Music
Music Styles
A cappella (Italian: “at the chapel” or Latin: “From the chapel/choir”) music is vocal music or singing without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way.
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with playing jazz music and which became popular during the Swing Era from the early 1930s until the late 1940s. A big band typically consists of approximately 12 to 25 musicians and contains saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section.
Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music. It has its own roots in Irish, Scottish and English traditional music. Bluegrass was inspired by the music of immigrants from the British Isles (particularly the Scots-Irish immigrants in Appalachia), as well as that of rural African-Americans, jazz, and blues.
Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blue notes. It emerged in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed English and Scots-Irish narrative ballads.
Cajun music, an emblematic music of Louisiana, is rooted in the ballads of the French-speaking Catholics of Canada. Cajun music is often mentioned in tandem with the Creole-based, Cajun-influenced zydeco form, both of Acadiana origin. These French Louisiana sounds have influenced American popular music for many decades, especially country music.
Celtic music is a term used to describe a broad grouping of musical genres that evolved out of the folk musical traditions of the Celtic peoples of Northern Europe. There is no real body of music which can be accurately described as Celtic, but the term has stuck and may refer to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded popular music.
A choir, chorale, or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. A body of singers who perform together is called a choir or chorus. The former term is very often applied to groups affiliated with a church (whether or not they actually occupy the choir) and the second to groups that perform in theaters or concert halls.
Christian music is music that is written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding the Christian life, as well as (in terms of contemporary music) to give a Christian alternative to main stream secular music.
Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of, Western art, ecclesiastical and concert music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to the 21st century. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period. It is still played by many of today’s musicians.
Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music, hokum, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s. The term country music began to be used in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was deemed to be degrading, and the term was widely embraced in the 1970s, while country and western has declined in use since that time
Disco is a genre of dance-oriented pop music. Disco songs usually have soaring, often reverberated vocals over a steady four-on-the-floor beat, an eighth note (quaver) or sixteenth note (semi-quaver) hi-hat pattern with an open hi-hat on the off-beat, and a prominent, syncopated electric bass line. Strings, horns, electric pianos, and electric guitars create a lush background sound. Orchestral instruments such as the flute are often used for solo melodies, and unlike in rock, lead guitar is rarely used.
Folk music can have a number of different meanings, including:
- Traditional music: The original meaning of the term “folk music” was synonymous with the term “Traditional music”, also often including World Music and Roots music; the term “Traditional music” was given its more specific meaning to distinguish it from the other definitions that “Folk music” is now considered to encompass.
- Folk music can also describe a particular kind of popular music which is based on traditional music. In contemporary times, this kind of folk music is often performed by professional musicians. Related genres include Folk rock and Progressive folk music.
- In American culture, folk music refers to the American folk music revival, music exemplified by such musicians as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, who popularized and encouraged the lyrical style in the 1950s and 1960s.
Gospel music is a musical genre characterized by dominant vocals (often with strong use of harmony) referencing lyrics of a religious nature, particularly Christian. Subgenres include contemporary Gospel, urban contemporary Gospel (sometimes referred to as “black Gospel”), Southern Gospel, and modern Gospel music (now more commonly known as praise and worship music or Contemporary Christian music). Most forms of gospel music use piano and/or Hammond organ, drums, bass guitar and, increasingly, electric guitar.
Jazz is an original American musical art form which originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States out of a confluence of African and European music traditions. The use of blue notes, call-and-response, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation and the swung note of ragtime are characteristics traceable back to jazz’s West African pedigree.
American Indian music is the musics that are shared by or that distinguish American Indian tribes and First Nations. In addition to the traditional music of those groups there now exist pan-tribal or intertribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of popular music including: rock, blues, hip hop, classical, film music and reggae, as well as popular pan-tribal styles like waila.
Opera is a form of musical and dramatic work in which singers convey the drama. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. An opera performance incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes incorporates dance. The performance is usually given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.
Polka is a fast, lively Central European dance, and also a genre of dance music. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia, and is still a common genre of Czech and Slovakian folk music; it is common both in Europe and in the Americas.
Pop music is an imprecise category of modern music not defined by artistic considerations but by its potential audience or prospective market. Pop is music composed with deliberate intent to appeal to the majority of its contemporaries.In opposition to music that requires education or formation to appreciate, a defining characteristic of pop music is that anyone is able to enjoy it. Artistic concepts such as complex musical form and aesthetics are not a concern in the writing of pop songs, the primary objectives being audience enjoyment and commercial success.
Rhythm and blues (also known as R&B or RnB) is a popular music genre combining jazz, gospel, and blues influences, first performed by African American artists. In 1947, the term rhythm and blues was coined as a musical marketing term in the United States by Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine. It replaced the term race music (which originally came from within the black community, but was deemed offensive in the postwar world).
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady. Reggae is based on a rhythm style characterized by regular chops on the off-beat, known as the skank. The tempo is generally slower than that found in ska. Reggae usually has accents on the 3rd beat in each bar, there being four beats in a bar; most people think it’s accentuated on the 2nd and 4th because of the rhythm guitar.
Rock music is a form of popular music with a prominent vocal melody accompanied by guitar, drums, and bass. Many styles of rock music also use keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, mellotron, and synthesizers. Other instruments sometimes utilized in rock include harmonica, violin, flute, banjo, melodica, and timpani. Also, less common stringed instruments such as mandolin and sitar are used. Rock music usually has a strong back beat, and often revolves around the guitar, either solid electric, hollow electric, or acoustic.Rock music has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll and rockabilly, which evolved from blues, country music and other influences.
Swing music, also known as swing jazz, is a form of jazz music that developed during the 1920s when people got together and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. Swing is distinguished primarily by a strong rhythm section, usually including double bass and drums, medium to fast tempo, and the distinctive swing time rhythm that is common to many forms of jazz.
Zydeco (French: “les haricots”, English: “snap beans”) is a form of American roots or folk music, that evolved from the jure during the late 1800s call and response vocal music of the black and multiracial French speaking Creoles of south and southwest Louisiana. During the early 20th century this soulful, heavily syncopated, indigenous roots music was discovered by ethnomusicologists and record labels alike. Usually fast-tempo, and dominated by the button or piano accordion and a form of a washboard known as a rub-board or frottoir zydeco music was originally created for house dances so the blacks and free people of color of south Louisiana could gather for socializing.
Musical Instruments
Accordion
Bagpipes
Bugle
Clarinet
Drums
Flute
Guitar
Harp
Oboe
Piano
Trombone
Tuba
Viola
Xylophone