Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble, also known as a music group, is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music, typically known by a distinct name. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families (such as piano, strings, and wind instruments) or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles. In jazz ensembles, the instruments typically include wind instruments (one or more saxophones, trumpets, etc.), one or two chordal "comping" instruments (electric guitar, piano, or organ), a bass instrument (bass guitar or double bass), and a drummer or percussionist. In rock ensembles, usually called rock bands, there are usually guitars and keyboards (piano, electric piano, Hammond organ, synthesizer, etc.) and a rhythm section made up of a bass guitar and drum kit.

Classical chamber music

In Western classical music, smaller ensembles are called chamber music ensembles. The terms duet, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, nonet and dectet describe groups of two up to ten musicians, respectively. A group of eleven musicians, such as found in The Carnival of the Animals, is called either a hendectet or an undectet (see Latin numerical prefixes). A solo is not an ensemble because it only contains one musician.

Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA is a German multinational mass media corporation founded in 1835, based in Gütersloh, Ostwestfalen-Lippe, Germany. The company operates in 50 countries and employs in excess of 112,000 people (as of December 31, 2014). In 2014 the company reported a €16.7 billion consolidated revenue and an operating EBIT of €1.77 billion. Its principal divisions are Penguin Random House, RTL Group, Gruner + Jahr, Arvato, Be Printers and BMG.

Bertelsmann is a privately held Kommanditgesellschaft auf Aktien (KGaA; partnership limited by shares). 80.9 percent of the capital shares in Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA are held indirectly by foundations (Bertelsmann Stiftung, Reinhard Mohn Stiftung, BVG-Stiftung), and 19.1 percent are held indirectly by the Mohn family.

History

1835 to 2000

The C. Bertelsmann Verlag was founded as a publishing house and print shop in July 1835 by Carl Bertelsmann. At first Bertelsmann concentrated on Christian songs and books. In 1851, led by Carl Bertelsmann's son Heinrich, the company began publishing novels. During the following years Bertelsmann expanded steadily. By 1939 the publishing house employed 401 people. During World War II, Bertelsmann was the biggest single producer of Nazi propaganda. Its owner, Reinhard Mohn, is said to have belonged to a group that donated money to the Nazi squadron SS. At the end of World War II, the publishing house was closed for some time because of illegal paper-trading. During the Nazi period, it published books by Nazi authors such as Will Vesper (who did the commemorative speech at the 1933 book burning) and Hans Grimm. It had also published pro-war books for Hitler Youth members and other key Nazis In 1947, the company was re-founded by Reinhard Mohn, fifth generation of the Bertelsmann family. In 2002 a commission appointed by the company itself found that it had co-operated closely with the Nazis during the war, and had also used Jewish prisoners in the form of slave labor.

Music group (disambiguation)

A music group is a group of two or more musicians who perform instrumental or vocal music.

Music group or Music Group may also refer to:

Bertelsmann Music Group

Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG) was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann. It consisted of the BMG Music Publishing company, the world's third largest music publisher and the world's largest independent music publisher, and the 50% share of the joint venture with Sony Music Entertainment, Sony BMG Music Entertainment (Sony BMG).

The joint venture with Sony Music was set up in August 2004. It reduced the Big Five record companies to the Big Four record companies. At that time, the company had a 21.5% share in the global music market. Sony Music and BMG remained separate in Japan, although BMG Music Japan was wholly owned by Sony BMG.

On March 27, 2006, the New York Times reported that Bertelsmann was looking to raise money by leveraging some of its media assets, and that executives from both companies were in talks about possibly altering the current venture. Bertelsmann sold its 50% share of Sony BMG to Sony Corporation of America for a total of $1.5 billion, and the company was renamed back to Sony Music Entertainment Inc.

Ariola Records

Ariola Records (also known as Ariola and Ariola-Eurodisc) is a German record label. In the late 1980s, it was a subsidiary label of BMG, which in turn has become a part of the international media conglomerate SME.

Profile

Ariola was founded in 1958 as a music outlet of Bertelsmann. It set up several subsidiaries: Ariola America was founded in 1975 in Los Angeles, best known for Spanish artist—most successfully Rocio Durcal from the late 1980s onward and Mexican artist Marisela starting in the 1990s; Ariola-Athena to release spoken word records; Ariola Benelux was founded in 1970 to cover the Benelux market; Ariola Eurodisc was a Spanish division of Ariola, founded in 1970; Ariola UK the UK based subsidiary of Ariola was founded in 1977; Baccarola; Türküola for the Turkish market; Eurodisc to release disco records in France - most successfully with Amanda Lear, Giorgio Moroder (house producer of Ariola) and Jupiter Records for German schlager music and disco like for instance group Dschinghis Khan.