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Wind and clouds and sage and sweeping landscape... time and distance the countermelodies
Amy Arrington, _The Bouzouki_, photograph, 2007, Amy Arrington's Personal Photos, Dahlonega Georgia
The art of bluegrass is constantly changing with the additions of new and innovative instruments; the most recent addition to the continuous metamorphosis is the bouzouki. The bouzouki is a primitive and popular instrument of modern Greek music as well as other Balkan folk music, especially of Serbia, Herzegovina, and Bosnia. Very similar to a mandolin (as far as tuning, shape, and sound), it is a member of the lute family, traced back even to stories in mythology. In ancient Greece, the instrument was known as the “pandouris” or “pandourion” and for many years it was an integral part of the folk movement in Greece. Turkey also incorporated the bouzouki into its culture of music. It was known to them as the Turkish Tanbur, which was practically identical to the ancient Greek pandouris. Throughout the Middle East the bouzoukia were “Trichordo” bouzoukia, meaning each had six strings in three pairs (contrary to the common bouzouki today which has eight strings in four pairs), which fit very well with the music of the Middle Eastern countries. By the 1950’s Ireland became a dominant supporter of the bouzouki, and before long it was incorporated into Ireland’s traditional and folk music. The primary job of the bouzouki was to maintain the rhythm and countermelodies of the songs. However, today the bouzouki is seen as more of an interesting lead instrument, and tends to be much more versatile. During the late 1960’s throughout the 1970’s professional musicians began traveling to Ireland more frequently to study the art of traditional Irish folk music. It was here they were introduced to the bouzouki for the first time, and in the latter part of the decade they brought back with them the bouzouki. In the early 90’s Tim O’Brien (famous bluegrass/folk legend) began incorporating the recording the bouzouki with his music, and from this other bluegrass and folk icons embarked on their involvement with the bouzouki. Today the bouzouki is sometimes considered an outsider to the world of bluegrass, but year-by-year it is becoming more and more popular.
Shelton, Robert,_The Face of Folk Music_(New York: The Citadel Press, 1968), 22-247.
Neil V. Rosenberg, "From sound to Style: The Emergence of Bluegrass,"_The Journal of the American Folklore_80 (April-June 1967): 143-150.
Pillowfish are eclectic yet cohesive, they combine folk traditions,
political song, accomplished musicianship, and a distinctive delivery.
In RL Pillowfish are Tom Drinkwater & Helen Bell, in SL Thom Martinsyde &
Rowanna Sideways.
Lyrically sparkling original songs featuring Tom's acerbic vocals and
intricate bouzouki, and Helen's inventive violin and viola countermelodies.
Yes: Fragile, 1971, Artwork by Roger Dean
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Fragile is the fourth studio album by the English progressive rock band Yes, released in November 1971 by Atlantic Records and the first Yes album to feature cover art by Roger Dean. The album’s artwork depicts a small planet that has begun to break up-its population escaping in a peculiar wooden “space glider,” a concept that later inspired the cover of Jon Anderson’s solo album, Olias of Sunhillow.
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Dean has said, "'Fragile' was very literal, really. I think the band has named a number of their albums after their current psychological state, and 'Fragile' described the psyche of the band. And I thought about that very literally, painting a fragile world that would eventually break up."
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Two words describe Fragile: luminescent and jagged; concepts embodied in Dean’s artistic conception. The bright blue and green planet against a stark deep blue background, the image evokes the luminescent “Earth Rising” image taken during the Apollo missions during that time. The planet’s jagged disintegration, against a black background, depicted on the back cover is a stark contrast to the life affirming feel of the front image. Even the style and “look” that Dean employs seems less refined than in the later works used for Yes covers.
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The album’s music itself also embodies this luminescent/jagged duality. “Roundabout” for many (particularly in the U.S.) was their first introduction to Yes music. Based on a vampy blues shuffle, the song opens with Steve Howe’s delicately picked individually plucked chords with those lovely interspersed harmonics. Quickly though, the song crashes into its main melody and beat punctuated by Chris Squire’s punchy and yes, jagged bass runs. “Roundabout” embodies all those elements for which Yes would become known: invention, sweetness, wistfulness and an unerring pop sensibility.
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In addition to “Roundabout,” the music’s luminosity and jaggedness can be found on every group collaboration on the album; “South Side of the Sky,” “Heart of the Sunrise,” “Long Distance Runaround,” as well as to varying degrees in the solo pieces, particularly in Squire’s “The Fish.
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Fragile, in many ways, is Chris Squires’ album. By bringing his razor sharp, punchy, stabbing bass to the forefront of each song helped to define Yes’ sound and set a template for the instrument’s leap into the foreground of rock music. Not since Paul McCartney bouncing bass lines had there been such a redefinition of the instrument’s role (upfront in the mix, contrapuntal playing, independent melodies and countermelodies) in music composition and performance.
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There was a period during the history of pop music that I’ve heard referred to as the “Time of the Album.” From about the mid-1960s through the next decade until about 1986, cover art and the accompanying liner notes were at least as important as the vinyl long play record inside. Album art drew us in and held us rapt as we searched the images and words for added meaning to our favorite recording artists.
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The double album, with its gatefold cover, occupied a special niche. Its functions were many, to which many of us can attest (…if you know what I mean, and I think you do). For me, however, that album art gave visual meaning to the music, amplifying the audio experience. The art also branded the artist in a way that bands like the Rolling Stones (tongue), Yes (fantasy worlds), and Little Feat (ducks with lips) were imprinted on our impressionable minds. For audiophiles (and by audiophile, I really mean fanboy) like myself knowing where and when the recording took place, the producer, the guest artists, and the instruments gave depth and meaning to the music, apart from the recorded melodies. And what a pleasure it was to peruse the lyrics and images over and over, looking for new details, just as we listened for new textures and chords in the warmth of the spinning vinyl record.
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Of course, with the advent of CDs the artwork was lost, becoming smaller and less relevant. And now, as music is increasingly downloaded and/or streamed album art is an artifact of a bygone era, The Time of the Album. I’ve photographed a few of the albums in my collection as a way to revisit that time, to relive my experience and to share with a new generation of audiophiles. Consider this an occasional series or an exercise in nostalgia. Enjoy!
of contrasting emotions, directions, and meanings. As in Mahler's Fifth Symphony :" More often several independent instrumental strands form an intricate web of contrasting emotions, directions, and meanings. For instance, there is a passage in the second movement of the Fifth Symphony in which two horns sing a somber melodic line in dotted rhythm. At the same time there is a cackling motive in the woodwinds. Meanwhile the timpani and the double-basses play a funereal drumbeat figure and the cellos intone a scarcely audible countermelody in quarter notes. As if all this weren't enough for the ear to take in, a solo violin and a flute exchange brief anguished sighs with an English horn. Thus, in a single moment we are given a wide range of human emotions: despair, longing, aspiration, anguish, tenderness. And because these emotions are so inextricably woven together we experience keenly that sense of ambiguity, discontinunity, and ambivalence which is so characteristic of modern life and so prevalent in the music of later twentieth-century composers such as Schonberg, Berg, and Webern. We have come, it would seem, as far as possible from the kind of music which presents a single melody comfortably resting on the cushion of an accompaniment>" Benjamin Zander on the Mahler's 5th Symphony, www.newenglandconservatory.edu/concerts/pdf/Mahlernote.pdf
The Robert E. Brown Center for World Music (School of Music, University of Illinois) Spring Concert at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Balinese Small Ensembles: Gamelan Suling directed by I Ketut Gede Asnawa; Gender Wayang directed by Wayan Rachman.
Music from the island of Bali, in Indonesia. In addition to its famous large gamelan, Bali has many smaller ensembles. The Gamelan Suling, whose melody is played by end-blown flutes (suling), will perform Bapang Selisir, a ceremonial piece from the historic curt-music repertoire. Gender Wayang is the ensemble that accompanies the Balinese wayang or shadow-play. Its music is played on two pairs of keyed instruments (gender) that are tuned slightly apart so as to produce a shimmering sound. Both pairs play the same music, while within a pair both players play the same melody with the left hand but with the right hand play individual parts that interlock to form a countermelody.
I Ketet Gede Asnawa, composer and master musician, is a long-term Visiting Professor at the Center for World Music and the director of our Balinese ensembles. Wayan Rachman, a Balineses musician from Ubud, will complete his Master of Music degree this spring. He has helped out in all the UI gamelan groups; in addition, last year he taught a Kecak group, and this year he taught the Gender Wayang ensemble.
The Robert E. Brown Center for World Music (School of Music, University of Illinois) Spring Concert at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Balinese Small Ensembles: Gamelan Suling directed by I Ketut Gede Asnawa; Gender Wayang directed by Wayan Rachman.
Music from the island of Bali, in Indonesia. In addition to its famous large gamelan, Bali has many smaller ensembles. The Gamelan Suling, whose melody is played by end-blown flutes (suling), will perform Bapang Selisir, a ceremonial piece from the historic curt-music repertoire. Gender Wayang is the ensemble that accompanies the Balinese wayang or shadow-play. Its music is played on two pairs of keyed instruments (gender) that are tuned slightly apart so as to produce a shimmering sound. Both pairs play the same music, while within a pair both players play the same melody with the left hand but with the right hand play individual parts that interlock to form a countermelody.
I Ketet Gede Asnawa, composer and master musician, is a long-term Visiting Professor at the Center for World Music and the director of our Balinese ensembles. Wayan Rachman, a Balineses musician from Ubud, will complete his Master of Music degree this spring. He has helped out in all the UI gamelan groups; in addition, last year he taught a Kecak group, and this year he taught the Gender Wayang ensemble.
The Robert E. Brown Center for World Music (School of Music, University of Illinois) Spring Concert at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Balinese Small Ensembles: Gamelan Suling directed by I Ketut Gede Asnawa; Gender Wayang directed by Wayan Rachman.
Music from the island of Bali, in Indonesia. In addition to its famous large gamelan, Bali has many smaller ensembles. The Gamelan Suling, whose melody is played by end-blown flutes (suling), will perform Bapang Selisir, a ceremonial piece from the historic curt-music repertoire. Gender Wayang is the ensemble that accompanies the Balinese wayang or shadow-play. Its music is played on two pairs of keyed instruments (gender) that are tuned slightly apart so as to produce a shimmering sound. Both pairs play the same music, while within a pair both players play the same melody with the left hand but with the right hand play individual parts that interlock to form a countermelody.
I Ketet Gede Asnawa, composer and master musician, is a long-term Visiting Professor at the Center for World Music and the director of our Balinese ensembles. Wayan Rachman, a Balineses musician from Ubud, will complete his Master of Music degree this spring. He has helped out in all the UI gamelan groups; in addition, last year he taught a Kecak group, and this year he taught the Gender Wayang ensemble.
The Robert E. Brown Center for World Music (School of Music, University of Illinois) Spring Concert at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Balinese Small Ensembles: Gamelan Suling directed by I Ketut Gede Asnawa; Gender Wayang directed by Wayan Rachman.
Music from the island of Bali, in Indonesia. In addition to its famous large gamelan, Bali has many smaller ensembles. The Gamelan Suling, whose melody is played by end-blown flutes (suling), will perform Bapang Selisir, a ceremonial piece from the historic curt-music repertoire. Gender Wayang is the ensemble that accompanies the Balinese wayang or shadow-play. Its music is played on two pairs of keyed instruments (gender) that are tuned slightly apart so as to produce a shimmering sound. Both pairs play the same music, while within a pair both players play the same melody with the left hand but with the right hand play individual parts that interlock to form a countermelody.
I Ketet Gede Asnawa, composer and master musician, is a long-term Visiting Professor at the Center for World Music and the director of our Balinese ensembles. Wayan Rachman, a Balineses musician from Ubud, will complete his Master of Music degree this spring. He has helped out in all the UI gamelan groups; in addition, last year he taught a Kecak group, and this year he taught the Gender Wayang ensemble.
The Robert E. Brown Center for World Music (School of Music, University of Illinois) Spring Concert at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Balinese Small Ensembles: Gamelan Suling directed by I Ketut Gede Asnawa; Gender Wayang directed by Wayan Rachman.
Music from the island of Bali, in Indonesia. In addition to its famous large gamelan, Bali has many smaller ensembles. The Gamelan Suling, whose melody is played by end-blown flutes (suling), will perform Bapang Selisir, a ceremonial piece from the historic curt-music repertoire. Gender Wayang is the ensemble that accompanies the Balinese wayang or shadow-play. Its music is played on two pairs of keyed instruments (gender) that are tuned slightly apart so as to produce a shimmering sound. Both pairs play the same music, while within a pair both players play the same melody with the left hand but with the right hand play individual parts that interlock to form a countermelody.
I Ketet Gede Asnawa, composer and master musician, is a long-term Visiting Professor at the Center for World Music and the director of our Balinese ensembles. Wayan Rachman, a Balineses musician from Ubud, will complete his Master of Music degree this spring. He has helped out in all the UI gamelan groups; in addition, last year he taught a Kecak group, and this year he taught the Gender Wayang ensemble.