Sforzando are a

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celts (modern), Celtic people of Northwestern Europe (the modern Celtic nations). It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and ...

band from Australia, that combine elements of

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

, Western European

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

and

sea shanties A sea shanty, shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large merchant sailing vessels. The term ''shanty'' most accurately refers to a sp ...

to create "a soundscape for the ocean". They describe themselves as a "pirate orchestra" with Irish and Balkan influences in their sound. They issued two studio albums, ''We Sail Away'' (1997) and ''Hideous Sea Creatures'' (2002) and various other recordings including SF-EP and Midnight at the Lighthouse (live).

History

Sforzando formed in 1995 in Melbourne by Quincy Hall on lead vocals, Dave O'Reilly on lead guitar, his sister, Karen O'Reilly, on bass guitar and Ross on drums. The group's name, ''sforzando'', is used in musical notation to indicate that the following note should be played loudly (see dynamics). They chose this to match their loud, frenetic punk rock style. In 1999 they performed at the Lighthouse Cafe, during the Port Fairy Folk Festival, which was recorded for their live album, ''Midnight at the Lighthouse'', with the line-up of Hall, Scott Jansen, Stuart Mathieson, Dave O'Reilly, Karen O'Reilly, Raju Sharma and Paul Tierney. By 2002's album, ''Hideous Sea Creatures'', they were a six-piece and self-described as a "pirate orchestra who blend ferocious punk, Western European folk melodies and classic sea shanties to create a soundscape for the ocean." Sylvia Gauci of ''Vibewire'' caught their gig in August 2002 at The Tote in Collingwood; she felt they "played a wide selection of both more traditional, folk-inspired tunes along with the fast punk and vivacious violin playing. But on top of the musical fun, lead singer Quincy used some time to voice his opinion on the highly questionable state of our government and foreign affairs – a very commendable use of time talking to the audience." By 2006 the line-up was Hall on lead vocals, Sharma on percussion, Jansen on violin, Tierney on drums, Dave O'Reilly on guitar and Garth Heron on bass guitar.

Members

* Quincy Hall –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

* Garth Heron –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Scott Jansen –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

* Dave O'Reilly –

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

* Karen O'Relly – bass guitar * Raju Sharma –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* Ben Tarpey – bass guitar * Paul Tierney –

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

* Sharon Ryan – guitar * Wez Rowe – keyboards,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

Discography

Albums

* ''We Sail Away'' (Mabuhay Records, 1997) (MBR00004) * ''Midnight at the Lighthouse'' (πR8, 1999; live at Port Fairy Folk Festival) Note: Swedish label, Nosag, released the album in 2000. * ''Hideous Sea Creatures'' (Sound Vault, 2002)

Extended plays

* ''SFZ.ep'' (Sforzando, 2005) (1698249)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sforzando Victoria (state) musical groups Folk punk groups Australian punk rock groups