History of Country Music

January 15th, 2010

You will discover multitudes of music genres in today’s musical world. Country music is just one of my favorites and so I thought I would provide a little bit of country history to the forefront. If you don’t know a great deal about country music suffice it to say that every country songs tell a story. It has been said most of these songs are about our lives, who we are and where we began. Country music made a couple of the most notable selling solo musical artists ever in the USA. Elvis Presley’s early career was certainly country hillbilly music and then he went on to become one of the defining figures in the birth of Rock n Roll. Garth Brooks is the second bestselling solo artist in United States history and has a popular show in Las Vegas. That’s quite a remarkable start. Going back in history, however, we find that Country music extends back to the early 1920′s in America and has its roots in classic folk music, Celtic music, Blues, Bluegrass and Gospel music. Early country music was termed “Hillbilly” music but the verbiage changed to Country Music in the early 1940′s. In its beginnings, Country music was pure American; the country music crowd was American, its artists were American and its tone was American.

1925 brought in the era of the “Singing Cowboy” when the very first cowboy song was recorded by Carl T. Sprague. The full rise in popularity of the singing cowboy wasn’t really defined until talking movies starring Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter and even a young John Wayne became popular in the 1930′s. John Wayne, however, didn’t in reality sing; he just played the movie part of the cowboy while another person presented the singing voice. But he was off and away to a great movie career. With the introduction of Television to the American people, the time of the singing cowboy movies ended in the 1950′s. Gene Autry and Roy Rogers continued their roles as “singing cowboys” in a few of the first western series produced for television. In the film Toy Story 2, “Woody’s Roundup” was shown as an interpretation of one of these first television series.

The 1960′s brought changes and diversity to the country music genre as Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, June Carter Cash, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Marty Robbins, Eddie Arnold as well as others took over as Country music stars. Quite a few of the country songs recorded in the 1960′s crossed over to the Pop charts adding another music culture to the country sound. Lots of country music singers employed their songwriting skills for both themselves as well as other artists. Kris Kristopherson wrote numerous songs for country artists, however, he also wrote “Me and Bobby McGee” which Janis Joplin made popular before her early death. An extremely popular Elvis song “Kentucky Rain” was composed by Eddie Rabbitt; another excellent country music songwriter. Eddie Rabbitt also wrote songs for films such as the title song for “Every Which Way but Loose” starring Clint Eastwood. The 70′s and 80′s brought different changes to the country music scene. With the recognition of the film “Urban Cowboy” in 1980 starring John Travolta, artists like Barbara Mandrell, Alabama, the Oak Ridge Boys, The Bellamy Brothers, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton and George Strait became popular among many more in the country music field. Everybody wanted to be a cowboy. As the times have changed, country music has reinvented itself to fit to these changing times. To name some, vocalists like Tim McGraw, Alan Jackson, Kenny Chesney, Martina McBride, Reba McIntyre, Zac Brown Band, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley and Rascal Flatts are all making their mark on the country music scene.

In closing, you should listen closely to the words of the country music songs…hear the stories about life and discover if you’re able to find a small amount of yourself and your life in these excellent songs.

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Brief Overview of Maracas

January 12th, 2010

Maracas, or also known as rumba shakers, are simple percussion instruments usually played in pairs. They are a type of handheld instrument that are native to Colombia, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and other nations of the Caribbean and Latin America. These musical instruments are usually oval or egg-shaped consisting of a dried calabash or gourd shell or coconut shell filled with seeds, small stones or dried beans. Because maracas are musical instruments that are sealed and create a full, distinctive tone, they are classified as idiophones. Also, maracas can be made of plastic, wood, or leather.

It has been said that percussion instruments, particularly drums, existed as long as the Stone Age. Pertinently, it is thought that maracas may have originated among several ancient civilizations at almost the same time. Often one ball is pitched high and the other is pitched low; maracas are essential to today’s Latin and South American ensembles. Its history is best traced through the artwork of pre-Columbian Indians, especially the tribes in Venezuela, Paraguay, Colombia, and Brazil. The word “maraca” is believed to have originated from the Tupi language of Brazil, where it is being pronounced as “ma-ra-kah” and is also thought to have been given to the instrument by the Araucanian folks of central Chile. It has been used for all gourd rattles although some also have more specific names. Just like in Trinidad, it has been recognized as shac-shacs.

Although a simple instrument, maracas have been popular with children and are commonly included in the instruments of the rhythm band. The method of playing this musical instrument is not apparent. The seeds must travel some distance before they hit the wood, plastic, or leather, so that the players can anticipate the rhythm. To get a distinct sound, one can also strikes the maraca against one’s hand or leg. These instruments are heard in various forms of Latin music and are also used in pop and classical music. They are contemplated characteristic of the music of Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Jamaica, and are often played at celebrations and special events. In the early 1950s, band leader Vincent Lopez hosted a radio program called “Shake the Maracas” wherein audience members competed for small prizes by playing the instrument with orchestra. Furthermore, in rock and roll, they are possibly most acknowledged with Bo Diddley, who wrote the song “Bring it to Jerome”, about his maraca player, Jerome Green.

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A Brief Look on Jewish Music

January 3rd, 2010

“Jewish music”, as the name says, it is the music of Jews that got its existence thousands of years ago. Initially ancient Jews purposely used the music for religious services, but later on the music became common on all important occasions, both religious and secular. The sound and rhythm of this music depends on the origins of the Jewish composers. Jewish music is diverse in nature which includes historical, liturgical and non-liturgical kinds of music. Religious music being Jewish music’s earlier segment was very much popular at the first and second Solomon’s temple. These religious music activities began to break up during the middle ages, since the Hebrews started to focus on landmark music. It afterwards took place to be an art and popular music of Israel. The history of religious Jewish music was highly focused on the cantorial, synagogue, and the Temple music from Biblical to Modern times.

The early periods of Jewish music comprised of several brilliant musicians. The first ever remarkable performer who caught the attention of Jews was Salamone Rossi (1570-1630). He was the foremost musician in ancient times to compose a collection of choral motets in Hebrew for the synagogue. Followed by him the other well known musician who came up with splendid notes was Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847). Fromental Halevy, Jacques Offenbach, Joel Engel, Ernst Bloch, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, are some of the other outstanding composers who happened be the pillar stones in promoting Jewish music. These musicians never played the music, rather they lived on music. Most of these ancient musicians were highly concerned in conveying patriotic and religious music. Hence Jewish music once played a major role in building people’s religious and patriotic feel, which later led Hebrew rulers to ban the music in countries like Babylon and Persia. Some of the most noticed modern Israeli composers are Chaya Czernowin, Betty Olivera, Tsippi Fleisher, Mark Kopytman, and Yitzhak Yedid.

Jewish music was both instrumental and vocal. In ancient days, singing was marked by responsorial, antiphonal and refrain forms. Both singing and dancing were accompanied by music instruments; thereby either of the two could take place simultaneously. Clarinets are considered to be the leading melodic instruments in Jewish music. Using melodic, modal and rhythmical materials a very typical sound in folk and other non-religious music can be gathered, and hence these instruments are commonly used in Jewish music. Other instruments in Jewish music include trumpet (hasosra), and ram’s or goat’s horn (shofar).

There are also very important noticeable works by non-Jew composers in the Jewish music. Several popular musicians from various countries are getting impressed by Jewish music and therefore looking forward to excel in this kind of music.

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