Yacht rock

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

Definition#

The term yacht rock did not exist contemporaneously with the music the term describes, Many “yacht rockers” included nautical references in their lyrics, videos, and album artwork, exemplified by Christopher Cross’s anthemic track, “Sailing” (1979). According to Mara Schwartz Kuge, who worked in the L.A. music industry for two decades, “Soft rock was a genre of very popular pop music from the 1970s and early 1980s, characterized by soft, mostly acoustic guitars and slow-to-mid tempos … most people have generalized the term to mean anything kind of soft-and-1970s-ish, including artists like Rupert Holmes. Not all yacht rock is soft, either: Toto’s ‘Hold the Line’ and Kenny Loggins’ ‘Footloose’ are both very yacht rock but not soft rock.” Comprehensively defining yacht rock remains difficult, despite agreement that its central elements are “aspirational but not luxurious, jaunty but lonely, pained but polished”. Journalist Jack Seale stated that, as in other “micro-genres”, certain albums of artists who are accepted as proponents are “arbitrarily ruled in or out”. For example, Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982) is accepted as yacht rock, but Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours (1977) is not.

Yaqui music

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

External links#

Yaqui song “Kapo Sewa” (on YouTube)
UbuWeb: Ethnopoetics: Poems: Yaqui: “15 Flower World Variations”, one song translated to English by Jerome Rothenberg and the same with different typography
Words & Place: Seyewailo: The Flower World Yaqui Deer Songs video
Review of Yaqui Deer Songs: Maso Bwhikam by Larry Elvers and Felipe S. Molina by Karl Young
Pascua Yaqui Tribe: Culture: Music , one song in Haiki and Spanish

Yayue

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

History#

According to tradition, yayue was created by the Duke of Zhou under commission from King Wu of Zhou, shortly after the latter’s conquest of Shang. Incorporated within yayue were elements of shamanistic or religious traditions, as well as early Chinese folk music. Dance was also closely associated with yayue music, each yayue piece may have a ceremonial or ritual dance associated with it. The most important yayue pieces of the Zhou dynasty were the Six Great Dances, each associated with a legendary or historical figure – Yunmen Dajuan (), Daxian (), Daqing (, or Dashao ), Daxia (), and Dahu (), Dawu (). The Book of Rites records a number of situations where yayue might be performed. These included ceremonies in honour of Heaven and Earth, the gods or the ancestors. There were also detailed rules on the way they were to be performed at diplomatic meetings. Yayue was also used in outdoor activities, such as aristocratic archery contests, during hunting expeditions, and after the conclusion of a successful military campaign. Yayue was characterised by its rigidity of form. When performed, it was stately and formal, serving to distinguish the aristocratic classes. It was sometimes also accompanied by lyrics. Some of these are preserved in the Book of Songs. With the decline of the importance ceremony in the interstate relations of the Spring and Autumn period, so did yayue. Confucius famously lamented the decline of classical music and the rites. Marquess Wen of Wei was said to prefer the popular music of Wey and Zheng to the ancient court music, listening to which he may fall asleep. Much of the yayue of the Zhou dynasty continued into the Qin dynasty. However, some pieces appeared to have been lost or were no longer performed by the Han dynasty, and the content and form of yayue was modified in this as well as the succeeding dynasties. For example, the terrace ensemble (dengge) in yayue involved singings but not string instruments in the Han dynasty, and in Sui dynasty, singers and string instruments were added to the court ensembles. During the Tang dynasty components of popular music were added to yayue. However, the dominant form of music in the Sui and Tang court was the entertainment music for banquets called yanyue (), and the term yayue became reserved for the music of Confucian rituals used in temples of the imperial family and the nobility as well as in Confucian temples. During the Song dynasty, with Neo-Confucianism becoming the new orthodoxy, yayue was again in ascendancy with major development, and a yayue orchestra in this era consisted of over 200 instrumentalists with many instruments added to the orchestra. Two important texts from the Song dynasty describing yayue performances are Zhu Xi’s Complete Explanation of the Classic of Etiquette and Its Commentary () and Collection of Music () by Chen Yang (). In 1116, a gift of 428 yayue instruments as well as 572 costumes and dance objects was given to Korea by Emperor Huizong upon request by the Emperor Yejong of Goryeo. As a result, elements of yayue music from previous Chinese dynasties are still preserved in Korea including two melodies. A major research and modern reconstruction of yayue of the imperial court was initiated in Taiwan in the 1990s, and in mainland China a performance of yayue music in 2009 by Nanhua University’s yayue music ensemble in Beijing also spurred interest in this form of music. There are however questions over the authenticity of these revived and recreated yayue music and dances, especially the use of modern forms of instruments and various substitutions rather than the more ancient and original forms, nonetheless some argued that such music and dances have always changed over time through succeeding dynasties, and that any changes introduced in the modern era should be seen in this light.

YA on Music Theory Print

Yacht rock

Definition#

Yaqui music

See also#

External links#

Yayue

History#