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Article

Owen Wright, Christian Poché, and Amnon Shiloah

Music traditions in the Arabic-speaking world. For discussions of the music of specific areas, see also individual country articles.

The art music/folk (or popular) music opposition is a blunt instrument at best, and at various times and places in the Arab world it would be unrealistic or unhelpful to seek to draw a clear dividing line. In Arabic the terminological distinction is a modern importation, and while the earlier textual tradition may recognize regional differences it is more frequently concerned with an ultimately ethical evaluation of the various purposes for which music may be used. However, these imply distinctions of function and social context, and as one major constant in Arab and Middle Eastern Islamic culture generally we may identify a form of entertainment music for which, in fact, the label ‘art music’ is quite apt. Nurtured at courts, patronized by urban élites, performed by professionals (and aristocratic amateurs) and described in explicitly theoretical terms, art music constituted an integral element of sophisticated high culture and, consequently, could be regarded as a suitable subject for scientific and philosophical enquiry....

Article

Gerard Béhague

There is scant evidence of musical life in Argentina during this period. As in most Latin American countries, the earliest efforts to establish a regular musical life in the European sense were made by missionaries, especially the Jesuits whose missions covered the Paraná river area and the La Plata region (Paraguay and Argentina). Music was important in the catechization of the indigenous Amerindian population, but the absence of conventual historians and the disappearance of the music archives of the Jesuits (see Lange) restrict any assessment of music-making during the 16th and 17th centuries. The first missionaries were Father Alonso Barzana, a Jesuit, and Francisco Solano, a Franciscan who was eventually canonized.

The first reference to an organ in the church of Santiago del Estero dates from 1585; the first school of music was founded by Father Pedro Comental (1595–1665). The music taught was mainly plainchant and polyphonic song, and Amerindians and African slaves soon became skilful musicians and instrument makers: there is documentary evidence of locally made European instruments before ...

Article

Beḍug  

Margaret J. Kartomi

Large double-headed barrel drum in the Central Javanese Gamelan. It is about 74 cm long and 40 cm wide and is suspended in a decorative wooden frame. The heads are tacked to the shell and one head is beaten with a heavy mallet. It emphasizes dramatic effects in some gamelan works, especially in the theatre and plays the role of the ...

Article

Gerard Béhague

Until 1776 Bolivia formed part of the Viceroyalty of Peru, as ‘Audiencia de Charcas’ or ‘Alto Peru’; the early history of art music in Bolivia is therefore related to that of Peru. During the colonial period the capital, La Plata (or Chuquisaca, and since 1839 Sucre), was one of the important intellectual and artistic centres of Spanish America, particularly because of its S Francisco Xavier University and its cathedral. Founded in 1538 it became a bishopric in 1552 and as early as 1569 its first music school was established by the musicians Juan de la Peña Madrid and Hernán García, to teach the Indians singing and instrumental performance. The wealth and consequent musical development of La Plata Cathedral (whose liturgy was closely linked to that of Seville) during the 17th and 18th centuries is attested to by the substantial historical and musical archives at the cathedral, whose holdings dating from the Baroque period make it one of the richest South American archival centres. Manuscript copies of works by such European composers as Galuppi, Hidalgo, Durón and Michael Haydn have been little explored. Throughout this period the cathedral library expanded considerably, receiving works from Spain and the colonies, especially Mexico. At the same time works of composers active at the cathedral were copied locally: the manuscript copy made in Potosí in ...

Article

(Bulg. Republika Bălgariya)

Country in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria is a country of 110,994 sq. km with a population of approximately 7.25 million people, about 70% of whom live in urban centres. The national language is Bulgarian, a south-Slavic language. Orthodox Christianity is the official religion. Minority groups include Pomaks (Slavic Bulgarian Muslims), ethnic Turks, Macedonians, Christian and Muslim Roma, Jews, Albanians, Vlachs, and Armenians.

Bulgaria: Art music

Bulgaria: Traditional music

Sofia

Stara Zagora

USA, §II, 1(iii)(d): Traditional music: European American: Bulgarian & Macedonian

Russian and Slavonic church music, §5: Bulgarian church music

Burgas

Plovdiv

Ruse

Varna

Piron, Alexis

Manolov, Emanuil

Arnaoudov, Georgi

Atanasov, Georgi

Atanasov, Nikola

Badinski, Nikolai

Balyozov, Rumen

Bukoreshtliyev, Angel

Dimitrov, Georgi

Dragostinov, Stefan

Dzhurov, Plamen

Eliezer, Bentzion

Goleminov, Marin

Hadjiapostolou, Nikolaos

Hadjiev, Parashkev

Ikonomov, Boyan Georgiyev

Ikonomov, Stefan

Iliev, Konstantin

Kandov, Aleksandar

Karastoyanov, Asen

Kazandzhiev, Vasil

Khristoskov, Petar

Khristov, Dimitar

Khristov, Dobri

Klinkova, Zhivka

Krasteva, Neva

Kutev, Philip

Kyurkchiyski, Krasimir...

Article

Stoyan Petrov

revised by Magdalena Manolova and Milena Bozhikova

Bulgarian musical culture began to take shape when the Bulgarian state was founded in 681, and its character was initially determined by the interaction of three fundamental ethnic groups: the Slavs (who were in the majority), the Proto-Bulgarians, and the remnants of the assimilated ancient Thracian population. After the introduction of Christianity in 865 the starobălgarskiyat napev (old Bulgarian church chant) came into being, at first influenced by Byzantine chant. Kliment, Naum, and several other followers of SS Cyril and Methodius restored the Slav chantbooks which had been destroyed in Moravia, and created new ones. The musical traditions were handed down from generation to generation and the old Bulgarian chant was gradually formed: it took on certain distinctive characteristics, primarily because of the discrepancy between the number of syllables and the differences of stress in the Greek and Bulgarian languages, and also because of the influence of folk music. Among the few musical works to have survived are the 9th-century ...

Article

Sara Velez

revised by Megan E. Hill

International festival of orchestral and chamber music, solo recitals, and staged works, established in 1963 in Aptos, California. It was founded by Lou Harrison, the bassoonist Robert Hughes, and Ted Toews, an instructor at Cabrillo College. Held for two weeks in August in the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium and at various other locations, such as the Mission San Juan Bautista, the festival is noted for its innovative programming and emphasis on the works of living composers: it has staged at least 120 world premieres and over 60 US premieres. The first music director, Gerhard Samuel, was succeeded by Richard Williams in 1969, Carlos Chávez in 1970, Dennis Russell Davies in 1974, John Adams in 1991, and Marin Alsop in 1992. The directors have stressed making the artists accessible to their audiences through workshops and “Meet the Composer” sessions, open rehearsals, and a composer-in-residence program, in which John Adams, William Bolcom, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Carlos Chávez, Aaron Copland, John Corigliano, Michael Daugherty, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Lou Harrison, Jennifer Higdon, Keith Jarrett, Aaron Jay Kernis, Libby Larsen, Tania León, Pauline Oliveros, Arvo Pärt, Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, Virgil Thomson, and Joan Tower have participated. The festival orchestra consists of about 65 musicians from leading orchestras in the United States and Canada....

Article

Chamber music society. Resident in New York at Alice Tully Hall, the society is a constituent of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. It was conceived by William Schuman, the president of Lincoln Center, who appointed the pianist charles Wadsworth as the society’s first artistic director (1969–89). Among the musicians Wadsworth assembled to perform for the opening season (1969–70) were Charles Treger (violin), Walter Trampler (viola), Leslie Parnas (cello), Paula Robison (flute), Leonard Arner (oboe), Gervase de Peyer (clarinet), Loren Glickman (bassoon), and Richard Goode (piano). In 2010, led by artistic directors cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, the society numbered around 35 members, joined by guest artists for its annual concert series, educational programs, and national and international tours. Many concerts are broadcast on radio and television, and in 2007 the society started its own recording label.

Following its premiere performance on 11 September 1969...

Article

Chile  

(Sp. República de Chile)

Country in South America. It is bordered in the north by Peru, east by Bolivia and Argentina and south and west by the Pacific Ocean. The country occupies a narrow strip of land running for 4200 km from north to south, with an area of 736, 905 km². Further territory includes Easter Island (Rapa-Nui), the Juthan Fernández Islands and many other islands to the west and south.

Chile: Art music

Chile: Traditional music

Santiago

Guzmán, Federico

Ried, Aquinas

Aguilar, Miguel

Allende, Pedro Humberto

Allende-Blin, Juan

Amenábar, Juan

Amengual, René

Asuar, José Vicente

Becerra, Gustavo

Bisquertt, Próspero

Botto, Carlos

Brnčić, Gabriel

Cotapos, Acario

Escobar, Roberto

Falabella, Roberto

García, Fernando

Garrido, Pablo

Gómez-Vignes, Mario

González, Jaime

Guarello, Alejandro

Heinlein, Federico

Isamitt, Carlos

Lavín, Carlos

Leng, Alfonso

Letelier, Alfonso

Letelier, Miguel

Maturana, Eduardo

Orrego-Salas, Juan

Ortega, Sergio

Quinteros, Abelardo

Santa Cruz, Domingo

Soro, Enrique

Urrutia Blondel, Jorge

Vargas, Darwin

Vera-Rivera, Santiago

Havestadt, Bernhard...

Article

Juan Orrego-Salas

References to music in chronicles and histories dealing with the 16th century are scarce. Opportunities for the Spanish soldiers to sing villancicos, to play the vihuela, flute or trumpet, were limited at a time when the settlers lived under the constant menace of Indian attacks. Yet by the end of the century the officials of the Spanish Church, who had observed the power that music had over the indigenous peoples, began using it as a missionary tool. The singing of the Mass with the participation of Spaniards and indigenous peoples became customary, and Amerindians were trained to make and play European instruments.

More peaceful and prosperous conditions in the 17th century favoured the development of music. In churches the use of plainsong alternated with hymns honouring the Virgin and with villancicos sung in unison, in two, three or four parts, or by a vocal soloist accompanied by guitar or harp. Pontifical Masses were complemented with ‘fanfares of trumpets, cornets and drums’. The death of Charles II in ...

Article

Croatia  

Stanislav Tuksar, Hana Breko Kustura, Ennio Stipčević, Grozdana Marošević, Davor Hrvoj, and Catherine Baker

Country in south-east Europe. Once the ancient Roman province of Illyricum, it was settled at the beginning of the 7th century by Slavs, who were converted to Western Christianity by the end of the 8th century. Medieval principalities were quickly formed, and a kingdom of Croatia existed from 925 (the dynasty of Trpimirović) to the end of the 11th century. In 1102 Croatia entered into a personal royal union with Hungary, with dynasties of Árpád, Anjou, and those of the Holy Roman Empire, Bohemia, and Poland on its throne during the 14th and 15th centuries; in 1527 it became part of the Habsburg Empire by electing Ferdinand King of Croatia. This political, cultural, and social union with Hungary and Austria lasted until 1918. Between 1409 and 1797, however, the Croatian maritime provinces of Istria and Dalmatia were under Venetian control, and from 1526 to 1699 other parts (e.g. the continental province of Slavonia) were conquered by the Ottoman Empire. The region comprising the Republic of Dubrovnik claimed autonomy from ...

Article

Gerard Béhague

There is substantial documentary evidence of relatively important musical activity in colonial Ecuador, but no polyphonic work by musicians active in Quito, Cuenca and Guayaquil has yet been found. In view of the splendid development of colonial architecture, painting and sculpture related to the church, it is likely that there were similar accomplishments in music.

The transplanting of European music to Ecuador began with the establishment in Quito in 1535 of a Flemish Franciscan order (by the monks Josse de Rycke of Mechelen and Pierre Gosseal of Leuven) in which the teaching of music was important. Amerindians were taught plainchant, mensural notation and performance on the main families of European instruments, particularly at their Colegio de S Andrés (founded 1555), where the standard was such that by 1570 even Francisco Guerrero’s difficult four- and five-part motets could be performed. The mestizo Diego Lobato (c1538–c 1610), was appointed ...

Article

Noël Goodwin

revised by Michael T.R.B. Turnbull

The Edinburgh Festival – officially the Edinburgh International Festival of Music, Drama and the Visual Arts – was inaugurated in 1947. It usually begins in August and continues for three weeks. Its musical character has always been international in outlook. The idea of the festival grew from a suggestion by Rudolf Bing that an additional outlet be found for the Glyndebourne Festival (of which he had been the pre-war manager) when its opera productions were resumed after the war, and also from the desire to renew cultural contact with other countries. The first festival saw the deeply felt reunion of Bruno Walter with the Vienna PO, their first public concert together since the war. Bing was appointed artistic director and organized the first three festivals. He was succeeded by Ian Hunter (1950), Robert Ponsonby (1956), the Earl of Harewood (1961), Peter Diamand (1966), John Drummond (...

Article

David Johnson

During the 16th century Edinburgh’s musical life revolved around the court. King James IV patronized the composer Robert Carvor, whose masses and motets were probably mostly written for the Scottish Chapel Royal. A native school of partsong and instrumental composition grew up, modelled on the French and English schools but with its own passion and delicacy. An important partsong is the anonymous Departe, departe, a lament for the Master of Erskine, who was killed at the battle of Pinkie on the outskirts of Edinburgh in 1547. The Reformation of 1560 brought art music into disrepute. Church music was immediately reduced to unharmonized psalm tunes. Royal music-making continued at Holyrood Palace with Mary, Queen of Scots (1560s) and James VI (1580s, 1590s), but against a background of public disapproval. When James VI removed to London in 1603, art music in Edinburgh was left without a focus. A nominal Chapel Royal was retained for some decades into the 17th century, but James brought English musicians with him for his one return visit to the city (...

Article

Michael Walsh

revised by Megan E. Hill

Chamber music ensemble founded in 1971 at the Berkshire Music Center. In 2011 its members were the trumpeters Rolf Smedvig and Marc Brian Reese, horn player Michelle Perry, trombonist Mark Hetzler, and tubist Kenneth Amis. Earlier members included trumpeters Charles A. Lewis Jr. and Timothy Morrison, horn player David Ohanian, trombonists Lawrence Isaacson and Scott A. Hartman, and tubist J. Samuel Pilafian. In the early 1970s the quintet performed mainly in the New England area; in 1976 it made its formal New York debut at Carnegie Hall and went on its first European tour; soon afterwards it became the first brass ensemble to receive the Naumburg Award. The quintet took part in a concert for Jimmy Carter’s presidential inauguration in 1977. In subsequent years, the group began touring regularly in Europe and East Asia. It was in residence at Boston University from 1976 until 1989, and it led the Empire Brass Seminar at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. It also founded the Empire Brass Quintet Symposium for brass students at the Berkshire Music Center in ...

Article

Paul Yoon

(b Los Angeles, CA, April 2, 1953). American taiko artist. Of Japanese American descent, he studied drumming, especially jazz and rock, from an early age. He first experienced taiko in the early 1970s and joined Kinnara Taiko in 1975. His interest in taiko was fueled by an emergent sense of his ethnic identity. He went on to study with the San Francisco Taiko Dojo in 1976. Endo felt that it was important to emphasize the Asian aspects of his heritage, and to this end he traveled to Japan in 1980. For the next decade he studied kumi daiko (ensemble drumming), hogaku hayashi (classical drumming), and matsuri bayashi (festival drumming), and he became the first non-native to receive a natori (stage name), Mochizuki Tajiro, in hogaku hayashi. While in Japan, he studied with and was a performing member of Oedo Sukeroku Taiko and Osuwa Daiko. He moved to Honolulu in ...

Article

Stephen Montague

revised by Kelly Hiser

(Arthur )

(b Kankakee, IL, March 22, 1942; d San Rafael, CA, Sept 25, 1996). American composer, trombonist, conductor, and double bassist. He attended the University of Illinois, where he studied trombone with Robert Gray and composition with Kenneth Gaburo, herbert Brün , and salvatore Martirano (BM in performance 1965). He studied jazz improvisation with lee Konitz and electronic music with richard b. Hervig at the University of Iowa (1970–71). He was a member of the Harry Partch Ensemble (1961–2) and the Illinois Contemporary Chamber Players (1963–6) and was an associate artist at the University of Iowa Center for New Music and New Performing Arts (1969–74). From 1974 to 1984 English lived in Europe, where he performed widely as a soloist and with jazz and new music ensembles, at festivals, and on radio. He collaborated with his wife Candace Natvig, a singer and violinist; in ...

Article

Epic  

Christopher Doll

Record company. It was established by CBS in 1953 as a subsidiary of Columbia Records. Although from the start its issues included jazz and pop, Epic for many years was known primarily for its recordings of George Szell conducting the Cleveland Orchestra (including those made with a young Leon Fleisher as piano soloist). In the latter part of the 1950s, as rock and roll began to overtake the industry, the company struggled to find itself artistically and commercially, accumulating an odd assortment of American, Australian, and European performers representing a wide array of classical, jazz, and popular styles.

The label’s fortunes began to change in 1964 with its participation in the British Invasion. Epic distributed the American releases of the Dave Clark Five and the Yardbirds and later those of the Hollies and Donovan. The true turning point for the company was the signing in 1967 of Sly and the Family Stone, whose critical and financial success helped redefine the label as a youth-oriented powerhouse. The company expanded through the 1970s, achieving unimaginable heights in the 1980s with Michael Jackson’s mature solo work (...

Article

ETHEL  

James Bash

String quartet. Formed in 1998, ETHEL consists of Juilliard-trained violinists Cornelius Dufallo and Mary Rowell, violist Ralph Farris, and cellist Dorothy Lawson. Dufallo replaced one of the quartet’s founders, violinist Todd Reynolds. The ensemble performs only new music, often using amplification and, in many cases, introducing some degree of improvisation. Their repertory includes their own works and pieces by contemporary composers such as Julia Wolfe, Phil Kline, John Zorn, Steve Reich, John King, JacobTV, David Lang, Scott Johnson, Don Byron, Marcelo Zarvos, Evan Ziporyn, and Mary Ellen Childs. The ensemble has collaborated with rock musicians such as Joe Jackson, Todd Rundgren, and David Byrne as well as with classical artists such as Ursula Oppens and Colin Currie. From 2007 to 2010, ETHEL gave the premieres of 47 new works, many of which were commissioned for the ensemble or by its nonprofit foundation.

The quartet has recorded a number of albums, including its debut, ...

Article

Patrick J. Smith

(Victor )

(b Chicago, IL, Oct 5, 1906; d San Francisco, CA, June 22, 1981). American music and art critic. He was educated at the University of Chicago (PhB). From 1934 to 1965 he was music and art critic of the San Francisco Chronicle; although in 1965 he stopped writing music reviews for the Chronicle, he continued to write music criticism and to review records for High Fidelity, Musical America, and other magazines. He taught at the University of California, Harvard and Stanford universities, the Salzburg Seminar in American Studies, and the Free University of Berlin. His special interests were American art and music. As a music critic, Frankenstein was chiefly known in the San Francisco Bay area. Among his numerous published articles is a detailed study of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in relation to the Hartmann paintings that inspired it (MQ, xxv, 1939). He wrote several books on art; his books on music are ...