Fine Arts

Popular music has evolved over many decades and has now divided and sub-divided into hundreds of different styles and genres. Blues music has influenced popular music through its style, mood, lyrics, and structure.

An American popular music idiom derived from traditional oral music brought by immigrants from the British Isles.

Genre of pop music, the 1980s offspring of soul music, funk, hip hop, and disco music. The term ‘dance’ has come to cover music made by and for disc jockeys (DJs) and played to club audiences on vinyl records as a component of live sets.

A form of music consisting of sounds produced by oscillating electric currents either controlled from an instrument panel or keyboard or prerecorded on magnetic tape.

Music which is played on traditional instruments or sung in the tradition style, handed down from generation to generation, and relating to the music of a particular area or group of people.

American religious musical form that owes much of its origin to the Christian conversion of West Africans enslaved in the American South.

An eclectic, expanding collection of 20th century styles, principally instrumental and of black American creation.

A type of commercial modern music with wide popular appeal, especially among the young, and usually being tuneful, repetitive and having an insistent rhythmic beat.

A type of loud aggressive rock music, especially popular in the mid- to late-70s, with violent and often crude lyrics.

Type of music originating in the United States in the mid-1950s and increasingly popular throughout much of the world.

Jazz trumpeter and singer, born in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. His melodic inventiveness, expressed with uninhibited tone and range on the trumpet, established the central role of the improvising soloist in jazz, especially in a series of recordings known as the ‘Hot Fives’ and ‘Hot Sevens’ (1925–8).

English pop band The Beatles became the best-known group in popular music in the 1960s. If greatness is measured in terms of commercial success and popularity, The Beatles are the greatest popular musicians of the century.

Born in Accrington, Lancashire, he began his career as a clarinettist. While in Manchester he formed, with other young musicians including Peter Maxwell Davies and John Ogdon, the New Manchester Group for the performance of modern music.

British pop singer and composer; an important influence in experimental rock music.

Musician, born in Barnwell, South Carolina, USA. One of the most significant figures in black pop music, he began his singing career in Macon, GA with the Gospel Starlighters.

A leading figure in the musical avant-garde from the late 1930s, he attended Pomona College and later studied with Arnold Schoenberg, Adolph Weiss, and Henry Cowell.

Musician, born in Kingsland, Arkansas, USA. A singer, guitarist, and songwriter, he was born into a poor cotton-farming family and became one of the greatest stars of country music.

Singer, pianist, and composer, born in Albany, Georgia, USA. A major influence on popular black music during his early years, he influenced both white musicians and audiences.

Rock guitarist and singer, born in Ripley, Surrey, SE England, UK. In the 1960s he was in British rhythm-and-blues bands The Yardbirds and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, then ‘supergroups’ Cream and Blind Faith. He has since played and recorded with most of the great names of rock music.

Musician, born in Montgomery, Alabama, USA. By 1950 he had become the first black male to attain mainstream acceptance as a popular singer, and he released a continual series of hit records over the remainder of his career.

Popular singer and actor, born in Tacoma, Washington, USA. Became one of the earliest crooners who established a clear split between classical and popular singing.

Jazz trumpeter, born in Alton, Illinois, USA. During 1949–69, he was at the forefront of jazz, developing or advancing several significant and contrasting styles and trends, all of which highlighted his intensely personal sensibilities.

Musician, born in McComb, Mississippi, USA. He became one of the earliest black stars of rock ’n’ roll, making many television appearances and touring widely through the mid-1960s

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman in Duluth, Minnesota, on May 24, 1941, singer and songwriter Bob Dylan is best known as the author of such anthems about modern injustice as “Blowin' in the Wind,”“Hard Rain's Gonna Fall,”“The Times They Are A-Changin',” and “Masters of War.”

From The Columbia Encyclopedia:
American jazz musician and composer, b. Washington, D.C. Ellington made his first professional appearance as a jazz pianist in 1916. By 1918 he had formed a band, and after appearances in nightclubs in Harlem he became one of the most famous figures in American jazz.

A pioneer synthesizer player with Roxy Music, Eno later earned a reputation as a leading avant-garde figure in rock-music circles, and explored the potential of ambient music in such albums as Music for Airports (1979).

Soul singer, born in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Although she began recording at age 18, it was at Atlantic Records (1966) that she worked with experienced rhythm-and-blues musicians and was encouraged to use her gospel roots.

US guitarist, songwriter, and leader of the group the Grateful Dead. Closely involved with the San Francisco hippie movement and the use of drugs such as LSD, the band first played ‘psychedelic’ rock but moved on to a more diverse repertory of rock styles in the 1970s

Jazz trumpeter and composer, born in Cheraw, South Carolina, USA. He worked in prominent swing bands (1937–44), including those of Benny Carter and Charlie Barnet.

Singer, musician, and songwriter, born in Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK. He played lead guitar and sang with the Beatles, and developed an interest in Indian music and Eastern religion.

Rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter, born in Seattle, Washington, USA. He learned basic blues licks as a sideman for Little Richard and the Isley Brothers.

Billie Holiday is considered one of the greatest jazz singers of all time. Her inimitable phrasing – singing slightly behind the beat – gave her songs an air of wistfulness that was purely instinctive, for she had no training or technical knowledge.

Singer and film actress, born in Newark, New Jersey, USA. In 1988 she broke a US chart record with seven consecutive number 1 hits, overtaking the previous record of six achieved by The Beatles and The Bee Gees.

Musician, songwriter, and composer. The Beatles’ bass guitarist, vocalist, and member of the Lennon–McCartney songwriting team.

Dubbed the King of Pop, he was widely regarded as the most successful entertainer of all time, and had been preparing for a new concert series "This Is It" at the time of his death.

Singer, born in Dartford, Kent, SE England, UK. He attended the London School of Economics, but left to form his own rock group, The Rolling Stones, together with Keith Richard, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, and Brian Jones.

Pop star, composer, songwriter, and recording artist, born in Liverpool, Merseyside, NW England, UK. He was the Beatles rhythm guitarist, keyboard player, and vocalist, and a partner in the Lennon–McCartney song-writing team.

Trombonist and bandleader, born in Clarinda, Iowa, USA. He achieved a distinctive sound with a saxophone–clarinet combination, his many successes including ‘Moonlight Serenade’ (his theme song), ‘Little Brown Jug’, and ‘In the Mood’ (1939).

American jazz pianist and composer whose spare style and unusual harmonic sense made him one of the most influential modern jazz musicians.

Country-pop singer and songwriter, born in Vernon, Texas, USA. Had a succession of smash hits including ‘Cryin’’ (1961), ‘Blue Bayou’, ‘In Dreams’ (both 1963), and ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’ (1964).

Jazz musician, born in Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Popular singer and film actor, born in Tupelo, Mississippi, USA. As a boy he sang with his local Assembly of God church choir, which emulated the style of African-American psalm singing.

Rock group, one of the longest-running and most successful popular music groups to emerge in the 1960s.

Popular singer and film actress, born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Lead singer of the extremely successful trio, the Supremes, she went solo in 1969, recording the hits ‘Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand’ and ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ in 1970.

From The faber companion to 20th century popular music Of all the white female singers to emerge from Britain in the sixties, Springfield, with her husky, breathy voice, made the greatest use of R&B and soul models on recordings like 'I Only Want to Be with You'* (1963) and 'You Don't Have to Say You Love Me'.

Musician, born in Freehold, New Jersey, USA. Promoted as the new Bob Dylan, his highly-anticipated debut album was released in 1973, but not until his third album, Born to Run (1975), did he enjoy widespread commercial success.

From The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular MusicIn contrast to the more exploratory and innovatory solo careers of his fellow Beatles, Starr successfully sustained his cheerful, easy-going Beatles persona in a series of pop hits throughout the seventies. In the process he became one of the grand old men of rock.

Irish rock group formed in Dublin in 1977. U2 became one of the most popular and successful rock bands of the 1980s and 1990s, managing to sustain their fan base throughout two decades by clever reinvention

One of the last of the great country blues singers and a primary innovator of modern Chicago blues, he was raised on the Stovall Plantation in Clarksdale, MS, where he began playing harmonica and guitar while working as a sharecropper.

Avant-garde rock musician and composer, born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Spanish composer and pianist. A student of Franz Liszt, he composed piano works based on Spanish folk music.

German composer and organist, b. Eisenach; one of the greatest and most influential composers of the Western world.

Hungarian pianist and composer whose works, including the music for the opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) and Concerto for Orchestra (1943), combine Eastern European folk music with dissonant harmonies.

One of the most famous composers of all time, Beethoven was born into a family of musicians who had served at the Bonn court of the Elector of Cologne since 1733.

Italian composer. His work, usually involving electronic sound, combines serial techniques with commedia dell'arte and antiphonal practices, as in Alleluiah II (1958) for five instrumental groups.

Conductor and composer, born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA. He played piano from childhood, and studied at Harvard and the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia.

German composer, pianist, and conductor. He is considered one of the greatest composers of symphonic music and songs.

Italian pianist, composer, and music critic.

Famous pianist, born in Poland and later made famous while teaching and playing music for aristocracy and the upper class across Europe.

French composer, exponent of musical impressionism.

Czech composer. His Romantic music extends the classical tradition of Ludwig van Beethoven and Johannes Brahms and displays the influence of Czech folk music.

Composer, born in Broad Heath, Hereford and Worcester, WC England, UK. From 1924 he was Master of the King’s Musick

US composer, conductor, and pianist. His stylistically varied works, including the cantata The Prairie (1944) and Time Cycle for soprano and orchestra (1960), express an ironic view of tradition.

Spanish-born British composer. His achievement was to unite atonal methods with the colours and rhythms of his native Spain.

Considered one of the most innovative of contemporary composers, he was a significant figure in the development of minimalism in music.

Russian composer. His style fits between that of the Russian national school of The Five and that of the Western European ‘cosmopolitan’ composers

Australian-born US experimental composer and pianist.

Norwegian nationalist composer. Much of his music is written on a small scale, particularly his songs, dances, sonatas, and piano works, and strongly identifies with Norwegian folk music.

English composer, b. Halle, Germany. Handel was one of the greatest masters of baroque music, most widely celebrated for his majestic oratorio Messiah.

Austrian composer, one of the greatest masters of classical music. He established the basic forms of symphonic music and string quartet, which were to be a model and inspiration for the works of Mozart, and of Beethoven, who studied under Haydn

German composer and teacher. His operas Cardillac (1926, revised 1952) and Mathis der Maler/Mathis the Painter (1933-35) are theatrically astute and politically aware.

Austrian pianist and composer. Following in the steps of Mozart (his teacher), his melodies are graceful if somewhat overly symmetrical and ‘square’.

US composer. He experimented with atonality, quarter tones, and clashing time signatures, decades before the avant-garde movement.

Hungarian pianist and composer. His expressive, romantic, and frequently chromatic works include piano music (Transcendental Studies, 1851), Masses and oratorios, songs, organ music, and a symphony.

Austrian composer and conductor. He composed nine large-scale symphonies incorporating folk music and pastoral imagery, with many using voices, including Symphony No 2, the ‘Resurrection’ (1884-86).

French composer and pianist. A member of the group of composers known as Les Six, he was extremely prolific in a variety of styles and genres, influenced by jazz, the rhythms of Latin America, and electronic composition.

Austrian child prodigy and one of the world's most famous composers of all time, Wolfgang demonstrated his musical ability at the age of 4, playing pieces from his sister’s clavier lessons.

Polish composer. His expressionist works, such as the Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (1961) for strings, use cluster and percussion effects.

US composer. His minimalist music employs simple patterns carefully superimposed and modified to highlight constantly changing melodies and rhythms

Austrian composer, b. Vienna. He revolutionized modern music by abandoning tonality and developing a twelve-tone, "serial" technique of composition.

Composer, born in Vienna, Austria.His major works include the Trout Piano Quintet (1819), his C major symphony (1825), and his B minor symphony (1822), known as the ‘Unfinished’.

Russian composer. His music is chromatically tonal/modal, expressive, and sometimes highly dramatic; it was not always to official Soviet taste

German composer of avant-garde music. He explored new musical sounds and compositional techniques from the 1950s.

Japanese composer. He was mainly self-taught and was initially influenced by Schoenberg, Messiaen, and musique concrète

Russian composer, b. Kamsko-Votkinsk. He is a towering figure in Russian music and one of the most popular composers in history.

Brazilian composer and conductor. He absorbed Russian and French influences in the 1920s to create neo-baroque works in Brazilian style, using native colours and rhythms.

Austrian composer. He wrote spare, enigmatic miniatures combining a pastoral poetic with severe structural rigour.

Romanian-born French composer of Greek parentage. He evolved a method of ‘stochastic’ composition using the mathematics of chance and probability and also employing computers.

A portable wind instrument with bellows and button-like keys sounded by means of metallic reeds.

Any of a family of wind instruments in which one or more reedpipes are attached to a windbag, usually made of animal skin.

A musical instrument made of brass or other metal, in which air is made to vibrate by means of the player’s lips and breath, usually through a narrow mouthpiece.

Any of a family of single-reed woodwind instruments of cylindrical bore. It is one of the four main orchestral woodwinds, but did not join the orchestra until after the middle of the 18th century.

A percussion instrument consisting of a hollow frame with a skin or other membrane stretched tightly across its opening, sounding when struck.

Side-blown woodwind instrument with a long history, capable of intricate melodies and a wide range of expression. The player holds the flute horizontally, and to the right, and blows across an end hole. The air current is split by the opposite edge of the hole, causing the air column inside the instrument to vibrate and produce a sound.

A musical instrument with a body generally shaped like a figure eight, a long fretted neck and usually six strings that are plucked or strummed.

Stringed musical instrument of ancient origin, the strings of which are plucked with the fingers.

Woodwind instrument of conical bore, its mouthpiece having a double reed. The instruments possessing these general characteristics may be referred to as the oboe family, which includes the English horn, the bassoon, and the contrabassoon or double bassoon. The oboe was developed in the mid-17th century in France from various older double-reed instruments.

A musical wind instrument in which sound is produced by one or more sets of pipes controlled by a keyboard, each pipe producing only one pitch by means of a mechanically produced or electrically controlled wind supply.

Or pianoforte, musical instrument whose sound is produced by vibrating strings struck by felt hammers that are controlled from a keyboard.

Musical wind instrument of the flute family, made of wood, varying in length, and having an inverted conical bore (largest end near the mouthpiece).

Brass wind musical instrument of cylindrical bore, twice bent on itself, having a sliding section that lengthens or shortens it and thus regulates the pitch.

Brass wind musical instrument of part cylindrical, part conical bore, in the shape of a flattened loop and having three piston valves to regulate the pitch.

A descendant of ancient Asian instruments such as the rebab (Arabia), sarinda (India) and the erhu (China), the violin is a small, usually wooden stringed instrument played with a bow.

Music in which deliberate use is made of chance or indeterminacy; the term chance music is preferred by many composers. The indeterminate aspect may affect the act of composition, the performance, or both.

Elaborate and often lengthy solo song with instrumental accompaniment. In the 16th cent. it was a melody improvised over a strophic bass line, and a distinction was made between instrumental, vocal, and dance arias.

In music, systematic avoidance of harmonic or melodic reference to tonal centers (see key). The term is used to designate a method of composition in which the composer has deliberately rejected the principle of tonality.

Music composed for a small group of players, suitable for performing in a room rather than a concert hall, with only one player to a part.

Term used to describe music composed or performed with the aid of a computer.

A musical composition usually for an orchestra and a soloist or a group of soloists.

A musical composition employing chorus, orchestra, and soloists and usually, but not necessarily, a setting of a sacred libretto without stage action or scenery.

In the medieval Church, and still in the RC and some Anglican churches: music for unaccompanied voices, sung in unison.

A religious folk song of American origin, particularly associated with African-American Protestants of the southern United States.