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Balalaika
The balalaika (, ) is a Russian string instrument, stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck, and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perfect fourth higher. The higher-pitched balalaikas are used to play melodies and chords. The instrument generally has a short sustain, necessitating rapid strumming or plucking when it is used to play melodies. Balalaikas are often used for Russian traditional music, Russian folk music and Russian folk dances, dancing. The balalaika ''family of instruments'' includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest: the piccolo balalaika, prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass balalaika, and contrabass balalaika. There are balalaika orchestras which consist solely of different balalaikas; these ensembles typically play Classical music that has been arranged for balalaikas. The prima balalaika is the most ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Traditional Music
Russian folk music specifically deals with the folk music traditions of the ethnic Russian people. Russian folk music is used as the basic foundation for the creation of all Russian professional music. Ethnic styles in the modern era The performance and promulgation of ethnic music in Russia has a long tradition. Initially it was intertwined with various forms of art music, however, in the late 19th century it began to take on a life of its own with the rise in popularity of folkloric ensembles, such as the folk choir movement led by Mitrofan Pyatnitsky and the Russian folk instrument movement pioneered by Vasily Andreyev. In Soviet Russia, folk music was categorized as being democratic (of the people) or proletarian (of the working class) as opposed to art music, which was often regarded as being bourgeois. After the revolution, along with proletarian "mass music" (music for the proletarian masses) it received significant support from the state. In post-World War II Russia, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Domra
The ''domra'' (Cyrillic: до́мра, ) is a long-necked Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian folk string instrument of the lute family with a round body and three or four metal strings. History The first known mention of domra is in ''Admonitions of Metropolitan Daniel'' (1530). This musical instrument gained great popularity in the 16th–17th centuries, replacing gusli. There are numerous mentions of domra in historic documents of this period. In addition, medieval Russian illuminated manuscripts of the Psalter contain images of musicians with necked plucked-string instruments, and some of those miniatures are clearly captioned «depiction of domras». Judging by those images, late medieval Russian domras can be divided into two types: lute-shaped, which had five to six strings, a large body and а pegbox angled back, and tanbur-shaped, which had three to four strings, a small body and a straight pegbox. After the pious Tsar Alexis of Russia issued an edict ordering the per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Topshur
The ''tovshuur'', also known as ''topshur'' or ''topshuur'' ( Mongolian Cyrillic: ; ) is a two- or three-stringed lute played by the Western Mongolian (Oirats) tribes called the Altai Urianghais, the Altais, Tuvans, and Khalkha peoples. The topshur is closely tied to the folklore of Western Mongolian people and accompanied the performances of storytellers, singing, and dancing. According to descriptions given by Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ..., the Mongols also played the instruments before a battle. Construction and design All tovshuur are homemade, and, because of this, the materials and shape of the tovshuur vary depending on the builder and the region. For example, depending on the tribe, the string might be made of horsehair or sheep intesti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plucked String Instrument
Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the string (music), strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate. Plucking can be done with either a finger or a plectrum. Most plucked string instruments belong to the lute family (such as guitar, bass guitar, mandolin, banjo, balalaika, sitar, pipa, etc.), which generally consist of a resonating body, and a neck (music), neck; the strings run along the neck and can be stopped at different pitches. The zither family (including the Kanun (instrument), Qanún/kanun, autoharp, kantele, gusli, kannel (instrument), kannel, kankles, kokles, koto (musical instrument), koto, guqin, gu zheng and many others) does not have a neck, and the strings are stretched across the soundboard. In the harp family (including the lyre), the strings are perpendicular to the soundboard and do not run across it. The har ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Panduri
The panduri ( ka, ფანდური) is a Music of Georgia (country)#Folk music, traditional Georgian three-string plucked string instrument, plucked instrument common in all regions of Eastern Georgia (country), Eastern Georgia: such as Pshavi, Pshav-Khevsureti, Tusheti, Kakheti and Kartli. The panduri is generally used to accompany solo heroic, comic and love songs, as well as dance. Tuning *Three-stringed panduri: G-A-C# or E-B-A# or A-C#-E *Two-stringed panduri: D-C# Construction The frets on the panduri are traditionally made of wood inlaid in the fingerboard, usually seven frets to an octave, but nowadays chromatic fretting with metal frets can also be found. The body of the panduri is usually made more in the shape of a spade, less often with a parallel sided endblock. It is traditionally carved from a single block of wood, but a staved construction (like a lute) is also common. Image:Panduri_back_dusepo.jpg, Back view of panduri with body made of ribs Image:Pandur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Russian Dialects
Southern Russian is one of the main groups of Russian dialects. Territory * The territory of the ''primary formation'' (i.e. that consists of "Old" Russia of the 16th century before Eastern conquests by Ivan IV) is entirely 11 modern regions (''oblasts''): Belgorod, Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk, Lipetsk, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Tambov, Tula, Voronezh; and some southern parts of 3 regions: Moscow, Pskov, and Tver * The territory of the ''second formation'' (i.e. where Russians settled after the 16th century) consists of most of the land of lower Don and Volga, the Northern Caucasus, as well as Southern Ural, Siberia, and Far East. Phonology * Unstressed undergoes different degrees of vowel reduction mainly to (strong akanye), less often to , , . * Unstressed , , following palatalized consonants and preceding a stressed syllable are not reduced to (like in the Moscow dialect), being instead pronounced in such positions (e.g. несли is pronounced , not ) – t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Guitar
Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a book by Hedrick Smith *Russian (comics), fictional Marvel Comics supervillain from ''The Punisher'' series *Russian (solitaire), a card game * "Russians" (song), from the album ''The Dream of the Blue Turtles'' by Sting *"Russian", from the album ''Tubular Bells 2003'' by Mike Oldfield *"Russian", from the album '' '' by Caravan Palace *Nik Russian, the perpetrator of a con committed in 2002 See also * *Russia (other) *Rus (other) Rus or RUS may refer to: People * East Slavic historical peoples (). See Names of Rus', Russia and Ruthenia ** Rus' people, the people of Rus' ** Rus, a legendary eponymous ancestor, see Lech, Czech and Rus * Rus (surname), a surname found in ... * Rossiysky (other) * Russian Rive ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Musical Tuning
In music, there are two common meanings for tuning: * #Tuning practice, Tuning practice, the act of tuning an instrument or voice. * #Tuning systems, Tuning systems, the various systems of Pitch (music), pitches used to tune an instrument, and their theoretical bases. Tuning practice Tuning is the process of adjusting the pitch of one or many tones from musical instruments to establish typical intervals between these tones. Tuning is usually based on a fixed reference, such as A440 (pitch standard), A = 440 Hz. The term "''out of tune''" refers to a pitch/tone that is either too high (Sharp (music), sharp) or too low (Flat (music), flat) in relation to a given reference pitch. While an instrument might be in tune relative to its own range of notes, it may not be considered 'in tune' if it does not match the chosen reference pitch. Some instruments become 'out of tune' with temperature, humidity, damage, or simply time, and must be readjusted or repaired. Different method ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strings (music)
In music, strings are long flexible structures on string instruments that produce sound through vibration. Strings are held under tension so that they can vibrate freely. The pitch (frequency) at which a string will vibrate is primarily related to its vibrating length (also called speaking length), its tension, and its mass per unit of length. A vibrating string produces very little sound by itself. Therefore, most string instruments have a soundboard to amplify the sound. There are two main kinds of strings; plain and wound. "Plain" strings are simply one piece of long cylindrical material, commonly consisted of nylon or gut. "Wound" strings have a central core, with other material being tightly wound around the string . Prior to World War II, strings of many instruments (including violins and guitars) were composed of a material known as catgut, a type of cord made from refined natural fibers of animal intestines. During the mid-twentieth century however, steel and nylo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Prima Balalaika And A Bass Balalaika
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey and single-storey . The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English, '' a'' is the indefinite article, with the alternative form ''an''. Name In English, the name of the letter is the ''long A'' sound, pronounced . Its name in most other languages matches the letter's pronunciation in open syllables. History The earliest known ancestor of A is ''aleph''—the first letter of the Phoenician ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
