Cymbals are now mainstays of marching bands, drum sets, and orchestral percussion batteries, but they originally came from Ottoman Janissary bands, and Istanbul can be considered their home city. A BBC crew visits a workshop where Turkish cymbalsmiths forge and hammer the instruments to order. (video) – BBC
Category: music
A 19th-Century Opera That Flipped The Script On The Passive-Princess-Versus-Wicked-Queen Narrative
And that opera, Le Dernier Sorcier (The Last Sorcerer), was composed by a woman — Pauline Viardot, remembered mostly for being one of the century’s great mezzos. Amy Lorette Damron Kyle, a musicologist at the Sorbonne and a singer herself, compares Viardot’s Sorcier to one of opera’s classic passive princess/wicked queen stories, Mozart’s The Magic Flute. – The Conversation
Popular Songs , Social Justice, and the Will to Change with Brad Schreiber
Author Brad Schreiber joins S.T. Patrick to discuss his new book Music is Power: Popular Songs, Social Justice, and the Will to Change. For two hours, Schreiber and Patrick discuss the impact of protest music (or more aptly, socially conscious music) on the culture and on their lives (while playing many of the songs discussed). Some of the topics discussed are the qualities that make up a socially conscious song, if American and British popular music working bottom-up made socially conscious music more plentiful, the Vietnam era, the misuse of Bruce Springsteen songs, what “This Land Is Your Land” really means, The Man in Black, The Dixie Chicks versus “W,” the impact of “the end of the Sixties,” Marvin Gaye in 1970, whether the music of the 1980s is underrated as socially conscious music, and much more. – Midnight Writers News
How Big Data Has (Is) Transforming The Music Industry
Analysts claim it’s not only possible to see who’s blowing up now, but more importantly, who’s going to be blowing up next. Chartmetric says it can shortlist which of the 1.7 million artists it tracks will have a big career break within the next week. Pandora-owned Next Big Sound reports its patented algorithm can predict which of the nearly 1 million artists it tracks are most likely to hit the Billboard 200 chart for the first time within the next year. – Wired
The Forgotten History Of Nationalism, Oppression, And Murder Behind A Now-Classic Christmas Carol
How a traditional New Year’s melody that dated back to the pre-Christian era (when the new year was celebrated in March), and which was introduced by a Ukrainian choir touring the U.S. while Lenin’s Red Terror was raging at home, became “The Carol of the Bells.” – Slate
Vienna Philharmonic Makes (Some) Progress With Its Women Problem
The august, tradition-bound orchestra, founded 177 years ago when Vienna was the capital of a now-vanished empire, would not allow women even to audition until 1997, despite years of criticism, especially from the U.S. (It was happy to employ the services of a female harpist for 26 years before that, though it would not confer membership on her.) Now the 145-member orchestra, which has very low turnover, includes 15 women, with four more in the process of joining. – The New York Times
In Toronto, Classical Music Seems To Be Thriving
Classical music and opera are not an old wooded sailing ship about to break into pieces in a fierce storm. They are the thin, iridescent film of soap bubbles stretched and borne aloft by the breath of eager, expectant believers. – Toronto Star
Why High Resolution Audio Has Had Such A Hard Time Finding Takers
Leaving people’s personal abilities to distinguish high sonic quality from low sonic quality out of this conversation, there is a virtually insurmountable issue with mass adoption of hi-res audio: acoustic environment. – Shelly Palmer
Sensory-Friendly Orchestra Performances Tap Unserved Audiences
Typically kids, adolescents and adults with autism take in information differently than their neurotypical peers. They can be easily overwhelmed by the senses, noises, visuals and smells. The loud music and the crowds and flashing lights at traditional concerts can overwhelm someone with autism such that they need to leave. – Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Are You Ready To Celebrate Beethoven’s 250th? Vienna Sure Is
You might as well just plan to stay for the entire year. Don’t forget your Beethoven-reality-enhanced sunglasses. – The New York Times