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Ethereal wave

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

Etymology#

In the mid-1980s, several Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil records were described as “ethereal”, “etherealism”, and “ethereal romanticism”. Billboard, and Option music magazine, started using the term “ethereal goth” more frequently, whereas European music magazines, primarily German zines such as Glasnost, Aeterna, Entry, Black, and Astan, had named the genre “ethereal wave” in the same vein as new wave, dark wave, and cold wave. Historically, the term was mostly applied to the roster of 4AD label − not only referring to music, but also regarding aesthetics of the graphical visualization. The “ethereal” designation has been taken over by authors such as Mick Mercer and Dave Thompson to delineate the same musical phenomenon in their books, while Simon Reynolds began using the term “goth-lite” (or “post-goth”, a term he coined in 1987 ) to describe the music of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and related 4AD artists. “Goth-lite” first appeared in 1995 in magazines such as CMJ New Music Monthly (Douglas Wolk) and SPIN (Jody Press) as a retroactive description of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Tinderbox album, which heavily relies on the use of guitar pedals and studio effects in songs such as “92 Degrees” and “Land’s End”.

Ethio-jazz

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

Nerses Nalbandian#

The origin of Ethio-jazz can be traced to the 1950s with Nerses Nalbandian, a musician of Armenian descent whose family (including his uncle Kevork Nalbandian, composer of Ethiopia, Be Happy) migrated to Ethiopia in 1915. Nalbandian became the leader of Ethiopia’s National Opera after his uncle, Kervok Nalbandian, retired. When Emperor Haile Selassie commissioned Nalbandian to compose music for the Ethiopian National Theatre, he created a fusion of traditional Ethiopian music and Western instrumentation. This was considered the basis of the evolution of Ethio-jazz music.

Ethiopian chant

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

Etymology#

Zema means a pleasing sound, a song or a melody in Geʽez, the liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church.

History#

Saint Yared has been credited with the invention of the musical tradition of Ethiopian liturgical chants. Yared, who lived in the sixth century, represents the first known case of indigenous Ethiopian musical notation and religious music. According to Ethiopian Christian tradition St. Yared was divinely inspired to create three forms of chanting. The story of his inspiration follows St. Yared watched a small insect fall from a tree and then climb to a greater height up the tree than the insect had been at before, leading St. Yared to theorize a human could accomplish much more. According to tradition, from that moment onward St. Yared began to take inspiration from the beauty of nature and the singing of birds to create his chants. Thus it is said that “even the sounds of animals and the songs of the birds, fall under one of these modes of St. Yared. Each of these chants is associated with an aspect of the Holy Trinity. The geeze is associated with the Father, the ararai with the Holy Spirit, and the ezil with the Son. The geeze are the most often used chants and are frequently performed with the ararai on non-feast days. The Ezel chants which are often much slower and are performed on holidays, at vigils, funerals, and Good Friday. The Synaxarium of the Ethiopian Church attests that Ethiopian liturgical chants are faithful to Yared and divine in nature. Most of the Ethiopian Highlands had been Miaphysite Christian since the fourth century. Ancient chanted liturgy with congregation participating with clapping, ululation and rhythmic movements has been retained from that era. Ethiopian liturgical chants are based on both written and oral sources, but the isolation of Ethiopia and the lack of source material make it difficult to reconstruct the exact history of Ethiopian church music. The musical notation (melekket) used for the chants, is not a typical notational system since it does not represent pitch or melody. Rather, it is as a mnemonic. Most studies conclude that there has been impressive consistency since the 1500s. It is likely that Ethiopian liturgical chants have undergone an evolution similar to that of European liturgical chants. It can be assumed that the notations have become more and more complex as time has passed. Regional varieties may have become standardized over time, and more symbols and segments of music have become available for composers. Any form of Ethiopian gospel music was not recorded until the 1950s when priest Mere Geta Lisanework assisted the Ethiopian Radio in recording.

Ethnic electronica

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

History#

In the Western Balkans, a Southern European subgenre of contemporary pop music known as “turbo-folk” (sometimes referred to as “popular folk”) initially developed during the 1980s and 1990s, with similar music styles in Greece (Skyladiko), Bulgaria (Chalga), Romania (Manele) and Albania (Tallava). It’s a fusion genre of popular music blending Serbian folk music with other genres such as pop, rock, electronic, and/or hip-hop. Other notable examples of 1980s ethnic electronica include Angolan kuduro, Mexican tecnocumbia and the Indian album Synthesizing: Ten Ragas to a Disco Beat. In the late 2010s, the Ukrainian ethnotronica scene had a rise, when such artists as Go_A, Onuka, Yuko, Mavka became popular outside their country.

Ethno jazz

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

Globalization#

Globalization allowed for the rise of ethno jazz. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century created new global trade networks that facilitated the spread of cross-cultural phenomena. Philip Bohlman, ethnomusicologist at the University of Chicago, described jazz as the “music of the African Diaspora,” describing the movement of ideas between the Caribbean, the United States, and Western Europe. Jazz in America grew out of racial tensions, and was seen by African Americans as a form of resistance. These ideas of resistance were spread and redefined through globalization. Globalization brought jazz to larger audiences through recordings and touring performances. Examples include a New Orleans band, the “Original Creole Orchestra”, which toured Canada for the first time during the fall of 1914, performing at the Pantages Playhouse Theatre in Winnipeg, the first jazz performance outside the United States and the beginning of jazz as an international movement. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band toured Europe in 1919 and was popular enough to continue touring England for a year. Their music spread around the globe. Countries like China began jazz festivals with enough public support to become annual traditions. Traveling to and learning from other cultures was another factor that influenced the development of ethno jazz. For example, a variety of musicians like pianist Randy Weston, trumpeter Lester Bowie, drummer Max Roach, and multi-instrumentalists Yusef Lateef and Ornette Coleman had a fascination with other cultures’ music. They went to Africa and studied different countries’ melodies, rhythms, and harmonies, and adapted them into their jazz playing and compositions. Intercultural musical exchange was well received internationally, inspiring many musicians to take on cross-cultural influences. Many of these musicians brought foreign artists as well as their musical styles back to their home countries, which resulted in a number of big jazz names hiring immigrants to perform in their ethno jazz projects.

Étude

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

Piano#

During the 19th century, it was quite popular for composers to write studies, with composer Howard Ferguson saying that “almost every 19th-century pianist-composer wrote studies.” Studies, lessons, and other didactic instrumental pieces composed before the 19th century are extremely varied, without any established genres. Domenico Scarlatti’s 30 Essercizi per gravicembalo (“30 Exercises for harpsichord”, 1738) do not differ in scope from his other keyboard works, and J.S. Bach’s four volumes of Clavier-Übung (“keyboard practice”) contain everything from simple organ duets to the extensive and difficult Goldberg Variations. The situation changed in the early 19th century. Instruction books with exercises became very common. Of particular importance were collections of “studies” by Johann Baptist Cramer (published between 1804 and 1810), early parts of Muzio Clementi’s Gradus ad Parnassum (1817–26), numerous works by Carl Czerny, Maria Szymanowska’s Vingt exercises et préludes (c. 1820), and Ignaz Moscheles’ Studien Op. 70 (1825–26). However, with the late parts of Clementi’s collection and Moscheles’ Charakteristische Studien Op. 95 (1836–37) the situation began to change, with both composers striving to create music that would both please the audiences in concert and serve as a good teaching tool. Such a combination of didactic and musical value in a study is sometimes referred to as a concert study. The technique required to play Chopin’s Études, Op. 10 (1833) and Op. 25 (1837) was extremely novel at the time of their publication; the first performer who succeeded at mastering the pieces was the renowned virtuoso composer Franz Liszt (to whom Chopin dedicated the Op. 10). Liszt himself composed a number of études that were more extensive and even more complex than Chopin’s. Among these, the most well-known is the collection Études d’Execution Transcendante (final version published in 1852). These did not retain the didactic aspect of Chopin’s work, however, since the difficulty and the technique used varies within a given piece. Each of the études has a different character, designated by its name: Preludio; Molto Vivace; Paysage Landscape ; Mazeppa; Feux Follets Irrlichter/ Will-o’-the-wisp ; Vision; Eroica Heroic ; Wilde Jagd Wild Hunt ; Ricordanza; Allegro Molto Agitato; Harmonies du Soir Evening Harmonies ; and Chasse-neige Snow-whirls .