AC on Music Theory Print

A cappella

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Early history#

Research suggests that singing and vocables may have been what early humans used to communicate before the invention of language. The earliest instructions for performing music were found on a cuneiform tablet from around 2000 BC, while the earliest that has survived in its entirety is from the first century AD: a piece from Greece called the Seikilos epitaph.

Religious origins#

A cappella music was originally used in religious music, especially church music as well as anasheed and zemirot. Gregorian chant is an example of a cappella singing, as is the majority of secular vocal music from the Renaissance. The madrigal, up until its development in the early Baroque into an instrumentally accompanied form, was also usually performed a cappella. Jewish and Early Christian music was largely a cappella, though instrument use subsequently increased in both religions as well as in Islam.

Accentus

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Acclamatio

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Bibliography#

Aldrete, G.S. (2003) Gestures and Acclamations in Ancient Rome. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. Fafinski, M. (2024) ‘A Restless City: Edessa and Urban Actors in the Syriac Acts of the Second Council of Ephesus’, Al-Masāq, pp. 1–25. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/09503110.2024.2331915 . Gregory, T.E. (1979) Vox populi: Popular opinion and violence in the religious controversies of the fifth century A.D. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Kelly, C. (2009) Ruling the Later Roman Empire. Harvard: Harvard University Press. Magalhães De Oliveira, J.C. (2021) ‘Informal Expressions of Popular Will in Late Roman Africa’, in C. Brélaz and E. Rose (eds) Cultural Encounters in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, pp. 145–165. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.5.123819 . Roueché, C. (1984) ‘Acclamations in the Later Roman Empire: New Evidence from Aphrodisias’, The Journal of Roman Studies, 74, pp. 181–199. Wiemer, H.-U. (2004) ‘Akklamationen im spätrömischen Reich. Zur Typologie und Funktion eines Kommunikationsrituals’, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte, 86, pp. 27–74.

Accordion concerto

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

History#

The accordion concerto has its origin in the twentieth century, following examples as the much older piano concerto or the violin concerto. The instrument accordion developed to a full concert instrument, more and more composers started composing for this instrument, also for accordion and orchestra. In 1937 the first concerto for accordion and orchestra was written by Feodosiy Rubtsov (1904–1986) and performed by Pavel Gvozdev in the Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic. In Germany one of the first concertos was written by Hugo Herrmann in 1940 (and a second one in 1948). In 1941 two American accordionists wrote and premiered concertos: Anthony Galla-Rini composed Concerto no. 1, Andy Arcari wrote his Concerto in D minor. Accordionist and Italian immigrant Pietro Deiro wrote a concerto in 1946, American composer Roy Harris composed his concerto (in the form of Theme and Variations) in 1947. Czech composer Emil František Burian wrote an accordion concerto already in 1949. In 1959 Czech composer Václav Trojan wrote “Pohádky” (fairy tales), which is still often played, in 2013 recorded by Ksenija Sidorova. The first female accordion virtuoso to play an accordion concerto with accompaniment from a full symphony orchestra was Adeline Marie Mantino (later Rogillio), shortly following her graduation from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1950. The symphony was the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. Miss Mantino went on to play with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Pops before settling into a career teaching music, first in Warren, RI and then Woonsocket, RI. A very important accordionist for the development of the instrument was Mogens Ellegaard from Denmark. He worked together with the Danish composer Ole Schmidt. His composition Symphonic Fantasy and Allegro op. 20 from 1958 was a milestone. Other Scandinavian composers like Torbjörn Lundquist, Niels Viggo Bentzon (1963) and Per Nørgård (1968) followed. Arne Nordheim wrote his famous concerto “Spur” in 1975. In the United States concertos were written by Alan Hovhaness (1959), Henry Cowell (Concerto Brevis, 1960), Carmelo Pino (Concertino, 1964), Paul Creston (1960 & 1964) en Carmine Coppola (1973). In 1962 French composer Jean Wiener wrote his concerto for accordion. In 1972 British composer Gordon Jacob wrote an accordion concerto. In addition, several virtuoso instrumentalists adopted the classical concerto form in order to demonstrate the wide ranging orchestral sounds of the solo Free bass system instrument. Included in this group was the Italian-American John Serry Sr., who completed his Concerto for Free Bass Accordion in 1964 for the Bassetti Accordion as designed by Julio Giuliette. Thanks to efforts of leading accordionists like Friedrich Lips, Joseph Macerollo, Geir Draugsvoll, Stefan Hussong, Mie Miki, Ksenija Sidorova and Teodoro Anzellotti the repertoire is growing to more than two hundred compositions. Famous composers like Sofia Gubaidulina, Jukka Tiensuu, Kalevi Aho, Giya Kancheli, Toshio Hosokawa, Jesús Torres, Fazil Say and Peter Machajdik wrote accordion concertos. In 2016 Russian composer Sergei Slonimsky gave an accordion concerto to performers. ()

Accordion in music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use in traditional music#

After the invention of the accordion in 1829, its popularity spread throughout the world, in no small measure due to the polka craze. “Once the polka became a craze in Paris and London during the spring of 1844, it diffused rapidly to the rest of the world. . . . In March 1844, polka-mania took Paris: common people, servants, workers and, one assumes, anyone else who wasn’t too stuffy were dancing the polka in the streets of the capital and soon in Bordeaux and other French cities as well. A week or so later it took London by storm. And from these two great centers of fashion, empire, and influence, the polka diffused rapidly upward into the rest of French and English society and outward to the rest of the world.” Except for a brief moment in time during the 1830s and 1840s when the accordion was heard by French aristocracy during Salon music concerts, the instrument has always been associated with the common people. The accordion was spread across the globe by the waves of Europeans who emigrated to various parts of the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The mid-19th-century accordion became a favorite of folk musicians for several reasons: “The new instrument’s popularity among the common masses was a result of its unique qualities. Firstly, it was much louder than all the older folk instruments put together. It could easily be heard in even the wildest pub above the stomping of dancing feet. It was also the prototype of a ‘one man band’ with bass and chords on the left-hand side and buttons for the melody on the right, and you could still sing along and beat the rhythm with your feet. The instrument needed no tuning and was always ready to play, but the most ingenious thing about the early one-row squeezebox was that you couldn’t play it really badly. Even if you lost the melody it still sounded fine.” Since its invention, the accordion has become popularly integrated into a lot of varying traditional music styles all over the world, ranging from the European polka and the Colombian Vallenato to Korean trot music. See the list of traditional music styles that incorporate the accordion. Although rarely seen, some early swing band scores have the piano part marked “Piano/Piano Accordion.” It is a traditional instrument in Brazilian music, specifically baião of the northeast. Luiz Gonzaga is called the king of baião. The accordion is featured heavily in traditional Egyptian music, particularly baladi styles. Sometimes, certain traditional music styles may even be tied to a certain type of accordion, like the Schrammel accordion for Schrammelmusik, the Trikitixa for Basque music, or the diatonic button accordion in Mexican conjunto and norteño music. It would be hard to name one country in which the accordion did not play a significant role in its music tradition. It has even been idealized in literature.

Achaemenid music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Background#

The Achaemenid Empire arose from the conquests of Cyrus the Great, whose familial dynasty was named for their mythical progenitor Achaemenes. At its height, it was the largest empire by that point in history, spanning from the Balkans to Egypt and the Indus Valley. A further source of unification arose from the widespread adoption of Zoroastrianism as set forth by the prophet Zoroaster a few centuries earlier. The empire fell to the conquests of Alexander the Great, whose successors formed the Seleucid Empire. The earliest music in Persia is difficult to pinpoint, due to a paucity of extant records. Persian music has existed since at least BCE of the Elamite period, from when the earliest artistic depictions of arched harps are dated; it is possible that these instruments existed long before their visual depictions. Later surviving instruments include bull lyres from , small Oxus trumpets from , and much later, lutes from BCE, which seem to have been popular with the upper class. Rock reliefs of Kul-e Farah from 1st century BCE include sophisticated Persian court ensembles, in which the arched harp is central.

Acid house

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

Acid house’s minimalist sound combined house music’s ubiquitous programmed four-on-the-floor 4/4 beat with the electronic squelch sound produced by the Roland TB-303 electronic synthesizer-sequencer. The sound is commonly produced by raising the filter resonance and lowering the cutoff frequency of the synthesizer, along with programming the 303’s accent, slide, and octave parameters, to create variation in otherwise simple bass patterns. “Exploration of texture” is preferred over melody; “a refusal of the metaphysical priorities of western music discourse”. Other elements, such as synthetic strings and stabs, were usually minimal. Sometimes tracks were instrumentals, such as Phuture’s “Acid Tracks”, or contained full vocal performances, such as DJ Pierre’s Pfantasy Club’s “Fantasy Girl”, while others were essentially instrumentals complemented by the odd spoken word “drop-in”, such as Phuture’s “Slam”.

Acid jazz

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Etymology#

The genre’s name was likely coined by Gilles Peterson, and the record label with the name was started by Chris Bangs, Eddie Piller, and Gilles. However, acid jazz is not an electronic music genre and has no relationship with the music genres named “acid” (acid house, acid trance, acid techno, etc.), which are heavily based on the “acid-like” sound, produced by the Roland TB-303 electronic music synthesizer. DJs Femi Williams and Marco Nelson from Young Disciples claimed in a recently unearthed 1992 TV interview that they coined the term because they had a club with acid playing downstairs and jazz upstairs, so they thought it would be amusing to name the upstairs room “The Acid Jazz Room”. The veracity of this claim predating Peterson’s is dubious, as the interview in question took place five years after the Acid Jazz label was created, and Young Disciples were first active three years after the formation of the label.

Acid rock

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Definitions#

“Acid rock” is loosely defined. In 1969, as the genre was still solidifying, rock journalist Nik Cohn called it a “fairly meaningless phrase that got applied to any group, no matter what its style”. The term was originally used to describe the background music for acid trips in underground parties in the 1960s (e.g. the Merry Pranksters’ “Acid Tests”) and as a catchall term for the more eclectic Haight-Ashbury bands in San Francisco. The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia believed that acid rock is music you listen to while under the influence of acid, further stating that there is no real “psychedelic rock” and that it is Indian classical music and some Tibetan music “designed to expand consciousness”. The term has often been deployed interchangeably with “psychedelic rock” or “psychedelia”, particularly during the genre’s nascence. However, the distinction between the heavier “acid rock” and the more general or inclusive genre of “psychedelic rock” has been well established. Additionally, music critics later retroactively labelled the bridge between acid rock, hard rock and early heavy metal acts as “heavy psych”. When defined specifically as a hard rock variant of psychedelia, acid rock is distinguished as having evolved from the 1960s garage punk movement, with many of its bands eventually transforming into heavy metal acts. Percussionist John Beck defines “acid rock” as synonymous with hard rock and heavy metal. The term eventually encompassed heavy, blues-based hard rock bands. Musicologist Steve Waksman wrote that “the distinction between acid rock, hard rock, and heavy metal can at some point never be more than tenuous”.

Acid techno

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Characteristics#

The acid style was obtained largely through Roland instruments, most prominently the TB-303 bass synthesizer. The acid sound is achieved by turning up the filter resonance and turning down the cutoff frequency parameters of the synthesizer, along with programming the 303’s accent, slide, and octave parameters. In addition to acid records imported from the US, the style was influenced by sources such as hardcore, German trance, and Belgian rave music.

Acid trance

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Notable labels#

Attack Records
Harthouse
Moonshine Music
Platipus Records
Rising High Records

External links#

*Music and merch tagged acid trance

Acousmatic music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Origins#

According to certain historical accounts, the origin of the term acousmatic can be traced back to Pythagoras; the philosopher is believed to have tutored his students from behind a screen so as not to let his presence distract them from the content of his lectures. Under these conditions, the listener focuses on the sounds being produced to heighten the sense of hearing. In 1955, Jérôme Peignot and Pierre Schaeffer were the first to use the term acousmatique to define the listening experience of musique concrète. It is said to be derived from akousmatikoi, the outer circle of Pythagoras’ disciples who only heard their teacher speaking from behind a veil. In a similar way, one hears acousmatic music from behind the ‘veil’ of loudspeakers, without seeing the source of the sound.

Acoustic music

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Types of acoustic instruments#

Acoustic instruments can be split into six groups: string instruments, wind instruments, percussion, other instruments, ensemble instruments, and unclassified instruments. String instruments have a tightly stretched string that, when set in motion, creates energy at (almost) harmonically related frequencies. Wind instruments are in the shape of a pipe and energy is supplied as an air stream into the pipe. Percussion instruments make sound when they are struck, as with a hand or a stick.

AC on Music Theory Print

A cappella

Early history#

Religious origins#

Accentus

Acclamatio

See also#

Bibliography#

Accordion concerto

History#

Accordion in music

Use in traditional music#

Achaemenid music

Background#

Acid house

Characteristics#

Acid jazz

Etymology#

Acid rock

Definitions#

Acid techno

Characteristics#

Acid trance

Notable labels#

External links#

Acousmatic music

Origins#

Acoustic music

Types of acoustic instruments#