Portal:Music
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The Music Portal
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content. However, definitions of music vary depending on culture, though it is an aspect of all human societies and a cultural universal. While scholars agree that music is defined by a few specific elements, there is no consensus on their precise definitions. The creation of music is commonly divided into musical composition, musical improvisation, and musical performance, though the topic itself extends into academic disciplines, criticism, philosophy, psychology, and therapeutic contexts. Music may be performed using a vast range of instruments, including the human voice to sing, and thus is often credited for its extreme versatility and opportunity for creativity.
In some musical contexts, a performance or composition may be to some extent improvised. For instance, in Hindustani classical music, the performer plays spontaneously while following a partially defined structure and using characteristic motifs. In modal jazz, the performers may take turns leading and responding while sharing a changing set of notes. In a free jazz context, there may be no structure whatsoever, with each performer acting at their discretion. Music may be deliberately composed to be unperformable or agglomerated electronically from many performances. Music is played in public and private areas, highlighted at events such as festivals, rock concerts, and orchestra performances, and heard incidentally as part of a score or soundtrack to a film, TV show, opera, or video game. Musical playback is the primary function of an MP3 player or CD player, and a universal feature of radios and smartphones.
Besides just entertainment, music often plays a key role in social activities, religious rituals, rite of passage ceremonies, celebrations, and cultural activities. The music industry includes songwriters, performers, sound engineers, producers, tour organizers, distributors of instruments, accessories, and sheet music. Compositions, performances, and recordings are assessed and evaluated by music critics, music journalists, and music scholars, as well as amateurs. (Full article...)
General images - load new batch
- Image 1Sheet music for part of the Missa Papae Marcelli by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (from History of music)
- Image 4The Bull Headed Lyre of Ur, found in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, is the best known of the ancient Lyres of Ur (from History of music)
- Image 6Notation indicating differing pitch, dynamics, articulation, and instrumentation (from Elements of music)
- Image 7Terracotta statue of a Parthian lute player (from History of music)
- Image 9The logo for Apple Inc.'s online iTunes store, which sells digital files of songs and musical pieces–along with a range of other content, such as digital files of TV shows and movies (from Music industry)
- Image 12An example of mechanically printed sheet music (from Music industry)
- Image 13Platinum records by Elvis Presley, Prince, Madonna, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Bruce Springsteen, at Julien's Auctions (from Album era)
- Image 14The Beatles (1964) have been credited by music historians for heralding the album era. (from Album era)
- Image 15Kanye West (2007) emerged during the decade as an important hip-hop producer and album artist. (from Album era)
- Image 18c. 379 CE Bas relief of Sassanid women playing the chang in Taq-e Bostan, Iran (from History of music)
- Image 20Frances Densmore recording Blackfoot chief Mountain Chief on a cylinder phonograph in 1916 (from Music industry)
- Image 22Taylor Swift, a longtime adherent to album-era rollouts, surprise-released her albums instead in 2020. (from Album era)
- Image 23Drawing of the tablet with the Hymn to Nikkal (c. 1400 BCE), the oldest of the Hurrian songs (from History of music)
- Image 24A young man browsing through a record store in Bonn, West Germany, June 1988 (from Album era)
- Image 25As LPs fell out of favor to CDs, hip hop producers repurposed them as sampling sources, contributing to the development of record collecting. (from Album era)
- Image 26Two musicians of the Eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 CE), Shanghai Museum (from History of music)
- Image 29The monumental Bianzhong of Marquis Yi of Zeng, c. 5th century BCE, from Hubei (from History of music)
- Image 31A musician in a recording studio (from Music industry)
- Image 32The Japanese boy band Arashi, who had the world's best-selling album (5x20 All the Best!!) in 2019 (from Album era)
- Image 34A radio broadcasting system from 1906 (from Music industry)
- Image 37US vinyl sales in units, 1995–2020; while album sales overall declined, those in the vinyl format rose toward the end of the 2010s. (from Album era)
- Image 38Pink Floyd (1973) performing The Dark Side of the Moon, a leading commercial success of the LP era (from Album era)
- Image 39Guillaume Du Fay (left), with Gilles Binchois (right) in a c. 1440 Illuminated manuscript copy of Martin le Franc's Le champion des dames (from History of music)
Featured articles - load new batch
- Image 1
Erschallet, ihr Lieder, erklinget, ihr Saiten! (Resound, you songs; ring out, you strings!), BWV 172, is a church cantata by Johann Sebastian Bach, composed in Weimar for Pentecost Sunday in 1714. Bach led the first performance on 20 May 1714 in the Schlosskirche, the court chapel in the ducal Schloss. Erschallet, ihr Lieder is an early work in a genre to which he later contributed complete cantata cycles for all occasions of the liturgical year.
Bach was appointed Konzertmeister in Weimar in the spring of 1714, a position that called for the performance of a church cantata each month. He composed Erschallet, ihr Lieder as the third cantata in the series, to a text probably written by court poet Salomon Franck. The text reflects different aspects of the Holy Spirit. The librettist included a quotation from the day's prescribed Gospel reading in the only recitative, and for the closing chorale he used a stanza from Philipp Nicolai's hymn "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern" (1599). (Full article...) - Image 2The Next Day is the 25th studio album by the English musician David Bowie. Released in March 2013, it was Bowie's first studio release in ten years, as he had retreated from public view after undergoing a procedure to treat a blocked heart artery in 2004. Co-produced by Bowie and Tony Visconti, the album was recorded in New York City between May 2011 and October 2012. It featured contributions from session musicians, some of whom he had worked with in the past, including Gerry Leonard, Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey, Steve Elson, Sterling Campbell and Zachary Alford. Recording took place in secret; all personnel involved signed non-disclosure agreements.
Primarily an art rock album, The Next Day references Bowie's earlier glam and funk releases. The generally bleak lyrics draw from his reading of English and Russian history and examine themes of tyranny and violence. The cover art is an adapted version of Bowie's 1977 album "Heroes" by designer Jonathan Barnbrook, who placed a white square with the album's title over Bowie's face and crossed out the "Heroes" title. The album was released through ISO Records in association with Columbia Records. (Full article...) - Image 3"My Little Love" is a song by the English singer Adele from her fourth studio album, 30 (2021). Adele wrote it with its producer, Greg Kurstin. The song became available as the album's third track on 19 November 2021, when it was released by Columbia Records. "My Little Love" is a jazz, R&B, and soul song with a 1970s-style groove and influences of gospel music. The song incorporates voice notes of Adele's conversations with her son as she explains the effects of her divorce on his life and pleads for his understanding and forgiveness.
Critics generally praised "My Little Love", comparing it to the work of Marvin Gaye, among other artists. Reviews highlighted the emotionalism and vulnerability displayed in the song, but some found the inclusion of the voice notes excessive. The track reached the top 20 in Australia, Canada, Iceland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden and entered the top 40 in several other countries. (Full article...) - Image 4Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 (English: Oral Fixation, Vol. 1) is the sixth studio album by Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira. It was released on 3 June 2005 by Epic Records. After attaining international success in 2001 with her fifth studio album and first English-language record, Laundry Service, Shakira wanted to release a fifth Spanish-language project as a follow-up. In the vein of her earlier work, Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 is a Latin pop album. Shakira enlisted Rick Rubin as executive producer, also working with Gustavo Cerati, Lester Mendez, Luis Fernando Ochoa and Jose "Gocho" Torres.
At its release Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 received generally favorable reviews from music critics, who complimented Shakira's evolution from her earlier work. The album debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 157,000 copies. It set the record for the highest debut for a full-length Spanish-language album in the country. Internationally, the album topped the charts in Argentina, Germany, Mexico and Spain. Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 was the Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards, and the Album of the Year and the Best Female Pop Vocal Album at the Latin Grammy Awards. Fijación Oral, Vol. 1 became the highest selling Latin pop album of the decade in the United States and the second highest selling Latin album overall. As of May 2013, over five million copies of the album were sold worldwide and it is the eighth best-selling Latin album in the United States. (Full article...) - Image 5
Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. His distinctive compositional style was the product of many influences, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss being most crucial early in his development. The subsequent inspiration of the English folksong revival of the early 20th century, and the example of such rising modern composers as Maurice Ravel, led Holst to develop and refine an individual style.
There were professional musicians in the previous three generations of Holst's family and it was clear from his early years that he would follow the same calling. He hoped to become a pianist, but was prevented by neuritis in his right arm. Despite his father's reservations, he pursued a career as a composer, studying at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford. Unable to support himself by his compositions, he played the trombone professionally and later became a teacher—a great one, according to his colleague Ralph Vaughan Williams. Among other teaching activities he built up a strong tradition of performance at Morley College, where he served as musical director from 1907 until 1924, and pioneered music education for women at St Paul's Girls' School, where he taught from 1905 until his death in 1934. He was the founder of a series of Whitsun music festivals, which ran from 1916 for the remainder of his life. (Full article...) - Image 6Pod is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band the Breeders, released by 4AD records on May 29, 1990. Engineered by Steve Albini, the album features band leader Kim Deal on vocals and guitar, Josephine Wiggs on bass, Britt Walford on drums, and Tanya Donelly on guitar. Albini's production prioritized sound over technical accomplishment; the final takes favor the band's spontaneous live "in studio" performances.
The Breeders formed in 1988 when Deal, bass player for Pixies, befriended Donelly of Throwing Muses during a European tour. They recorded a country-infused demo in 1989, leading to 4AD co-founder Ivo Watts-Russell funding an album, Pod, recorded that year at the Palladium studio in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Full article...) - Image 7"The 1975" is a 2019 song by the English band of the same name from their fourth studio album, Notes on a Conditional Form. It was released on 24 July 2019, and included on the album as the opening track in May 2020. It continues the tradition of the band's albums opening with an eponymous song, but whereas the previous three had a shared set of lyrics sung by Matty Healy, the 2019 song uses different lyrics delivered by the environmental activist Greta Thunberg. She calls for civil disobedience in response to climate change, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in a modified version of her speech "Our House Is on Fire" from the 2019 World Economic Forum.
The song was recorded in June 2019. Proceeds went to the grassroots movement Extinction Rebellion and the song's release coincided with measures by the band to reduce their environmental impact. When touring in 2019 and 2020, prior to COVID-19 lockdowns, the band opened their encore with "The 1975". The song received mostly positive reviews from music critics, who praised its emotional impact, the message and the transition on Notes on a Conditional Form from the song into the lead single "People". (Full article...) - Image 8One Hot Minute is the sixth studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on September 12, 1995, by Warner Bros. Records. The worldwide success of the band's previous album Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) caused guitarist John Frusciante to become uncomfortable with their popularity, eventually quitting mid-tour in 1992. Following a series of short-term replacements, the band hired guitarist Dave Navarro in 1993; it was his only studio album with the band. Recording for the album took place at the Sound Factory in Hollywood from June 1994 to February 1995. It marked the second collaboration between the band and producer Rick Rubin.
A departure from the funk of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, One Hot Minute is characterized by heavy metal riffs and psychedelic rock influences, primarily due to the influence of Navarro, formerly of Jane's Addiction. Vocalist Anthony Kiedis, who had resumed addictions to cocaine and heroin in 1994 after being sober for more than five years, approached his lyricism with a reflective outlook on drugs and their harsh effects. As such, the lyrics reflect mostly dark and melancholy themes. Bassist Flea sang lead vocals on "Pea", as well as the outro of "Deep Kick" and the chorus of the album outtake "Stretch". (Full article...) - Image 9South of Heaven is the fourth studio album by American thrash metal band Slayer, released on July 5, 1988, by Def Jam Recordings. The album was the band's second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin, whose production skills on their previous album Reign in Blood (1986) had helped their sound evolve. Given the frenetic pace of Reign in Blood, Slayer made no attempt to top it on South of Heaven; rather, the band offset and complemented Reign in Blood by deliberately slowing the tempo down on South of Heaven, as well as by utilizing undistorted guitars and toned-down vocals.
It was the band's last album released by Def Jam, although the rights were transferred to Rubin's new label Def American Recordings after Rubin ended his partnership with Russell Simmons. The album was one of only two Def Jam titles to be distributed by Geffen Records through Warner Bros., as Def Jam's then-distributor Columbia refused to release work by the band. (Full article...) - Image 10
William Barley (1565?–1614) was an English bookseller and publisher. He completed an apprenticeship as a draper in 1587, but was soon working in the London book trade. As a freeman of the Drapers' Company, he was embroiled in a dispute between it and the Stationers' Company over the rights of drapers to function as publishers and booksellers. He found himself in legal tangles throughout his life.
Barley's role in Elizabethan music publishing has proved to be a contentious issue among scholars. The assessments of him range from "a man of energy, determination, and ambition", to "somewhat remarkable", to "surely to some extent a rather nefarious figure". His contemporaries harshly criticised the quality of two of the first works of music that he published, but he was also influential in his field. (Full article...) - Image 11Red is the fourth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on October 22, 2012, by Big Machine Records. The title is the color to which Swift associated the tumultuous emotions she was experiencing from a lost love while conceiving the album.
Swift designated Red as a breakup album, and its songs portray the complex and conflicting feelings that result from fading romance. Hoping to convey those sentiments sonically, she engaged new producers to experiment with sounds beyond the country pop style of her past albums. The ensemble included Dann Huff, Max Martin, Shellback, Jeff Bhasker, Dan Wilson, Jacknife Lee, Butch Walker, alongside her long-time collaborator Nathan Chapman. Red combines pop, country, and rock, using acoustic instruments alongside synths and drum machines. The tracks draw on styles such as electronic, arena rock, Britrock, dance-pop, and dubstep. (Full article...) - Image 12"Easy on Me" is a song by the English singer Adele from her fourth studio album, 30 (2021). Adele wrote the song with its producer, Greg Kurstin. Columbia Records released it as the album's lead single on 15 October 2021. It is a torch song and ballad which places emphasis on Adele's vocals, set over progressively louder-growing piano instrumentation. In its lyrics, she addresses her divorce and pleads for forgiveness and understanding from her son, ex-husband, and herself.
"Easy on Me" received positive reviews from music critics, who discussed it in relation to Adele's previous music and praised her vocals and the lyrics. At the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, the song won Best Pop Solo Performance from its four nominations. It was nominated for several other awards and won the 2022 Brit Award for Song of the Year. "Easy on Me" reached number one on the charts in several countries. It became Adele's longest-running chart topper in the United States and the United Kingdom. (Full article...) - Image 13
The Symphony No. 4 in G major by Gustav Mahler was composed from 1899 to 1900, though it incorporates a song originally written in 1892. That song, "Das himmlische Leben" ("The Heavenly Life"), presents a child's vision of heaven and is sung by a soprano in the symphony's Finale. Both smaller in orchestration and shorter in length than Mahler's earlier symphonies, the Fourth Symphony was initially planned to be in six movements, alternating between three instrumental and three vocal movements. The symphony's final form—begun in July 1899 at Bad Aussee and completed in August 1900 at Maiernigg—retains only one vocal movement (the Finale) and is in four movements: Bedächtig, nicht eilen (sonata form); In gemächlicher Bewegung, ohne Hast (scherzo and trio); Ruhevoll, poco adagio (double theme and variations); and Sehr behaglich (strophic variations).
The premiere was performed in Munich on 25 November 1901 by the composer and the Kaim Orchestra, but it was met with negative audience and critical reception over the work's confusing intentions and perceived inferiority to the more well-received Second Symphony. The premiere was followed by a German tour, a 1901 Berlin premiere, and a 1902 Vienna premiere, which were met with near-unanimous condemnation of the symphony. Mahler conducted further performances of the symphony, sometimes to warm receptions, and the work received its American and British premieres in 1904 and 1905. The symphony's first edition was published in 1902, but Mahler made several more revisions up until 1911. After Mahler's death, the symphony continued to receive performances under conductors such as Willem Mengelberg and Bruno Walter, and its first recording is a 1930 Japanese rendition conducted by Hidemaro Konoye that is also the first electrical recording of any Mahler symphony. The musicologist Donald Mitchell believes the Fourth and its accessibility were largely responsible for the post-war rise in Mahler's popularity. (Full article...) - Image 14"Candy" is a song by American rapper Foxy Brown featuring American singer Kelis, released by Def Jam on August 21, 2001, as the third single from her third studio album Broken Silence (2001). A dance-pop and R&B track, it was produced by the Neptunes duo Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams, who co-wrote the song alongside Brown and Juan Manuel Cordova. Brown raps on the verses while Kelis, a frequent collaborator with the Neptunes, performs the hook. The song was recorded in Virginia Beach and mixed in New York City. "Candy" premiered at the Broken Silence listening party in June 2001, and although it did not receive an official music video, a portion of it was played in the video for the album track "Tables Will Turn".
The song is about cunnilingus. While this sexually explicit content marked a continuity with Brown's earlier material, it set "Candy" apart from the rest of Broken Silence, which tended toward more introspective subject matters. According to critics, the single has elements of 1980s music, dance music, and new wave music and a more pop sound than Brown's previous albums. (Full article...) - Image 15"Jihad" is a song by the American thrash metal band Slayer which appears on the band's 2006 studio album Christ Illusion. The song portrays the viewpoint of a terrorist who has participated in the September 11, 2001 attacks, concluding with spoken lyrics taken from words left behind by Mohamed Atta; Atta was named by the FBI as the "head suicide terrorist" of the first plane to crash into the World Trade Center. "Jihad" was primarily written by guitarist Jeff Hanneman; the lyrics were co-authored with vocalist Tom Araya.
"Jihad" received a mixed reception in the music press, and reviews generally focused on the lyrics' controversial subject matter. The song drew comparisons to Slayer's 1986 track "Angel of Death"—also penned by Hanneman—which similarly caused outrage at the time of its release. (Full article...)
Selected pictures
- Image 1Hera is an Icelandic singer-songwriter who emigrated to New Zealand as a teenager. She is known for her facial art, which is "inspired by moko and also by Celtic warrior paint" and intended to represent both her Icelandic and New Zealand heritage. In 2002 she was named Best Female Singer at the Icelandic Music Awards.
- Image 2Photograph: Georg Lindstrøm; restoration: Adam CuerdenCarl Nielsen (1865–1931) was a Danish musician, conductor and violinist, widely recognized as his country's most prominent composer. Initially playing in a military band before attending the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen, he premiered his Op. 1, Suite for Strings, in 1888, at the age of 23. His early music was inspired by composers such as Brahms and Grieg, but he soon developed his own style. By the time of his death, he had produced 419 known works; some of these, such as his opera Maskarade (1906), have become integral to Denmark's national heritage.
- Image 3Photograph credit: Carl Van Vechten; restored by Adam CuerdenBessie Smith (April 15, 1894 – September 26, 1937) was an American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era and was a major influence on fellow blues singers, as well as jazz vocalists.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, her parents died when Smith was young, and she and her sister survived by performing on the streets of Chattanooga, Tennessee. She began touring and performed in a group that included Ma Rainey, and then went out on her own. Her successful recording career began in the 1920s, until an automobile accident ended her life at age 43. - Image 4Photograph: Bain News Service; restoration: Adam CuerdenFranz Lehár (1870–1948) was an Austro-Hungarian composer mainly known for his operettas, the most successful and best known being The Merry Widow. He also wrote sonatas, symphonic poems and marches.
- Image 5Elvis Presley meets Richard NixonPhotograph: Oliver F. AtkinsAmerican singer Elvis Presley meeting then-president Richard Nixon on December 21, 1970. During the meeting, the singer expressed his patriotism and his contempt for hippies, the growing drug culture, and the counterculture in general. Presley then asked Nixon for a Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs badge, to signify official sanction of his patriotic efforts. Nixon gave Presley the badge and expressed a belief that Presley could send a positive message to young people and that it was therefore important he retain his credibility.
- Image 6Photograph credit: Fritz Luckhardt; restored by Adam CuerdenJohann Strauss II (25 October 1825 – 3 June 1899) was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. Part of the Strauss dynasty, his father demanded that none of his sons pursue music as a career, despite their display of musical talent. It was only after his father had abandoned the family for a mistress that the younger Strauss was able to develop his skills as a composer, with the encouragement of his mother. He eventually attained greater fame than his father, and became one of the most popular waltz composers of the era, conducting extensive tours of Austria, Poland and Germany with his orchestra.
- Image 7Photograph: Roland FischerThe Zürich Opera House is an opera house in the Swiss city of Zürich. Located at the Sechseläutenplatz, it has been the home of the Zürich Opera since the current building was completed in 1891. It also houses the Bernhard-Theater Zürich.
- Image 8Photograph: AiluraNina Sublatti (b. 1995) is a Georgian singer, songwriter, and model. Having previously won the 2013 Georgian edition of Idol, she achieved international attention when she represented her country in Eurovision Song Contest 2015 with her song "Warrior". She has since served as a judge on X Factor Georgia and Idols.
- Image 9Photo: W. J. Mayer; Restoration: Lise BroerA bust of the German composer and pianist Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), made from his death mask. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time. Born in Bonn, of the Electorate of Cologne and a part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation in present-day Germany, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. His hearing began to deteriorate in the late 1790s, yet he continued to compose, conduct, and perform, even after becoming completely deaf.
- Image 10Photograph credit: William P. Gottlieb; restored by Adam CuerdenThelonious Monk (October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer, and the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. He had a unique improvisational style and famously remarked, "The piano ain't got no wrong notes". He made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight", and a wide range of other compositions. He was renowned for a distinctive dress style, which included suits, hats, and sunglasses. He had disappeared from the scene by the mid-1970s and made only a few appearances during the final decade of his life. This 1947 photograph of Monk was taken by the American photographer William P. Gottlieb in Minton's Playhouse, a jazz club in New York.
- Image 11Photograph: Sven-Sebastian SajakMike Dirnt (b. 1972) is an American musician, songwriter and composer. He is best known as the co-founder, bassist, backing and occasional lead vocalist of American punk rock band Green Day. He has played in several other bands, including The Frustrators.
- Image 12Photograph: Stefan KrauseHenrik Freischlader (b. 1982) is a German blues guitarist and singer. He began his career in 1998, and established his own label, Cable Car Records, in 2009.
- Image 13Illustration credit: Antoine Barbizet; restored by Adam CuerdenLes Troyens (The Trojans) is a French grand opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz, with a libretto written by the composer himself based on Virgil's Aeneid. The score was composed between 1856 and 1858, but Berlioz did not live long enough to see the work performed in its entirety. The first two acts were performed separately under the title La Prise de Troie. This picture shows the cover of the first-edition vocal score for La Prise de Troie, published in 1863.
- Image 14Photograph credit: Jean Reutlinger; restored by Adam CuerdenNelly Martyl (1884–1953) was a French opera singer. She sang in the premieres of several operas, including Leborne's La Catalane (1907), Erlanger's La Sorcière (1912), and Massenet's Amadis (1922). Martyl joined the Red Cross as a nurse during the First World War, and served at the Battle of Verdun in 1916, where she was known as la fée de Verdun (the Fairy of Verdun), and at the Second Battle of the Aisne in 1917. She continued as a nurse after the war to help with the 1918 epidemic of Spanish flu. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre with the carte du combattant (signifying service under particular hazard) in 1920.
- Image 15Photograph credit: Carl Van Vechten; restored by Adam CuerdenWilliam Grant Still (1895–1978) was an American composer of nearly 200 works, including five symphonies and nine operas. Often referred to as the "Dean of Afro-American Composers", Still was the first American composer to have an opera produced by the New York City Opera. His first symphony, entitled Afro-American Symphony, was until 1950 the most widely performed symphony composed by an American. Born in Mississippi, he grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas, attended Wilberforce University and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and was a student of George Whitefield Chadwick and later Edgard Varèse. Still was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra and the first to have an opera performed on national television. Due to his close association and collaboration with prominent African-American literary and cultural figures, he is considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance movement.
This picture of Still was taken by Carl Van Vechten in 1949; the photograph is in the collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.
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- Birthdays in Music: May 10
- George Golla, Australian jazz guitarist, turns 89.
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