USA

Page 4

Music Theory
Locrian mode: music examples and harmonic structure

Music theory describes seven diatonic scales of which the major and minor scales are the most functional and therefore…

June 17, 2020
Nature Sounds
Classical music examples imitating bees and buzzing insects

The seemingly monotonous buzz that bees emit is a developed communicative function allowing these social insects to…

May 6, 2020
Music Theory
Popular songs featuring Phrygian mode and Neapolitan chord

Western music theory describes seven diatonic scales that are the basis of corresponding musical modes, among which the…

April 29, 2020
Music Theory
Mixolydian mode: famous examples in classical and pop music

In the 17th century, the major and minor scales became the basis for almost all classical music compositions. This…

April 5, 202013 comments
Oboe
The dramatic-abstract of Thea Musgrave's music as influenced by serialism

Thea Musgrave is a Scottish-American composer whose formative years fell on the mid-1950s when revolutionary musical…

March 8, 2020
Music Theory
Microtonality: the variety of approaches to microtonal music in world cultures

In theory, microtonal music describes a piece that contains one or more intervals measuring below a semitone. Although…

February 19, 2020
Piano
Scandalous piano experiments by George Antheil shocked early avant-garde scene

George Antheil was an American pianist and composer whose extraordinary works are mainly associated with the avant…

February 5, 2020
Album
Surrealistic Pillow as the ultimate psychedelic experience pioneered by Jefferson Airplane

Released in 1967, Surrealistic Pillow was Jefferson Airplane's second album which not only set a departure point for…

January 19, 2020
Film
Symphonic scores by Erich Wolfgang Korngold established new standards in the film industry

Erich Wolfgang Korngold was an Austrian pianist and composer whose contribution to film music has actually set the…

January 1, 2020
Percussion
First ever composition for solo percussion by Edgard Varèse ionized Zappa to choose a career in music

Edgard Varèse was one of the most innovative composers of the 20th century who not only developed his own concept of…

October 30, 20191 comment
Album
Swordfishtrombones: groundbreaking instrumentation catches Tom Waits' signature sound

Released in 1983, Swordfishtrombones became the first self-produced album by Tom Waits that not only established the…

October 23, 2019
Songwriter
The fusion of traditional Mexican music in María Grever's songs

María Grever, born Maria Joaquina de la Portilla Torres, was a Mexican songwriter who, combining the musical cultures…

October 20, 2019
Guitar
Ry Cooder & Vishwa Mohan Bhatt: the unlikely fusion of two guitar greats

A Meeting by the River—is one of the most striking cross-cultural works of the 1990s which brought Grammy Awards for…

October 16, 2019
Electric Guitar
Adrian Belew's spellbinding guitar tricks saturate prog music with the sounds of space

American multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Adrian Belew managed to extract entirely extraordinary sounds from his…

September 15, 2019
Orchestra
Mozart and Tom Waits wrote music for the glass armonica which was rumored to cause mental health damage

The glass armonica is one of many curious instruments that came into use with small ensembles during the transition…

September 3, 20191 comment
Piano
Songs for Drella: the minimalistic tribute to Andy Warhol that united his beloved artists for the first time since 1960s

As an absolutely iconic figure in the visual art movement known as pop art, Andy Warhol had a profound influence on the…

August 6, 2019
Technologies
Pianola: the reproducing piano as the first Hi-Fi player and preservation capsule for recitals on piano rolls

Long before the recording era, mankind was already looking for ways to play music automatically. The earliest known…

August 3, 20191 comment
Band
The low-end sound of Morphine trio cut short by Mark Sandman's tragic death while on a stage

Twenty years have passed since Mark Sandman’s tragic passing of a heart attack during a 1999 live performance with the…

July 7, 2019
Choir
Gershwin's Summertime: the most recorded song draws inspiration from Ukrainian lullaby and African American spiritual

Written by the American composer George Gershwin in 1934, Summertime aria is now the most recorded song in the history…

July 3, 20193 comments
Sitar
1960s clarinet & sitar duo pioneered an ambient genre with the album for spiritual practices

Even though the term ambient as a music genre was coined by Brian Eno only in the 1970s, musical experiments of this…

June 16, 20191 comment
Guitar
Charley Patton's guitar tricks bridged the genre gap between Delta blues and rock'n'roll

Charley Patton played a crucial role in developing the early blues movement in the Delta region of northwestern…

June 12, 20191 comment
Songwriter
The bottleneck guitar blues by Blind Willie Johnson is sliding through space on the Voyager Golden Records

Among the musical works sent by NASA into space to represent the cultural values of mankind, sharing its rightfully…

May 12, 2019
Vinyl
The Original Dixieland Jass Band made the first-ever jazz recording over 100 years ago

The Original Dixieland Jass Band, also known as the ODJB, were among the pioneers of the new genre that originated in…

April 13, 2019
Kora
African bard Foday Musa Suso represents griot culture by mixing kora music with Western minimalism and jazz

The most important role in the preservation of tradition in the culture of West Africa has been played by griots…

April 10, 2019
Violin
Ma Sicong sentenced to exile after seeking Chinese harmony for his violin

One of the most gifted Chinese violinists, Ma Sicong endured a challenging fate when he was forced to flee the Cultural…

March 19, 2019
Game
The quiet adventure in the warm depths of Abzû game scored by Austin Wintory

American composer Austin Wintory made history after becoming the creator of the first-ever Grammy-nominated videogame…

March 15, 2019
Piano
Billy Strayhorn redefined jazz with a touch of classical

A versatile composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn was among the most grandiose personalities in American jazz,…

February 5, 2019
Film
The necessity of undramatic humanity in Coffee and Cigarettes by Jim Jarmusch

A set of 11 short stories collected in the film Coffee and Cigarettes depicts the nostalgic era every older smoker…

January 8, 2019
Big band
Great Depression cut short the extraordinary dance life of McKinney’s Cotton Pickers

Since the very start of the prohibition during the Roaring Twenties, many Americans sought refuge in entertainment…

January 4, 2019
Classical Guitar
The native heart of Peruvian folk as explored by ethnomusicologist Alomía Robles

It has been a little more over a century since the Peruvian composer Alomía Robles crossed the Andes in search of…

January 1, 2019