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String Piano
String piano is a term coined by American composer-theorist Henry Cowell (1897–1965) to collectively describe pianistic extended techniques in which sound is produced by direct manipulation of the strings, instead of or in addition to striking the piano's keys. Pioneered by Cowell in the 1920s, such techniques are now often called upon in the works of avant-garde classical music composers. Techniques String piano compositions can involve a wide range of techniques. Among those employed by Cowell, the first major proponent of the approach, are: *plucking (pizzicato) *flicking back and forth across a string with a fingernail (similar to a mandolin tremolo) *sweeping chromatically across the strings with the fingers *sweeping across the strings with the flat of the hand (producing a tone cluster) *sweeping along one or more strings with the flesh of the finger(s) *scraping along one or more strings with the fingernail(s) Strings may also be pressed at specific points along thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Cowell Playing String Piano
Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainment * ''Henry'' (2011 film), a Canadian short film * ''Henry'' (2015 film), a virtual reality film * '' Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'', a 1986 American crime film * ''Henry'' (comics), an American comic strip created in 1932 by Carl Anderson * "Henry", a song by New Riders of the Purple Sage Places Antarctica * Henry Bay, Wilkes Land Australia *Henry River (New South Wales) *Henry River (Western Australia) Canada * Henry Lake (Vancouver Island), British Columbia * Henry Lake (Halifax County), Nova Scotia * Henry Lake (District of Chester), Nova Scotia New Zealand * Lake Henry (New Zealand) * Henry River (New Zealand) United States * Henry, Illinois * Henry, Indiana * Henry, Nebraska * Henry, South Dakota * Henry County (disambigu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In A Nutshell
''In a Nutshell'' is a musical composition by Percy Aldridge Grainger for orchestra, piano, and Deagan percussion instruments. The suite, published in 1916, is made up of four movements: "Arrival Platform Humlet", "Gay But Wistful", "Pastoral", and "The Gum-Suckers March". Grainger later made versions for both solo piano and piano duo. It is described as one of the early modernist works of Grainger. It premiered on 8 June 1916 at the summer Norfolk Festival, with Grainger on piano, under conductor Arthur Mees. Other early performances were made by the San Francisco Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in the following winter. Composition The first movement, "Arrival Platform Humlet", was originally written in 1908 for solo viola as one of Grainger's earliest works. In his words, the humlet (which he defined as a "little ditty to hum") came from: "awaiting the arrival of a belated train bringing one’s sweethea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Klavierstücke (Stockhausen)
The ''Klavierstücke'' (German for "Piano Pieces") constitute a series of nineteen compositions by German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Stockhausen has said the ''Klavierstücke'' "are my ''drawings''". Originating as a set of four small pieces composed between February and June 1952, Stockhausen later formulated a plan for a large cycle of 21 ''Klavierstücke'', in sets of 4 + 6 + 1 + 5 + 3 + 2 pieces. He composed the second set in 1954–55 (''VI'' was subsequently revised several times and ''IX'' and ''X'' were finished only in 1961), and the single ''Klavierstück XI'' in 1956. Beginning in 1979, he resumed composing ''Klavierstücke'' and finished eight more, but appears to have abandoned the plan for a set of 21 pieces. The pieces from ''XV'' onward are for the synthesizer or similar electronic instruments, which Stockhausen had come to regard as the natural successor to the piano. The dimensions vary considerably, from a duration of less than half a minute for ''Klaviers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, having been called the "father of electronic music", for introducing controlled chance ( aleatory techniques) into serial composition, and for musical spatialization. Stockhausen was educated at the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the University of Cologne, later studying with Olivier Messiaen in Paris and with Werner Meyer-Eppler at the University of Bonn. As one of the leading figures of the Darmstadt School, his compositions and theories were and remain widely influential, not only on composers of art music, but also on jazz and popular music. His works, composed over a period of nearly sixty years, eschew traditional forms. In addition to electronic musicboth with and without live performersthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carl Orff
Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for children's music education. Life Early life Carl Heinrich Maria Orff was born in Munich on 10 July 1895, the son of Paula Orff (née Köstler, 1872–1960) and Heinrich Orff (1869–1949). His family was Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavarian and was active in the Imperial German Army; his father was an army officer with strong musical interests, and his mother was a trained pianist. His grandfathers, Carl von Orff (1828–1905) and Karl Köstler (1837–1924), were both major generals and also scholars. His paternal grandmother, Fanny Orff (née Kraft, 1833–1919), was Catholic of Jewish descent. His maternal grandmother was Maria Köstler (née Aschenbrenner, 1845–1906). Orff had one sibling, his younger sister Maria ("Mia", 1898–1975), who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer and academic teacher. Life and career Early life and education Mauricio Raúl Kagel was born on 24 December 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled Russia in the 1920s. He studied music, history of literature, and philosophy in Buenos Aires. In 1957 he moved to Cologne, West Germany, where he lived until his death. As teacher From 1960–66 and 1972–76 Kagel taught at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He also taught from 1964–65 at the University at Buffalo as the visiting Slee Professor of music theory. At the Berlin Film and Television Academy he was a visiting lecturer. He served as director of courses for new music in Gothenburg and Cologne. He was professor for new music theatre at the Köln Hochschule from 1974–97. Among his students were Moya Henderson, Kevin Volans, Maria de Alvear, Carola Bauckholt, Branimir Krstić, David Saw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (24 October 1931 – 13 March 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer of Modernism (music), modernist Holy minimalism, sacred music. She was highly prolific, producing numerous Chamber music, chamber, Orchestra, orchestral and Choir, choral works.Griffiths, Paul.Sofia Gubaidulina: Apostle of Inner Struggle and Redemption. ''New York Times'', 25 April 1999. Retrieved 14 March 2025 Her output has been described as exploring the tensions between Western and Eastern music, and has been characterised by "innovative use of microtonality and chromaticism, rhythm over form and use of contrasting Tonality, tonalities. Her compositions have been praised for their "emotional intensity", while she described her music as bringing ''legato'', that is, a sense of "connected flow into the fragmented ''staccato'' of life." Alongside Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Edison Denisov, Gubaidulina was considered one of the foremost composers of the former Soviet Union who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halim El-Dabh
Halim Abdul Messieh El-Dabh (, ''Ḥalīm ʻAbd al-Masīḥ al-Ḍab''ʻ; 4 March 1921 – 2 September 2017) was an Egyptian-American composer, musician, ethnomusicologist, and educator, who had a career spanning six decades. He is particularly known as an early pioneer of electronic music. In 1944 he composed one of the earliest known works of tape music, or musique concrète. From the late 1950s to early 1960s he produced influential work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Early life El-Dabh was born and grew up in Sakakini, Cairo, Egypt, a member of a large and affluent Coptic Christian family that had earlier emigrated from Abutig in the Upper Egyptian province of Asyut. The family name means "the hyena" and is not uncommon in Egypt. In 1932 the family relocated to the Cairo suburb of Heliopolis. Following his father's profession of agriculture, he graduated from Fuad I University in 1945 with a degree in agricultural engineering, while also info ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Makrokosmos
''Makrokosmos'' is a series of four volumes of pieces for piano by American composer George Crumb. The name alludes to '' Mikrokosmos'', a set of piano pieces by Béla Bartók, one of Crumb's favorite 20th-century composers. The first volume of the set was composed in 1972, while the last was completed in early 1979; the first performance of all four volumes in sequence was given by Yvar Mikhashoff, Aki Takahashi, Stephen Manes, Freida Manes, Jan Williams and Lynn Harbold, in Buffalo, New York, on 12 June 1980. Volume I ''Makrokosmos, Volume I'' was composed in 1972 for pianist and friend David Burge (who previously commissioned and premiered Crumb's ''Five Pieces for Piano'' (1962)). The collection is subtitled ''Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac'' and is scored for amplified piano. Its contents are as follows: * Part 1: # ''Primeval Sounds (Genesis I)'' (Cancer) # ''Proteus'' (Pisces) # ''Pastorale (from the Kingdom of Atlantis, ca. 10,000 B.C.)'' (Taurus) # ''Cruci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Crumb
George Henry Crumb Jr. (24 October 1929 – 6 February 2022) was an American composer of avant-garde contemporary classical music. Early in his life he rejected the widespread modernist usage of serialism, developing a highly personal musical language which "range in mood from peaceful to nightmarish". Crumb's compositions are known for pushing the limits of technical prowess by way of frequent use of extended techniques. The unusual timbres he employs evoke a surrealist atmosphere which portray emotions of considerable intensity with vast and sometimes haunting soundscapes. His few large-scale works include '' Echoes of Time and the River'' (1967), which won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and '' Star-Child'' (1977), which won the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition; however, his output consists of mostly music for chamber ensembles or solo instrumentalists. Among his best known compositions are '' Black Angels'' (1970), a striking commentary o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rued Langgaard
Rued Langgaard (; born Rud Immanuel Langgaard; 28 July 1893 – 10 July 1952) was a late-Romantic Danish composer and organist. His then-unconventional music was at odds with that of his Danish contemporaries but was recognized 16 years after his death. Life Born in Copenhagen, Rued Langgaard was the only son of composer and Royal Chamber musician Siegfried Langgaard and Emma Langgaard (née Foss), both of whom were pianists. At the age of five Rued began taking piano lessons with his mother, and later with his father and a private teacher. His talent emerged quickly, and at seven he was able to play Robert Schumann, Schumann's ''Davidsbündlertänze'' and Frédéric Chopin, Chopin's mazurkas. By then he had begun to compose short pieces for the piano and play the organ. At 10 he began to study the organ under Gustav Helsted, organist at the Jesus Church, Valby, Jesuskirken in Valby, and the violin under Chr. Petersen, formerly of the Royal Orchestra. At the age of 11 he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Music Of The Spheres (Langgaard)
''Music of the Spheres'' (in Danish: ), BVN 128, is a multi- movement composition for soprano, mixed choir, orchestra (including a second, smaller "orchestra at a distance"), and organ written from 1916 to 1918 by the Danish composer Rued Langgaard. The piece was inspired by a line from a Danish poem translated as, "The stars seem to twinkle kindly at us, yet the writing of the stars is cold and merciless." Analysis The work incorporates innovations that were ahead of their time, including some of the earliest examples of string piano (playing directly on the strings of the piano). The piece's extensive use of slow-moving string clusters prompted the composer György Ligeti to proclaim himself a "Langgaard-epigone" when presented with the score in the late 1960s. According to the music researcher Eric Christensen – in an analysis of works utilizing the "spatial dimension" as a fundamental concept – the space of ''Music of the Spheres'' is limited at the upper level ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
