Archive for category History Music Articles
Tambourines: A Long Musical History
A member of the percussion family, tambourines historically have been made by mounting a single drum head (often of thin animal hide) onto a ring that has pairs of metal jingles laced around the drum sides. It should be noted, however, that not all tambourines use a drum head of leather or animal hide. In some instances, there are jingles strung across the center of the tambourine frame instead. The instrument was then used by either striking the drum head, shaking the jingles, or banging the instrument against a part of the body to get both a drum tone and jingles simultaneous.
Historically the tambourine has been identified in many forms of music including Persian, classical, gospel and pop music. The tambourine can be traced back to most ancient civilizations including India, China, Rome, Egypt and Greece where it was usually used during periods of celebration. Frame drums such as the tambourine as some of the most ancient percussion instruments identified. They originated in the ancient Middle East and ultimately reached medieval Europe. In fact, the tambourine began appearing in operas, ballets, and compositions more and more often throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Used as an accompaniment to other musical instruments, or dancers, the tambourine has developed a huge following for use in spiritual or ritual activities even now.
The History of Renner Action
A Brief History-Renner The inventor of the much-relied-upon Renner piano action was Louis Renner. He began producing piano actions on a very small scale in October of 1882. At that time, action manufacture centered around hand¬crafted production. The history of the Renner Company is intertwined with German piano production and increasing specialization in piano making. When the company moved into a new factory building in 1902, Renner employed a Staff of 35. By 1911, the total had risen to 100, and a new wing had to be added to the plant. In addition, since 1906, Renner had also been producing hammers as well as actions. Production became increasingly mechanized. Only the most important production stages required skilled craftsmanship, although careful quality control guaranteed a superior product. The number of employees had risen to 175 by the First World War. Labor-saving methods were developed as new machinery became available. Hundreds of electric¬ motors drove specialized production lines, and grand pianos actions were being manufactured as well.
All action production was now performed under one roof. Labor-intensive Manufacture The number of employees rose to 400 in the 1920s and 1930s, and the plant covered 5,000 square meters. A resident steam ¬turbine power plant produced 410 hp to light the plant and to power about 300 motors running the individual machines. The complexity of action production is particularly apparent when considering that 5,700 sections and small parts, springs and strips must be assembled for one single piano action. It is scarcely possible to enumerate the number of motions and work stages leading to the end product. Renner is a typical example of German precision industry as recognized throughout the industrial world. The most modern machinery ensures the highest possible standard of precision and the reliability of the individual sections. The Renner factory was almost completely destroyed in 1944. However, by 1948, the company was once again producing piano actions, initially for Germany and later internationally, as piano manufacturers abroad relied once again on Renner. Expansion was necessary in 1960 and again in 1974, when a new plant was opened in Odenheim, where the entire processing of raw wood, the hammer glue¬works and other pre-assembly sections are now located. The major wood storage yard at Renner holds more than 2,000 cubic meters of wood. In 1991 Renner opened a third plant in Zeitz near Leipzig where their upright action manufacturing plant stands today.
Jazz History: “Pre-Jazz”
Jazz as a style didn’t come into its own until around 1920. Before that there were such prejazz forms as band and piano ragtime, jug bands, banjo groups, country blues, European marching bands and pop songs, street calls, and African percussion music. Good examples of this early American music can be heard on the Smithsonian Folk Collection. Most good jazz texts run the history and descriptions down. One such book is Jazz Styles by Mark Gridley.
Jazz came about due to the inevitable confluence of ragtime and the blues. Of course, one could make a semantic argument which would confuse what the salient characteristics of jazz are (much of what they presented on BET Jazz I wouldn’t call jazz, for example). Similarly, I would not call the Original Dixieland Jass Band’s barn animal and slide-whistle gimmicks jazz. (Many contemporaries called their stuff jive hokum.) Jazz didn’t really swing until Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, and simply because Louis and Jelly played ragtime before they evolved their great jazz groups does not make what they played before that jazz.
The History Of Hip Hop
The history of hip hop is one that was born upon the back of a group of silenced youth. Inner city youth felt that not only were they not getting a fair shake at a quality life but that they weren’t even being heard. Our history shows that when expression is suppressed something bad, usually aggressive is about to follow. In the case of hip hop thankfully the aggression wasn’t expressed in the form of violence but rather in a movement that would change not only the urban areas close to its birth but our society as a whole!
In the beginning, hip hop wasn’t even regarded as hip hop. In the mid to late 70s young black and Latino youths from the Bronx were looking for a way to express themselves and started to have open microphones at house parties which they would use to perform a type of poetry over any song that was currently playing. This was the creation of rap music. Although rapping may seem easy to a novice the fact of the matter was not everyone had the talent to express themselves in this manner. So another form of self expression related to rap was born in the form of break dancing. People could be found not only at parties but on street corners with nothing more then a boom box and a piece of cardboard, dancing for self expression and even for money in some cases. The last form of expression is the most controversial one! Some youth couldn’t rap nor could they dance but they had to find an outlet or a way in which they can also be a part of this movement. What they did have was the ability to draw. This art form which to most is considered graffiti was now renamed “tagging” in the hip hop community. Whether you agree with the way in which they went about showing off their talent, no one can take away the fact that they truly were talented. Tagging was when the artist of one clique or crew would create a symbol or phrase that was now his group’s logo and spray paint this on subway trains. Why subway trains and not just walls? Well, the fact that the subway system ran throughout the city was advertisement of his crew to the other respective crews. It became a game in the sense that if you could place your tag over top another groups tag you would have essentially performed the hip hop version of a check mate!