In music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice (monophony) or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords (homophony).

Within the context of the Western musical tradition, the term is usually used to refer to music of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Baroque forms such as the fugue, which might be called polyphonic, are usually described instead as contrapuntal. Also, as opposed to the ''species'' terminology of counterpoint, polyphony was generally either "pitch-against-pitch" / "point-against-point" or "sustained-pitch" in one part with melismas of varying lengths in another (van der Werf, 1997). In all cases the conception was likely what Margaret Bent (1999) calls "dyadic counterpoint", with each part being written generally against one other part, with all parts modified if needed in the end. This point-against-point conception is opposed to "successive composition", where voices were written in an order with each new voice fitting into the whole so far constructed, which was previously assumed.

Origins

Although the exact origins of polyphony in the Western church traditions are unknown, the treatises ''Musica enchiriadis'' and ''Schola enchiriadis'', both dating from ''c''. 900, are usually considered the oldest extant written examples of polyphony. These treatises provided examples of two-voice note-against-note embellishments of chants using parallel octaves, fifths, and fourths. Rather than being fixed works, they indicated ways of improvising polyphony during performance. The ''Winchester Troper'', from ''c''. 1000, is the oldest extant example of notated polyphony for chant performance, although the notation does not indicate precise pitch levels or durations.

Traditional (non-professional) polyphony has a wide, if uneven distribution among the peoples of the world. Most polyphonic regions of the world are sub-Saharan Africa, Europe and Oceania. It is believed that origins of polyphony in traditional music vastly predates the emergence of polyphony in European professional music. Currently there are two contradicting approaches to the problem of the origins of vocal polyphony: Cultural Model, and Evolutionary Model. According to the Cultural Model, origins of polyphony are connected to the development of human musical culture; polyphony came as the natural development of the primordial monophonic singing; therefore polyphonic traditions are bound to replace gradually monophonic traditions. According to the Evolutionary Model, origins of polyphonic singing are much deeper, and are connected to the earlier stages of human evolution; polyphony was an important part of a defence system of the hominids, and traditions of polyphony are gradually disappearing all over the world. 2011}}

Historical context

European polyphony rose out of melismatic organum, the earliest harmonization of the chant. Twelfth century composers, such as Léonin and Pérotin developed the organum that was introduced centuries earlier, and also added a third and fourth voice to the now homophonic chant. In the thirteenth century, the chant-based tenor was becoming altered, fragmented, and hidden beneath secular tunes, obscuring the sacred texts as composers continued to play with this new invention called polyphony. The lyrics of love poems might be sung above sacred texts in the form of a trope, or the sacred text might be placed within a familiar secular melody.

These musical innovations appeared in a greater context of societal change. After the first millennium, European monks decided to start translating the works of Greek philosophers into the vernacular. Western Europeans were aware of Plato, Socrates, and Hippocrates during the Middle Ages. However they had largely lost touch with the content of their surviving works because the use of Greek as a living language was restricted to the lands of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium). The ancient works started then being translated. Once they were accessible, the philosophies had a great impact on the mind of Western Europe. Faced with new ideas, society was forced to view itself in a different light as secular ideas competed with the doctrine of the Roman church.

This sparked a number of innovations in medicine, science, art, and music.

The oldest surviving piece of six-part music is the English rota ''Sumer is icumen in'' (c. 1240). (Albright, 2004)

Catholic Church

European polyphony rose prior to, and during the period of the Western Schism. Avignon, the seat of the antipopes, was a vigorous center of secular music-making, much of which influenced sacred polyphony.

It was not merely polyphony that offended the medieval ears, but the notion of secular music merging with the sacred and making its way into the papal court. It gave church music more of a jocular performance quality removing the solemn worship they were accustomed to. The use of and attitude toward polyphony varied widely in the Avignon court from the beginning to the end of its religious importance in the fourteenth century. Harmony was not only considered frivolous, impious, and lascivious, but an obstruction to the audibility of the words. Instruments, as well as certain modes, were actually forbidden in the church because of their association with secular music and pagan rites. Dissonant clashes of notes give a creepy feeling that was labeled as evil, fueling their argument against polyphony as being the devil’s music. After banishing polyphony from the Liturgy in 1322, Pope John XXII spoke in his 1324 Bull ''Docta Sanctorum Patrum'' warning against the unbecoming elements of this musical innovation. Pope Clement VI, however, indulged in it.

It was in 1364, during the pontificate of Pope Urban V, that composer and priest Guillaume de Machaut composed the first polyphonic setting of the mass called La Messe de Nostre Dame.

Notable works and artists

Johann Sebastian Bach, ''List of famous compositions''

Tomas Luis de Victoria

William Byrd, ''Mass for Five Voices''

Thomas Tallis

Orlandus Lassus, Missa super Bella'Amfitrit'altera

Guillaume de Machaut, ''Messe de Nostre Dame''

Jacob Obrecht

Palestrina, ''Missa Papae Marcelli''

Josquin des Prez, ''Missa Pange Lingua''

Gregorio Allegri, ''Miserere''

Other kinds

Incipient polyphony (previously primitive polyphony) includes antiphony and call and response, drones, and parallel intervals.

The polyphonic singing tradition of Epirus is a form of traditional folk polyphony practiced among Albanians, Greeks, Aromanians and Macedonian Slavs in southern Albania and northwestern Greece. This type of folk vocal tradition is also found in the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria. Albanian polyphonic singing can be divided into two major stylistic groups as performed by the Tosks and Labs of southern Albania. The drone is performed in two ways: among the Tosks, it is always continuous and sung on the syllable ‘e’, using staggered breathing; while among the Labs, the drone is sometimes sung as a rhythmic tone, performed to the text of the song. It can be differentiated between two-, three- and four-voice polyphony. The term "iso" refers to the drone, which accompanies the iso-polyphonic singing and is related to the ison of Byzantine church music, where the drone group accompanies the song. The phenomenon of Albanian folk iso-polyphony has been proclaimed by UNESCO a "Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity".

Polyphonic singing is also found in Georgia, though it is believed to be under threat.

See also

Counterpoint

Micropolyphony

3rd Bridge, a multiphonic string division sound

References

Hendrik van der Werf (1997). "Early Western polyphony", ''Companion to Medieval & Renaissance Music''. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816540-4.

Margaret Bent (1999). "The Grammar of Early Music: Preconditions for Analysis", ''Tonal Structures of Early Music''. New York: Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-2388-3.

Albright, Daniel (2004). ''Modernism and Music: An Anthology of Sources''. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0-226-01267-0.

Notes

External links

Thirteenth-Century Polyphony

BBC Radio, World Routes in Georgia - ancient polyphony from the Caucasus region

Aka Pygmy Polyphony African Pygmy music, with photos and soundscapes

Category:Musical texture Category:Harmony Category:Polyphonic form

be:Паліфонія bs:Polifonija bg:Полифония ca:Polifonia cs:Polyfonie da:Polyfoni de:Polyphonie et:Polüfoonia el:Πολυφωνία es:Polifonía eo:Polifonio fa:چندصدایی fr:Polyphonie fur:Polifonie gl:Polifonía hr:Polifonija io:Polifonio id:Polifoni it:Polifonia he:פוליפוניה ka:პოლიფონია kk:Полифония la:Polyphonia lt:Polifonija hu:Polifónia nl:Polyfonie ja:ポリフォニー no:Polyfoni nn:Polyfoni pl:Polifonia pt:Polifonia ro:Polifonie ru:Полифония sk:Polyfónia sr:Полифонија fi:Polyfonia sv:Polyfoni tg:Полифония uk:Поліфонія zh:複音音樂

Stephen Layton (born 1966) is an English conductor.

Raised in Derby, Layton's father was a church organist. Layton learned the piano as a youth. He was a chorister at Winchester Cathedral, and subsequently won scholarships to Eton College and then King's College, Cambridge as an organ scholar.

Layton founded the mixed-voice choir Polyphony in 1986. He has conducted Polyphony in commercial recordings for such labels as Hyperion, including music of Gabriel Jackson, Paweł Łukaszewski, Francis Poulenc and John Tavener. He was appointed the musical director of the Holst Singers in 1993, replacing Hilary Davan Wetton, who had founded the group in 1978. Layton has served as assistant organist at Southwark Cathedral and musical director of Wokingham Choral Society. Beginning in 1997, he served as organist and subsequently director of music at the Temple Church. Layton has conducted the BBC Singers, and was offered the chief conductorship of the ensemble in 2005, but the BBC withdrew the offer after objections from the singers themselves. In 2006, he became Director of Music at Trinity College, Cambridge. In November 2009, the City of London Sinfonia announced the appointment of Layton as its second Artistic Director, effective with the 2010-2011 season, for an initial contract of 3 years. Layton is also to have the title of Principal Conductor.

In Europe, Layton became chief conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Choir in January 2002. He has also served as chief guest conductor of the Danish National Choir.

In private life, Layton is an Anglican.

References

External links

Official website of Stephen Layton

Official website of Polyphony

Official website of the Holst Singers

Trinity College Cambridge page on Stephen Layton

Wokingham Choral Society history page

Netherlands Chamber Choir English-language history page

Category:Living people Category:English conductors (music) Category:1966 births Category:Choral conductors

name	Eric Whitacre
background	non_performing_personnel
born	January 02, 1970
occupation	Composer Conductor Lecturer
website	ericwhitacre.com
notable instruments	}}

Eric Whitacre (born January 2, 1970 in Reno, Nevada) is an American composer, conductor and lecturer. He is one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. In 2008, the all-Whitacre choral CD ''Cloudburst'' (released by the British ensemble Polyphony on Hyperion Records) became an international best-seller, topping the classical charts and earning a Grammy nomination. Robert Hollingworth commented: "what hits you straight between the eyes is the honesty, optimism and sheer belief that passes any pretension. This is music that can actually make you smile." Whitacre's Virtual Choir projects on YouTube exposed his music to a new audience. Whitacre signed a long-term recording deal with Decca in 2010 and continues to develop his award winning musical ''Paradise Lost''. A condensed concert version was given at Carnegie Hall in 2010. Plans for the stage show and soundtrack extend into 2011.

Biography

Whitacre began his musical training while an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he studied composition with avant garde Ukrainian composer Virko Baley and choral conducting with David Weiller. He wrote his setting of ''Go, Lovely Rose'' for his college choir and presented the composition as a gift to David Weiller. Eric went on to earn his Master's degree in composition at the Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano. His works ''Water Night'', ''Cloudburst'', ''Sleep'', ''Lux Aurumque'', ''A Boy and a Girl'' and "The Seal Lullaby" are amongst the most popular choral works in the standard repertory; his ''Ghost Train'', ''Godzilla Eats Las Vegas'' and ''October'' and "Equus" have achieved similar success in the symphonic wind community. His cutting edge musical ''Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings'', which combines influences including trance, electronica, and anime with choral, cinematic, and operatic traditions, won the ASCAP Harold Arlen Award, the Richard Rogers award, and 10 Ovation Award nominations. He has received composition awards from the Barlow International Composition Competition, the American Choral Directors Association and the American Composers Forum. In 2001, Whitacre became the youngest recipient ever awarded the Raymond C. Brock commission by the American Choral Directors Association.

Since 2000, he has conducted concerts of his choral and symphonic music in Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, South America and much of Europe, as well as in American Universities and colleges where he regularly conducts seminars and lectures with young musicians. 2010-11 commissions include works for Chanticleer, The King's Singers, Julian Lloyd Webber, and The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus.

Whitacre's first recording, ''The Music of Eric Whitacre'', was named by the American Record Guide as one of the top ten classical albums of 1997. In 2006, a full collection of his a cappella music, ''Cloudburst and Other Choral Works'', was released on the British label Hyperion Records. The album became an international best seller, appearing in the top ten of both Billboard's and iTunes Top Classical Albums charts. Two years after its release, it continues to be a top-seller and won a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance. In 2010, Whitacre signed a long-term contract with Decca as a performer. "Light & Gold," Whitacre's first album with the label, was released in October 2010, and features Whitacre himself as conductor and musical director.

In October 2010 Whitacre was named Composer-in-Residence and Visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University. He lived on campus for the duration of the 2010 Michaelmas term. In March 2011 it was announced that he had joined the fashion models agency, Storm.

Whitacre is married to Grammy-award winning soprano Hila Plitmann.

Style

Whitacre writes music that incorporates contemporary sounds and influences while demanding precision, intonation and ensemble. He is probably best known for his choral works; however, both his choral and instrumental styles use his signature "Whitacre chords," or pan-diatonic clusters usually arranged in successive increasing or decreasing density. Whitacre achieves this growth and decay by splitting voices ''divisi''—in one case up to 18 parts. These sonorities can often be read as seventh or ninth chords, with or without suspended seconds and fourths. Perhaps his most famous chord is a root-position major triad with an added major second and/or perfect fourth. Whitacre makes frequent use of quartal, quintal and secundal harmonies, and is also known for his use of unconventional chord progressions. His use of rhythm often involves mixed, complex, and/or compound meters. His pieces sometimes include frequent meter changes and unusual rhythmic patterns. Another trademark of Whitacre's pieces is the use of aleatoric and indeterminate sections, as well as unusual score instructions involving, in some cases, hand actions and/or props.

Projects

Virtual Choir

Whitacre's Virtual Choir projects were inspired by a video sent to him of a young girl singing one of his choral pieces he then began with a test run of ''Sleep'', then ''Lux Aurumque'' in 2009 and was followed again by ''Sleep'' in 2010. The video for ''Lux Aurumque'', featuring a virtual choir of 185 voices from 12 countries, was described as a "musical experience that works better than anyone might have expected", their video receiving over 1,000,000 hits in the first two months of its release.

The 2010 version of the Virtual Choir 2.0 "Sleep" began in October 2010 and the video submission process was completed on 10 January 2011. Whitacre spoke at TED.com and this video was released on April 1, 2011, accompanied with a short 2 minute example of the "Sleep" project. The YouTube release was on April 7, 2011.

Recording projects

Whitacre's first album with Decca, Light & Gold was released in October 2010. From October to December 2010, Whitacre was a visiting Fellow at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge during Michaelmas (Autumn) Term. He composed a piece for the college choir, and worked with students in masterclasses and workshops. The concert version of his musical ''Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings'' was performed to a sold out audience at Carnegie Hall in June 2010.

Performance projects

Whitacre has worked collaboratively with Distinguished Concerts International New York (DCINY) and is due to collaborate with them again in 2011 in New York, Vancouver and Los Angeles. With regard to his musical "Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings", he was described by the New York Times as a "younger, hipper Andrew Lloyd Webber, with fleeting hints of Bernstein and Sondheim".

On 24 October 2010, he conducted an all-American programme with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at the Barbican London, in a performance that featured his commission for the London Symphony Chorus entitled ''Songs of Immortality''. On 28 November 2010, he sat on the panel of judges for the final episode of Choir of the Year, broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3. In December 2010, Whitacre conducted the I Vocalisti choir in Hamburg, and was a guest conductor of the Christmas performance of the Berlin Rundfunkchor.

On 6 November 2010, Whitacre conducted Côrdydd, a Cardiff-based mixed choir, and friends in a concert of his work at the BBC Hoddinott Hall in the Wales Millennium Centre.

Whitacre is a founding member of BCM International, a quartet of composers consisting of himself, Steven Bryant, Jonathan Newman and James Bonney, which aspires to "enrich the wind ensemble repertoire with music unbound by traditional thought or idiomatic cliché."

Awards and honors

Whitacre has won awards from the Barlow international composition competition, American Choral Directors Association, American Composers' Forum and in 2001 became the youngest recipient ever of The Raymond C Brock Commission given by the American Choral Directors Association. His musical ''Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings'' earned him a ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award|Richard Rodgers Award and received 10 nominations at the 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards. The album ''Cloudburst and Other Choral Works'' received a Grammy nomination in 2007 for Best Choral Performance.

Works

Wind symphony

Equus

Ghost Train Triptych

* Ghost Train

* At the Station

* Motive Revolution

Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!

Noisy Wheels of Joy

October

Sleep (choral transcription)

The Seal Lullaby (choral transcription for wind symphony and piano)

Lux Aurumque (choral transcription, transposed a semitone lower from C-Sharp Minor to C Minor)

Cloudburst (choral transcription)

Libertas Imperio (From Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings)

SATB choral

Animal Crackers, Volume 1 (Poems by Ogden Nash)

* The Panther

* The Cow

* The Firefly

Animal Crackers, Volume 2 (Poems by Ogden Nash)

* The Canary

* The Eel

* The Kangaroo

A Boy and A Girl (poem by Octavio Paz)

Cloudburst (poem by Octavio Paz)

Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)

* Temuna

* Kala Kalla (Light Bride)

* Larov (Mostly)

* Eyze Sheleg! (What snow!)

* Rakut (Tenderness)

Her Sacred Spirit Soars (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)

Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine (libretto by Charles Anthony Silvestri)

Little Birds (poem by Octavio Paz)

little tree (poem by E. E. Cummings)

Lux Aurumque (poem by Edward Esch; translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri) (also set for male chorus)

Nox Aurumque (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)

The Seal Lullaby (poem by Rudyard Kipling)

She Weeps Over Rahoon (poem by James Joyce)

Sleep (originally a setting of Robert Frost's poem, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"; for copyright reasons the published version uses a specially-written text by Charles Anthony Silvestri)

Sleep, My Child (Choral transcription from Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings)

The Stolen Child (setting of a poem by William Butler Yeats, commissioned in 2008 by the National Youth Choir of Great Britain and The King's Singers for their respective 25th and 40th anniversaries)

This Marriage (poem by Jalal al-Din Rumi)

Three Flower Songs

* I Hide Myself (poem by Emily Dickinson)

* With a Lily in Your Hand (poem by Federico García Lorca)

* Go, Lovely Rose (poem by Edmund Waller)

Three Songs of Faith (poems by E. E. Cummings))

** i will wade out

* hope, faith, life, love

i thank You God for most this amazing day

Water Night (poem by Octavio Paz; translated by Muriel Rukeyser)

When David Heard (from II Samuel 18:33)

Winter (poem by Edward Esch)

What If (lyrics by David Norona and Eric Whitacre)

SSA choral

She Weeps Over Rahoon (text by James Joyce)

Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)

The Seal Lullaby (text by Rudyard Kipling)

TTBB choral

Lux Aurumque (poem by Edward Esch, translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri)

The Seal Lullaby (text by Rudyard Kipling)

Choral works not yet published

The City and the Sea (poems by e. e. Cummings)

* i walked the boulevard

* the moon is hiding in her hair

* maggie and millie and molly and may

* as is the sea marvelous (commissioned by the Greater Washington Independent Schools Choral Festival)

* little man in a hurry (Written for Mahtomedi High School, among others.)

Songs of Immortality

* Lie still, sleep becalmed (poem by Dylan Thomas)

After Great Pain (poem by Emily Dickenson)

Orchestral

October

Winter

A Boy and a Girl

Lux Aurumque

Water Night

The River Cam

Solo voice

The City and the Sea (poems by e. e. Cummings)

Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)

Orchestra

Winter (for strings, choir and sitar)

Music theatre

Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, a musical featuring electronic, world, and orchestral instruments; classical singers; and many different styles of music.

Other arrangements

Rak HaHatchala (Only the Beginning) [aka Five Hebrew Love Songs]; for soprano voice, solo violin, piano

Publishers

Whitacre is published by Chester Music; G. Schirmer; Walton Music; Santa Barbara Music; Shadow Water Music; and Carpe Ranam Music.

References

External links

Eric_Whitacre on WikiMusicGuide

Biography on Hyperion Records

NPR Review of ''Cloudburst'' and choral audio. September 28, 2006

Music Productions Ltd (Management company of Eric Whitacre)

Eric Whitacre write-up on ChesterNovello web site

TED about the virtual choir">Eric talking at TED about the virtual choir

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir 2.0, 'Sleep'

Classical Archives Interview

Category:1970 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:American composers Category:Concert Band composers Category:University of Nevada, Las Vegas alumni Category:Juilliard School alumni

af:Eric Whitacre de:Eric Whitacre fr:Eric Whitacre it:Eric Whitacre he:אריק וייטאקר nl:Eric Whitacre ja:エリック・ウィテカー no:Eric Whitacre sv:Eric Whitacre

The Aka or Bayaka are a nomadic Mbenga pygmy people who live by hunting. Although the Aka people call themselves ''BiAka'', they are also known as ''Babenzele'' in Western Central African Republic and Northwest Congo (RPC).

They live in a variety of terrains in southwestern Central African Republic and northern Congo (Brazzaville region), in 11 different ecological zones of the Western Congo Basin. They are a related, but distinct, people from the Baka people of Cameroon, Gabon, northern Congo, and southwestern Central African Republic.

The BiAka have a high predominance of the L1 genetic haplotype, which is believed to be the most divergent human dNA haplotype. It is believed that the modern human ancestor developed in the East Africa area, where the Efé (and other Mbuti) and the Hadzabe of Tanzania also exhibit the L1 haplotype. During a period of "interglacial optimum" weather, the Sahara became lush and green, allowing easy migration along its southern border. It is theorized that during this period, migration of early man occurred from the Eastern Congo basin to the Western Congo basin. The BiAka therefore represent some of the most distinct existing modern humans.

They were featured in the July 1995 National Geographic article "Ndoki: the Last Place on Earth".

Lifestyle

The Aka tribe gain sustenance from 63 plant species, 20 insect species, honey from 8 species of bees, and 28 species of game. They also trade with their farmer neighbors for agricultural goods and, more recently, often plant their own small seasonal crops.

These hunter-gatherers have a symbiotic market relationship with neighboring villagers (collectively known as Ngandu). While the Ngandu are primarily farmers, they will also occasionally hunt for bushmeat, and also keep domesticated livestock. They exchange their village goods, including crops of manioc, plantain, yams, taro, maize, cucumbers, squash, okra, papaya, mango, pineapple, palm oil, and rice for the bushmeat, honey, and other forest products the Aka collect. There are over 15 different village tribes with whom the approximately 30,000 Aka associate.

Their hunter-gatherer lifestyle exposes them to blood of jungle fauna, thus they have among the highest rates of seropositivity for Ebola virus in the world.

Fathers of the Aka tribe spend more time in close contact to their babies than in any other known society. Aka fathers have their infant within arms reach 47% of the time and have been described as the "best Dads in the world." Males unable to obtain multiple wives as a result of belonging to the lowest rungs of the economy substitute resources for parental obligations. It has been observed that they pick up, cuddle, and play with their babies at least five times as often as fathers in other societies. It is believed that this is due to the strong bond between Aka husband and wife. Throughout the day, couples share hunting, food preparation, and social and leisure activities. The more time Aka parents spend together, the greater the father's loving interaction with his baby.

Unlike the Mbuti pygmies of the eastern Congo (who speak only the language of the tribes with whom they are affiliated), the Aka speak their own language along with whichever of the approximately 15 Bantu peoples they are affiliated.

In 2003, the oral traditions of the Aka were proclaimed one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Association with European colonists

With the slave trade of the 18th century came migrations of tribes in the area, with resultant pressures on the Aka. In addition, at the end of the 19th century the Aka were the major elephant hunters that provided ivory for the ivory trade. This trade used the tribes with whom the Aka were affiliated as middlemen. From 1910 to 1940, rubber production was desired by colonialists, and forced labor of the tribesmen with whom the Aka were associated increased the demand for bushmeat, and some villagers escaped into the forest, where they put added demands on the Aka. The Aka were never involved in the forced labor schemes directly, but the increased demands for meat and skins encouraged the more efficient method of net hunting instead of spear hunting. This shift in hunting technique changed the social structure of the Aka.

In the 1930s the French encouraged the Aka to move into roadside villages, but like the Efé of the Ituri forest, most Aka disappeared into the forest and few joined the villages (except in a few villages in Congo-Brazza).

Today, the world economic structure encourages Aka participation in coffee plantations (of the Ngandu and other neighboring farmers) during the dry season, which is also the hunting season. This has changed their societal structure even further. Employment with the ivory and lumber trade bring in far more money than their traditional lifestyle, further putting pressure on their culture.

Music

Their complex polyphonic music has been studied by various ethnomusicologists. Simha Arom has made historical field recordings of some of their repertoire. Michelle Kisliuk has written a detailed performance ethnography (with audio and video companion website, Oxford University Press, New York). Mauro Campagnoli studied their musical instruments in depth, comparing them to neighbouring pygmy groups such as the Baka Pygmies).

Aka musicians appear on:

''African Rhythms'' (2003).

:Music by Aka Pygmies, performed by Aka Pygmies, György Ligeti and Steve Reich, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard. Teldec Classics: 8573 86584-2. Liner notes by Aimard, Ligeti, Reich, and Simha Arom and Stefan Schomann.

''Echoes of the Forest: Music of the Central African Pygmies (The Musical Expeditions Series/Book and Compact Disc)'' (Ellipsis Arts 1995)

:A New Jersey author named Louis Sarno traveled to live with the Bayaka (whom he called the Babenzele) and wrote several books about his experiences there. His Kurtzian saga has been met with mixed reviews. He has co-operated on several ethnologic recordings of pygmy music, notably in this compilation that includes the recordings of Colin Turnbull and Jean-Pierre Hallet of other pygmy peoples in the Congo.

''BOYOBI: Ritual Music of the Rainforest Pygmies'' by Louis Sarno (Sound Photosynthesis 2000)

:What happens in the rainforest between 11pm and 4 am? The spirits of the forest are alight and can morph into animals running through the camp. Celebrational music can assuage fears and satisfy the spirits. A hemp-aided musical journey of the nighttime Aka, from festivals that can last as long as 2 years! Also distributed as: BOYOBI: A Hunting Ritual of Bayaka Pygmies (Sound Photsynthesis).

''Bayaka: The Extraordinary Music of the BaBenzele Pygmies'' (CD and book) by Louis Sarno (Ellipsis Arts 1996)

:More focused on the instruments and music of the Bayaka, beautiful and melodic.

Books about the Aka

"Seize the Dance! BaAka Musical Life and the Ethnography of Performance" by Michelle Kisliuk (Oxford University Press, 2000).

''Song from the Forest -- My Life Among the Ba-Benjelle Pygmies'' by Louis Sarno (Houghton Mifflin 1993).

:In the mid-1980's, a New Jersey native hears pygmy music on the radio and decides to travel and live with this remote people, an idyllic picture fixed in his head. Disillusionment sets in as his initial wonder slowly wears off and he realizes the pygmies are interested in him only for food, liquor, and tobacco. Following his initial three month sojourn, he returns two years later and lives "permanently" with the tribe, becoming infatuated with a young tribeswoman with whom he can hardly communicate, which includes an emotionally turbulent "courtship" and unconsummated "marriage." Though riveting, the cultural friction is tangible.

Conservation Efforts

The World Wildlife Fund of Washington, DC, has worked with the BiAka since the 1980s to protect gorilla habitats, minimize logging of forest, and promote other conservation efforts while empowering the BiAka and other indigenous peoples.

See also

''Other Pygmy groups''

Efé

Baka

Twa peoples

''Anthropologists studying the Aka''

Barry Hewlett

Michelle Kisliuk

References

Michelle Kisliuk Seize the Dance! BaAka Musical Life and the Ethngraphy of Performance. Oxford University Press. 2000.

External links

Article: "Are the men of the African Aka tribe the best fathers in the world?"

Aka Pygmies of the Western Congo Basin

Fieldwork about Baka, Aka and other pygmy groups

African Pygmies with photos, music and ethnographic notes

Category:African Pygmies Category:Modern nomads

ca:Aka es:Aka (tribu) eo:Akoj fr:Akas kg:Bayaka nl:Aka (volk) pt:Bayaka ru:Ака (пигмеи) fi:Akat

Morten Johannes Lauridsen (born February 27, 1943) is an American composer. He was composer-in-residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale (1994–2001) and has been a professor of composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music for more than 30 years.

Biography

Lauridsen was born February 27, 1943, in Colfax, Washington to a family of immigrants from Denmark. He was raised in Portland, Oregon, where his mother worked as a bookkeeper and his father was with the United States Forest Service. His mother was a pianist who had played in her high school dance band, and Lauridsen developed a love for music at an early age, by listening to her play swing jazz and singing to him. At age eight he started playing the piano, and a couple of years later learned to play the trumpet. He studied composition with Ingolf Dahl, Halsey Stevens, Robert Linn, and Harold Owen at the University of Southern California in the 1960s.

Compositions

Lauridsen's choral compositions, including seven choral cycles and a series of sacred a cappella motets, are featured regularly in concerts worldwide. In particular, ''O Magnum Mysterium'', ''Contre Qui, Rose'' and ''Dirait-on'' (from ''Les Chansons des Roses''), and ''O Nata Lux'' (from ''Lux Aeterna'') have become popular items in the choral repertoire.

His musical language is influenced by chant, as well as masters through the ages, such as Josquin, Palestrina, Gesualdo, Monteverdi, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, and Duruflé. Some of Lauridsen's signature sounds include the second scale degree, (the second note of the key in which the composition is written) and his ''Madrigali'' utilize the "fire chord." One technique that Lauridsen uses to create texture is to have basses singing in a soprano range.

The musicologist and conductor Nick Strimple, in discussing Lauridsen's sacred music, described him as "the only American composer in history who can be called a mystic, (whose) probing, serene work contains an elusive and indefinable ingredient which leaves the impression that all the questions have been answered ... From 1993 Lauridsen's music rapidly increased in international popularity, and by century's end he had eclipsed Randall Thompson as the most frequently performed American choral composer."

Lauridsen's works have been recorded on over 100 CDs, three of which have received Grammy nominations. His principal publishers are Peermusic (New York/Hamburg) and Peer's affiliate, Faber Music (London).

A recipient of numerous grants, prizes and commissions, Lauridsen chaired the Composition department at the USC Thornton School of Music from 1990–2002, founded the School's Advanced Studies Program in Film Scoring, and is currently Distinguished Professor of Composition.

In 2006, Morten Lauridsen was named an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, he received the National Medal of Arts from the President of the United States in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide."

In 2007, Morten Lauridsen was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Aberdeen - founded in 1495 and one of the United Kingdom's oldest universities - for services to choral music.

In 2008, Morten Lauridsen was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey during a concert in his name. Under instruction of Z. Randall Stroope, The Rowan University Concert Choir performed a number of Lauridsen's works, several of which were accompanied by the composer. University faculty Marian Stieber and Jon Garrison performed "A Winter Come", also accompanied by Lauridsen.

Vocal works

''Ave Dulcissima Maria'' (2004, written for the Harvard Glee Club)

''Ave Maria'' (1997)

''A Winter Come'' (on poems by Howard Moss)

* ''I. When Frost Moves Fast''

* ''II. As Birds Come Nearer''

* ''III. The Racing Waterfall''

* ''IV. A Child Lay Down''

* ''V. Who Reads By Starlight''

* ''VI. And What Of Love''

''Les Chansons des Roses'' (1993) (settings of poems by Rainer Maria Rilke)

* ''I. En Une Seule Fleur''

* ''II. Contre Qui, Rose''

* ''III. De Ton Rêve Trop Plein''

* ''IV. La Rose Complète''

* ''V. Dirait-on''

''Chanson Eloignee (Rilke'')

''Lux Aeterna'' (1997)

* ''I. Introitus''

* ''II. In Te, Domine, Speravi''

* ''III. O Nata Lux''

* ''IV. Veni, Sancte Spiritus''

* ''V. Agnus Dei''

''I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes''

''Madrigali: Six "Firesongs" on Italian Renaissance Poems''

* ''I. Ov'è, Lass', Il Bel Viso?''

* ''II. Quando Son Piu Lontan''

* ''III. Amor, Io Sento L'alma''

* ''IV. Io Piango''

* ''V. Luci Serene e Chiare''

* ''VI. Se Per Havervi, Oime''

''Mid-Winter Songs'' (1980) (on poems by Robert Graves)

* ''I. Lament for Pasiphaë''

* ''II. Like Snow''

* ''III. She Tells Her Love While Half Asleep''

* ''IV. Mid-Winter Waking''

* ''V. Intercession in Late October''

''Nocturnes'' (2005)

* ''I. Sa Nuit d'Été''

* ''II. Soneto de la Noche''

* ''III. Sure on this Shining Night''

* ''IV. Epilogue: Voici le soir (added in 2008)''

''O Come, Let Us Sing Unto the Lord''

''O Magnum Mysterium'' (1994)

''Ubi Caritas et Amor''

''Where Have the Actors Gone''

''Cuatro Canciones Sobre Poesias de Federico Garcia Lorca''

Notable students

Michael Sidney Timpson

Angel Gomez

External links

MortenLauridsen.com Personal website

Peermusic Classical: Morten Lauridsen Composer's Publisher and Bio

Discography

Interviews

Morten Lauridsen interview by Bruce Duffie

References

Category:1943 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century classical composers Category:21st-century classical composers Category:American composers Category:American people of Danish descent Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Thornton School of Music alumni Category:Thornton School of Music faculty

da:Morten Lauridsen de:Morten Lauridsen es:Morten Lauridsen fr:Morten Lauridsen it:Morten Lauridsen nl:Morten Lauridsen ja:モートン・ローリゼン fi:Morten Lauridsen