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Xu Yi
Xu Yi (徐儀; born 1963) is a Chinese-born French composer and music educator in France. Early life In 1963, Xu was born in Nanjing, China. Xu began playing the Chinese violin, erhu, at a very young age. Education Xu was a student at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she continued the violin, and later joined the class of composition. After her arrival in France in 1988, she studied the Cursus of Composition and Computer Music of the IRCAM (1990/1991). She entered the Conservatory of Music of Paris, where she studied with Gérard Grisey and Ivo Malec. Career At the age of 22, Xu became a teacher at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Xu won First Prize in composition in Conservatoire de Paris in 1994. She was the winner of the Prix de Rome, winning the honor of living in the Villa Medici in Rome from 1996 to 1998 (she was the first composer of Chinese origin to win this prize). Xu was professor of composition at the Cergy-Pontoise National Conservatory of Musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Classical music, Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Definition The term is descended from Latin, wikt:compono, ''compōnō''; literally "one who puts together". The earliest use of the term in a musical context given by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from Thomas Morley's 1597 ''A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music'', where he says "Some wil be good descanters [...] and yet wil be but bad composers". 'Composer' is a loose term that generally refers to any person who writes music. More specifically, it is often used to denote people who are composers by occupation, or those who in the tradition of Western classical music. Writers of exclusively or primarily songs may be called composers, but since the 20th century the terms 'songwriter' or 'singer-songwriter' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alto
The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian ( Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In 4-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in choruses by either low women's or high men's voices. In vocal classification these are usually called contralto and male alto or countertenor. Such confusion of "high" and "low" persists in instrumental terminology. Alto flute and alto trombone are respectively lower and higher than the standard instruments of the family (the standard instrument of the trombone family being the tenor trombone), though both play in ranges within the alto clef. Alto recorder, however, is an octave higher, and is defined by its relationship to tenor and soprano recorders; alto clarinet is a fifth lower than B-flat clarinet, already an 'alto' instrument. There is even a contra-alto clarinet, (an octave lower than the alto clarinet), with a range B♭0 – D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; ; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3–A5 in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C4; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F3, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C6, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic mezzo-soprano. History While mezzo-sopranos typically sing secondary roles in operas, notable exceptions include the title role in Bizet's '' Carmen'', Angelina (Cinderella) in Rossini's '' La Cenerentola'', and Rosina in Rossini's '' Barber of Seville'' (all of which are also sung by sopranos and contraltos). Many 19th-century French-language operas give the leading female role to mezzos, inc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, scientific pitch notation, C2, G2, D3 and A3. The viola's four strings are each an octave higher. Music for the cello is generally written in the bass clef, with tenor clef, and treble clef used for higher-range passages. Played by a ''List of cellists, cellist'' or ''violoncellist'', it enjoys a large solo repertoire Cello sonata, with and List of solo cello pieces, without accompaniment, as well as numerous cello concerto, concerti. As a solo instrument, the cello uses its whole range, from bassline, bass to soprano, and in chamber music such as string quartets and the orchestra's string section, it often plays the bass part, where it may be reinforced an octave lower by the double basses. Figure ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Capella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato musical styles. In the 19th century, a renewed interest in Renaissance polyphony, coupled with an ignorance of the fact that vocal parts were often doubled by instrumentalists, led to the term coming to mean unaccompanied vocal music. The term is also used, rarely, as a synonym for '' alla breve''. Early history A cappella could be as old as humanity itself. Research suggests that singing and vocables may have been what early humans used to communicate before the invention of language. The earliest piece of sheet music is thought to have originated from times as early as 2000 B.C. while the earliest that has survived in its entirety is from the first century A.D.: a piece from Greece called the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flutist
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening. According to the instrument classification of Hornbostel–Sachs, flutes are categorized as edge-blown aerophones. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist or flutist. Flutes are the earliest known identifiable musical instruments, as paleolithic examples with hand-bored holes have been found. A number of flutes dating to about 53,000 to 45,000 years ago have been found in the Swabian Jura region of present-day Germany. These flutes demonstrate that a developed musical tradition existed from the earliest period of modern human presence in Europe.. Citation on p. 248. * While the oldest flutes currently known were found in Europe, Asia, too, has a l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word '' sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" '' |
Pipa
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a () is a traditional Chinese musical instrument, belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term ''pipa'' was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument. The pipa is one of the most popular Chinese instruments and has been played for almost two thousand years in China. Several related instruments are derived from the pipa, including the Japanese biwa and Korean bipa in East Asia, and the Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà in Southeast Asia. The Korean instrument is the only one of the three that is no longer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xiao (flute)
The ''xiao'' (, pronounced ) is a Chinese vertical end-blown flute. It is generally made of bamboo. It is also sometimes called ''dòngxiāo'' (), ''dòng'' meaning "hole." An ancient name for the xiāo is ''shùzhúdí'' (, lit. "vertical bamboo flute", ) but the name ''xiāo'' in ancient times also included the side-blown bamboo flute, '' dizi''. The ''xiāo'' is a very ancient Chinese instrument usually thought to have developed from a simple end-blown flute used by the Qiang people of Southwest China in ancient period. In the oral traditions of the Xiao, practitioners and poets say its sound resembles the sweetness of the Phoenix's call, the king of birds in Chinese belief.e.g. in a story attributed to Liu Xiang, the player Xiao Shi "could imitate the sound of the phoenix with his flute. He married a princess, and later, with her, transformed into two phoenixes and flew away," from ''Liexian zhuan'' (Collected Life Stories of Immortals), in ''Dao zang'' (complete collec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bianzhong
Bianzhong (Chinese language, Chinese:编钟) is an ancient China, ancient Chinese List of traditional Chinese musical instruments, musical instrument consisting of a set of bronze bells, played melodically. China is the earliest country to manufacture and use musical chimes. They are also called Chime Bells. These sets of chime bells were used as polyphonic musical instruments and some of these bells have been dated at between 2,000 to 3,600 years old. They were hung in a wooden frame and struck with a mallet. Using a wooden hammer and a rod to beat the bronze bell can make different pitch. Along with the stone chimes called ''bianqing'', they were an important instrument in China's ritual and court music going back to ancient times. Several sets of ''bianzhong'' were imported to the Korean court during the Song Dynasty. Pronounced in Korean as pyeonjong, the instrument became an important part in Korea's ritual and court music and is still in use. In Vietnam, the instrument, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bianqing
The ''bianqing'' ( Chinese: 编磬) is a traditional Chinese percussion instrument consisting of a set of L-shaped flat stone chimes known as ''qing'', played melodically. The chimes were hung in a wooden frame and struck with a mallet. Along with the bronze bells called '' bianzhong'', they were an important instrument in China's ritual and court music going back to ancient times. The instrument was imported to Vietnam (where it is called ''biên khánh''), and Korea (where it is called ''pyeongyeong''). In the 11th year of King Yejong of Goryeo (1116), it was imported from the Song Dynasty. It is still used in Korean court and ritual music. History The bianqing existed before Shang Dynasty. The bianqing in the Shang Dynasty are made of stone, jade and bronze. The tiger shaped stone bianqing unearthed from the Yin tomb in the village of Wu Guan in Anyang, Henan Province, is made of marble and has a history of more than 3000 years. Its timbre is as clear as that of bronze mus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guqin
The ''guqin'' (; ) is a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument. It has been played since ancient times, and has traditionally been favoured by scholars and literati as an instrument of great subtlety and refinement, as highlighted by the quote "a gentleman does not part with his ''qin'' or '' se'' without good reason," as well as being associated with the ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius. It is sometimes referred to by the Chinese as "the father of Chinese music" or "the instrument of the sages". The ''guqin'' is not to be confused with the '' guzheng'', another Chinese long stringed instrument also without frets, but with moveable bridges under each string. Traditionally, the instrument was simply referred to as the "''qin''" (琴) but by the twentieth century the term had come to be applied to many other musical instruments as well: the '' yangqin'' hammered dulcimer, the '' huqin'' family of bowed string instruments, and the Western piano (''gangqin'' (钢� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
