CO on Music Theory Print

Čoček

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Cock rock

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Characteristics#

Cock rock is a musical genre. Philip Auslander uses Simon Frith’s description of cock rock characteristics: C ock-rock performance means an explicit, crude, ‘masterful’ expression of sexuality … Cock-rock performers are aggressive, boastful, constantly drawing audience attention to their prowess and control. Their bodies are on display … mikes and guitars are phallic symbols (or else caressed like female bodies), the music is loud, rhythmically insistent, built around techniques of arousal and release. Lyrics are assertive and arrogant, but the exact words are less significant than the vocal styles involved, the shrill shouting and screaming.

Coimbra fado

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Colá

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As a genre music#

As a music genre, colá is characterized by having an andante tempo, a 6/8 or 3/4 measure and traditionally it is just melodic, i.e., it is just sung, it has no polyphonic accompaniment. In its traditional form, it is structured like a chain of (songs or recitals). Today, cola has been composed in another form by recent composers.

As a dance#

As a dance, colá is traditionally celebrated in a street parade.

Coladeira

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Genre#

As a music genre the coladeira is characterized by having a variable tempo, from allegro to andante, a 2-beat bar, and in its most traditional form by having an harmonic structure based in a cycle of fifths, while the lyrics structure is organized in strophes that alternate with a refrain. The coladeira is almost always monotonic, i.e. composed in just one tonality. Compositions that use more than a tonality are rare and generally they are cases of passing from a minor to major tonality or vice versa.

Cold wave (music)

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Etymology#

The term “cold wave” was originally coined by Sounds magazine on their 26 November 1977 issue on “New Musick”. The label is a loosely defined descriptor, derived from “new wave”, that was originally reserved for a collection of punk and electronic styles from the 1970s. The scope of the genre has evolved continuously throughout its history. According to The SAGE Handbook of Popular Music (2014), “cold wave” is an early synonym for music that was later termed “dark wave”, “goth”, and “deathrock”. Treblezine ’s Jeff Terich remarked, “cold wave” was ultimately subsumed by retrospective labels such as “minimal wave” or “minimal synth”. Veronica Vasicka, who coined “minimal wave”, did so with the intent of tying together terms such as “minimal electronics”, “new wave”, and “cold wave” which had frequently appeared in music magazines of the early 1980s.

Colindă

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Origins#

Although the text of all colinde is concerned with the events of the Nativity, certain elements of the folk rituals performed around Christmas are probably pre-Christian in origin, having their roots in the Roman Saturnalia and pagan rituals related to the winter solstice and soil fertility. Colinde are performed in all parts of Romania (including Moldova), with regional variations in terms of number of participants, exact timing of different melodies and lyrics. In terms of artistic mastery of verse and melody, colinde occupy an important place in the creation of the Romanian people. They form a unity with doine, popular ballads and songs of bravery, with tales, riddles, proverbs and sayings. Coming from the world of village communities, colinde preserve some of the oldest Romanian poetic achievements. They are inspired by the Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, by the religious services and by the iconography. Colinde have had a role in preserving and defending the Orthodox faith when heterodox proselytizing tried to break the unity of the Orthodox faith, and to dismantle, at the same time, national unity. The Mother of God, who occupies a central place in piety and Orthodox worship, is present everywhere in Romanian colinde, together with her son, Jesus Christ. In traditional Romanian rural society, preparations for colinde started well in advance (sometimes weeks) before Christmas. The village youth (usually boys) would begin to form groups in different places and designate a leader in order to practice singing in unison. These groups are called cete de colindători, and their numbers vary from region to region. Then, starting on Christmas Eve, the groups would go to different houses and begin singing. In some villages, they go first to the mayor’s house, followed by the teacher’s house, whereas in other parts there is no pre-established order. The families would then invite them into the house, and give them different small gifts such as nuts, dried fruits and colaci. Examples of colinde with religious subjects are “Astăzi s-a născut Hristos” (Today Christ was born), “Moș Crăciun cu plete dalbe” (Santa Claus with white tresses) and “O, ce veste minunată!” (O, what wonderful news!).

College rock

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Characteristics#

An outgrowth of hardcore punk, college rock originated less as a genre term and more as a signal of the medium — college radio — by which college rock acts were often heard. As a result, the genre featured a high degree of diversity and eclecticism, meaning that “on college radio … screaming noise, retro country, avant-garde electronics, and power pop could coexist, linked by cheap-sounding singles recorded by local bands.”

Collegiate a cappella

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History#

The RPI Glee Club of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, established in 1873, was one of the earliest known collegiate a cappella groups. The longest continuously operating group is thought to be The Whiffenpoofs of Yale University, which was formed in 1909 to create a musical group with a more “modern” sound than that of the Yale Glee Club, and named for the lyrics to Little Nemo, a popular Broadway song at the time. Such names, normally intended for comedic effect, have come to define in some part the irreverent attitude found in modern collegiate a cappella. For example, the second-oldest continuously performing a cappella group is Yale’s Society of Orpheus and Bacchus, or “SOB’s”. The first a cappella groups at other American Ivy League universities include Notes and Keys of Columbia, which were founded in 1909, the same year as the Whiffenpoofs; the Princeton Nassoons (c.1941); the Dartmouth Aires (1946); the Harvard Krokodiloes (1946); Cayuga’s Waiters of Cornell University (1949); and the Jabberwocks of Brown University (1949). The Smith College Smiffenpoofs are the oldest continuous soprano/alto a cappella group, founded in 1936. In recent years, online a cappella communities have come together, allowing for greater involvement in the shaping of modern a cappella music, including stylistic trends. Among the most prominent online a cappella presences are the A Cappella Blog, Varsity Vocals, and CASA (The Contemporary A Cappella Society). According to the A Cappella Blog, it “was founded in January 2007. Since that time, the site has reviewed over 40 International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella competitions.” Similarly, the Varsity Vocals compose an international a cappella organization based around their two main competitions, the ICCA (International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella) and the ICHSA (International Competition of High School A Cappella). The South Asian a cappella competitive circuit is governed by the Association of South-Asian A Cappella (ASA), a non-profit organization formed in 2016, with some collegiate teams that compete in both circuits. Collegiate a cappella is by far most common in the United States, from which it originated; however in recent decades the trend has spread to universities in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as a few nations in Asia.

Colombian rock

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History#

In the 1960s a boom in rock music happened in Colombia, as a result of globalization, the influence of the foreign music of that decade, and opposition to the Vietnam War. From that moment in time came the first rock bands in the country. The most famous band in those years where Los Speakers from Bogotá. Their last and most famous album was The Speakers en el maravilloso mundo de Ingeson edited in 1968. Some bands of the sixties: Los Speakers (1963–1968), Los Flippers (1965–1973), Los Yetis (1965–1969), Los Ampex (1965–1967), Los Young Beats (1966), Los Streaks (1967), Time Machine (1967), The New Movement (founded by Colombo- N.Americans 1966–1968), The Walflower Complextion (founded by North-Americans 1966–1967). After founding Los Speakers, Humberto Monroy also founded Siglo Cero (1969–1970) and the legendary band Géne-sis (1972–1992) that produced works through the 1970s and 1980s. In the 1980s, Kraken became the first known heavy metal band in Colombia, as well as the oldest still active band of the country, becoming the progenitors of many rising bands until today. Those included Ekhymosis, from which Juanes split for a solo career. Bogotá, Medellín and Cali were the cities where this movement started to grow, and they remain today as the main cradles for new groups and styles. Colombian rock is grouped with all Rock en español, a movement led by Argentine rock and Mexican rock.

Colossal Baroque

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Background#

Some of the roots of the Colossal Baroque style were in the opulent Florentine Intermedii of the 16th century, commissioned and attended by the powerful Medici family. La Pellegrina, performed for the wedding of Ferdinand de’ Medici to the French princess, Christine of Lorraine, in 1589, featured music for up to seven choirs, by Cristofano Malvezzi in Intermedio VI. Yet another city that cultivated large sonorities was Rome. Composers there were not as adventurous with harmony and rhythm as the Venetians, but they had spacious churches with elaborate interiors which demanded music to match. Composers such as Orazio Benevoli, who began his career in Rome, helped spread the style elsewhere, especially across the Brenner Pass into the Austrian lands. In the Austrian area, multi-part pieces were written for special occasions but not always published. There is a long list of missing and incomplete works by Giovanni Valentini, (some in 17 choirs), Priuli, Bernadi, (the mass for consecration of Salzburg Cathedral used 16 choirs), and others. Some of Valentini’s trumpet parts survive; they have few changes of note, and many rests. It is possible that the brass may have made dovetailed mass volume answering phrases in a multi-choir texture similar to the effects exploited by Giovanni Gabrieli and the other composers of the Venetian School. Pieces were typically in 12 or more parts but there is evidence that the polychoral aspects did not always involve wide spacing. For example, in Ugolini’s Exultate Omnes there are trio passages for all the sopranos, tenors and altos from each choir together. This would have been impractical if the singers were widely separated, due to the physical limitation imposed by the speed of sound. On the other hand, some pieces were very likely to have been performed with singers and players distributed widely, in venues such as Salzburg Cathedral; for maximum effect and practicality, much of this music was antiphonal or exploited echo effects. Orazio Benevoli became confused with Heinrich Biber and Stefano Bernardi in the celebrated mixup over the authorship of the Missa Salisburgensis, now assigned to Biber and provisionally dated to 1682. Works we may consider to be examples of the Colossal Baroque style were frequently ceremonial works, composed for special occasions (coronations, weddings, religious festivals, municipal functions, victory celebrations, et cetera). These works were frequently performed with unusually large musical forces. From time to time the scores of such works may have been presented to the aristocrat hosting or the subject of the event. As a result, many scores of large-scale 16th- and 17th-century works have been lost. Heinrich Schütz composed a musical setting of Psalm 136, Danket dem Herren, denn er ist freundlich which included three vocal choirs, 12 cornetti and 18 trumpets. This score is also now lost.

Comédie en vaudevilles

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Evolution#

The annual fairs of Paris at St. Germain and St. Laurent had developed theatrical variety entertainments, with mixed plays, acrobatic displays, and pantomimes, typically featuring vaudevilles (see Théâtre de la foire). Gradually these features began to invade established theatres. The Querelle des Bouffons (War of the Clowns), a dispute amongst theatrical factions in Paris in the 1750s, in part reflects the rivalry of this form, as it evolved into opéra comique, with the Italian opera buffa. Comédie en vaudevilles also seems to have influenced the English ballad opera and the German Singspiel.

Comédie mêlée d'ariettes

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Sources#

Bartlet, M. Elizabeth C. (1992). “Comédie mêlée d’ariettes” in Sadie 1992, vol. 1, p. 910.
Cook, Elizabeth (1992a). “Anseaume, Louis” in Sadie 1992, vol. 1, p. 144.
Cook, Elizabeth (1992b). “Peintre amoureux de son modèle, Le” in Sadie 1992, vol. 3, p. 932.
Libby, Dennis; Willaert, Saskia; Jackman, James L. work-list (1992). “Ciampi, Vincenzo (Legrenzio)” in Sadie 1992, vol. 1, pp. 858–859.
Loewenberg, Alfred (1978). Annals of Opera 1597–1940 (third edition, revised). Totowa, New Jersey: Rowman and Littlefield. .
Sadie, Stanley, editor (1992). The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (4 volumes). London: Macmillan. .
Sonneck, Oscar G. (1911). “Ciampi’s Bertoldo, Bertoldino e Cacasenno and Favart’s Ninette à la cour: A Contribution to the History of Pasticcio (Sämmelbände der I. M. G., 1911)”, pp. 111–179, in Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Music, edited by O. G. Sonneck. New York: Macmillan, 1921.
Warrack, John; West, Ewan (1992). The Oxford Dictionary of Opera. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. .
Wild, Nicole; Charlton, David (2005). Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique Paris: répertoire 1762-1972. Sprimont, Belgium: Editions Mardaga. .

Comédie-ballet

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History#

The first example of the genre is considered to be Les fâcheux, with words by Molière, performed in honour of Louis XIV at Vaux-le-Vicomte, the residence of Nicolas Fouquet, in 1661. The music and choreography were by Pierre Beauchamp, but Jean-Baptiste Lully later contributed a sung courante for Act I, scene 3. Molière, Lully and Beauchamp collaborated on several more examples of comédie-ballet, culminating in the masterpiece of the genre, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, in 1670, and the scenically spectacular Psyché of January 1671, a tragicomédie et ballet which went well beyond the earlier examples of the genre. After quarrelling with Lully, Molière retained the services of Beauchamp as choreographer. His one-act prose comedy La Comtesse d’Escarbagnas premiered in December 1671 at the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye as part of a larger entertainment referred to as the “Ballet des Ballets”. The play recycled musical episodes from several of Molière’s earlier comédies-ballets, including La pastorale comique, George Dandin, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, and Psyché. It “has sometimes been characterized as little more than a platform for songs and dances.” In the 18th century, the comédie-ballet became almost completely outmoded but it still exercised a long-lasting influence on the use of music in French theatre. A late example of a genuine comédie-ballet is La princesse de Navarre by Voltaire, which was performed at Versailles on 23 February 1745. It consisted of a prologue and three acts, with the addition of an overture and three musical divertissements, one per act, composed by Jean-Philippe Rameau. The vocal music is particularly difficult to sing and includes a virtuoso duet for hautes-contre.

Comedy hip-hop

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Characteristics#

Satirical hip-hop may be a parody of the whole genre of hip-hop and/or a form of critical music that uses hip-hop as a vehicle for satirical messages. Musical influence and scope vary, ranging from gangsta rap, mumble rap, trap to alternative hip-hop. The more humorous satirical sub-genre meme rap was created with the intent of becoming viral. In the context of mumble rap, a satirical hip-hop song might involve lo-fi production, use of personas/pseudonyms (e.g. George “Joji” Miller), simplistic music videos, lazy rhymes, and intentionally stereotypical lyrics/topics.

Comedy music

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Comedy-music relationship#

Comedy is a form of art that addresses comic or humorous situations, or even serious ones with a light or satirical approach. Music is also a form of art, and it is concerned with the rhythm, melody, and harmony of vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds. One similarity between comedy and music is the way they both evoke psychological and emotional effects in their listeners, without them fully understanding the specific reason for their emotions of hilarity. Comedy in entertainment is also established as musical codes set up and confirm the audience’s understanding of the symbolic meaning of a scene, before subverting that understanding to play with the audience’s response. Thus, a multi-faceted musical experience has the ability to elicit emotions such as humor and comedy in its listeners. This type of musical experience can be identified as comedy music.

Comedy rock

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Early#

Early American examples include Stan Freberg, who lampooned artists such as Elvis Presley, Harry Belafonte and the Platters, and Sheb Wooley. The latter’s “Purple People Eater” reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart in 1958 and stayed there for six weeks. In Britain during the 1950s and early 1960s, comedians such as Charlie Drake and the Goons frequently appeared in the top ten with humorous rock ’n’ roll records—the latter, along with Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, were to influence the word-play of John Lennon’s lyrics. Later British groups specialised in comedy: these included the Scaffold, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias. Later in Britain, in the 2000s, Mitch Benn released several studio albums that satirised current affairs using various musical genres, but mainly rock. His 2012 Breaking Strings album was critically acclaimed for its rock sensibility. AllMusic described Frank Zappa as the “godfather” of comedy rock. The pop rock and folk rock band the Turtles released a comedy rock album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands, in 1968, though the band had previously incorporated humor into their songs. Two of its members, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, later performed more explicitly comedic songs as Flo & Eddie with their own band and with Frank Zappa.

Comic opera

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Italian opera buffa#

In late 17th-century Italy, light-hearted musical plays began to be offered as an alternative to weightier opera seria (17th-century Italian opera based on classical mythology). Il Trespolo tutore (1679) by Alessandro Stradella was an early precursor of opera buffa. The opera has a farcical plot, and the characters of the ridiculous guardian Trespolo and the maid Despina are prototypes of characters widely used later in the opera buffa genre. The form began to flourish in Naples with Alessandro Scarlatti’s Il trionfo dell’onore (1718). At first written in Neapolitan dialect, these works became “Italianized” with the operas of Scarlatti, Pergolesi (La serva padrona, 1733), Galuppi (Il filosofo di campagna, 1754), Piccinni (La Cecchina, 1760), Paisiello (Nina, 1789), Cimarosa (Il matrimonio segreto, 1792), and then the great comic operas of Mozart and, later, Rossini and Donizetti. At first, comic operas were generally presented as intermezzi between acts of more serious works. Neapolitan and then Italian comic opera grew into an independent form and became the most popular form of staged entertainment in Italy from about 1750 to 1800. In 1749, thirteen years after Pergolesi’s death, his La serva padrona swept Italy and France, evoking the praise of such French Enlightenment figures as Rousseau. In 1760, Niccolò Piccinni wrote the music to La Cecchina to a text by the great Venetian playwright, Carlo Goldoni. That text was based on Samuel Richardson’s popular English novel, Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740). Many years later, Verdi called La Cecchina the “first true Italian comic opera” – that is to say, it had everything: it was in standard Italian and not in dialect; it was no longer simply an intermezzo, but rather an independent piece; it had a real story that people liked; it had dramatic variety; and, musically, it had strong melodies and even strong supporting orchestral parts, including a strong “stand-alone” overture (i.e., you could even enjoy the overture as an independent orchestral piece). Verdi was also enthusiastic because the music was by a southern Italian and the text by a northerner, which appealed to Verdi’s pan-Italian vision. The genre was developed further in the first half of the 19th century by Gioachino Rossini in his works such as The Barber of Seville (1816) and La Cenerentola (1817) and by Gaetano Donizetti in L’elisir d’amore (1832) and Don Pasquale (1843), but declined in the mid-19th century, despite Giuseppe Verdi’s Falstaff staged in 1893.

Compas

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Etymology and characteristics#

The word “compas” means “measure” or “rhythm” in Spanish, In Creole, it is officially spelled as konpa, but it is most popularly spelled with an “m” in place of the “n” (as in kompa) even though it is considered a botched spelling translation that resulted from a phonetic misunderstanding between French and Haitian Creole, the latter with a newly standardized orthography which has only been established since 1979 that contains no m-sounding consonants before b’s and p’s unlike in French.

Composer tributes (classical music)

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Variations#

Variations on a theme by another composer. These are usually written as discrete sets of variations. There are hundreds of examples, including: * Ludwig van Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations * Johannes Brahms’s Variations on a Theme by Haydn (which theme was probably not written by Haydn at all)

Works with other titles#

Many works are based on a theme or themes by another composer (sometimes anonymous or traditional). They range from short pieces to extended major compositions. Sometimes these works are no more than sets of variations under another name, but sometimes they go beyond that. They appear under many titles, including: * Works ending in -ana, such as: ** Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s tribute to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart by subtitling his Orchestral Suite No. 4 Mozartiana ** Ottorino Respighi’s tribute to Gioachino Rossini, titled Rossiniana ** Robert Gerhard’s hommage to Felip Pedrell, titled Pedrelliana ** Manuel de Falla’s Pedrelliana, to Pedrell too, fourth part of his Hommages suite ** Joaquín Rodrigo’s Soleriana (1953), on eight pieces by Antoni Soler ** Carles Surinyach’s Soleriana (1972), also on Antoni Soler * Fantasia or Fantasy ** Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis ** Franz Liszt’s Fantasy on Themes from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni ** Joaquín Rodrigo’s Fantasía para un gentilhombre on themes from Gaspar Sanz’s Instrucción de música sobre la Guitarra Española. * Hommage ** Carlos Chávez’s Estudio IV: homenaje a Chopin, for piano (1949) ** the second piece from Claude Debussy’s piano suite Images is Hommage à Rameau ** Lorenzo Ferrero’s Thema 44 (ad honorem J. Haydn) for small orchestra ** Manuel de Falla’s Hommages for orchestra (1938–1939), four pieces devoted to Enrique Fernández Arbós, Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas and Felip Pedrell. ** Robert Gerhard’s Symphony Hommage to Pedrell ** Edvard Grieg’s Study (Hommage à Chopin), from Moods, Op. 73 ** György Kurtág ***…a Százévesnek – Hommage à Takács Jenő, for small string orchestra (2002) ***Hommage à András Mihály, Op. 13, for string quartet (1977–78) ***Hommage à Jacob Obrecht, for string quartet (2004–2005) ***Hommage à R. Sch., for clarinet (and bass drum), viola, and piano (1990) ***Looking Back: Old and New for Four Players, Hommage à Stockhausen, for trumpet, double-bass, and keyboard instruments (1993) ***Négy initium az Hommage à Jacob Obrecht-ből, for viola and cello (2005) ***Petite musique solennelle – En hommage à Pierre Boulez 90, for orchestra (2015) ** Alexandre Tansman’s Hommage à Chopin (for guitar) ** Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Hommage à Chopin for piano solo * Paraphrase ** Liszt’s Paraphrase on the “Dies Irae”, which he called Totentanz * Rhapsody **Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (probably the most famous of the many works based on Niccolò Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 in A minor for solo violin) * Reminiscences ** Liszt’s Réminiscences de Don Juan (based on themes from Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni) * Tombeau ** Maurice Ravel’s Le tombeau de Couperin ** Manuel de Falla’s Le Tombeau de Debussy ** Arthur Benjamin’s Le Tombeau de Ravel

Concept musical

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Definition#

The term ‘concept musical’ was influenced by the 1968 New York Times review of Zorba by critic Martin Gottfried. Referring to Harold Prince’s direction rather than the show itself, Gottfried wrote: “Conception is the big word here - it is what is coming to replace the idea of a ‘book’… there is even less room than in the usual musical for story because Prince’s concept… apparently won out on every question about cutting.” In his 1971 review of Follies, Gottfried defined the concept musical as “a show whose music, lyrics, dance, stage movement and dialogue are woven through each other in the creation of a tapestry-like theme (rather than in support of a plot).” Concept musicals place emphasis upon style, message, and thematic metaphor rather than the plot itself, thus the show’s structure is rarely cohesive or linear. Chiefly understood by its holistic approach to each show, the concept musical strives for artistic representation of the theme in every aspect of the final production. Distinguishing it from other forms of musical theatre: “In musical comedy there is no theme. The revue uses a theme to unify disparate musical numbers and specialty acts. The integrated musical contains a theme. In contrast, the concept musical embodies a theme that is developed as the musical is written.” The message of the show often spurs within its director a “renewed emphasis on the visual aspects of the performance… leading to a more abstract, unrealistic, non-representational staging, as the director has to free himself/herself from the confines of scenic verisimilitude in order to explore the visual dynamics of the stage.”

Concert aria

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Mozart concert arias#

Among the more well-known of Mozart’s concert arias are: *“Popoli di Tessaglia!”, K. 316, for soprano, with its two famous G notes (i.e., the G above high C - according to the Guinness Book of Records, the highest musical note ever scored for the human voice) that come shortly before the end. This aria was composed in order to be inserted into Gluck’s opera Alceste, and also specifically to showcase the superlative vocal skills of Mozart’s sister-in-law, Aloysia Weber, who was only 18 at the time. Sopranos who are able to cope with the aria’s demands have been few and far between, and the aria is usually omitted from performances of Alceste. It has been therefore redesignated a concert aria, to be presented in concerts by such rare singers as are able to deliver its fiendishly difficult coloratura. *, K. 383, for soprano. *“Ch’io mi scordi di te?”, K. 505, written for Nancy Storace *“Vorrei spiegarvi, oh Dio!”, K. 418, written for Aloysia Weber *“Bella mia fiamma”, K. 528, written for Josepha Duschek *“Per questa bella mano”, K. 612, for bass, double bass obbligato, and orchestra

Concert march

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Concert marches by composer#

This incomplete list consists mainly of marches identified by their composers as concert marches. Note that many marches originally written for other contexts, such as military marches, ceremonial marches, or works for marching band, have also been played as concert marches; often in adapted versions. This list doesn’t include adapted marches and is limited to marches specifically created as concert marches in their initial presentation. For this reason, many prominent march composers like Sousa only have a limited number of works listed here because they predominantly wrote their marches originally for other contexts. Other well known march composers may not be listed at all if they wrote only for military bands or marching bands and never specifically composed for the concert band or orchestra. This list also does not include marches which were originally written as part of a larger work which are often played in concert such as marches written within an opera or ballet or for use in a play. The list may also omit marches which functioned as concert marches but were not specifically labeled as concert marches by their creators unless reliable sources have identified them as concert marches. For this reason the list omits many early concert marches which were written in a time period before the term concert march became widely used.

Concert piece

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Examples#

Arnold Bax: Concert Piece for Viola and Piano
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Konzertstück for violin and orchestra (a.k.a. Violin Concerto movement) in C major, WoO 5 (fragment)
Rondo for piano and orchestra in B-flat major, WoO 6
Franz Berwald:
Max Bruch: , in two movements, Op. 84
Ferruccio Busoni: , BV 236 (Op. 31a)
Cécile Chaminade: , Op. 40
Hugo Distler: Konzertstück for piano and orchestra, Op. post.
George Enescu:
Carl Filtsch: Konzertstück for piano and orchestra
Friedrich Grützmacher: Two for cello and piano, Op. 32
Paul Hindemith:
Konzertstück (also known as Concertino) for Trautonium (or clarinet) and strings
Konzertstück for two alto saxophones
Mauricio Kagel:
Konzertstück for timpani and orchestra
Opus 1.991 — Concert piece for orchestra
Felix Mendelssohn: Concert Pieces and for clarinet, basset horn and piano (or orchestra).
Carl Reinecke: Konzertstück for piano and orchestra, Op. 33
Camille Saint-Saëns:
in E minor, Op. 62
in F minor, Op. 94
in G major, Op. 154
Franz Schubert:
in D major, 345
Rondo for violin and string orchestra in A major, D 438
Polonaise for violin and orchestra in B major, D 580
Robert Schumann:
Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra, Op. 86
Introduction and Allegro appassionato for piano and orchestra, Op. 92
Carl Maria von Weber: Konzertstück in F minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 79, J. 282

Concertino (composition)

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Examples#

Listed by composer: *Hendrik Andriessen: **Concertino for oboe and string orchestra (1970) **Concertino for cello and chamber orchestra (1970) *Jurriaan Andriessen: **Concertino for bassoon and winds (1962) **Concertino for piano and orchestra (1962) **Concertino for sousaphone and orchestra (1967) *Alexander Arutiunian: Concertino for piano and orchestra (1951) *Kees van Baaren: Concertino for piano and orchestra (1934) *Henk Badings: Concertino for piano trio (violin, cello, and piano) and chamber orchestra (1942) *Marion Bauer: Concertino for oboe, clarinet, and string quartet, Op. 32b *Luciano Berio: Concertino for clarinet, violin, celesta, harp, and strings (1949, rev. 1951 and 1970) *Henriëtte Bosmans: Concertino for piano and orchestra (1929) *Ferrucio Busoni: , BV 276 (Op. 48) *Cécile Chaminade: Concertino for flute and orchestra in D major *Ferdinand David: Trombone Concertino *Hossein Dehlavi: Concertino for santur and orchestra *Gaetano Donizetti: Concertino in G Major for cor anglais and orchestra (1817) *Theodore Eisfeld: Concertino for clarinet and orchestra *David Farquhar: Concertino for piano and strings (1960) *Lorenzo Ferrero: **Three Baroque Buildings, concertino for trumpet, bassoon and string orchestra (1997) **Rastrelli in Saint Petersburg, concertino for oboe and string orchestra (2000) **Two Cathedrals in the South, concertino for trumpet and string orchestra (2001) **Guarini, the Master, concertino for violin and string orchestra (2004) *Wolfgang Fortner: Concertino for viola and chamber orchestra (1934) *Jean Françaix: **Concertino for piano and orchestra (1932) **Concertino for violin and orchestra (1954) *Roberto Gerhard: Concertino for strings (1927–28) *Peggy Glanville-Hicks: **Concertino da camera for flute, clarinet, bassoon, and piano (1945) **Concertino antico for harp and string quartet (1955) *Michael Haydn: Concertino for trumpet and orchestra *Hans Werner Henze: Concertino for piano, winds, and percussion (1947) *Paul Hindemith: Concertino (or: Konzertstück) for trautonium and strings (1931) *Gilad Hochman: Concertino for string orchestra and flute obbligato (2003) *Jacques Ibert: Concertino da camera *John Ireland: Concertino pastorale for string orchestra (1939) *Leoš Janáček: Concertino for piano and chamber ensemble *André Jolivet: *Nikolai Kapustin: Concertino for piano and orchestra, Op. 1 (1957) *Julius Klengel: Concertino for cello in C major *István Láng: **Concertino for xylophone and orchestra (1961, rev. 1967) **Concertino for soprano, trumpet, harp, violin, viola, cello, and electronics *Lars-Erik Larsson: **Concertino No. 1 for flute and strings, Op. 45 No. 1 (1955) **Concertino No. 2 for oboe and strings, Op. 45 No. 2 (1955) **Concertino No. 3 for clarinet and strings, Op. 45 No. 3 (1957) **Concertino No. 4 for bassoon and strings, Op. 45 No. 4 (1955) **Concertino No. 5 for horn and strings, Op. 45 No. 5 (1955) **Concertino No. 6 for trumpet and strings, Op. 45 No. 6 (1953) **Concertino No. 7 for trombone and strings, Op. 45 No. 7 (1955) **Concertino No. 8 for violin and strings, Op. 45 No. 8 (1956) **Concertino No. 9 for viola and strings, Op. 45 No. 9 (1956) **Concertino No. 10 for cello and strings, Op. 45 No. 10 (1956) **Concertino No. 11 for double bass and strings, Op. 45 No. 11 (1957) **Concertino No. 12 for piano and strings, Op. 45 No. 12 (1957) *Walter Leigh: Concertino for Harpsichord and String Orchestra *Ursula Mamlok: Concertino for wind quintet, string orchestra, and percussion *Bohuslav Martinů: **Concertino for cello and chamber ensemble (piccolo, 2 oboes, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, piano, timpani, drum, and cymbals) (1924) **Concertino for piano left hand and chamber orchestra (1926) **Concertino for piano trio and strings, H. 231 (1933) **Concertino for piano trio and strings, H. 232 (1933) **Concertino for piano and orchestra (1938) *Darius Milhaud: Les quatre saisons: **Concertino de printemps for violin and chamber orchestra, Op. 135 (1934) **Concertino d’automne for two pianos and eight instruments, Op. 309 (1951) *Francis Poulenc: Concertino for piano four-hands (1931) *Sergei Prokofiev: Cello Concertino *Marcel Quinet: **Concertino for flute and orchestra (1959) **Concertino for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and orchestra (1960) **Concertino for violin and orchestra (1970) *Ned Rorem: **Concertino de Camera for harpsichord and small ensemble (1946) *Albert Roussel: *Gunther Schuller: Concertino for jazz quartet (vibraphone, piano, percussion, and double bass) and orchestra (1959) *Roger Sessions: Concertino for chamber orchestra (1971–72) *Dmitri Shostakovich: Concertino for two pianos, Op. 94 (1954) *Nikos Skalkottas: **Concertino for solo oboe with piano accompaniment (1939) **Concertino for trumpet with piano accompaniment (190–42) **Concertino for piano and orchestra in C major (1948) **Concertino for two pianos and orchestra (1935) *Richard Strauss: Duett-Concertino for clarinet, bassoon, strings and harp (1947) *Igor Stravinsky: Concertino for string quartet (1920), also arrs. for piano four-hands, and for flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, 2 bassons, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, violin, and cello *Carlos Surinach: **Concertino for piano, stings, and cymbals (1956) **Doppio Concertino for violin, piano, and nine instruments (1954) * Germaine Tailleferre: ** ** *Virgil Thomson: Autumn, concertino for harp, strings, and percussion (1964) *Erich Urbanner: Concertino for flute and orchestra (1959) *Václav Jindřich Veit: Concertino for violin and orchestra, Op. 25 (1844) *Carl Maria von Weber: **Concertino in E-flat major for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 26, J. 109 (1811) **Concertino in E minor for horn and orchestra, Op. 45 ** Konzertstück in F minor for piano and orchestra, Op. 79 *Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari: **Idillio-concertino in A major for oboe, two horns, and strings, Op. 15 (1933) **Suite-concertino in F major for bassoon, two horns, and strings, Op. 16 (1933) **Concertino in A major for cor anglais, two horns, and strings, Op. 34 (1947) *Arthur Wood: Concertino in A major for flute and orchestra (1948) *Isang Yun: Concertino for accordion and string quartet (1983)

Concerto

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Genre#

The Italian word concerto, meaning accord or gathering, derives from the Latin verb concertare, which indicates a competition or battle.

Baroque Era#

Compositions were for the first time indicated as concertos in the title of a music print in 1587, when the were published.

Concerto as a genre of vocal music#

In the 17th century, sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos, as reflected by J. S. Bach’s usage of the title “concerto” for many of the works that are now known as cantatas. The term “concerto” was initially used to denote works that involved voices and instruments in which the instruments had independent parts—as opposed to the Renaissance common practice in which instruments that accompanied voices only doubled the voice parts. Examples of this earlier form of concerto include Giovanni Gabrieli’s “In Ecclesiis” or Heinrich Schütz’s “Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich”.

Concerto for solo piano

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History#

Although various “concert” pieces have been written across history (such as Liszt’s Trois études de concert and Grand solo de concert), concertos for solo piano are very rare. The first (and still best known) example comes from Johann Sebastian Bach, whose Italian Concerto, BWV 971, was published in 1735. Even though it was written for two-manual harpsichord, it is regularly played on the piano and considered the first example of a concerto fitted to solo keyboard. Schumann’s Piano Sonata No. 3 in F minor (1835), Op. 14, was labelled by Tobias Haslinger as a “Concerto without orchestra”. The French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan wrote in 1857 his set of Op. 39 études, of which nos. 8–10 were labelled as a concerto for solo piano. It includes markings such as “Tutti”, “Solo” and “Piano”, as well as instrumental directions such as “quasi-trombe” and “quasi-celli”. The Spanish composer Joaquín Turina wrote in 1935 his Concerto Without Orchestra (Spanish: Concierto sin orquesta), Op. 88. The Russian composer and violinist Joseph Achron wrote in 1941 his final work Concerto for solo piano, op. 74. Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji’s Concerto da suonare da me solo e senza orchestra, per divertirmi (1946) is clearly inspired by Alkan; for instance, the third movement of the work is titled Scherzo diabolico—a reference to Alkan’s Étude Op. 39 No. 3. In addition to that, the first movement of the work contains various programmatic indications. These, however, are controversial, since they effectively refer to an imaginary orchestra. However, it has also been argued that the orchestra is represented in the work by means of bitonal relationships. The Slovak composer Ján Zimmer wrote, in addition to seven concertos for piano and orchestra, a Concerto for Piano without orchestra, op. 23 (1955/1956). The piano concertos nos. 4 and 6 of Michael Finnissy are pieces for solo piano. John White has described his Piano Sonata No. 152 as a concerto for solo piano.

Concerto grosso

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History#

The form developed in the late seventeenth century, although the name was not used at first. Alessandro Stradella seems to have written the first music in which two groups of different sizes are combined in the characteristic way. The name was first used by Giovanni Lorenzo Gregori in a set of ten compositions published in Lucca in 1698. The first major composer to use the term concerto grosso was Arcangelo Corelli. After Corelli’s death, a collection of twelve of his concerti grossi was published. Not long after, composers such as Francesco Geminiani, Pietro Locatelli, Giovanni Benedetto Platti and Giuseppe Torelli wrote concertos in the style of Corelli. He also had a strong influence on Antonio Vivaldi. Two distinct forms of the concerto grosso exist: # the concerto da chiesa (church concert) # the concerto da camera (chamber concert) The concerto da chiesa alternated slow and fast movements; the concerto da camera had the character of a suite, being introduced by a prelude and incorporating popular dance forms. (See also Sonata for a discussion about sonatas da camera and da chiesa.) These distinctions blurred over time. Corelli composed 48 trio sonatas, 12 violin and continuo sonatas, and 12 concerti grossi. Six sets of twelve compositions, published between 1888 and 1891 by Friedrich Chrysander, are authentically ascribed to Corelli, together with a few other works. * Opus 1: 12 sonate da chiesa (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1681) * Opus 2: 12 sonate da camera (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1685) * Opus 3: 12 sonate da chiesa (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1689) * Opus 4: 12 sonate da camera (trio sonatas for 2 violins and continuo) (Rome 1694) * Opus 5: 12 Suonati a violino e violone o cimbalo (6 sonate da chiesa and 6 sonate da camera for violin and continuo) (Rome 1700) The last sonata is a set of variations on La Folia. * Opus 6: 12 concerti grossi (8 concerti da chiesa and 4 concerti da camera for concertino of 2 violins and cello, string ripieno, and continuo) (Amsterdam 1714) Corelli’s concertino group consisted of two violins and a cello, with a string section as ripieno group. Both were accompanied by a basso continuo with some combination of harpsichord, organ, lute or theorbo.

Conductus

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Origins of the name#

The conductus was most likely sung while the lectionary was carried from its place of safekeeping to the place from which it was to be read. But the origins of the term “conductus” remain obscure. The noun is derived from the verb conducere, which can mean to lead, guide, or escort. Thus according to one hypothesis, the genre was called “conductus” because it served to accompany a procession. For example, according to the record of manuscript in the Institución Colombina, Seville, the conductus Salve festa dies was used for the same role of procession as the ancient hymn. The hymn with the same name was sung during the procession to the altar. But conducere can also mean “to bring together” or “join together.” Thus according to another hypothesis, the genre was called “conductus” because it brings sequence or hymn together. The conductus is based on a condensed version of a sequence or hymn. For instance, the conductus Orienti oriens is derived from the sequence Noster cetus iste letus.

Conga (music)

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Origins#

The history of the conga (also known as comparsa conga or conga de comparsa) is obscure and its origins remain largely unknown. In the early 19th century, although the word “conga” is not found in written sources, there are references to “tumbas”, and, according to Brea and Millet (1993:204), “tumba” refers to the percussion ensemble of the conga. “Tumba” is mentioned in connection with mamarrachos (summer festivals in Santiago de Cuba) as early as 1847 (Pérez I 1988:54). A word that may be synonymous with “tumba” is the word “tango”, mentioned as early as 1856 (Pérez I 1988:79). Unfortunately, most 19th-century writers were extremely negative towards Afro-Cuban culture and little information about the tumbas or tangos was recorded.

Congolese rumba

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Tempo and instrumental composition#

The Congolese rumba is characterized by a slow-to-moderate tempo and syncopated arrangement of drums and percussion, typically following a time signature. The genre’s instrumentation has evolved over time. Initially, local tunes were concocted employing instruments such as the likembe, a bottle struck with a metal rod, and a small, skin-covered frame drum called patenge. By the mid-to-late 1950s, the instrumentation diversified further with “orchestres”, or big bands, becoming the standard and incorporating upright basses, trumpets, saxophones, and more elaborate percussion setups. The contemporary Congolese rumba instrumental makeup primarily includes guitars, mandolins, banjos, drums, saxophones, clarinets, trumpets, maracas, pianos, shakers, double bells (ekonga), likembe, accordion, and racketts.

Conjunto

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Mexican#

Mexican conjunto music, also known as conjunto tejano, was born in south Texas at the end of the 19th century, after German settlers introduced the button accordion. The bajo sexto has come to accompany the button accordion and is integral to the conjunto sound. Many conjuntos are concentrated in the Southwestern portion of the United States, primarily in Texas and California. In Mexico, the term conjunto is associated with norteño and tejano music. Since tejano was bred out of norteño music originally, this association is not entirely false. However, due to various cultural and socioeconomic developments in the 1900s, norteño musicians began trailblazing the tejano genre as a tangent to conjunto. In the United States and Mexico, a conjunto band is composed of four main instruments: the button accordion, the bajo sexto, an electric bass, and a drum set. The place of the electric bass was first filled by the tololoche, or contrabass, until it was replaced in the 1950s. They are popular in northern Mexico and southern Texas. German and East European settlers brought their accordions, waltzes and polkas to the region, which were adapted by the local population. Texas accordion player Flaco Jiménez is probably the best-known conjunto musician in the United States, with a career spanning sixty years and earning him six Grammy awards.

Contemporary Catholic liturgical music

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Background#

In the early 1950s the Jesuit priest Joseph Gelineau was active in liturgical development in several movements leading toward Vatican II. The new Gelineau psalmody was published in French (1953) and English (1963).

Vatican II#

Contemporary Catholic liturgical music grew after the reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council, which called for wider use of the vernacular language in the Catholic Mass. The General Instruction of the Roman Missal states: Great importance should … be attached to the use of singing in the celebration of the Mass, with due consideration for the culture of the people and abilities of each liturgical assembly. Although it is not always necessary (e.g. in weekday Masses) to sing all the texts that are of themselves meant to be sung, every care should be taken that singing by the ministers and the people is not absent in celebrations that occur on Sundays and on holy days of obligation. It adds: All other things being equal, Gregorian chant holds pride of place because it is proper to the Roman Liturgy. Other types of sacred music, in particular polyphony, are in no way excluded, provided that they correspond to the spirit of the liturgical action and that they foster the participation of all the faithful. Since the faithful from different countries come together ever more frequently, it is fitting that they know how to sing together at least some parts of the Ordinary of the Mass in Latin, especially the Creed and the Lord’s Prayer, set to the simpler melodies.

Contemporary Christian music

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Beginnings (1950s–1960s)#

The growing popularity of rock and roll music in the 1950s and 1960s was initially dismissed among Protestant churches and denominations, as it was believed to encourage sinfulness. However, as Baptist, Evangelical, and Pentecostal churches in the United States adapted to appeal to more people, the musical styles used in worship changed as well by adopting the sounds of this popular style. The genre became known as “contemporary Christian music” as a result of the Jesus movement revival in response to the American counterculture during the latter 1960s and early 1970s, and was originally called “Jesus music”. “About that time, many young people from the sixties’ counterculture professed to believe in Jesus. Convinced of the “bareness” of a lifestyle based on drugs, free sex, and “radical politics”, some of the Jesus ‘hippies’ became known as ‘Jesus people’”. It was during the 1970s that Christian music started to become an industry within itself, led by the Jesus movement. “Jesus music” started by playing instruments and singing songs about love and peace, which then translated into love of God. Paul Wohlegemuth, who wrote the book Rethinking Church Music, said " the 1970s will see a marked acceptance of rock-influenced music in all levels of church music. The rock style will become more familiar to all people, its rhythmic excesses will become refined, and its earlier secular associations will be less remembered." Evangelical, Pentecostal, and Charismatic artists made significant contributions to CCM in the 1960s and 1970s, Larry Norman is often remembered as the “father of Christian rock”, because of his early contributions (before the Jesus movement) to the developing new genre that mixed rock rhythms with the Christian messages. Though his style was not initially well received by some in the Christian community of the time, he continued throughout his career to create controversial hard-rock songs such as “Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?” and Mylon – We Believe by Mylon LeFevre, released by Cotillion, which was LeFevre’s attempt at blending gospel music with southern rock. Unlike traditional or southern gospel music, this new Jesus music was birthed out of rock and folk music. Pioneers of this movement also included Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, the Imperials, Michael Omartian, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Phil Keaggy, Love Song, Barry McGuire, Evie, Paul Clark, Randy Matthews, Randy Stonehill, and Keith Green, among others. The small Jesus music culture had expanded into a multimillion-dollar industry by the 1980s. A number of CCM artists such as Benny Hester, Amy Grant, DC Talk, Michael W. Smith, Stryper, and Jars of Clay found crossover success with Top 40 mainstream radio play.

Contemporary classical music

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Background#

At the beginning of the 20th century, composers of classical music were experimenting with an increasingly dissonant pitch language, which sometimes yielded atonal pieces. Following World War I, as a backlash against what they saw as the increasingly exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism, certain composers adopted a neoclassic style, which sought to recapture the balanced forms and clearly perceptible thematic processes of earlier styles (see also New Objectivity and social realism). In the post-war era, modernist composers sought to achieve greater levels of control in their composition process (e.g., through the use of the twelve-tone technique and later total serialism). At the same time, conversely, composers also experimented with means of abdicating control, exploring indeterminacy or aleatoric processes in smaller or larger degrees. Technological advances led to the birth of electronic music. Experimentation with tape loops and repetitive textures contributed to the advent of minimalism. Still other composers started exploring the theatrical potential of the musical performance (performance art, mixed media, fluxus). New works of contemporary classical music continue to be created. Each year, the Boston Conservatory at Berklee presents 700 performances. New works from contemporary classical music program students comprise roughly 150 of these performances.

Contemporary commercial music

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The emergence of contemporary commercial music (CCM)#

Pioneered by Jeannette LoVetri, the phenomenon of contemporary commercial music (CCM) was developed to assess and combine all the prevailing forms of CCM to distinguish the latter from classical music. LoVetri asserts that despite CCM being used to refer to classical music in modern times, in Europe, it also points to any music style considered “current”. This points to the several uses of the term commercial music which also alludes to technology in music, hence the wide acceptance of the term CCM in the US. In this context, CCM is the new terminology used to refer to non-classical music. More specifically, CCM is a generic phrase developed to comprise several aspects of the music industry including experimental music, folk, country, rap, hip-hop, soul, R&B, gospel, rock, pop, and the music theatre, besides all other styles that are considered contemporary.

Contemporary folk music

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Definitions#

Definitions of “contemporary folk music” are generally vague and variable. Here, it is taken to mean all music that is called folk that is not traditional folk music, but rather, a set of genres that began with and then evolved from the folk revival of the mid-20th century. According to musician and singer-songwriter Hugh Blumenfeld, for the American folk scene, “it’s not just about the music. The definitions are political, social, and economic as well as aesthetic. But if it can’t be defined, we can at least describe what people who consider themselves folk music fans generally listen to.” Though he considers folk music to be difficult to define, Blumenfeld lists some observed consistencies: * In general, it is Anglo-American, embracing acoustic and/or tradition-based music from the U.K. and the United States. * Musically, it is mainly Western European in its origins; linguistically, it is predominantly English-based. Other musical modes and languages, rightly or wrongly, tend to get separated out and grouped under “World Music”, even if they are considered traditional within their respective cultures. * The few exceptions to this model are derived mainly from prevailing political/historical conditions in the Anglo-American world and the demographics of folk fans: Celtic music, blues, some Central and South American music, Native American music, and Klezmer.

Contemporary Jewish religious music

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Hasidic influence#

Within the traditional Jewish community, cantoral and chasidic melodies were the musical standard. In the 1950s and early 1960s recordings began to be made of non-cantorial Jewish music, beginning with Ben Zion Shenker’s recording of the music of the Modzitz chassidic sect and Cantor David Werdyger’s Gerrer recordings. The annual Israeli Hasidic Song Festival, first held in 1969, became a stage which saw the premières of pieces like Nurit Hirsh’s Oseh Shalom; Tzvika Pik’s Sh’ma Yisrael; and Shlomo Carlebach’s Od Yishama and V’ha’eir Eineinu.

Contemporary music

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Genres or audiences#

Adult contemporary music
British contemporary R&B
Christian adult contemporary
Christian contemporary hit radio
Contemporary a cappella
Contemporary blues
Contemporary Catholic liturgical music
Contemporary Christian music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary commercial music
Contemporary folk music
Contemporary hit radio
Contemporary improvisation
Contemporary Jewish religious music
Contemporary laïkó
Contemporary R&B
Contemporary soul
Contemporary worship music
New adult contemporary
Rhythmic adult contemporary
Rhythmic contemporary
Urban adult contemporary
Urban contemporary gospel
Urban contemporary music

Regions#

Contemporary music of France
Contemporary music of Indonesia
Contemporary music of Madagascar
Malaysian contemporary music
Contemporary underground music in Syria

Institutions#

Academy of Contemporary Music
Advanced School of Contemporary Music
ARChive of Contemporary Music
Association for Contemporary Music
Center for Contemporary Music
Center for Contemporary Opera
Contemporary Music Project
Cornel School of Contemporary Music
Edition of Contemporary Music
INSAM Institute for Contemporary Artistic Music
International Society for Contemporary Music
Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts
London Centre of Contemporary Music
Quebec Contemporary Music Society
Rimon School of Jazz and Contemporary Music
School of Jazz and Contemporary Music

Ensembles#

Accessible Contemporary Music
Birmingham Contemporary Music Group
Concorde Contemporary Music Ensemble
The Contemporary Singers of Australia
Contemporary Youth Orchestra
The Group for Contemporary Music
NOTUS, the Contemporary Vocal Ensemble
San Francisco Contemporary Music Players

Festivals#

Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music
Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival
London Festival of Contemporary Church Music
Royan Festival for Contemporary Music
Tehran Contemporary Music Festival
Ultima Oslo Contemporary Music Festival
University of Plymouth Contemporary Music Festival

Albums#

Cal Tjader Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and Brazil
Contemporary Jazz (Branford Marsalis album)
Contemporary Jeep Music
Dreamweapon: An Evening of Contemporary Sitar Music
Jazz Contemporary (Kenny Dorham album)
The Modern Jazz Society Presents a Concert of Contemporary Music

Publications#

Apostles of Rock: The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music
Contemporary Christian Music Magazine
Contemporary Country

Awards#

Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Performance/Song
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Christian Music Song
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary R&B Album
Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance
Helpmann Award for Best Contemporary Concert Presentation

Instruments#

*Contemporary harpsichord

Contemporary R&B

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Precursors#

According to Geoffrey Himes speaking in 1989, the progressive soul movement of the early 1970s “expanded the musical and lyrical boundaries of R&B in ways that haven’t been equaled since”. This movement was led by soul singers, songwriters and producers such as Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, and Stevie Wonder. Norman Whitfield’s productions at Motown, the record label of Gaye, were also pioneering for setting the soul vocals and simple hooks of earlier rhythm and blues records against strong backbeats, vocal harmonies, and orchestral sounds, all of which thickened the texture of the music. Gaye’s own music on albums such as What’s Going On (1971) incorporated jazz influences that led the genre into a looser musical direction. The first result was Off the Wall (1979), which—according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic—“was a visionary album, that found a way to break disco wide open into a new world where the beat was undeniable, but not the primary focus” and “was part of a colorful tapestry of lush ballads and strings, smooth soul and pop, soft rock, and alluring funk”. Richard J. Ripani wrote that Janet Jackson’s Control (1986) was “important to the development of R&B for several reasons”, as she and her producers, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, “crafted a new sound that fuses the rhythmic elements of funk and disco, along with heavy doses of synthesizers, percussion, sound effects, and a rap music sensibility.” Ripani wrote that “the success of “Control” led to the incorporation of stylistic traits of rap over the next few years, and Janet Jackson was to continue to be one of the leaders in that development.”

Contemporary worship music

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History and development#

In the early 1950s, the Taizé Community in France began attracting youths from various religious denominations with worship hymns based on modern melodies. In the mid-20th century, Christian unions in university settings hosted evangelistic talks. The Universalists and Unitarians—two youth groups—took final steps toward a merger at a convention, and in 1953, the groups formed the Liberal Religious Youth. Amateur musicians from these groups began playing Christian music in a popular idiom. Some Christians felt that the church needed to break from its stereotype as structured, formal, and dull to appeal to the younger generation. By adopting the conventions of popular music—the antithesis of this stereotype—the church rearticulated the message of the Bible through Christian lyrics, thereby conveying that Christianity was neither outdated nor irrelevant. In 1964, the U.K. gospel pop group The Joystrings became one of the first Christian pop groups to appear on television, performing in Salvation Army uniforms and playing Christian beat music. Churches began to adopt some of these songs and styles for corporate worship. The early songs for communal singing were characteristically simple. Youth Praise, published in 1966, was one of the first and most well-known collections of these songs. It was compiled and edited by Michael Baughen and published by the Jubilate Group. By the early 1990s, songs such as “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High”, “Shine, Jesus, Shine”, and “Shout to the Lord” had been accepted in many churches. Integrity Media, Maranatha! Music, and the Vineyard were already publishing newer styles of music. Supporters of traditional worship hoped the newer styles would prove to be a passing fad, while younger people cited , “Sing to the Lord a new song.” Prior to the late 1990s, many believed that Sunday morning was reserved for hymns, with younger people free to enjoy their preferred music during the rest of the week. A “modern worship renaissance” helped establish that any musical style was acceptable if used by true believers to praise God. This shift was influenced by the Cutting Edge recordings by the band Delirious?, the Passion Conferences and their music, the Exodus project by Michael W. Smith, and the band Sonicflood. Contemporary worship music became an integral part of contemporary Christian music.

Contenance angloise

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Origins of the term#

The phrase Contenance Angloise was coined by Martin le Franc in 1441–42, in a poem dedicated to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy (1396–1467) to describe the era’s distinctive musical style. Le Franc mentioned English composer John Dunstaple (c. 1390–1453) as the key figure and a major influence on the Burgundian composers Guillaume Dufay and Gilles Binchois.

Characteristics#

It is not clear exactly what Martin le Franc saw as the elements of the Contenance Angloise. Musicologists have noted the style as a distinctive form of melodic polyphony using full, rich harmonies based on the third and sixth, which may have made lyrics easier to articulate.

Contradanza

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History#

The contradanza was popular in Spain and spread throughout Spanish America during the 18th century. According to musicologist Peter Manuel, it may be impossible to resolve the question of the contradanza’s origin, as it has been pointed out by Cuban musicologist Natalio Galán in humorously labeling the genre as “anglofrancohispanoafrocubano” (English-French-Spanish-African-Cuban). The most conventional consensus in regard to the origin of this popular Cuban genre was established by novelist Alejo Carpentier, in his book from 1946, La Música en Cuba. In the book, he proposes a theory that signals the French contredance, supposedly introduced in Cuba by French immigrants fleeing the Haitian Revolution (1791–1803), as the prototype for the creation of the creolized Cuban contradanza. However, according to other important Cuban musicologists, such as Zoila Lapique and Natalio Galán, it is quite likely that the contradanza had been introduced to Havana directly from Spain, France or England several decades earlier. The earliest Cuban contradanza of which a record remains is “San Pascual Bailón”, which was written in 1803. Certain characteristics would set the Cuban contradanza apart from the contredanse by the mid-19th century, notably the incorporation of the African cross-rhythm called the tresillo. The habanera is also slower and as a dance more graceful in style than the older contradanza but retains the binary form of classical dance, being composed in two parts of 8 to 16 bars each, though often with an introduction. An early identifiable contradanza habanera, “La Pimienta”, an anonymous song published in an 1836 collection, is the earliest known piece to use the characteristic habanera rhythm in the left hand of the piano. The contradanza, when played as dance music, was performed by an orquesta típica composed of two violins, two clarinets, a contrabass, a cornet, a trombone, an ophicleide, paila and a güiro. But the habanera was sung as well as danced. During the first half of the 19th century, the contradanza dominated the Cuban musical scene to such an extent that nearly all Cuban composers of the time, whether composing for the concert hall or the dance hall, tried their hands at the contradanza. Among them Manuel Saumell (1817–1870) is the most noted. The New Orleans born pianist/composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869) wrote several pieces with the rhythm, gleaned in part from his travels through Cuba and the West Indies: “Danza” (1857), “La Gallina, Danse Cubaine” (1859), “Ojos Criollos” (1859) and “Souvenir de Porto Rico” (1857) among others. It is thought that the Cuban style was brought by sailors to Spain, where it became popular for a while before the turn of the twentieth century. The Basque composer Sebastian Yradier’s “La Paloma” (“The Dove”), achieved great fame in Spain and America. The dance was adopted by all classes of society and had its moment in English and French salons. It was so well established as a Spanish dance that Jules Massenet included one in the ballet music to his opera Le Cid (1885). Maurice Ravel wrote a Vocalise-Étude en forme de Habanera, and a habanera for Rapsodie espagnole (movement III, originally a piano piece written in 1895), Camille Saint-Saëns’ Havanaise for violin and orchestra is still played and recorded today, as is Emmanuel Chabrier’s Habanera for orchestra (originally for piano). Bernard Herrmann’s score for Vertigo (1958) makes prominent use of the rhythm as a clue to the film’s mystery. In Andalusia (especially Cádiz), Valencia and Catalonia, the habanera is still popular. “La Paloma”, “La bella Lola” or “El meu avi” (“My Grandfather”) are well known. From Spain, the style arrived in the Philippines where it still exists as a minor art-form. In the 20th century, the habanera gradually became a relic form in Cuba, especially after the success of the son. However, some of its compositions were transcribed and reappeared in other formats later on: Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes’ Tú is still a much-loved composition. The music and dance of the contradanza/danza are no longer popular in Cuba but are occasionally featured in the performances of folklore groups.

Contrafact

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

Jazz#

Well-known examples of contrafacts in jazz include the Charlie Parker/Miles Davis bop tune “Donna Lee,” which uses the chord changes of the standard “Back Home Again in Indiana” or Thelonious Monk’s jazz standard “Evidence”, which borrows the chord progression from Jesse Greer and Raymond Klages’s song “Just You, Just Me” (1929). The Gershwin tune “I Got Rhythm” has proved especially amenable to contrafactual recomposition: the popularity of its “rhythm changes” is second only to that of the 12-bar blues as a basic harmonic structure used by jazz composers.

Cool Cymru

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

Terminology#

The term Cool Cymru ( is the Welsh name for Wales) derives as a Welsh alternative to Cool Britannia (itself a pun on the British patriotic song “Rule, Britannia!”). Cool Britannia described the revival of British art and culture in the mid-1990s which was centred on London, emphasised British culture and used British symbols such as The Union Jack. The term Cool Cymru gained popularity for the cultural figures and phenomena which were specifically Welsh or Welsh in origin, and continued to be used by Welsh and British commentators long after the term Cool Britannia has fallen out of favour. By 1998 many Welsh cultural figures were gaining prominence across the UK, at a time when the use of Cool Britannia was being maligned by some cultural commentators as a ubiquitous term for any part of British culture.

Cool jazz

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

Characteristics#

Cool jazz emerged as a reaction to bop, and is characterized by more moderate tempos and “a more reflective attitude”. Ted Gioia and Lee Konitz have each identified cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer as early progenitors of the cool aesthetic in jazz. Gioia cites Beiderbecke’s softening of jazz’s strong rhythmic impact in favor of maintaining melodic flow, while also employing complex techniques such as unusual harmonies and whole tone scales. Trumbauer, through “his smooth and seemingly effortless saxophone work,” greatly affected tenor saxophonist Lester Young, who prefigured – and influenced – cool jazz more than any other musician. Young’s saxophone playing employed a light sound, in contrast to the “full-bodied” approach of players such as Coleman Hawkins. Young also had a tendency to play behind the beat, instead of driving it. He more strongly emphasized melodic development in his improvisation, rather than “hot” phrases or chord changes. While Young’s style initially alienated some observers, the cool school embraced it. (Young would also influence bebop through Charlie Parker’s emulation of Young’s playing style.) Tanner, Gerow, and Megill point out that “cool developed gradually, as did previous styles.” In addition to Lester Young’s approach, cool had other antecedents:

Coon song

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

Rise and fall from popularity#

Although the word “coon” is now regarded as a racial slur, according to Stuart Flexner, “coon” was short for “raccoon”, and it meant a frontier rustic (someone who may wear a coonskin cap) by 1832. The Whigs used a raccoon as its emblem, but the party also developed a more tolerant attitude towards black people than the other political factions. One suggestion is that this may have transformed the term “coon” from mere political slang into a racial slur. At that time, “coon” was typically used to refer someone white, and a coon song referred to a Whig song. Although the word “coon” meaning “black person” was in use by 1837, it was only in 1848 that the first clear case of using “coon” to refer to a black person in a derogatory sense appeared. It is possible that the negative racial connotation of the word may have evolved from “Zip Coon” (a variant of “Turkey in the Straw”) published around 1834 and notably performed by George Washington Dixon in blackface. as well as the common use of the word “coon” in blackface minstrel shows. An alternative suggestion of the word’s origin to mean a black person is that it was derived from barracoon, an enclosure for slaves, which became increasingly used in the years before the American Civil War as temporary enclosure for slaves escaping or traveling. 1883), “Coon Salvation Army” (by Sam Lucas, 1884), “Coon Schottische” (by William Dressler, 1884). The most popular coon songs of this early period, however, were written by whites, and only one, “New Coon in Town”, has enough syncopation “to foreshadow the true, shouting, ragtime school”. Black Americans had also entered the music business by this time, and their syncopated music then came to be identified with real coon songs. By the mid-1880s, coon songs were a national craze; over 600 such songs were published in the 1890s. The most successful songs sold millions of copies. To take advantage of the fad, composers “add ed words typical of coon songs to previously published songs and rags”. The first hit recorded song by a black man was “The Whistling Coon” by George W. Johnson recorded in 1890. After the turn of the century, coon songs began to receive criticism for their racist content. In 1905, Bob Cole, an African-American composer who had gained fame largely by writing coon songs, made somewhat unprecedented remarks about the genre. When asked in an interview about the name of his earlier comedy A Trip to Coontown, he replied: “That day has passed with the softly flowing tide of revelations.” In 1908, the Broadway company Cinemaphone, created by J. A. Whitman, released a short film, Coon Song, which had an audible track featuring singers such as Blanche Ring, Anna Held, Eva Tanguay and Stella Mayhew. Following further criticism, the use of “coon” in song titles greatly decreased after 1910. On August 13, 1920, Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League created the red, black and green flag as a response to the song “Every Race Has a Flag but the Coon” by Will A. Heelan and J. Fred Helf. That song along with “Coon, Coon, Coon” and “All Coons Look Alike to Me” were identified by H. L. Mencken as being the three songs which firmly established the derogatory term “coon” in the American vocabulary. It is possible that the popularity of coon songs may be explained in part by their historical timing: coon songs arose precisely as the popular music business exploded in Tin Pan Alley. However, James Dormon, a former professor of history and American studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, has also suggested that coon songs can be seen as “a necessary sociopsychological mechanism for justifying segregation and subordination.” The songs portrayed black people as posing a threat to the American social order and implied that they had to be controlled.

Copla (music)

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

Coptic music

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

Contemporary personalities contributing to Coptic music#

Mikhail Girgis El Batanouny
Adel Kamel
Ragheb Moftah
Ernest Newlandsmith
Nabila Erian
Emmanuel Saad
Abanob Ghobrial

External links#

“The Transmission of Coptic Orthodox Liturgical Music: Historical and Contemporary Forms of Theorization, Translation, and Identity Construction” A PhD dissertation exploring the history and current practice and theory of Coptic music.
“Coptic youth blog” Contains digital music and videos of Coptic liturgies, hymns, songs, and Coptic hymn lessons.
“Coptic Music,” Claremont Coptic Encyclopedia
Complete collection of Cantor Mikhail Girgis El Batanouny’s recordings of Coptic chant from coptichymns.net
DeaconTube - A video learning website for Coptic Orthodox hymns
coptichymns.net coptichymns.net - Sharing the Joy of Coptic Hymns Around the World
copticheritage.org The Official Website of the Heritage of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
Coptic Music, Hymns, and Rites Articles from coptichymns.net
Coptic Music Articles
Coptic Multimedia Archive at Saint TeklaHimanot Church of Egypt Articles
Coptic Orthodox Liturgical Chant & Hymnody and the Ragheb Moftah Collection at the Library of Congress

Cornkister

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

External links#

*Bothy Ballads; Centre for the Scots Leid

Coronation anthem

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

Handel’s coronation anthems#

Although part of the traditional content of British coronations, the texts for all four anthems were picked by Handel—a personal selection from the most accessible account of an earlier coronation, that of James II of England in 1685. One of George I of Great Britain’s last acts before his death in 1727 was to sign an “Act of naturalisation of George Frideric Händel and others”. Handel’s first commission as a newly naturalised British subject was to write the music for the coronation of George II of Great Britain and Queen Caroline which took place on 11 October the same year. Within the coronation ceremonies Let thy hand be strengthened was played first, then Zadok, then The King shall rejoice, and finally My heart is inditing at the coronation of the Queen. (In modern coronations the order is Zadok, Let thy hand be strengthened, The King shall rejoice and My heart is inditing, with the order of Let thy hand be strengthened and The King shall rejoice sometimes reversed.) Right from their composition the four anthems have been popular and regularly played in concerts and festivals even during Handel’s own lifetime. He re-used substantial extracts from them in many of his oratorios without many changes (other than to the text), notably Esther and Deborah. Two of the anthems were played at the 1742 inauguration of the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, a hall dedicated to chamber music. Their success perhaps contributed to the popular image of Handel as a composer whose music required a huge number of singers and musicians (the more the better)—in other words, the character criticised by Berlioz as “a barrel of pork and beer”. In practice, Handel often adapted his music to the occasion and to the skill of those for whom he was writing, and no occasion could be grander than a coronation. The ceremonial style of the anthems differs from his music for the theatre just as his Music for the Royal Fireworks (the latter designed for open-air performance) differs from his instrumental concertos. The anthems show a completely extrovert tone, managing massed forces and important contrasts rather than delicate colours—with the wide spatial reverberation in Westminster Abbey, he did not waste time and effort trying to show small points of detail. The means he had at his disposal were the most important of the era—the choir of the Chapel Royal was augmented by 47 singers, with an orchestra which reached perhaps 160 people. The chorus was divided into 6 or 7 groups (with the tenors kept together) and a large string section, made up of three groups of violins (rather than the two which were usual).

Corrido

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

Form#

Corridos, like rancheras, have introductory instrumental music and adornos (ornamentations), accommodating the stanzas of the lyrics. Like rancheras, corridos can be played in virtually all regional Mexican styles. Also, like rancheras, corridos are usually played in march, waltz, or mazurka mode.

History#

The word corrido comes from the Spanish word correr (“to run”). A typical corrido’s formula is eight quatrains with four to six lines containing eight syllables. The earliest living specimens of corrido are adapted versions of Spanish romances or European tales, mainly about disgraced or idealized love or religious topics. These, which include (among others) “La Martina” (an adaptation of the romance “La Esposa Infiel”) and “La Delgadina”, show the same basic stylistic features of the later mainstream corridos (1/2 or 3/4 tempo and verso menor lyric composing, meaning verses of eight or less phonetic syllables, grouped in strophes of six or fewer verses). Beginning with the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821) and culminating during the Mexican Revolution (1910–1921), the genre flourished and acquired its “epic” tones, along with the three-step narrative structure. The academic study of corridos written during the Revolution shows that they were used to communicate news throughout Mexico as a response to the propaganda being spread in the newspapers, which the corrupt government of Porfirio Díaz owned. Sheet music of popular corridos was sold or included in publications. Other corrido sheets were passed out free as a form of propaganda to eulogize leaders, armies, and political movements or, in some cases, to mock the opposition. The best-known Revolutionary corrido is “La Cucaracha”, an old song rephrased to celebrate the exploits of Pancho Villa’s army and poke fun at his nemesis Victoriano Huerta. File:Cantos populares maderistas Aquiles serdan.jpg Song about the battle of Ciudad Juarez titled Toma de Ciudad Juárez Image:Valentina-corrido.jpg Corrido sheet music from 1915, at the height of the Mexican Revolution File:Corrido de la Cucaracha (Antonio Venegas).jpg A contemporary corrido song sheet of “La cucaracha” issued during the Mexican Revolution. Note the original lyrics and the reference to cartoncitos, a scrip issued as pay. Before the widespread use of radio, popular corridos were passed around as an oral tradition, often to spread news of events (for example, “La cárcel de Cananea”) and famous heroes and humour to the population, many of whom were illiterate before the post-Revolution improvements to the educational system. Until the arrival and success of electronic mass media in the mid-20th century, the corrido served in Mexico as the leading informational and educational outlet, even with subversive purposes, due to an apparent linguistic and musical simplicity that lent itself to oral transmission. After the spread of radio and television, the genre evolved into a new stage and is still in maturation. However, some scholars have disputed this notion and consider the corrido to be a dead or moribund art form. With the consolidation of “Presidencialismo” (the political era following the Mexican Revolution) and the success of electronic mass media, corridos lost their primacy as a form of mass communication, becoming part of a folklorist cult in one branch and, in another, the voice of the new subversives: oppressed workers, drug growers or traffickers, leftist activists and emigrated farm workers (mainly to the United States). Scholars designate this as the “decaying” stage of the genre, which tends to erase the stylistic or structural characteristics of “revolutionary” or traditional corrido without a clear and unified understanding of its evolution. This is mainly signified by the “narcocorrido”, many of which are egocentric ballads paid for by drug smugglers to anonymous and almost illiterate composers, but with others coming from the most popular norteño and banda artists and written by some of the most successful and influential ranchera composers. In more rural areas, where Spanish and Mexican cultures have been preserved because of isolation, romantic works have also taken on other forms related to the corrido. In New Mexico, for example, a story-song emerged during the colonial period known as an Indita, which loosely follows the format of a corrido, but is chanted rather than sung, similar to a Native American chant, hence they are called Inditas. Some corridos are love stories. These are not exclusively male; there are also corridos about women, such as “La Venganza de Maria”, “Laurita Garza”, “El Corrido de Rosita Alvirez” and “La Adelita”, or couples, such as “La Fama de la Pareja” sung by Los Tigres del Norte. Some even employ fictional stories invented by their composers. In the Mestizo-Mexican cultural area, the three variants of corrido (romance, revolutionary and modern) are both alive and sung, along with popular sister narrative genres, such as the “valona” of Michoacán state, the “son arribeño” of the Sierra Gorda (Guanajuato, Hidalgo and Querétaro states) and others. Its vitality and flexibility allow original corrido lyrics to be built on non-Mexican musical genres, such as blues and ska, or with non-Spanish lyrics, like the famous song “El Paso” by Marty Robbins, and corridos composed or translated by Mexican indigenous communities or by the “Chicano” people in the United States, in English or “Spanglish”. The corrido was, for example, a favourite device employed by the Teatro Campesino led by Luis Valdez in mobilizing predominantly Mexican and Mexican-American farmworkers in California during the 1960s. Corridos have seen a renaissance in the 21st century. Contemporary corridos feature contemporary themes such as drug trafficking (narcocorridos), immigration, migrant labour, and the chupacabra.

Corridos tumbados

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

Origins#

Corridos tumbados emerged in northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States, particularly in Sinaloa, Sonora, and Jalisco, as well as among Mexican-American communities in the United States. While drawing from the narrative tradition of classic corridos—songs that once glorified revolutionaries and rural outlaws—this new wave modernized the sound by integrating urban beats, trap flows, auto-tuned vocals, and streetwise lyricism. The genre name was first popularized by Natanael Cano, who released his 2019 breakout album titled Corridos Tumbados, effectively branding the hybrid style and giving the genre its namesake. The term “tumbado” can roughly translate to “laid-back”. However, in a broader musical sense, “tumbado” operates similarly to the term alternative in genres like rock or R&B, signaling a departure from traditional styles in favor of experimental or unconventional driven variations.

Cossack songs

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

Cossack songs of Ukraine#

Cossack songs emerged in the 16–17th centuries among Zaporozhian and Registered Cossacks. Many of them have historical importance, mentioning the names and deeds of famous Ukrainian Cossack leaders such as Dmytro Vyshnevetsky (Baida), Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Petro Doroshenko, Ivan Sirko, Ivan Mazepa, Pavlo Polubotok, Danylo Nechai, Semen Paliy and others. Some Cossack songs have been adopted as patriotic anthems, for example Oi u luzi chervona kalyna. Characteristic topics of Ukrainian Cossack songs include heroism in battle, military routine and dangers met by Cossacks during their campaigns, sorrows of separation with relatives and loved ones, uncertainty of fate, imprisonment and escape, homesickness and death in foreign land. A special place in those songs is taken by horse—the main companion of a Cossack in battle and during marches. In terms of musical typology, Ukrainian Cossack songs can be divided into following types: marches, sometimes containing elements of heterophony and kant singing; lyrical songs similar to chants; polyphonic songs of Dnieper Ukraine; lyrical solo compositions. With the flow of time, many Ukrainian Cossack songs were adopted as chumak, haidamak, recruit and soldiers’ songs.

Count singing

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

Technique#

Count singing requires analyzing a piece or section of music to determine how to subdivide it. For example, music written in time could be count sung as quarter notes (“one two three four”), eighth notes (“one and two and three and four and”), triplets (“one and a two and a three and a four and a”), or sixteenth notes (“one ee and a two ee and a three ee and a four ee and a”). The director decides how the choir should count, depending on how they want the choir to interpret the music. Count singing often uses “tee” instead of “three”, since it has a simpler consonant at the onset. Subdivision can change fluidly throughout the piece. For instance, in time, count singing would normally be done with the longest-duration counting (“one two three four”), but subdividing whenever shorter notes are used. A measure with 2 eighth notes followed by 3 quarter notes might be count sung “one and two three four”. However, longer notes are still subdivided to the longest allowed duration: a measure with a whole note would still be sung “one two three four” if singing quarter notes, “one and two and three and four and” if singing eighth notes, etc. (although the director may call for an exception if a note has a fermata or is the last note of the piece). Count singing provides an easy way to help singers internalize the desired rhythm of a piece of music. For instance, music in time might be counted by sixes: “one two three four five six”. The director could tell the choir to stress the “one” and “four” while singing the other notes lightly, to emphasize the duple meter: “ONE two three FOUR five six”. The same effect could also be accomplished by counting in two with triplets: “ONE and a TWO and a”.

Country and Irish

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

History#

Country and Irish music emerged from Ireland’s showband scene, where local bands would play American pop standards tailored to Irish sensibilities. The showband scene was especially strong in Northern Ireland and border counties on account of restrictions on live music performances during Lent in the Republic of Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s. Johnny McCauley, who performed extensively for Irish expat audiences in London in the 1950s, is regarded as the first songwriter to compose songs in an American country music style with lyrics that specifically referenced Irish subject matter. His songs were covered by artists such as Big Tom and Larry Cunningham at a time when the showband business model was in decline, allowing these artists to pivot to selling recorded music.

Country blues

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

History#

Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson (Texas), Charley Patton (Mississippi), Blind Willie McTell (Georgia) were among the first to record blues songs in the 1920s. Country blues ran parallel to urban blues, which was popular in cities. In 1959, music historian Samuel Charters wrote The Country Blues, an influential scholarly work on the subject. He also produced an album, also titled The Country Blues, with early recordings by Jefferson, McTell, Sleepy John Estes, Bukka White, and Robert Johnson. Charters’s works helped to introduce the then-nearly forgotten music to the American folk music revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. The acoustic roots-focused movement also gave rise to the terms “folk blues” and “acoustic blues”, especially being applied to performances and recordings made around this period. “Country blues” has also been used to describe regional acoustic styles, such as Delta blues, Piedmont blues, Hill country blues or the earliest Chicago, Texas, and Memphis blues.

Country music

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

Origins#

The main components of the modern country music style date back to music traditions throughout the Southern United States and Southwestern United States, while its place in American popular music was established in the 1930s during the early days of music recording. According to country historian Bill C. Malone, country music was “introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon.”

Role of East Tennessee#

The U.S. Congress has formally recognized Bristol, Tennessee, as the “Birthplace of Country Music”, based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Nashville, Tennessee has also become a common hotspot for many country artists. Historians have also noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, and the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. In addition, the Mountain City Fiddlers Convention, held in 1925, helped to inspire modern country music. Before these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a rich musical heritage.

Country music in Atlanta

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

Origins and influences#

Much of the audience and many of the artists in Atlanta’s country scene lived in the area’s three main mill towns: Cabbagetown (Atlanta), a neighborhood in Atlanta itself, Chattahoochee, today within the city’s northwestern limits and known as Whittier Mill Village, and Scottdale, just northeast of Decatur.

Radio and television#

The signal of WSB radio reached far into rural areas and was an important factor in creating country music “stars”, similar to the role of WSM in Nashville. WSBs best known country music program was the WSB Barn Dance. From August 1926 until October 1928, the Sears Agricultural Foundation hosted a radio show, broadcast from the Atlanta Sears tower (now Ponce City Market) called “Dinner Bell R.F.D.”. R.F.D. stood for the club “Radio Farmers’ Democracy”. The show aired on WSB radio between noon and 1 pm three times a week, featuring old-time musicians and string bands Other than the WSB Barn Dance and a few other exceptions, most of Atlanta’s country radio programs stopped broadcasting by the early 1950s; stations broadcast recorded music. Some local country music TV programs were broadcast during the 1950s on WAGA, WLTV, and WSB-TV. Many of the local musicians turned to bluegrass music, started other careers, or pursued their careers in Nashville.

Country music in Nigeria

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

History#

Country music originated in the southern United States in the 1920s where it evolved as a fusion of Appalachian music and Blues largely through the efforts of commercial record producers who sought to popularize traditional folk melodies from the rural United States. Country is musically similar to Western, although the latter tends to be more evocative of themes and imagery associated with the western United States, particularly that of the Old West era. Country was introduced to Nigeria in the middle 20th century by a combination of visiting American Christian missionaries from the southern United States, by returning Nigerian expatriates, and by a Don Williams-owned radio station that operated in the nation. As of the mid 1990s, country music remained highly popular among Nigerian radio listeners. By the early 2010s, interest in country music had lessened in major metropolitan areas, but continued to enjoy popularity in Middle Belt states, notably including Plateau, whose state capital Jos has been described as Nigeria’s “home of country music”. American country singer Jim Reeves, who died in 1964, has had a special staying power as a cultural icon in Nigeria and, as of the early 2010s, his recordings continued to be popular as a form of comfort music listened to in familial settings. Nigerian music audiences have tended not to recognize country music as a unique genre but have grouped it into a constructed genre of “sentimental music” which has been described by Public Radio International as a “catch-all category that essentially referred to everything Western that wasn’t dance music”.

Country pop

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

Beginnings: Nashville sound/50s-60s#

The joining of country and pop began in the 1950s when studio executives Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley wanted to create a new kind of music for the young adult crowd after “rockabilly stole away much of country music’s youth audience”. According to Bill Ivey, this innovative genre originated in Nashville, Tennessee and thus became known as the Nashville Sound. He believes that the “Nashville Sound often produced records that sounded more pop than country” after the removal of the fiddle and banjo. Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins, Jim Reeves, and Eddy Arnold were among the most popular artists during this time. Both Reeves and Arnold had major influence on their RCA labelmate Elvis Presley, apparent not only in secular songs but even more so in country gospel songs. Cline became famous in the early 1960s, gaining widespread acceptance from country and pop audiences alike. Other crossover hits during the 1960s included Skeeter Davis’s “The End of the World”, Sonny James’ “Young Love”, Billy Joe Royal’s “Down in the Boondocks”, Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA”, and Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey”. However, the Nashville Sound was not well received by country purists and faced competition on that front, first from the Bakersfield Sound and later the outlaw movement; on the pop side, the format was overshadowed by the British Invasion, which was taking place during the same time that Cline and Reeves died by airplane accident.

Country rap

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

Prototypes#

Early influences on the emergence of country rap as a distinct genre include talking blues like “Big Bad John” (1961) by Jimmy Dean, “A Boy Named Sue” (1969) by Johnny Cash, the 1971 cover of “Hot Rod Lincoln” by Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, “Convoy” (1975) by C.W. McCall and “Uneasy Rider” (1975) and “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” (1979), both by Charlie Daniels. Black artists’ works that may have been influential in the genre’s development include Jamaican ska artist Prince Buster’s “Texas Hold-Up” (1964), “Lil Ole Country Boy” (1970) by Parliament, and “Black Grass” (1972) by Bad Bascomb. Music journalist Chuck Eddy traces the genre’s roots back to Woody Guthrie. Blowfly’s single “Blowfly’s Rapp” (1980) drew on the influence of earlier country musicians like Charlie Daniels and C. W. McCall; NPR said the song is a “Deliverance-style encounter with Ku Klux Klan-accredited truck drivers to light funkbacking”. Spin Magazine said Trickeration’s “Western Gangster Town” (1980) (released four years before Schoolly D’s “Gangster Boogie”) is “cowboy rap’s Rosetta stone, and probably the first ‘gangster’ rap”. UGK became pioneers of the hardcore Southern rap style that emerged after the success of the Geto Boys, which they started to call “country rap”. At the end of “Let Me See It”, Pimp C raps: “This ain’t no muthafuckin’ hip-hop records, these country rap tunes”, originally a response to Northern hip-hop artists who had criticized Southern rap for not being “real hip-hop”. The name of the song “Hay” (1996) by Crucial Conflict is a reference to marijuana.

Country rock

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

Definition and etymology#

There has also been cross-pollination throughout the history of both genres; however, the term “country-rock” is sometimes used to refer to the wave of rock musicians of the mid 1960s and early 1970s who began recording rock songs with country themes, vocal styles, and additional instrumentation, most characteristically pedal steel guitars. The term country rock had rarely been heard until the critic Richard Goldstein used it the June6, 1968 issue of The Village Voice. In his piece, titled “Country Rock: Can Y’All Dig It?”, Goldstein counted several artists as moving towards country-friendly material – including Moby Grape, Stone Poneys, Buffy Sainte-Marie, the International Submarine Band and Bob Dylan – but he expected the Byrds’ forthcoming album, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, to represent the new genre. Before the Byrds’ album was released in August1968, Goldstein considered the Band’s debut album, Music From Big Pink, as the “first major album” of the country-rock movement when he reviewed it for The New York Times on August4. Key to the genre, Goldstein wrote, was that the album had country music’s “twang and… tenacity”, but it also " made you want to move" like rock music.

Coupé-décalé

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

Etymology#

Coupé-décalé derives its name from Nouchi. According to journalist Siddhartha Mitter, coupé means “to cheat” while décalé means “to run away”. Together, the phrase expressed a rebellious mindset linked to “beating the system” and escaping social or economic hardships, especially those associated with Western or colonial systems, in a way similar to the idea of “The Man” in American counterculture. Other interpretations of the genre’s name have been suggested as well. In Tradition et modernité dans la musique de l’Afrique occidentale, musicologist Olivier Rivera Micalef argued that DJ Jacob was the first person to use the words coupé (“cut”) and décalé (“shift”) to describe particular dance movements performed by the Jet Set collective. Even though DJ Jacob introduced the terms, Douk Saga is generally considered the central figure who organized, expanded, and brought coupé-décalé to international audiences.

Couplets (cabaret)

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

Notable artists identified as kupletists#

Pesach Burstein (1896–1986)
Ben-Zion Witler (1907–1961)
Boris Thomashevsky (1868–1939)
Shloyme Prizament (1889–1973)
Leo Fuchs (1911–1994)
Otto Reutter (1870–1931)
Nellie Casman (1896–1984) (one of the few female coupletists)
Maria Conesa (1892–1978)
Constantin Tănase (1880–1945)
estrada duet of Pavel Rudakov (1915–1993) & Veniamin Nechayev (1915–1987), which was popular in the times of the Khrushchev Thaw.
(1898–1943) the most popular coupletist in the interwar Finland, who performed couplets with tap dancing
Buba Kastorsky, “original coupletist hailing from Odesa”, a fictional character in Soviet adventure films about The Elusive Avengers starring Boris Sichkin

Court music in Scotland

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

Middle Ages#

Early Medieval Scotland and Ireland shared a common culture and language. There are much fuller historical sources for Ireland, which suggest that there would have been filidh in Scotland, who acted as poets, musicians and historians, often attached to the court of a lord or king, and who passed on their knowledge and culture in Gaelic to the next generation. At least from the accession of David I (r. 1124–53), as part of a Davidian Revolution that introduced French culture and political systems, Gaelic ceased to be the main language of the royal court and was probably replaced by French. After this “de-gallicisation” of the Scottish court, a less highly regarded order of bards took over the functions of the filidh and they would continue to act in a similar role in the courts of lords in the Highlands and Islands into the eighteenth century. They probably accompanied their poetry on the harp. When Alexander III (r. 1249–86) met Edward I in England he was accompanied by a Master Elyas, described as “the king of Scotland’s harper”. The same accounts indicate that the Scottish king was also accompanied by trumpeters and other minstrels. The captivity of James I in England from 1406 to 1423, where he earned a reputation as a poet and composer, may have led him to take English and continental styles and musicians back to the Scottish court on his release. Walter Bower, abbot of Inchcolm praised him as “another Orpheus”, including mastery of the organ, drum, flute and lyre. James II also demonstrated some musical ability. The story of the execution of James III’s favourites by his enemies, including the English musician William Roger, at Lauder Bridge in 1482, may indicate his interest in music. Renaissance monarchs often used chapels to impress visiting dignitaries. James III founded a new large hexagonal Chapel Royal at Restalrig near Holyrood that was probably designed for a large number of choristers. Lutenists began to appear in the royal household accounts from the reign of James III, with the earliest reference in 1474. In 1501 his son James IV refounded the Chapel Royal within Stirling Castle, with a new and enlarged choir meant to emulate St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and it became the focus of Scottish liturgical music. Burgundian and English influences were probably reinforced when Henry VII’s daughter Margaret Tudor married James IV in 1503. No piece of music can be unequivocally identified with these chapels, but the survival of a Mass based on the Burgundian song L’Homme armé in the later Carver Choirbook may indicate that this was part of the Chapel Royal repertoire. James IV was said to be constantly accompanied by music, but very little surviving secular music can be unequivocally attributed to his court. In the early sixteenth century there are records of the monarch being entertained in their privy chambers by musicians, among them singers and other musicians including an English cornet player. James IV had stands of French and Italian musicians. His musicians also included the first recorded Africans in Scotland. He employed an African drummer, noted in his accounts as the “More taubronar”, playing a drum called a “tabor”. James IV employed a blind lutenist, and helped a lutenist called Jacob redeem his pawned lute in March 1500. The king was also a lute player, serenading his bride Margaret Tudor on their wedding night and she had learned to play the lute and clavichords.

Cowboy poetry

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

Authorship#

Contrary to common belief, cowboy poetry does not actually have to be written by cowboys, though adherents would claim that authors should have some connection to the cowboy life such that they can write poetry with an “insider’s perspective”. One example of a popular “cowboy poem” written by a non-cowboy is “The Ride of Paul Venarez” by Eben E. Rexford, a 19th-Century freelance author.

Style#

Newcomers are surprised to hear that cowboy poetry is contemporary. Many poets tend to focus on the historic cowboy lifestyle, historical events and the humorous aspects of the cowboy life style. However, the work that cowboys do continues. The cowboy lifestyle is a living tradition that exists in western North America and other areas, thus, contemporary cowboy poetry is still being created, still being recited, and still entertaining many at cowboy poetry gatherings, around campfires and cowboy poetry competitions. Much of what is known as “old time” country music originates from the rhyming couplet style often seen in cowboy poetry along with guitar music.

Cowboy pop

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

Pop ballads in western films#

Following Considine’s coining of the term “cowboy pop” in the 1980s, the term was used retrospectively to describe a broad range of music recorded throughout the 20th century. In the early 2000s, music journalists such as Barry Mazor, John T. Davis, and Richard Carlin began to describe pop ballads used in western films as cowboy pop. Barry Mazor called Jimmy Wakely a “cowboy pop singer” and argued that “when singing cowboy movies ruled, Hollywood hardly made a distinction between the sounds of cowboy pop balladeers and another sound entirely, born in Texas, in which Jimmie Rodgers had a formative role.” As an actor and cowboy pop balladeer, Wakely sang in many of the western films in which he appeared, such as Riders of the Dawn and Silver Trails. Similarly, John T. Davis called Marty Robbins a “cowboy pop balladeer,” who would later act and provide music for western films such as Gun of a Stranger. Marty Robbins’ 1959 song “El Paso” was featured on Cowboy Pop, a 2011 compilation released by Ling Music Group. Similar to Jimmy Wakely and Marty Robbins, Wilf Carter’s 1949 recording “Bluebird on Your Windowsill” was described by Richard Carlin as “the kind of cowboy pop that is treasured as a kitsch classic.” Wilf Carter’s songs were also used to score cowboy films, such as John Ford’s 1939 Stagecoach. Though these popular cowboy singers preceded the coining of the term cowboy pop by music journalist J. D. Considine, they have been identified in retrospect for their singing of pop ballads in the context of western films.

Cowpunk

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

Etymology and characteristics#

The term “cowpunk” is first attested in 1979, as a blend of “cowboy” and “punk”. The term “country punk” has been proposed as an equivalent term. Both terms are sometimes hyphenated, especially in late 1970s or early 1980s sources (e.g., cow-punk or country-punk). In 1984, Robert Palmer wrote in the New York Times on the emerging aesthetic acknowledged “cowpunk” as one of several catch-all terms critics were using to categorize the country-influenced music of otherwise unrelated punk and new wave bands. The article briefly summarized the music’s history, at least in the United States, saying that in the early 1980s, several punk and new wave bands had begun collecting classic country records, and soon thereafter began performing high-tempo cover versions of their favorite songs, and that new bands had also formed around the idea. By 1984, there were dozens of bands in both the U.S. and England “personalizing country music and making it palatable for the MTV Generation.” A New York Times writer stated that one issue with the “cowpunk” term was that “…no single term really describes the music of all these bands.” A 2018 article looking back at the 1980s trends states that the “…diversity of styles beyond punk proper” in cowpunk, “…for some, made the category…suspect, or at least misleading.”

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Čoček

Cock rock

Characteristics#

Coimbra fado

See also#

Colá

As a genre music#

As a dance#

Coladeira

Genre#

Cold wave (music)

Etymology#

Colindă

Origins#

College rock

Characteristics#

Collegiate a cappella

History#

Colombian rock

History#

Colossal Baroque

Background#

Comédie en vaudevilles

Evolution#

Comédie mêlée d'ariettes

See also#

Sources#

Comédie-ballet

History#

Comedy hip-hop

Characteristics#

Comedy music

Comedy-music relationship#

Comedy rock

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Compas

Etymology and characteristics#

Composer tributes (classical music)

Variations#

Works with other titles#

Concept musical

Definition#

Concert aria

Mozart concert arias#

Concert march

Concert marches by composer#

Concert piece

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Concertino (composition)

Examples#

Concerto

Genre#

Baroque Era#

Concerto as a genre of vocal music#

Concerto for solo piano

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Concerto grosso

History#

Conductus

Origins of the name#

Conga (music)

Origins#

Congolese rumba

Tempo and instrumental composition#

Conjunto

Mexican#

Contemporary Catholic liturgical music

Background#

Vatican II#

Contemporary Christian music

Beginnings (1950s–1960s)#

Contemporary classical music

Background#

Contemporary commercial music

The emergence of contemporary commercial music (CCM)#

Contemporary folk music

Definitions#