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Arabesque (classical music)

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

Notable arabesques#

The most well-known are Claude Debussy’s Deux Arabesques, composed in 1888 and 1891, respectively. Other composers who have written arabesques include: * Claude Debussy: Two Arabesques (1891), L.66 * Marin Marais: L’arabesque (1717), appears in the soundtrack of the film Tous les Matins du Monde * Robert Schumann: Arabeske in C, Op. 18 (1839) * Johann Friedrich Franz Burgmüller (1806–1874): Op. 100 (1852) * Hans von Bülow: Arabesques sur un thême de l’opéra Rigoletto (1853) * Moritz Moszkowski: Opp. 15/2 (1877), 61 (1899), 95/4 and 96/5 (1920) * Enrique Granados: Arabesca, Op. 31, H. 142 (1890) * Cécile Chaminade: Opp. 61 (1892) and 92 (1898) * Anton Arensky: Op. 67 (1903) * Adolf Schulz-Evler: Op. 12 Arabesques on “An der schönen blauen Donau” (1904) * Edward MacDowell (1889–1890) 12 Etudes, Op. 39, Arabesque no'4. * Louis Vierne: Arabesque, Op. 31/15 (1913–4) * Jean Sibelius: Arabesque, Op. 76/9 (1914) * Leo Ornstein: 9 Arabesques, Op. 42 (1921) * Bohuslav Martinů: Seven Arabesques for cello and piano (1931) * Edward Joseph Collins: Arabesque for violin and piano (1933) * William Kroll: Arabesque for violin and piano (1945) and for orchestra * Harold Budd: Arabesque 1, 2 & 3 (2005) * Samuel Hazo: Arabesque (2008) * Sigfrid Karg-Elert: Arabeske no.1 in G flat major Op.5 ‘Filigran’ * Nikolai Medtner: 3 Arabesques, Op. 7 (1901–04)

Arabesque (Turkish music)

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Description and history#

A very small percentage of arabesque is exclusively instrumental. For the great majority of it, a singer lies at the center of the music. Male singers dominated the genre in its early years, but female singers probably predominated during its peak years of popularity. Simultaneously, with the influx of female singers, the sound grew more dancey and upbeat. Suat Sayın is generally considered the founder of the genre. Other well-known older singers are Orhan Gencebay, Ferdi Tayfur, Müslüm Gürses, and Hakkı Bulut. One of the most prolific and commercially successful is İbrahim Tatlıses, who broke all sales records in Turkey in 1978 and continues to turn out popular music to this day. He has maintained popularity in the arabesk scene in recent years through remixing his tracks into dance-friendly club tracks. The pure arabesque album “Acıların Kadını” (tr: woman of pains) by the singer Bergen was the bestselling album in Turkey in 1986 and may be fairly labelled one of the classic albums of the genre. Bergen had several other hit arabesque albums during the 1980s. Other singers include Ebru Gündeş, Seda Sayan, and Sibel Can. The singers Muazzez Ersoy and Bülent Ersoy designate themselves as modern exponents of Ottoman classical music. Zerrin Özer also made arabesque albums between 1982 and 1988, including her album “Mutluluklar Dilerim,” released in 1984. One of the important names of arabesque musicians who died in 2000 was Ahmet Kaya and another of the names died in 2012 was Azer Bülbül. Another of the important names of arabesque music died in 2017 was İbrahim Erkal. A common theme in arabesque songs is the highly embellished and agonizing depiction of love and yearning, along with unrequited love, grief, and pain. This theme had undertones of class differences in early 1960-70s, during which most of the genre’s followers , mostly working-class to lower middle-class , identified themselves. Turkish composer Fazıl Say has repeatedly condemned and criticized the arabesque genre, equating the practice of listening to arabesque “tantamount to treason”.

Arabic hip-hop

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

History#

Before Arabic hip-hop emerged as a separate genre, Arab-Americans were regularly involved in hip-hop in the United States, such as Los Angeles-based producer Fredwreck and Miami-based DJ Khaled. American hip-hop music began to see popularity in the Arab World in the early-to-mid 1990s. Northern African Arabic-speakers in Europe, mostly residing in France, the epicenter of European hip-hop, were the first to begin making the music that constitutes the Arabic hip-hop genre. For example, the Saïan Supa Crew and IAM had Arabic members. This music, a product of the French banlieue’s beur and noir communities, was a blend of traditional American hip-hop, the French styles popular at the time, and Raï, a popular music style from Northern Africa. Groups began to emerge in Palestine in the mid-90s, including popular group DAM. DJ Lethal Skillz was promoting new local groups “such as Aks El Seir” at around the same time. In Egypt, American hip-hop was less popular, but a small buzz led to an emergent b-boy population. In 2004, the first hip-hop show took place there when the RZA, member of the Wu-Tang Clan, performed in the Siag Hotel in Cairo alongside Kinetic 9 of Killarmy, a Wu-Tang Clan affiliate, Cilvaringz (a Moroccan-Dutch, and the first Arab to get signed by an American rap group) and Saleh Edin, an American-Moroccan rapper. It is difficult to establish numbers for albums sold or listenership by demographic in the Arab world due to the lack of reliable statistics. Furthermore, viewership of satellite TV in the Arab world cannot be accurately quantified. However, we can discern popularity through marketing techniques utilized by satellite television providers. According to a 2007 report, “more than 85 percent of urban households in the Arab world have satellite television,” a forum that has expanded to include music channels such as MTV Arabia which " at the time plan ned to offer a hefty dose of mainly western hip-hop and much of the same youth-lifestyle programming MTV beams across the U.S."

Arabic maqam

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Background#

The designation maqam appeared for the first time in the treatises written in the fourteenth century by al-Sheikh al-Safadi and Abdulqadir al-Maraghi, and has since been used as a technical term in Arabic music. The maqam is a modal structure that characterizes the art of music of countries in North Africa, the Near East and Central Asia. Three main musical cultures belong to the maqam modal family: Arabic, Persian, and Turkish.

Arabic music

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

Pre-Islamic period#

Pre-Islamic Arabia was the cradle of many achievements in the sphere of music, musical theory and the development of musical instruments. In Yemen, the main center of pre-Islamic Arab sciences, literature and arts, musicians benefited from the patronage of the Kings of Sabaʾ who encouraged the development of music. For many centuries, the Arabs of Hejaz recognized that the best real Arabian music came from Yemen, and Hadhrami minstrels were considered to be superior. music. Most historians agree that there existed distinct forms of music in the Arabian peninsula in the pre-Islamic period between the 5th and 7th century AD. Arab poets of that time—called shu`ara’ al-Jahiliyah (Arabic: شعراء الجاهلية) or “Jahili poets”, meaning “the poets of the period of ignorance”—used to recite poems with high notes. It was believed that Jinns revealed poems to poets and music to musicians. The choir at the time served as a pedagogic facility where the educated poets would recite their poems. Singing was not thought to be the work of these intellectuals and was instead entrusted to women with beautiful voices who would learn how to play some instruments used at that time such as the drum, the lute or the rebab, and perform the songs while respecting the poetic metre. The compositions were simple and every singer would sing in a single maqam. Among the notable songs of the period were the huda (from which the ghina derived), the nasb, sanad, and rukbani.

Arabic pop

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Songwriting, recording and distribution formats#

The road to Arab stardom is very different from the one in the Western world. Traditionally, a certain producer creates the full song from music to lyrics, no matter the talents of the performer. Most music is recorded in studios as is Western Pop music. But also several live albums have been popular, such as with Asalah and Egyptian legend Umm Kulthum. Music has been released as single records, later replaced with cassettes in the album format, and by the late 1990s, and 2000s, additionally on CDs. Singles were not released separately, but just airplay is common. By the mid 2010s, they have been increasingly released on streaming services which allowed singles to be released again as soon as they become available. There are no official charts or certifications due to the informal nature of the business and bootlegging. In the mid 2000s, Ringtone charts were occasionally made, but due to bootlegging, they were supposedly highly inaccurate. There are several awards in different countries awarded in different ways according to their organizations. In fact, bootlegging is so common that most bootleggers have their own brands. They are so bold that they usually put contact info on the front of the CDs. Bootlegging is such a major problem that most artists cannot rely on royalties for income. Most of the actual musical income came from ringtone downloads, which was more prevalent than in the West. Other income comes from endorsement deals and live performances. Live performances are mainly brokered through the record label. This includes public concerts, such as at arenas or major media events. However, performances at weddings and private parties are common and well paid, no matter the artist’s level of fame. Music TV channels and music shows such as Arabs Got Talent are popular in the Middle East and North Africa, where some 40 Arab music channels exist. Rotana is the most popular company, running six TV channels, a record label, and a roster of more than 100 of the top Arab pop artists.

Arena rock

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Characteristics#

Historian Gary A. Donaldson has summed up arena rock as “big hair, big voices, and really big guitars”. In contrast to other types of music with a more raw, time-worn approach, arena rock musicians emphasize dramatic production. With bands deliberately designing their material for large audiences, the songs focus on melody, often featuring strident choruses. Guitar effects and the use of keyboard instruments are significant elements of the genre. Fireworks displays, use of smoke, and methods of sophisticated lighting, became part of the visual aesthetics of what is known as arena rock.

Argentine cumbia

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History#

In the 1990s, cumbia first found a place among the working classes, who attended large dancing halls called bailantas, often to listen and watch live concerts by cumbia groups. Some bands, most notably Ráfaga, chose a glamorous style with theatrically presented messages about romantic love and sensuality, hope and despair. Others took to more explicit themes, such as sex, alcoholism, and the cumbia subculture itself, often in a very light, irreverent style, sometimes intentionally humorous. The rhythm and themes of cumbia then spread to the whole of society, as its romantic and humorous manifestations were adopted to lighten up parties and other social events. Around the beginning of the 2000s, probably influenced by the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression, romantic cumbia drifted slowly away from the spotlight, while the rest of the bands slowly gave way to the much more aggressive cumbia villera (“shantytown cumbia”) -with lyrics that explored the themes of crime and drug abuse-, which was from the start mostly restricted to the urban lower classes. Key albums of the early cumbia villera include La vanda más loca (1999) by Flor de Piedra, Cumbia villera (2000) by Yerba Brava, Ritmo sustancia (2000) by Mala Fama, Para los pibes (2000) by Damas Gratis and Arriba las manos (2001) by Pibes Chorros. Over 25 years of history, cumbia in Argentina was heavily influenced by other Argentine folkloric kinds of music, like chamamé, guaracha, and cuarteto. Cumbia songs tell stories about love and experiences of common people. Cumbia in Argentina also has different styles depending on the country region, like norteña, santafesina, cordobesa, sonidera, and other more recent styles like cumbia-rap and cumbia villera. In the present, cumbia bands play electric guitars, bass guitars, electronic percussion and synthesizers, all common instruments of rock bands, and there are also other instruments like bongos, trumpets, accordions, etc.. The clothing is also a very important characteristic of cumbia bands. Each band has its own way of dressing, usually all members of the band wear the same special costume or exclusive clothes. In the late 2000s a new brand of cumbia that could be defined as Argentine cumbia became popular in some clubs in Buenos Aires, most notably Zizek Club, led by artists such as El Remolón, Fauna, Chancha via Circuito and Tremor. These artists, who focused on electronic productions featuring the cumbia rhythm, began releasing records largely on the ZZK Records imprint and achieved some international exposure, with their style of music being labelled as digital cumbia.

Argentine heavy metal

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History#

The Argentine Rock of the late 1970s included bands such as Pappo’s Blues, El Reloj, Vox Dei, Billy Bond y La Pesada del Rock and Roll, and Pescado Rabioso. The fans of those bands would eventually create the first heavy metal bands. There was no specialized press at the time, and bands and concerts were scarce. Pappo, who was already a famous musician and had been in Europe for some time, created a band influenced by the new wave of British heavy metal, Riff. V8, a relatively lesser-known band, mixed heavy metal and punk rock, and gained attention during an incident at the “Buenos Aires Rock” concert. The end of the national reorganization process in 1983 allowed an increased activity. Metal was the first heavy metal magazine in Argentina, published in 1983, and “Cuero Pesado” () the first radio program. Many bands, like V8, could release their first full-length albums. However, activity decreased a short time later. Riff broke up when a concert at the Ferrocarril Oeste stadium ended with widespread vandalism, and V8 tried to emigrate to Brazil. Riff returned in 1985, and V8 returned as well with a new lineup. The international success of Glam metal increased the interest in heavy metal music as well. A new magazine, Riff Raff, appeared and the discos Halley and Cemento became important venues for concerts. The activity decreased again in 1989, during a national economic crisis caused by an hyperinflation. Glam metal itself never caught on in Argentina, but some hard rock bands used the glam visual style, such as Alakran, Kamikaze and Escocia. The most successful of those bands was Rata Blanca, who made a concert at the José Amalfitani Stadium, the highest attended concert of an Argentine heavy metal band to date. Those bands appeared in Argentina in the late eighties and the initial nineties, some years after the international boom of glam metal; and so did the first thrash metal bands as well. Some of those bands were Horcas, Lethal and Nepal; the most popular one was Hermética, led by ex-V8 bass player Ricardo Iorio. The Argentine Currency Board established in 1991 eased the imports of foreign albums and the tours of international bands. As of 1995, the popularity of Rata Blanca had declined, and Hermética broke up, with their members starting the rival bands Almafuerte (with Iorio) and Malón (the rest of the band). A.N.I.M.A.L. was popular among the fans of 1990s heavy metal, and they defended their homage to their country. Horcas increased their popularity with singer Walter Meza. The number of thrash metal bands declined, and the number of power metal bands increased; with Imperio being the most popular in the genre. Malón broke up years later, and Almafuerte regained and increased the popularity of Hermética. The genre had a huge drawback in the early 2000s, first with the 2001 economic crisis, which forced many small bands to break up. The República Cromañón nightclub fire forced most nightclubs to increase their security; most of them had to close and the remaining ones became too expensive for heavy metal bands. The genre had a slow recovery since then. As of 2014, the most popular bands are Rata Blanca and Almafuerte.

Argentine rock

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Origins in the mid-1950s#

Rock and roll first began to appear in Argentina in 1955 after the genre was created in the United States in 1954–1955, based largely on rhythm and blues and country and western. On December 5, 1955, the first recorded rock song in Argentina was made. It was a version of “Rock Around the Clock” performed by trumpeter Roger Santander’s jazz orchestra. Singer and trombonist Eddie Pequenino, a native of jazz (in the 1940s, while still a teenager, he formed the band Jazz Los Colegiales with Ricardo Romero) and R&B (in the early 1950s, he had formed Eddie Parker and his Rhythm Band), was the first, in 1956, to sing rock and roll with Lalo Schiffrin’s orchestra. The Columbia record label approached him about launching a solo career, but he preferred to hide his identity, forming the first rock band in Argentina to release albums: Mr. Roll y sus Rocks, with Arturo Schneider on tenor saxophone, Jaime Rodríguez Anido (aka Ike) on lead electric guitar, Héctor Rea on rhythm guitar, Domingo Malagreca on double bass, and Jorge Padín on drums. Their first recording was released on December 7, 1956, in January 1957, selling more than 27,000 copies. The band recorded several covers of Bill Haley and other rockers such as Bobby Freeman and Alan Dale, including “See You Later, Alligator,” “Mambo Rock,” “Rock,” “Shake, Rattle and Roll,” and “Rancho Rock,” with Bill Haley & His Comets being their greatest influence with their swing-oriented style. At first, the musicians hid their identity so the public would think they were an American band. But Pequenino finally revealed his identity on a live program on Radio El Mundo, where the alleged immorality of rock dancing was being debated. Following this revelation, Mr. Roll and his Rocks were hired to play on that station every Wednesday night, and then moved to Radio Splendid on Fridays at 8:30 p.m. The group’s success was such that their recordings of Bill Haley songs outsold the originals. That same year, Eddie Pequenino was the star of the first original Argentine rock song sung in Spanish, the aforementioned “Rock con leche,” a humorous song created in collaboration with Argentine comedian Délfor Dicásolo, Radio El Mundo’s musical arranger Santos Lipesker, comedy scriptwriter Aldo Cammarota, and music producer Ben Molar. Thanks to the success of the song, the film Venga a bailar el rock was shot, released on August 29, 1957, starring Mr. Roll y sus Rockers and actors Eber Lobato, Nélida Lobato, Alfredo Barbieri, Alberto Anchart Jr., and Pedrito Rico. The film included two of Pequenino’s own English compositions (“Despacio nena” and “Aquí viene el rock”), and a Spanish rock song titled after the film, created by Éber Lobato. In May 1958, Bill Haley visited Argentina with his band, performing at the Metropolitan Theater, and chose Mr. Roll y sus Rockers as the opening act. This was the genre’s most successful moment in Argentina, and it reignited the controversy surrounding rock music, when certain media outlets argued that young people were “going crazy” in movie theaters because of rock movies, sometimes causing damage, and raised their guard against the arrival of Bill Haley, saying that rock and roll was a foreign music. Meanwhile, Antena magazine published an issue featuring Bill Haley wearing a poncho and drinking mate, as a gesture of cultural reconciliation. The arrival of this new musical phenomenon and the formation of Mr. Roll y sus Rocks caught the attention of the Argentine record industry, which saw a segment of society that had previously been unexplored: teenagers and young adults. This would open up a new market for youth music bands and soloists. In 1958, following the success of Bill Haley & His Comets’ visit earlier that year, more rock and roll bands were formed, performing their own songs as well as compositions by groups from the United States. Several members of these musical groups included members who would later become popular pop singers of the so-called “new wave” in Argentina in the 1960s. Rock and roll radio programs also began to appear, such as those on Radio Libertad (now AM del Plata) and Radio El Mundo. Jazzlandia magazine had taken note of the explosion of rock and roll on the Argentine music scene and began publishing articles, lyrics, sheet music, and rock reviews, as well as publishing Estrellas magazine. Rodríguez Luque, the disc jockey for the program Música en el aire, created the Disc-Jockey label, which released emerging rock musicians. In April of that year, Loving You, the third film by Elvis Presley, was released, translated in the country under the title La mujer que yo adoro, It had a media promotion unlike the previous two releases, the result was a “boom” in Elvis’s aesthetics. The Paters was formed with singer Lalo Fransen (future member of El Club del Clan) who at the time called himself Danny Santos. Their two most popular singles were recordings of Marty Robbins’s “A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)” and Elvis Presley’s “I Forgot to Remember to Forget”. Los Modern Rockers also appeared, and their member Luis Aguilé—who performed his own songs as Los Iracundos and covers of artists like Pat Boone—would also stand out years later, when he was signed to the Odeón label, and with his guitar and the support of Armando Patrono’s orchestra, recorded the bolero “Mirá qué luna”, but also one of the first rock songs originally created in Argentina, “La Balanza”. Accompanied by the Lucio Milena orchestra, the Spanish versions he recorded of Billy Cafaro, Paul Anka’s “Pity, pity and “Personalidad” were a considerable success. It is said from that time that “when Billy would sing on Radio El Mundo, located at Maipú 555, the lines of fans would reach two blocks and clog up the center of the capital. On more than one occasion he would arrive there aboard a helicopter that landed on the obelisk and he would be guarded on the way to the radio station as dozens of young women would try to jump on him, just as they did when he performed in a theater or club.” These hits were followed by several more, such as Marcianita, Bésame Pepita, and Viento, viento (these last two composed by Lucio Milena, at the request of Daniel Tinayre for the 1960 film “La Patota”), selling a million copies of their first long play, “Bésame Pepita”. However, when he performed a Spanish-language rendition of the German hit “Kriminal Tango”, it proved to be very unpopular among tango fans, who misinterpreted the song and considered it an offense to tango. Billy Cafaro suffered repeated attacks from tango fans, so he moved to Spain. A native of this country, Andy Maciá recorded his own songs in Spanish, such as “Rock del vaquero”, “Tú eres mi luna” and “Una motoneta” —the latter being an advertising jingle for Siam-Lambretta scooters, and possibly the first advertising jingle in Argentine history— aided by Horacio Malvicino’s orchestra, who at that time called himself Don Nobody. Later, when he turned to tango in Europe, he would adopt another pseudonym, Alain Debray. In July 1961, the multinational record company RCA hired a musician under the pseudonym Balder, who had appeared on the program Justa del Saber on Channel 7. A 45 RPM single was released with a rock song composed by Balder himself, “El rock del tom tom”, the first Argentine song that can be classified without a doubt within the genre rockabilly. Shortly after, his Spanish-language composition “Zapatos de pom pom” was also released. The artist was Alberto Felipe Soria, known as Johnny Tedesco. The album sold half a million copies in a very short time, also becoming a radio hit. Tedesco developed a style heavily influenced by Elvis Presley, a blend of rock, rockabilly, and country, and established himself as a Spanish-language performer of his own compositions and international rock hits. “Presumida,” “Un monto de amor,” “Preciso tu amor esta noche,” “Ocho días a la semana,” “Coqueta” (his own composition), and “La plaga” are some of his interpretations that helped consolidate the rock genre in Argentina. In August 1961, the multinational CBS, to counteract and contrast the success and the figure of Tedesco, promoted and edited its new artist Tony Vilar, who with his own songs in Spanish like the rockabilly “Rock de Fuego” and “Bailando”, or versions of the Dúo Dinámico like “Quince años tiene mi amor” or “Diablito” by Neil Sedaka. Tony represented the typical son of Italian immigrants of the youth of the moment. He was the first Argentine to interpret the so-called slow rock or slow ballads, and his most important piece in this genre was the slow rock in Spanish “Y los cielos lloraron” with Frank Ferrer and his group (pseudonym of Waldo de Los Ríos). Their second album was released in 1962, featuring the singles “Despeinada”, “Nada vale sin amor”, and “Acomplejada”. While its success was short-lived, it was quickly overshadowed by the dizzying emergence of Club del Clan. At that time, Los Pick Ups, Horacio Ascheri’s band, had emerged, recording their own songs like “Mi promesa” and “Es La Locura”. Radio Antártida, the name that Radio América had at that time, presented a rock and roll program all day long from beginning to end, which included in its schedule the programs A Window to Success with Antonio Barrios, La Discoteca de Juan José with Juan José May, La Whiskería de Johnny Carel and Círculo Musical with Héctor Larrea.

Argentine tango

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History of tango#

The origins of tango are unclear because little historical documentation from that era exists. In recent years, a few tango aficionados have undertaken a thorough research of that history and so it is less mysterious today than before. It is generally thought that the dance developed in the late 19th century in working-class neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Argentina and was practiced by Argentine dancers, musicians, and immigrant laborers. Like other Latin American countries, Argentine elites rejected a racial mixture with darker skin colored Argentines. Argentines repeated stereotypes that were common in Europe in the colonial era: non-caucasian people were forced into ghetto cohabitation. Tango was practiced in streets and patios, particularly dark street corners. Additionally, Afro-Argentines played important roles in evolution both musically and choreographically in the early stage of tango. The term “tango” was originated from Afro-Argentine dance forms, and black people are still connected to tango well into the 20th century. However, as famous tango stars such as Alberto Castillo gained popularity in Argentina, the positive image of blackness related to tango started to widely share in Argentina’s mass culture during the 1930s to 1950s. The Buenos Aires city government and the federal government started actively promoting tango by establishing a federal law to build Academia Nacional del tango. The law “Ley Nacional del Tango”, which recognized tango as an Argentine cultural tradition, was passed in 1996. Within the European society, the feelings towards this new dance were mixed. In Rome, Vittorio Emanuele III of Savoy banned Argentine tango from the balls in Quirinal Palace.

Aria

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Etymology#

The Italian term aria, which derives from the Greek ἀήρ and Latin aer (air), first appeared in relation to music in the 14th century when it simply signified a manner or style of singing or playing. By the end of the 16th century, the term ‘aria’ refers to an instrumental form (cf. Santino Garsi da Parma lute works, (‘Aria del Gran Duca’). By the early 16th century, it was in common use as meaning a simple setting of strophic poetry; melodic madrigals, free of complex polyphony, were known as madrigale arioso.

Arioso

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Well-known examples#

At the start of the finale in the first act of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, the andante of the priest (Sprecher) “Sobald dich führt der Freundschaft Hand ins Heiligtum zum ew’gen Band” is an example of arioso. “Amor ti vieta”, sung by Loris at Giordano’s Fedora could be a modern arioso example. In 1927, Sir Thomas Beecham referred to Frederick Delius’s Sea Drift as ’the finest example in all music of the Arioso recitativo.'

Armenian chant

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Early Armenian chant#

In the 5th century, the earliest Armenian chants were created by St. Mesrop Mashtots who in addition to his compositional work, invented the Armenian alphabet. With the onset of this new alphabet and the subsequent translation of the Bible into Armenian, there was a large incentive to create original Armenian hymns, distinct form those of the Greeks and other neighboring Christians. All works were written in classical Armenian called grabar. Today, grabar is reserved only for liturgical usages and is seldom spoken in colloquial settings.

Armenian folk music

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The Importance of Armenian Folk Music For The Armenian Nation And Musical Culture#

The original Armenian folk music forms the basis of national self-awareness and defines the socio-cultural identity of the Armenian people, along with other attributable components of the socio-cultural life of the Armenian ethnicity. Being one of the oldest, having vividly expressed originality, melodic richness and compositional nobility, Armenian folk music has had a significant impact on the development of musical culture worldwide.

Armenian jazz

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1930s–1940s: Early beginnings#

The roots of Armenian jazz trace back to 1936, when composer and trumpeter Tsolak Vardazaryan formed Yerevan’s first jazz band. Two years later, in 1938, composer Artemi Ayvazyan founded the Armenian State Jazz Orchestra, which quickly became one of the leading jazz orchestras of the Soviet Union. During World War II, Soviet Armenian authorities sent the orchestra to hold concerts for the Red Army. The orchestra’s first drummer, Robert Yolchyan, became an important artist of Soviet and Armenian jazz, developing his own style over time and continuing to play and give master-classes until his death in 2001.

Armenian revolutionary songs

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History#

The Armenian revolutionary movement, initially led by the Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (est. 1887) and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (est. 1890), took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This was caused by years of oppression from the Ottoman Empire, especially under the rule of sultan Abdul Hamid II. This was the period when Armenians began demanding their most basic rights and defending Armenian towns from Ottoman oppression. Certain armed Armenian patriotic groups formed to fight the Turkish oppression and defend Armenian towns from Kurdish brigands. These volunteer fighters were called fedayees. In some instances, they were successful in defending Armenian locals, earning them popular support and elevating them to the status of heroes. This environment was thus ideal for the development of Armenian patriotic songs to support these freedom fighters.

Armenian rock

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Soviet Era#

Rock was greatly restricted for most of the period Armenia was under Soviet rule, being viewed by the CPSU as a Western anti-socialist influence. Yet, by the early 1970s, there were a range of popular bands in the capital city of Yerevan strong enough to compete with their Soviet counterparts - Arthur Meschian’s “Arakyalner”, “1+2”, “Kaleidoscope” and “Bliki”. By the eighties, combining Armenian folk music with rock, the Armenian folk-rock groups were founded with notable, and popular even in 2000’s, representatives - Bambir, founded 1978 in Leninakan and Vostan Hayots, founded in 1986 in Yerevan. In 1982 Bambir won the “Folk Music Award” at the International Festival in Lida, Belarus. Other more obscure groups were also founded in the same time period like Zartong, a short-lived Armenian progressive folk group from France. As the Soviet rock scene grew larger in the late 1980s, bands like Asparez and Ayas attracted international audiences due to the new popularity of oriental rock these two bands were among original contributors, that was described first time in Melodie und Rhythmus magazine. Ayas was formed in 1986 by a conservatory graduate Artur Mitinyan, and a year later won Best Song of the Year award at Yerevan’s “Rock, Rock, Rock Festival”. Later they won the “Sisian Rock Festival” award as well. Elips was another important band of the era formed in 1986. In summer 1986 “Elips” went on tour to Latvia, where they played together with a Riga-based group “Pilligrim”. Simultaneously with the fame, the group gained the hatred of the Soviet Communist party nomenclature and was prohibited as an anti-Soviet group. Their most popular song - “Patkeratsrek” (Imagine) remains as one of the hymns of Armenian rock.

Aromanian music

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Arrangement

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Classical music#

Arrangement and transcriptions of classical and serious music go back to the early history of classical music.

Eighteenth century#

J. S. Bach frequently made arrangements of his own and other composers’ pieces. One example is the arrangement that he made of the Prelude from his Partita No. 3 for solo violin, BWV 1006. Bach transformed this solo piece into an orchestral Sinfonia that introduces his Cantata BWV29. “The initial violin composition was in E major but both arranged versions are transposed down to D, the better to accommodate the wind instruments”. “The transformation of material conceived for a single string instrument into a fully orchestrated concerto-type movement is so successful that it is unlikely that anyone hearing the latter for the first time would suspect the existence of the former”.

Arrocha

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History#

In 2004, arrocha began gaining ground in many radio stations in Bahia. Some artists have helped spread arrocha and are now nationally recognized: Júlio Nascimento, Tayrone Cigano, Nara Costta, Asas Livres, Pablo, Grupo Arrocha, Márcio Moreno, Nano do Arrocha, Silvanno Salles, Ciel Rodrigues, Nara Costa, and Tatal Matos, considered “Queen of Arrocha,”. The lyrics have much in common with Brega, with the addition of keyboard sounds and electronic beats, and the rhythm is very successful especially in the regions North and Northeast. The term “arrocha” is recent, but the music itself has existed since the mid-1970s, when admirers of Odair José, Reginaldo Rossi, Fernando Mendes and Waldick Soriano began to sing the songs of their idols in bars and nightclubs in suburban areas or inland in the country. After some years, although still remain strong, the pace was being forgotten by the media in general. In the late ’90s, the music business entrepreneurs realize their great popular appeal in a big profit opportunity, and from there came the first idol, since 2000, called Lairton, nicknamed “Lairton and their keyboards,” which became known with the song “Strawberry Northeast”. With the simplification of systems and manufacturing mix CDs, several smaller groups have emerged, which helped spread the “movement”. However, despite the success in the poorest, arrocha still faces a lot of prejudice among the middle class, which simply does not consider it a genre because of their compositions that constantly portray the love life problems. Many singers singing arrocha stood out, as Sandra Cristina, Grupo Belo Ser, Tayrone Cigano, Roberto Bessa, Nara Costa, Silvano Salles, Márcio Moreno, Asas Livres, Grupo Arrocha, Tatal Matos, Trem Xônado, Toque Novo, Latitude 10, Bonde do Maluco, Léo Magalhães, Ninjas do Arrocha, Kuarto de Empregada, Ardente Paixão, Saulo Calmon, Pablo a voz Romântica, Nano do Arrocha, Paula e a Mulherada, Trio da Huanna, among others. Today Arrocha is widely known and popular in Brazil thanks to the new sertanejo generation adding an arrocha style to the music known as Sertanejo Arrocha or Arrocha Universitário. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, arrocha spread to the United States when the Internet Bad Boys released several arrocha-inspired songs.

Ars antiqua

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History#

The original Medieval usage of the expression ars antiqua, found in the Speculum Musice of Jacobus and also by Johannes de Muris (the only one to use the exact term ars antiqua), referred specifically to the period of Franco of Cologne, approximately 1250–1310, but this restricted usage is rarely employed in modern scholarship. Almost all composers of the ars antiqua are anonymous. Léonin ( late 12th century), and Pérotin (fl. ) were the two composers known by name from the Notre Dame school; in the subsequent period, Petrus de Cruce, a composer of motets, is one of the few whose name has been preserved. In music theory the ars antiqua period saw several advances over previous practice, most of them in conception, and notation of rhythm. In the early Medieval music era, notation indicated the pitches of songs without indicating the rhythm that these notes should be sung in. The most famous music theorist of the first half of the 13th century, Johannes de Garlandia, was the author of the De Mensurabili Musica (c. 1240), the treatise which defined, and most completely elucidated rhythmic modes. A German theorist of a slightly later period, Franco of Cologne, was the first to describe a system of notation in which differently shaped notes have entirely different rhythmic values (in the Ars cantus mensurabilis, c. 1280), an innovation which had a massive impact on the subsequent history of European music. Most of the surviving notated music of the 13th century uses the rhythmic modes as defined by Garlandia. Though the style of the ars antiqua went out of fashion rather suddenly in the first two decades of the 14th century, it had a late defender in Jacques of Liège (alternatively known as Jacob of Liège), who wrote a violent attack on the “irreverent, and corrupt” ars nova in his Speculum Musicae (c. 1320) vigorously defending the old style in a manner suggestive of any number of music critics from the Middle Ages to the present day. To Jacques, the ars antiqua was the musica modesta, and the ars nova was a musica lasciva—a kind of music which he considered to be excessively indulgent, capricious, immodest, and sensual.

Ars nova

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Versus#

Stylistically, the music of the differed from the preceding era in several ways. Developments in notation allowed notes to be written with greater rhythmic independence, shunning the limitations of the rhythmic modes which prevailed in the thirteenth century; secular music acquired much of the polyphonic sophistication previously found only in sacred music; and new techniques and forms, such as isorhythm and the isorhythmic motet, became prevalent. The overall aesthetic effect of these changes was to create music of greater expressiveness and variety than had been the case in the thirteenth century. Indeed, the sudden historical change which occurred, with its startling new degree of musical expressiveness, can be likened to the introduction of perspective in painting, and it is useful to consider that the changes to music in the period of the were contemporary with the great early Renaissance revolutions in painting and literature. The most famous practitioner of the new musical style was Guillaume de Machaut, who also had a distinguished career as a canon at Reims Cathedral and as a poet. The ars-nova style is evident in his considerable body of motets, lais, virelais, rondeaux and ballades. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, a new stylistic school of composers and poets centered in Avignon in southern France developed; the highly mannered style of this period is often called the , although some scholars have chosen to consider it a late development of the rather than separating it into a separate school. This strange but interesting repertory of music, limited in geographical distribution (southern France, Aragon and later Cyprus), and clearly intended for performance by specialists for an audience of connoisseurs, is like an “end note” to the entire Middle Ages.

Ars subtilior

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Overview and history#

Musically, the productions of the are highly refined, complex, and difficult to sing, and probably were produced, sung, and enjoyed by a small audience of specialists and connoisseurs. Musicologist Richard Hoppin suggests the superlative ars subtilissima, saying, “not until the twentieth century did music again reach the most subtle refinements and rhythmic complexities of the manneristic style.” compares avant-garde and modernist music of the 20th century’s “emphasis on generating music through technical experiment” to the precedent set by the movement’s “autonomous delight in extending the kingdom of sound.” He cites Baude Cordier’s perpetual canon Tout par compas (All by compass am I composed), notated on a circular staff. Albright contrasts this motivation with “expressive urgency” and “obedience to rules of craft” and, indeed, "" was coined by musicologist Ursula Günther in 1960 to avoid the negative connotations of the terms manneristic style and mannered notation. (Günther’s coinage was based on references in Tractatus de diversis figuris, attributed to Philippus de Caserta, to composers moving to a style “post modum subtiliorem comparantes” and developing an “artem magis subtiliter”.) One of the centers of activity of the style was Avignon at the end of their Papacy and during the subsequent Great Schism (1378–1417), the time during which the Western Church had a pope both in Rome and in Avignon. Avignon had developed into an active cultural center, and produced a significant surviving body of secular song in the late fourteenth century. The style spread into, or was simultaneously developed in northern Spain, Italy (especially Pavia) and as far east as Cyprus (which was a French cultural outpost at the time). French, Flemish, Spanish and Italian composers used the style.

Art music

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Definition#

In Western literature, “Art music” is mostly used to refer to music descending from the tradition of Western classical music. Musicologist Philip Tagg refers to the elitism associated with art music as one of an “axiomatic triangle consisting of ‘folk’, ‘art’ and ‘popular’ musics”. He explains that each of these three is distinguishable from the others according to certain criteria. The term “art music” refers primarily to classical traditions (including contemporary as well as historical classical music forms) that focus on formal styles, invite technical and detailed deconstruction

Art pop

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Characteristics#

Art pop draws on postmodernism’s breakdown of the high/low cultural boundary and explores concepts of artifice and commerce. The style emphasizes the manipulation of signs over personal expression, drawing on an aesthetic of the everyday and the disposable, in distinction to the Romantic and autonomous tradition embodied by art rock or progressive rock. Sociomusicologist Simon Frith has distinguished the appropriation of art into pop music as having a particular concern with style, gesture, and the ironic use of historical eras and genres. Central to particular purveyors of the style were notions of the self as a work of construction and artifice, The Independents Nick Coleman wrote: “Art-pop is partly about attitude and style; but it’s essentially about art. It is, if you like, a way of making pure formalism socially acceptable in a pop context.” Cultural theorist Mark Fisher wrote that the development of art pop evolved out of the triangulation of pop, art, and fashion. Robert Christgau wrote in The Village Voice in 1987 that art-pop results “when a fascination with craft spirals up and in until it turns into an aestheticist obsession.”

Art punk

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Etymology#

On December 12, 1977, writer Stanley Mieses of Melody Maker used the term “art-punk” to describe the American band Devo. In 2004, music historian Ian Gittins noted that the term “art-punk” began to be used prominently by several music publications during the post-punk era primarily to describe artists deemed too sophisticated and out of step with punk’s dogma, though some critics used it as a pejorative. Gittins stated: In the rock music of the 1970s, the “art” descriptor was generally understood to mean either “aggressively avant-garde” or “pretentiously progressive”. Musicologists Simon Frith and Howard Horne described the band managers of the 1970s punk bands as “the most articulate theorists of the art punk movement”, with Bob Last of Fast Product identified as one of the first to apply art theory to marketing, and Tony Wilson’s Factory Records described as “applying the Bauhaus principle of the same ’look’ for all the company’s goods”. Wire’s Colin Newman described art punk in 2006 as “the drug of choice of a whole generation”.

Art rock

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Etymology and characteristics#

In the academic perspective of music critics, such as those for The New York Times, high art and pop music had increasingly engaged with each other throughout the second half of the 20th century. Historically, the term has been used to describe at least two related, but distinct, types of rock music. One usage refers to groups who rejected psychedelia and the hippie counterculture in favour of a modernist, avant-garde approach defined by the Velvet Underground. Essayist Ellen Willis compared these two types: Art rock frequently intertwines with “serious music”. Critic John Rockwell described the term as referring to wide-ranging and eclectic tendencies in rock music. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that “art rock” was frequently applied to strains of experimental rock music, including work by Laurie Anderson, David Bowie, Brian Eno, the Velvet Underground, and Frank Zappa. According to AllMusic, art rock is “more challenging, noisy and unconventional” and “less classically influenced”, with more of an emphasis on avant-garde music, depending on what was considered avant-garde at the time of the term’s use. “Art rock” is used synonymously with progressive rock They both describe a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility, Common characteristics include album-oriented music divided into compositions rather than songs, with usually complicated and long instrumental sections and symphonic orchestration.

Art song

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Languages and nationalities#

Art songs have been composed in many languages, and are known by several names. The German tradition of art song composition is perhaps the most prominent one; it is known as Lieder. In France, the term mélodie distinguishes art songs from other French vocal pieces referred to as chansons. The Spanish canción and the Italian canzone refer to songs generally and not specifically to art songs.

Form#

The composer’s musical language and interpretation of the text often dictate the formal design of an art song. If all of the poem’s verses are sung to the same music, the song is strophic. Arrangements of folk songs are often strophic, and “there are exceptional cases in which the musical repetition provides dramatic irony for the changing text, or where an almost hypnotic monotony is desired.” Several of the songs in Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin are good examples of this. If the vocal melody remains the same but the accompaniment changes under it for each verse, the piece is called a “modified strophic” song. In contrast, songs in which “each section of the text receives fresh music” are called through-composed. Most through-composed works have some repetition of musical material in them. Many art songs use some version of the ABA form (also known as “song form” or “ternary form”), with a beginning musical section, a contrasting middle section, and a return to the first section’s music. In some cases, in the return to the first section’s music, the composer may make minor changes.

Art song in Arabic

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AR on Music Theory Print

Arabesque (classical music)

Notable arabesques#

Arabesque (Turkish music)

Description and history#

Arabic hip-hop

History#

Arabic maqam

Background#

Arabic music

Pre-Islamic period#

Arabic pop

Songwriting, recording and distribution formats#

Arena rock

Characteristics#

Argentine cumbia

History#

Argentine heavy metal

History#

Argentine rock

Origins in the mid-1950s#

Argentine tango

History of tango#

Aria

Etymology#

Arioso

Well-known examples#

Armenian chant

Early Armenian chant#

Armenian folk music

The Importance of Armenian Folk Music For The Armenian Nation And Musical Culture#

Armenian jazz

1930s–1940s: Early beginnings#

Armenian revolutionary songs

History#

Armenian rock

Soviet Era#

Aromanian music

See also#

Arrangement

Classical music#

Eighteenth century#

Arrocha

History#

Ars antiqua

History#

Ars nova

Versus#

Ars subtilior

Overview and history#

Art music

Definition#

Art pop

Characteristics#

Art punk

Etymology#

Art rock

Etymology and characteristics#

Art song

Languages and nationalities#

Form#

Art song in Arabic

See also#