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Oratorio

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

Etymology#

The word oratorio comes from the Latin verb ōrō (present infinitive ōrāre), meaning to orate or speak publicly, to pray, or to beg or plead, related to the Attic Greek noun ἀρά (ará, ‘prayer’). (See the disambiguation entry for ‘oratory’, including oratory (worship).) The musical composition was named for the musical services held in the Oratory church in Rome in the latter half of the 16th century. The word oratorio is only attested in English from 1727, with the equivalent oratory in prior use from 1640.

Orchestral jazz

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

History#

Orchestral jazz developed from early New Orleans jazz. The African-American musicians who pioneered the genre prior to 1920, and who migrated from New Orleans to Chicago and New York in the early 1920s, brought jazz north; in time, the African-American neighborhood of Harlem became the genre’s cultural center. In New York, the entertainment and arts industries thrived and jazz found a fitting home, becoming an important part of the cultural landscape. But before the widespread popularity of big bands, which developed in tandem with the growing dance craze, jazz was generally regarded by the white mainstream as a rather crude variety of music. It was not widely listened to for its artistic value, as music critic Richard Hadlock writes: :“In the twenties, most of those who listened at all regarded jazz as merely an energetic background for dancers; the few who sought more profound values in the music tended to accept Paul Whiteman’s concert productions… as the only jazz worth taking seriously. A movement emerged during the 1920s, however, indebted in part to Paul Whiteman’s musical influence. This movement led to the more stylized, and more formal variety of jazz that would become orchestral jazz, imagined first by Whiteman as symphonic jazz. This stylization of jazz had elements of classical European composing, coupled with the rhythmic and instrumental sound of New Orleans jazz. Orchestral jazz was musically distinct from its southern predecessor for a variety of reasons: not only were the bands bigger, creating a certain richness of sound, but also the music was structurally more sophisticated. While New Orleans jazz was characterized by collective improvisation and the spontaneous reinterpretation of standard tunes, jazz orchestras played head arrangements that were composed and arranged prior to the performance in which they were executed. The busy, raucous style of early jazz did not hold the same kind of popular appeal that the comparative restraint of orchestral jazz did. In particular, the implementation of measured rhythm accounted for much of its popular appeal. The two-beat groove reminiscent of New Orleans jazz was replaced during the transition into the swing era by the bass innovations of Jimmy Blanton and Walter Page, both of whom are credited for developing the walking bass line. This would make four beats to the bar a jazz standard; furthermore, this rhythm was conducive to the kind of dancing audiences desired. Prearranged music had a particular commercial appeal, since audiences were familiar with the songs they saw performed live from the recordings they purchased. Furthermore, exposure to musical innovation—and jazz, in all its varieties, was certainly innovative—had never before reached the same breadth of American audience. Given the commercial availability of music—which, in addition to records, was aided by the proliferation of broadcast radio—a platform was thus created that accounted for the popularization of jazz. But the mass consumption of jazz simultaneously allowed the audience an inverted influence on its development, and consumer demands dictated that orchestral jazz adopted a structure similar to traditionally accessible popular music.

Orchestral pop

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

History#

During the 1960s, pop music on radio and in both American and British film moved away from refined Tin Pan Alley to more eccentric songwriting and incorporated reverb-drenched rock guitar, symphonic strings, and horns played by groups of properly arranged and rehearsed studio musicians. The rapid development of multitrack recording in the mid 1960s also drove the ability of producers to create recordings with ever more complex and sonically sophisticated arrangements. Pop arrangers and producers worked orchestral pop into their artists’ releases, including George Martin and his strings arrangements with the Beatles, and John Barry for his scores to the James Bond films. Also in the 1960s, a number of orchestral settings were made for songs written by the Beatles, including symphonic performances of “Yesterday” by orchestras. Some symphonies were specifically founded for playing predominantly popular music, such as the Boston Pops Orchestra. Nick Perito was one of orchestral pop’s most accomplished arrangers, composers, and conductors. According to Chris Nickson, the “vital orchestral pop of 1966” was “challenging, rather than vapid, easy listening”. Spin magazine refers to Burt Bacharach and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson as “gods” of orchestral pop. In Nickson’s opinion, the “apex” of orchestral pop lay in singer Scott Walker, explaining that “in his most fertile period, 1967–70, he created a body of work that was, in its own way, as revolutionary as the Beatles’. He took the ideas of Henry Mancini Henry Mancini and Bacharach to their logical conclusion, essentially redefining the concept of orchestral pop.” In the 21st century, few artists explore the genre, with the most notable being English supergroup The Last Shadow Puppets (formed by Arctic Monkeys frontman, Alex Turner and solo artist Miles Kane), American artist Cody Fry, American artist Amadour and Korean artist IU.

Orchestral song

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

History#

What was effectively song with instrumental accompaniment – the cantata and the aria – had been part of music since the early baroque. Beethoven and Schumann too had occasionally provided instrumental accompaniment to some songs. Full orchestration, to enable a song to “hold its own” in a 19th-century concert environment, developed from the 1840s. Among the earliest experiments with orchestral song are those of Liszt who orchestrated several of his songs in the 1840s but did not publish them. Liszt also had the operetta composer August Conradi orchestrate his Le juif errant and Jeanne d’Arc around 1848, but these too were neither published nor performed. Long after Berlioz’ publication of his orchestrations of Les nuits d’été in 1856, Liszt finally published his own orchestration of Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher, as a dramatic scene for voice and orchestra in 1874. The form was brought to fruition by Mahler, to the extent that it is difficult to say where Mahler’s symphonies end and where his symphonic songs begin.

Organ concerto

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

Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)#

D minor for violin, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 541
F major for violin, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 542 (doubtful)
C major for violin, oboe, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 554 (Rv 554a with cello instead of oboe)
F major for 2 violins, 2 organs, double string orchestra and basso continuo, RV 584 (incomplete)
A major for 4 violins, 4 recorders, 3 cellos, organ, double string orchestra and basso continuo, RV 585
C minor for violin, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 766 (RV 510 with two violins)
F major for violin, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 767 (RV 765 with two violins)
C major for violin, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 774 (incomplete)
F major for violin, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 775 (incomplete)
C major for violin, organ, strings and basso continuo, RV 808

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)#

Handel wrote organ concertos as interludes for his oratorios—playing the organ part himself while directing the orchestra. Some are arrangements of his earlier works, or of works by other composers. For more details see the list of Handel’s concertos. Many alternatives exist, so it is difficult to precisely number his organ concertos, however it is generally accepted that he wrote 16: #HWV 289 – Op. 4 No. 1 in G minor: larghetto, allegro, adagio, andante #HWV 290 – Op. 4 No. 2 in B-flat major: tempo ordinario, allegro, adagio, allegro ma non troppo #HWV 291 – Op. 4 No. 3 in G minor: adagio, allegro, adagio, allegro #HWV 292 – Op. 4 No. 4 in F major: allegro, andante, adagio, allegro #HWV 293 – Op. 4 No. 5 in F major: larghetto, allegro, alla siciliana, presto #HWV 294 – Op. 4 No. 6 in B-flat major: andante, allegro, larghetto, allegro moderato #HWV 306 – Op. 7 No. 1 in B-flat major: andante, allegro, largo, adagio, allegro #HWV 307 – Op. 7 No. 2 in A major: overture, tempo ordinario, tempo ordinario II, allegro #HWV 308 – Op. 7 No. 3 in B-flat major: allegro, fuga, spiritoso, minuets 1 & 2 #HWV 309 – Op. 7 No. 4 in D minor: adagio, allegro, adagio, allegro #HWV 310 – Op. 7 No. 5 in G minor: allegro ma non troppo, adagio, andante, minuet, gavotte #HWV 311 – Op. 7 No. 6 in B-flat major: pomposo, adagio, tempo ordinario #HWV 295a – F major (No. 13): largo, allegro, larghetto, allegro #:HWV 295b – second version: larghetto, allegro, larghetto, allegro #HWV 296a – A major (No. 14) : largo e staccato, organo ad libitum: fuga – allegro, andante, grave, allegro #:HWV 296b – second version, Pasticcio Konzert: andante, adagio, grave, andante allegro, a tempo ordinario #HWV 304 – D minor (No. 15) : andante, organo ad libitum: adagio – fuga, allegro #HWV 305a – F major (No. 16) : concerto, allegro, andante, andante allegro #:HWV 305b – second version: overture, allegro, andante, andante allegro ;Organ concertos arranged from Concerti Grossi, Op.6: #HWV 297 – D minor, after HWV 328: overture, air, allegro, allegro, allegro moderato #HWV 298 – G major, after HWV 319: a tempo giusto, allegro, adagio, allegro, allegro #HWV 299 – D major, after HWV 323 : larghetto e staccato, allegro, presto, largo, allegro, minuet un poco larghetto #HWV 300 – G minor, after HWV 324 : largo e affettuoso, a tempo giusto, musette larghetto, allegro, allegro

Organ repertoire

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

Renaissance#

The earliest surviving keyboard compositions (keyboard music was not instrument-specific until the sixteenth century) are from England (Robertsbridge Codex c. 1365) and Italy (Faenza Codex, 15th century). The organ is specified in Marco Antonio Cavazzoni’s Recerchari, motetti, canzoni … libro primo, printed in Venice in 1523. The English virginal style was a manner of composition and performance prevalent in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries; some manuscripts are preserved in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book. Sweelinck was strongly influenced by this style. Organ music was almost exclusively based on learned contrapuntal, exemplified by the Fantasia (“Fancy”), as well as works based on contrapuntal treatment of chant. Composers well known for their choral works wrote organ music, for example Tallis, Byrd and Gibbons.

Organic house

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

Genre naming#

The term was first officially introduced by electronic music specialist Beatport in June 2020, although music possessing organic house characteristics had already been present since around 2017, including at well-known festivals such as Burning Man, Lightning in a Bottle, and Desert Hearts. Beatport’s operators introduced the new category as a new genre to catalog house music having common elements, which previously went into segments less specific to it.

Organum

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

Early organum#

The first document to describe organum specifically, and give rules for its performance, was the Musica enchiriadis (c. 895). The oldest methods of teaching organum can be found in the Scolica and the Bamberg Dialogues, along with the Musica enchiriadis. The societies that have developed polyphony usually have several types of it found in their culture. In its original conception, organum was never intended as polyphony in the modern sense; the added voice was intended as a reinforcement or harmonic enhancement of the plainchant at occasions of High Feasts of importance to further the splendour of the liturgy. The analogue evolution of sacred architecture and music is evident: during previous centuries monophonic Mass was celebrated in abbatial churches; in the course of the 12th and 13th centuries the newly consecrated cathedrals resounded with ever more complex forms of polyphony. Exactly what developments took place where and when in the evolution of polyphony is not always clear, though some landmarks remain visible in the treatises. As in these instances, it is hard to evaluate the relative importance of treatises, whether they describe the ‘actual’ practice or a deviation of it. As key-concept behind the creative outburst that manifested in the 11th and 12th centuries is the vertical and harmonic expansion of dimension, as the strongly resonant harmony of organum magnified the splendour of the celebration and heightened its solemnity. The earliest European sources of information concerning organum regard it as a well-known practice. Organum is also known to have been performed in several different rites, but the main wells of information concerning its history come from Gregorian chant. Considering that the trained singers had imbibed an oral tradition that was several centuries old, singing a small part of the chant repertory in straightforward heterophony of parallel harmony or other ways of “singing by the ear” would come naturally. It is made clear in the Musica enchiriadis that octave doubling (magadization) was acceptable, since such doubling was inevitable when men and boys sang together. The 9th-century treatise Scolica enchiriadis treats the subject in greater detail. For parallel singing, the original chant would be the upper voice, vox principalis; the vox organalis was at a parallel perfect interval below, usually a fourth. Thus the melody would be heard as the principal voice, the vox organalis as an accompaniment or harmonic reinforcement. This kind of organum is sometimes called parallel organum, although terms such as sinfonia or diaphonia were used in early treatises. The history of organum would not be complete without two of its greatest innovators, Léonin and Pérotin. These two men were “the first international composers of polyphonic music”. The innovations of Léonin and Pérotin mark the development of the rhythmic modes. These innovations are grounded in the forms of Gregorian chant, and adhere to the theoretical rhythmic systems of St. Augustine. It is the composers’ love for cantus firmus that caused the notation of the tenor line to stay the same, even when the methods of penning music were changing. It was the use of modal rhythm, however, that would make these two men great. Modal rhythm is defined clearly as a succession of (usually) unequal notes arranged in a definite pattern. The Notre-Dame composers’ development of musical rhythm allowed music to be free from its ties to text. While it is well known that Léonin composed a great deal of organum, it was the innovations of Pérotin, who spent much of his time revising the of Léonin, that caused generations of organum and motet composers to exploit the principles of the rhythmic modes.

Origins of rock and roll

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

Early usage of the phrase#

The alliterative phrase “rocking and rolling” originally was used by mariners at least as early as the 17th century to describe the combined “rocking” (fore and aft) and “rolling” (side to side) motion of a ship on the ocean. Examples include an 1821 reference, “… prevent her from rocking and rolling …”, and an 1835 reference to a ship “… rocking and rolling on both beam-ends”. The hymn “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep”, with words written in the 1830s by Emma Willard and tune by Joseph Philip Knight, was recorded several times around the start of the 20th century by the Original Bison City Quartet before 1894, the Standard Quartette in 1895, John W. Myers at about the same time, and Gus Reed in 1908. By that time, the specific phrase “rocking and rolling” was also used by African Americans in spirituals with a religious connotation. A comic song titled “Rock and Roll Me” was performed by Johnny Gardner of the Moore’s Troubadours theatrical group during a performance in Australia in 1886, and one newspaper critic wrote that Gardner “made himself so amusing that the large audience fairly rocked and rolled with laughter.” The earliest known recordings of the phrase were in several versions of “The Camp Meeting Jubilee”, by both the Edison Male Quartet and the Columbia Quartette, recorded between 1896 and 1900. It contained the lyrics “Keep on rockin’ an’ rolling in your arms/ Rockin’ an’ rolling in your arms/ Rockin’ an’ rolling in your arms/ In the arms of Moses.” “Rocking” was also used to describe the spiritual rapture felt by worshippers at certain religious events, and to refer to the rhythm often found in the accompanying music. “Rocking” and “rolling” were also used, both separately and together, in a sexual context; writers for hundreds of years had used the phrases “They had a roll in the hay” or “I rolled her in the clover”.

Orthodox pop

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

Origins#

Orthodox pop has its roots in the 1950s and early 1960s, when traditional Hasidic nigunim began to be recorded for the first time, such as Ben Zion Shenker’s recordings of Modzitz melodies and cantor David Werdyger’s recordings of Ger and other Hasidic melodies. Werdyger also founded the label Aderet Records in 1950, which was later inherited by his son Mendy Werdyger and which, along with its retail outlet Mostly Music, would become a major distributor of Orthodox music. Another influential figure around that time was Shlomo Carlebach, who pioneered the use of secular styles in Jewish religious music by combining Hasidic nigunim with a contemporary folk rock sound; artists like The Rabbis’ Sons, Mark III, Ruach, Simchatone, and Abie Rotenberg’s D’veykus followed in his style soon after, and many of Carlebach’s compositions became standards and would be covered by countless Orthodox and non-Orthodox artists. Another development was the Hassidic Song Festival, begun in 1969 in Israel; winners included Nurit Hirsh’s “Ose Shalom”, Svika Pick’s “Shema Yisrael”, Carlebach’s “Od Yishama” and “V’haer Enenu”, and David Weinkranz’s “Y’varech’cha”, and these compositions were popularized in America via annual recordings and touring performances. In the post-World War II generation of the 1960s, many Orthodox Jews were caught between the desire to maintain a traditional Orthodox way of life while also being “modern” and not living in the past, and from a musical standpoint this left a vacuum between the existing liturgical and cantorial music and more contemporary and secular styles. This led to the development of a new type of Jewish music that was not intended for the synagogue but instead for professional recording. According to historian Haym Soloveitchik: Rock music sung with “kosher” lyrics was heard at the weddings of the most religious. There had been no “kosher” jazz or “kosher” swing, for music is evocative, and what was elicited by the contemporary beat was felt by the previous generation to be alien to a “Jewish rejoicing” (yiddishe simche). This was no longer the case. The body syncopated to the beat of rock, and the emotional receptivities that the contemporary rhythm engendered were now felt to be consonant with the spirit of “Jewish rejoicing.” Indeed, “Hassidic” rock concerts, though decried, were not unheard of.