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Pleng Luk Thung

Pleng luk thung

Luk thung (Thai ลูกทุ่ง), literally "child of the fields", is the most popular form of Thai country music. The term is short for pleng luk thung (Thai เพลงลูกทุ่ง- song of a child of the fields). The songs typically reflect the hardship of everyday life among the rural poor. Tempos tend to be slow, and singers use an expressive singing style with a lot of vibrato. The form developed in the first half of the 20th century, although the term luk thung was first used in the 1960s. Ponsri Woranut and Suraphon Sombatjalern were the genre's first big stars, incorporating influences from Latin America, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia and, especially, American film soundtracks and country music (including yodelling). Many of the most popular luk thung stars have come from the central city of Suphanburi, including megastar Pumpuang Duangjan, who adapted it to 1980s string (Thai pop) music by making a dance-ready form called electronic luk thung. When Pompuang died in 1992, many observers felt that luk thung would die with her. It survived, however, and with the advent of the first all luk thung radio station in 1997 soon saw a major revival. Since the 1990s there has been much cross-fertilisation between luk thung, string and mor lam music. String artists have taken to singing luk thung songs, while luk thung singers have increasingly been promoted like pop singers, with an emphasis on youth and looks. The mor lam influence has produced a new genre called luk thung Isan or luk thung prayuk, which incorporates the faster rhythms of mor lam. Audio sample (Ogg format) from Motorcy Hang by Rock Salaeng (luk thung prayuk) Category:Thai music

Thai language

The Thai language (ภาษาไทย, phasa thai, meaning "the language of Thais"), is the national and official language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group. Thai is a member of the Tai group of the Tai-Kadai language family. The Tai-Kadai languages are thought to have originated in what is now southern China, and some linguists have proposed links to the Austroasiatic, Austronesian, or Sino-Tibetan language families. It is a tonal and analytic language. The combination of tonality, a complex orthography, relational markers and a distinctive phonology can make Thai difficult to learn for speakers of many unrelated and highly differing languages.

Languages and dialects

Standard Thai, also known as Central Thai or Siamese, is the official language of Thailand, spoken by about 25 million people (1990) including speakers of Bangkok Thai (although the latter is sometimes considered as a separate dialect). Khorat Thai is spoken by about 400,000 (1984) in Nakhon Ratchasima; it occupies a linguistic position somewhere between Central Thai and Isan on a dialect continuum, and may be considered a variant or dialect of either. In addition to Standard Thai, Thailand is home to other related Tai languages, including:
- Isan (Northeastern Thai), the language of the Isan region of Thailand, is considered by some to be a dialect of the Lao language, which it very closely resembles (although it is written in the Thai alphabet. It is spoken by about 15 million people (1983).
- Nyaw language, spoken mostly in Nakhon Phanom province, Sakhon Nakhon province, Udon Thani province of Northeast Thailand.
- Galung language, spoken in Nakhon Phanom province of Northeast Thailand.
- Lü (Tai Lue, Dai), spoken by about 78,000 (1993) in northern Thailand.
- Northern Thai (Lanna, Kam Meuang, or Thai Yuan), spoken by about 6 million (1983) in the formerly independent kingdom of Lanna (Chiang Mai).
- Phuan, spoken by an unknown number of people in central Thailand and Isan.
- Phu Thai, spoken by about 156,000 around Nakhon Phanom province (1993).
- Shan (Thai Luang, Tai Long, Thai Yai), spoken by about 56,000 in north-west Thailand along the border with the Shan States of Burma (1993).
- Song, spoken by about 20,000 to 30,000 in central and northern Thailand(1982).
- Suay Language, spoken around Surin province. It is a mixture of the Thai and Khmer languages.
- Southern Thai (Pak Dtai), spoken about 5 million (1990).
- Thai Dam, spoken by about 20,000 (1991) in Isan and Saraburi province. Statistics are from [http://www.ethnologue.com/ Ethnologue 2003-10-4]. Many of these languages are spoken by larger numbers outside of Thailand. Most speakers of dialects and minority languages speak Central Thai as well, since it is the language used in schools and universities all across the kingdom. Standard Thai is composed of several distinct registers, forms for different social contexts:
- Street Thai: informal, without polite terms of address, as used between close relatives and friends.(ภาษาพูด)
- Elegant Thai: official and written version, includes respectful terms of address; used in simplified form in newspapers.(ภาษาเขียน)
- Rhetorical Thai: used for public speaking.
- Religious Thai: used when discussing Buddhism or addressing monks.
- Royal Thai: used when addressing members of the royal family or describing their activities. (ราชาศัพท์) Less-educated Thais usually can speak at only the first and second levels, though they will understand the others.

Script

Main article: Thai alphabet The Thai alphabet derived from the Khmer alphabet (อักขระเขมร), which is modeled after the Brahmic script from the Indic family. Much like the Burmese adopted the Mon script (which also has Indic origins), the Thais adopted and modified Khmer script to create their own writing system. While the oldest known inscription in the Khmer language dates from 611 CE, inscriptions in Thai writing began to appear around 1292 CE. Notable features include: #It is an abugida script, in which the implicit vowel is a short /a/ for consonants standing alone and a short /o/ if the initial consonant or cluster is followed by another consonant. #Tone markers are placed above the initial consonant of a syllable or on the last consonant of an initial consonant cluster. #Vowels associated with consonants are nonsequential: they can be located before, after, above or below their associated consonant, or in a combination of these positions. The latter in particular causes problems for computer encoding and text rendering. There is no universal standard for transliterating Thai into English. For example, the name of King Rama IX, the present monarch, is transliterated variously as Bhumibol, Phumiphon, or many other versions. Guide books, text books and dictionaries may each follow different systems. For this reason, most language courses recommend that learners master the Thai alphabet. In scholarly usage, French scholars tend to romanize Thai with a letter-for-letter transcription according to the original Sanskrit value of the characters. Anglophone scholars generally prefer either a simplified phonetic rendering or some variation on the International Phonetic Alphabet. This article uses a simplified IPA system which does not indicate tone or vowel length. The Thai Royal Institute [http://www.royin.go.th/] publishes sets of rules for transliterating Thai words into the Roman alphabet and vice versa (the Royal Thai General System of Transcription), but these are far from universally applied. The ISO published an international standard for the transliteration of Thai into Roman script in September 2003 [http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=20574&ICS1=1&ICS2=140&ICS3=10]. From Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, there is an online tool available which romanizes Thai texts, see [http://www.arts.chula.ac.th/~ling/tts/].

Grammar

From the perspective of linguistic typology, Thai can be considered to be an analytic language. The word order is Subject-Verb-Object, although the subject is often omitted. As in many Asian languages, the Thai pronominal system varies according to the sex and relative status of speaker and audience.

Adjectives

Adjectives follow the noun. A duplicated adjective is used for emphasis, in English indicated by "rather" or "-ish", e.g. คนอ้วนๆ (khon uan uan, IPA ) "a rather fat person." Comparatives take the form "A X กว่า (kwa, IPA ) B" (A is more X than B). The superlative is expressed as A X ที่สุด (thisut, IPA )).

Verbs

Verbs do not inflect (i.e. do not change with person, tense, voice, mood or number) nor are there any participles. Duplication conveys the idea of doing the verb a lot. The passive voice is indicated by the insertion of โดน (don, IPA )) or ถูก (thuk, IPA )) before the verb. Tense is conveyed by tense markers before or after the verb: กำลัง (kamlang, IPA ) before the verb for ongoing action (like English -ing form) or อยู่ (yuu, IPA ) after the verb for the present; จะ (cha, IPA ) before the verb for the future; ได้ (dai, IPA ) before the verb (or a time expression) for the past.

Adverbs

Many adverbs are the same as adjectives. Intensity can be expressed by a duplicated adjective. Adverbs usually follow the verb.

Nouns

Nouns are uninflected and have no gender; there are no plural forms or articles. Plurals are expressed by adding "nouns of multitude" (ลักษณนาม) or classifiers in the form of noun-number-classifier, e.g. "teacher five person" for "five teachers". While in English, such classifiers are usually absent ("four chairs") or optional ("two bottles of beer" or "two beers"), a classifier is almost always used in Thai (hence "chair four item" and "beer two bottle").

Pronouns

Subject pronouns are often omitted, while nicknames are often used where English would use a pronoun. There are specialised pronouns in the royal and sacred Thai languages. The following are appropriate for conversational use:

Particles

The particles are often untranslatable words added to the end of a sentence to indicate respect, a request, encouragement or other moods (similar to the use of intonation in English), as well as varying the level of formality. They are not used in written Thai. The most common particles indicating respect are ครับ (khrap, IPA with a high tone, the "r" sound is usually omitted) for a man, and ค่ะ (kha, IPA with a falling tone) for a woman; these can also be used to indicate an affirmative. Other common particles are:

Phonology

Tones

There are five phonemic tones: middle, low, high, rising and falling. They are indicated in the written script by a combination of the class of the initial consonant (high, mid or low), vowel length (long or short), closing consonant (unvoiced/plosive or voiced/sonorant) and sometimes one of four tone marks. The tonal rules are shown in the following chart: The letters ห (high class) and sometimes อ (mid class) are used as silent letters before another consonant to produce the correct tone. In polysyllabic words, an initial high class consonant with an implicit vowel renders the following syllable also high class. There are a few exceptions to this system, notably the pronouns chan and khao, which are both pronounced with a high tone rather than the rising tone indicated by the script (in an informal conversation, generally when these words are recited or read in public, they are pronouced in rising tone).

Consonants

Thai distinguishes among three voice/aspiration patterns for plosive consonants:
- unvoiced, unaspirated
- unvoiced, aspirated
- voiced, unaspirated Where English has only a distinction between the voiced, unaspirated and the unvoiced, aspirated , Thai distinguishes a third sound which is neither voiced nor aspirated, which occurs in English only as an allophone of , approximately the sound of the p in "spin." There is similarly an alveolar , , triplet. In the velar series there is a , pair and in the postalveolar series the , pair. In each cell below, the first line indicates International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the second indicates the Thai characters in initial position (more letters appearing in the same box have identical pronunciation). ^- the glottal plosive is implied after a short vowel without final, or the silent อ before a vowel.

Vowels

The basic vowels of the Thai language, from front to back and close to open, are given in the following table, The top entry in every cell is the symbol from the International phonetic alphabet, the second entry gives the spelling in the Thai alphabet, where a dash (–) indicates the position of the initial consonant after which the vowel is pronounced. A second dash indicates that a final consonant must follow. The vowels each exist in long-short pairs: these are distinct phonemes forming unrelated words in Thai, but usually transliterated the same: เขา (khao) means he or she, while ขาว (khao) means white. The long-short pairs are as follows: The basic vowels can be combined into diphthongs as follows: Additionally, there are three triphthongs, all of which are long: For a guide to written vowels, see the Thai alphabet page.

Vocabulary

Other than compound words and words of foreign origin, most words are monosyllabic. Historically, words have most often been imported from Sanskrit and Pali; Buddhist terminology was a particularly fruitful source of these. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, the English language has been the greatest influence. Thailand also uses a distinctive six hour clock in addition to the 24 hour clock.

References

- Higbie, James and Thinsan, Snea. Thai Reference Grammar. The Structure of Spoken Thai. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2003. ISBN 9748304965.
- Segaller, Denis. Thai Without Tears: A Guide to Simple Thai Speaking. Bangkok: BMD Book Mags, 1999. ISBN 9748711528.
- Smyth, David. Thai. An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0415226147.

External links

- [http://wikitravel.org/en/Thai_phrasebook Thai phrasebook in wikitravel]
- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=THJ Ethnologue write-up on Thai]
- [http://www.thai-language.com/ Thai-language.com]
- [http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/thai.htm IPA and SAMPA for Thai]
- [http://www.kisa.ca/thai Thai learning resources] (kisa.ca)
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Thai-english/ Websters Thai-English Dictionary]
- [http://www.oup.co.uk/isbn/0-19-861068-8?view=00&promo=webiol Oxford English-Thai Dictionary]
- [http://lexitron.nectec.or.th/ LEXiTRON Thai-English, English-Thai Dictionary]
- [http://www.suparsit.com/ Parsit English-Thai Web Translation]
- [http://longdo.ex.nii.ac.jp/ Longdo Thai-English/French/German/Japanese Dictionary]
- [http://www.thai2english.com/ Thai-English Transliteration and Dictionary]
- [http://www.learningthai.com/ Learningthai.com Thai Language Resources]
- [http://www.geocities.com/siamsmile365/thaiparticles/thaiparticles.htm Thai Particles] (Large list of Thai particles with explanations and example sentences).
- [http://www.guidetothailand.com/thai-script-phrases.htm GuidetoThailand] (Thai script phrase cards on printer friendly pages.) Category:Languages of Thailand Category:Tai-Kadai languages Category:Tonal languages ko:타이어 (언어) ms:Bahasa Thai ja:タイ語 th:ภาษาไทย

Music of Thailand

Thailand retains cultural connections with the two great centers of Asian civilizations, India and China. Though Thailand was never colonized by Western powers, pop music and other forms of European and American music have become extremely influential. The two most popular styles of traditional Thai music are luk thung and mor lam; the latter in particular has close affinities with the Music of Laos. Aside from the Thai, minorities of Laotians, Lawa, Hmong, Akha, Mien, Lisu, Karen and Lahu peoples have retained traditional musical forms.

History

Thai music was part of an oral culture and developed no traditional system of notation. "As an integrated, unique system the traditional music of Thailand is probably not more than six hundred years old." (Morton 1978, p.1) The classical or Bangkok period beginning 1782 may be considered "a culmination of musical evolution that probably started, as nearly as can be ascertained from the references, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries with the rise of Ayuthaya as the capital," (ibid) in 1350. Music flourished for the next few centuries, in spite of occasional oppression from monarchs like Rama I and the burning of Ayuthaya, including its art collections and libraries, in 1767 the result of which is a loss of most knowledge necessary to reconstruct the history of Thai music before the Bangkok period.

Genres

Classical music

The earliest Thai ensembles were called piphat, and they included woodwind and percussion instruments, originally in order to accompany traditional theater and religious rituals. Another ensemble type, khruang sai, consists primarily of string instruments, while the mahori mixes strings with melodic percussion instruments and flute.

Fundamentals

"Thai music is nonharmonic, melodic, or linear, and as is the case with all musics of this genre, its fundamental organization is horizontal...Thai music in its horizontal complex is made up of a main melody played simultaneously with variants of it which progress in relatively slower and faster rhythmic units." (ibid, p.21) This is known as heterophony or polyphonic stratification: instrumentalists improvise idiomatically around the central melody. Rhythmically and metrically Thai music is steady in tempo, regular in pulse, divisive, in simple duple meter, without swing, with little syncopation (p.3, 39), and with the emphasis on the final beat of a measure or group of pulses and phrase (p.41), as opposed to the first as in European-influenced music. The Thai scale includes seven equal notes, instead of a mixture of tones and semitones.

Traditional or folk

Luk thung

Main article: Luk thung Luk thung, or Thai country music, developed in the mid-20th century to reflect daily trials and tribulations of rural Thais. Ponsri Woranut and Suraphon Sombatjalern were the genre's first big stars, incorporating influences from Latin America, Asia and, especially, American film soundtracks and country music. Many of the most popular artists have come from the central city of Suphanburi, including megastar Pumpuang Duangjan, who pioneered electronic luk thung. The first all luk thung radio station was launched in 1997.

Mor lam

Main article: Mor lam Mor lam Mor lam is the dominant folk music of Thailand's north-eastern Isan region, which has a mainly Lao population. It has much in common with luk thung, such as its focus on the life of the rural poor. It is characterized by rapid-fire, rhythmic vocals and a funk feel to the percussion. The lead singer, also called a mor lam, is most often accompanied by the khaen. There are about fifteen regional variations of mor lam, plus modern versions such as mor lam sing. Some conservatives have criticized these as the commercialization of traditional cultures. See also: Music of Laos

Kantrum

The people of Isan are also known for kantrum, which is much less famous for mor lam. Kantrum is played by Cambodians living near the border with Cambodia. It is a swift and very traditional dance music. In its purest form, cho-kantrum, singers, percussion and fiddles dominate the sound. A more modern form using electric instrumentation arose in the mid-1980s. Later in the decade, Darkie became the genre's biggest star, and he crossed into mainstream markets in the later 1990s. See also: Music of Cambodia

Pop and rock

By the 1930s, however, Western classical music, showtunes, jazz and tango were popular. Soon, jazz grew to dominate Thai popular music, and Khru Eua Sunthornsanan soon set up the first Thai jazz band. The music he soon helped to invent along with influential band Suntharaporn was called pleng Thai sakorn, which incorporated Thai melodies with Western classical music. This music continued to evolve into luk grung, a romantic music that was popular with the upper-class. King Bhumibol is an accomplished jazz musician and composer. By the 1960s, Western rock was popular and Thai artists began imitating bands like Cliff Richard & the Shadows; this music was called wong shadow, and it soon evolved into a form of Thai pop called string. The following decade saw Rewat Buddhinan beginning to use the Thai language in rock music. The 70s also saw the rise of protest songs called pleng phua cheewit (songs for life). The earliest pleng phua cheewit band was called Caravan, and they soon emerged at the forefront of a movement for democracy. In 1976, police and rightwing activists attacked students at Thammasat University; Caravan, along with other bands and activists, fled for the rural hills. There, Caravan continued playing music for local farmers, and composed what is now their most famous song, "Khon Gap Kwaii". In the 1980s, pleng phua cheewit re-entered the mainsteam with a grant of amnesty to dissidents. Bands like Carabao became best-sellers and incorporated sternly nationalistic elements in their lyrics. By the 1990s, pleng phua cheewit had fallen from the top of the Thai charts, though artists like Pongsit Kamphee continued to command a large audience. String pop took over mainstream listeners in Thailand in the 90s, and bubblegum pop stars like Tata Young, Bird McIntyre and Asanee & Wasan became best-sellers. Simultaneously, Britpop influenced alternative rock artists like Modern Dog became popular.

References

- Clewley, John. "Songs for Living". 2000. In Broughton, Simon and Ellingham, Mark with McConnachie, James and Duane, Orla (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 2: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific, pp 241-253. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0
- Morton, David (1976). The Traditional Music of Thailand. University of California Press. ISBN 0520018761. Category:Thai music

Link

[http://www.ethaimusic.com/index.php]

Tempo

In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for "time") is the speed or pace of a given piece.

Measuring tempo

The tempo of a piece will typically be written at the start of a piece of music, and in modern music is usually indicated in beats per minute (BPM). This means that a particular note value (for example, a quarter note or crotchet) is specified as the beat, and the marking indicates that a certain number of these beats must be played per minute. Mathematical tempo markings of this kind became increasingly popular during the first half of the 19th century, after the metronome had been invented, although early metronomes were somewhat unreliable; Beethoven's metronome markings, in particular, are notoriously unreliable. MIDI files today also use the BPM system to denote tempo. Some 20th century composers (such as Béla Bartók and John Cage) would alternatively give the total execution time of a piece, from which the proper tempo can be roughly derived.

Musical vocabulary for tempo

Whether a music piece has a mathematical time indication or not, in classical music it is customary to describe the tempo of a piece by one or more words. Most of these words are Italian, a result of the fact that many of the most important composers of the 17th century were Italian, and this period was when tempo indications were used extensively for the first time. Before the metronome, words were the only way to describe the tempo of a composition. Yet after the metronome's invention, these words continued to be used, often additionally indicating the mood of the piece, thus blurring the traditional distinction between tempo and mood indicators. For example, "presto" and "allegro" both indicate a speedy execution ("presto" being faster), but "allegro" has more of a connotation of joy (seen its original meaning in Italian), while "presto" rather indicates speed as such (with possibly an additional connotation of virtuosity). (Presto did not acquire this connotation until the late 18th century.) Additional Italian words also indicate tempo and mood. For example, the "agitato" in the Allegro agitato of the last movement of George Gershwin's piano concerto in F has both a tempo indication (undoubtedly faster than a usual "Allegro") and a mood indication ("agitated").

Understood tempos

In some cases (quite often up to the end of the Baroque period), conventions governing musical composition were so strong that no tempo had to be indicated. For example, the first movement of Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 has no tempo or mood indication whatsoever. To provide movement names, publishers of recordings resort to ad hoc measures, for instance marking the Brandenburg movement "Allegro", "(Allegro)", "(Without indication)", and so on. In Renaissance music most music was understood to flow at a tempo defined by the tactus, roughly the rate of the human heartbeat. Which note value corresponded to the tactus was indicated by the mensural time signature. Often a particular musical form or genre implies its own tempo, so no further explanation is placed in the score. Thus musicians expect a minuet to be performed as a fairly stately tempo, slower than a Viennese waltz; a Perpetuum Mobile to be quite fast, and so on. The association of tempo with genre means that genres can be used to imply tempos; thus Ludwig van Beethoven wrote "In tempo d'un Menuetto" over the first movement of his Piano Sonata Op. 54, although that movement is not a minuet. Popular music charts use terms such as "bossa nova", "ballad", and "latin rock" in much the same way.

Italian tempo markings

Basic tempo markings

The most common tempo markings in Italian are:
- Largo - slowly and broadly
- Adagio - slowly
- Lento - "slow" but usually only moderately so
- Andante - at a walking pace
- Moderato - at a moderate tempo, neither fast nor slow
- Allegretto - "a little allegro", understood to be not quite as fast as allegro
- Allegro - quickly
- Presto - fast
- Vivace - very fast

Common Qualifiers

- non troppo - not too much; e.g. Allegro non troppo (or Allegro ma non troppo) means "Fast, but not too fast."
- molto - very, as in Allegro molto
- poco - slightly, as in Poco Adagio
- Various diminutive suffixes in Italian have been used, in addition to Allegretto: Andantino, Larghetto, Adagietto, as well as superlatives such as Larghissimo, Prestissimo.

Mood markings with a tempo connotation

Some markings that primarily mark a mood (or character) also have a tempo connotation:
- Vivace - lively (which generally indicates a rather fast movement)
- Maestoso - majestic or stately (which generally indicates a solemn, slow movement)

Terms for change in tempo

There is also a set of terms that are used to designate a change of tempo:
- Accelerando - speeding up (abbreviation: accel.)
- Meno Mosso - less movement or slower
- Più Mosso - more movement or faster
- Rallentando - slowing down (abbreviation: rall.)
- Ritardando - slowing down (abbreviation: rit.)
- Ritenuto - slightly slower These generally designate a gradual change in tempo; for immediate tempo shifts, composers normally just provide the designation for the new tempo. There is also:
- A tempo - return to the previous tempo after change(s); and
- Tempo I - often at the beginning of a new section of a piece, denotes a return to the piece's original tempo. These terms also indicate an immediate, not a gradual, tempo change. Composers typically use these terms for tempo change even if they have written their initial tempo marking in some other language. More complex and less precise (though vital in many composers' music) is:
- Rubato - free adjustment of tempo for expressive purposes

Tempo markings in other languages

Although Italian has been the prevalent language for tempo markings throughout most of classical music history, many composers have written tempo indications in their own language.

French tempo markings

Several French composers have written markings in French, among them baroque composers François Couperin and Jean-Philippe Rameau as well as impressionist composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. Common tempo markings in French are:
- Grave - slowly and solemnly
- Lent - slowly
- Modéré - at a moderate tempo
- Vif - lively
- Vite - fast

German tempo markings

Many composers have used German tempo markings. Typical German tempo markings are:
- Langsam - slowly
- Mäßig - moderately
- Lebhaft - lively (mood)
- Rasch - quickly
- Schnell - fast One of the first German composers to use tempo markings in his native language was Ludwig van Beethoven. The one using the most elaborate combined tempo and mood markings was probably Gustav Mahler. For example, the second movement of his Symphony No. 9 is marked Im tempo eines gemächlichen Ländlers, etwas täppisch und sehr derb, indicating a folk-dance–like movement, with some vulgarity in the execution. Mahler would also sometimes combine German tempo markings with traditional Italian markings.

Tempo markings in English

English indications, for example quickly, have also been used, by Benjamin Britten, amongst many others. In jazz and popular music charts, terms like "fast", "laid back", "steady rock", "medium", "medium-up", "ballad", and similar style indications may appear.

Rushing and dragging

popular music popular music When performers unintentionally speed up, they are said to rush. The similar term for unintentionally slowing down is drag. Both of these actions are undesirable; dragging can often indicate a hesitance in the performer due to lack of practise; rushing can likewise destroy the pulse of the music. Because of their negative connotation, neither rush nor drag (nor their equivalents in other languages) are often used as tempo indications in scores, Mahler being a notable exception: as part of a tempo indication he used schleppend ("dragging") in the first movement of his Symphony No. 1, for example.

Can tempo terms be defined with the metronome?

Most musicians would agree that it is not possible to give Beats per minute (BPM) equivalents for these terms; the actual number of beats per minute in a piece marked allegro, for example, will depend on the music itself. A piece consisting mainly of minims (half notes) can be played very much quicker in terms of BPM than a piece consisting mainly of semi-quavers (sixteenth notes) but still be described with the same word. Metronome manufacturers, however, usually do assign BPM values to the traditional terms, but these values are by no means correct for every piece.

Tempo markings as movement names

Generally, composers (or music publishers) will name movements of classical compositions (and in some cases individual compositions) after their tempo (and/or mood) marking, as for instance in Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings.

Usage note: plural

The plural of tempo in Italian is tempi. Some writers employ this plural when writing in English. Others use the native English plural tempos. Standard dictionaries reflect both usages. Unfortunately, neither plural can be used without offending the tastes of at least some readers: inevitably, tempos will strike some readers as incorrect, and tempi will strike other readers as pretentious. Careful writers will assess their context and choose accordingly.

External links

- [http://www.hum.uva.nl/mmm/ Research group specializing in rhythm, timing, and tempo, University of Amsterdam]
- [http://www.mozart-tempi.net Tempo indications in Mozart's music]
- [http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdictionary/appendix/tempo/tempo1.html Tempo Terminology, Virginia Tech department of music] category:musical terminology ja:テンポ

Vibrato

Vibrato is a musical effect where the pitch or frequency of a note or sound is quickly and repeatedly raised and lowered over a small distance for the duration of that note or sound. Vibrato is typically used to add expression and vocal-like qualities to instrumental notes. Confusingly, vibrato is sometimes referred to as tremolo, notably in the context of a tremolo arm of an electric guitar, although true tremolo is a periodic fluctuation in the amplitude (rather than the frequency) of a sound. Conversely, the so-called vibrato unit built in to many guitar amplifiers produces what is known as tremolo in all other contexts. The extent of the variation in pitch in vibrato is decided by the performer, but does not usually exceed a semitone either way from the note itself. The effect is intended to add warmth to a note. A helpful side effect is that it can help to disguise bad tuning. Wide vibrato (as wide as a whole-tone) is commonly used among electric guitar players and adds a vocal-like expressiveness to the sound. Although difficult to master, a well-played guitar vibrato can essentially make the instrument really 'sing'. A precursor to vibrato was the trillo (not to be confused with a trill), used in vocal music in the early 17th century, where a singer would rapidly repeat the same note on one syllable. The effect was much more strident than that of vibrato, and is compared by some to the bleating of a sheep. Not all instruments can produce vibrato, as some have fixed pitches which can not be varied by sufficiently small degrees. Most percussion instruments are examples of this, as is the piano. Some types of organ however, can produce the effect by altering the pressure of the air passing through the pipes, or by various mechanical devices (see the Hammond or Wurlitzer Organs for example). Some instruments are played with constant, mechanical vibrato, notably the vibraphone and the Leslie speaker used by many electric organists. Soul singer Aaron Neville sings with vibrato, having been originally inspired by yodeling. The method of producing vibrato on other instruments varies. On string instruments, for example, the finger used to stop the string can be wobbled on the fingerboard, or actually moved up and down the string for a wider vibrato. Another method is to rhytmically press and release the string behind the bridge, sometimes even beyond the nut. On flutes, as well as in singing, vibrato is created by air passing through an open throat; moving of the jaw is popular for saxophone vibrato. The mouth can also be used, in addition to being used for clarinet, although clarinet vibrato is not usually used. In pop music the effect is sometimes heard on the guitar and some, but not all singers, use it (in some pop ballads, the vibrato can be so wide as to be a pronounced wobble). The use of vibrato in some folk musics is rare, or at least less pronounced than in other forms of music, although in Eastern European gypsy music, for example, it can be very wide. Most jazz players through the 20th century and up to the present day have used vibrato more or less continuously. From around the 1950s, however, some players in more avant garde styles, many following the example of Miles Davis, began to use it more selectively, playing without vibrato as a rule. Davis, however, frequently used a mute, which also alters the tone of the instrument. Vibrato is sometimes thought of as an effect added onto the note itself, but in some cases it is so fully a part of the style of the music that it can be very difficult for some performers to play without it. The jazz tenor sax player Coleman Hawkins found he had this difficulty when requested to play a passage both with and without vibrato by the producer of a children's jazz album to demonstrate the difference between the two. Despite his otherwise exemplary technique, he was unable to play without vibrato. A symphony saxophonist was brought in to play the part. Many classical musicians, especially singers and string players have a similar problem. The violinist and teacher Leopold Auer, writing in his book Violin Playing as I Teach It (1960), advised violinists to practice playing completely without vibrato, and to stop playing for a few minutes as soon as they noticed themselves playing with vibrato in order for them to gain complete control over their technique.

Vibrato in classical music

The use of vibrato in classical music is a matter of some contention. For much of the 20th century it was used almost continuously in the performance of pieces from all eras from the baroque onwards, especially by singers and string players. This began to change somewhat towards the end of the century, with the rise of historically informed performances, and as one travels further back in music history, the use of vibrato appears to become increasingly rarer. Vocal music of the renaissance is almost never sung with vibrato as a rule, and it seems unlikely it ever was. There are only a few texts from the period on vocal production, but they all condemn the use of vibrato. Leopold Mozart's Versuch einer gründlichen Violinschule (1756) provides an indication of the state of vibrato in string playing at the end of the baroque period. In it, he concedes that "Performers there are who tremble consistently on each note as if they had the palsy", but condemns the practice, suggesting instead that vibrato should be used only on sustained notes and at the ends of phrases. In wind playing too, it seems that vibrato in music up to the 19th century was seen as an ornament to be used selectively. Martin Agricola writing in his Musica instrumentalis deudch (1529) writes of vibrato in this way. Occasionally, composers up to the baroque period indicated vibrato with a wavy line in the sheet music, which strongly suggests it was not desired for the rest of the piece. It was towards the end of the 19th century that the use of vibrato in classical music began to be more normal. This increase in the popularity of vibrato was helped by changes in the design of string instruments, specifically the invention of the chin rest on the violin and viola, and of the endpin on the cello. These inventions made wider and more sustained vibrato possible. Vibrato in woodwind instruments can be achieved in several ways: by modulating the air flow through the instrument using the diaphragm, and by rapid variations in embouchure. The clarinetist Reginald Kell is said to have been one of the first orchestral clarinetists to adopt vibrato in orchestral playing. Music by late romantic composers such as Richard Wagner and Johannes Brahms is now played with a fairly continuous vibrato. However, some musicians specialising in historically informed performances such as the conductor Roger Norrington argue that it is unlikely that Brahms, Wagner, and their contemporaries, would have expected it to be played in this way. This is a somewhat controversial view, although Arnold Schoenberg, a considerably later composer, seems to have disliked vibrato as well, likening it to the bleating of a goat. The growth of vibrato in 20th century orchestral playing has been traced by Norrington by studying early recordings. He claims that vibrato in the earliest recordings in used only selectively, as an expressive device; the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra were not recorded using vibrato comparable to modern vibrato until 1935, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra not until 1940. French orchestras seem to have played with continuous vibrato somewhat earlier, from the 1920s. Despite this, the use of indiscriminate vibrato in late romantic music goes largely uncontested (although performances of Ludwig van Beethoven with limited vibrato are now not uncommon). Many people take the view that even though it may not be what the composer envisioned, vibrato adds an emotional depth which improves the sound of the music. Others feel that the leaner sound of vibratoless playing is preferable. In 20th century classical music, written at a time when the use of vibrato was widespread, there is sometimes a specific instruction not to use it (in some of the string quartets of Béla Bartók for example). Furthermore, some modern classical composers, especially minimalist composers, are against the use of vibrato at all times. In the 21st century it is noticeable that some orchestras are now playing with less vibrato. =Contemporary artists= Whitney Houston is widely considered to be one of the best contemporary employers of vocal vibrato. Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty Friedman and several other virtuoso guitar players heavily utilize vibrato. See also: wah-wah

External links

- [http://www.vibroworld.com/magnatone/vibrato.html Vibrato or tremolo?] technical treatment, but accessible to laymen
- [http://www.standingstones.com/vibrtopg.html The Vibrato Page] - various opinions and quotes on vibrato
- [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,904398,00.html Roger Norrington writing on vibrato] Category:Sound Category:Musical performance techniques
- [http://www.hum.uva.nl/mmm/ On vibrato in music, University of Amsterdam] ja:ビブラート

20th century

The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar. Common usage sometimes regards it as lasting from 1900 to 1999, but this is incorrect since counting of calendar years begins with the year 1. The 20th century is also sometimes known as the nineteen hundreds (1900s). Decades are almost always considered as starting with the "0" year and named accordingly ("1960s", etc.). However, a number of arguments have been used to justify the common usage. One was advanced, erroneously, by Stephen Jay Gould. He claimed that the first decade had only nine years, thus contradicting the definition of decade equaled 10 years. Another argument is that the astronomical year numbering system for years does have a year zero, the year normally known as 1 BC. In 2000 the International Organization for Standardization clarified ISO 8601 to use the astronomical year numbering system, which could be interpreted as retrospectively endorsing all the people who had celebrated the new century a few months earlier. The term is also used to describe various periods that overlap with the calendar definition, most notably the Short twentieth century, which claims that the 20th Century spanned from 1914 to 1989, rendering the pre-WWI 1900s into the 19th Century and putting the 1990s at the beginning of the 21st Century. Indeed, the part of the 20th Century before World War I is quite identical to the late 1800s culturally and technologically and the 1990s decade pointed in many ways (such as the rise of the Internet) to the 21st Century and is seen by some as not being truly a part of the 20th Century.

Overview

The twentieth century saw a remarkable shift in the way that vast numbers of people lived, as a result of technological, medical, social, ideological, and political innovations. Terms like ideology, world war, genocide, and nuclear war entered common usage and became an influence on the lives of everyday people. War reached an unprecedented scale and level of sophistication; in the Second World War (1939-1945) alone, approximately 57 million people died, mainly due to massive improvements in weaponry. The trends of mechanization of goods and services and networks of global communication, which were begun in the 19th century, continued at an ever-increasing pace in the 20th. In spite of the terror and chaos, the 20th century saw many attempts at world peace. As the 35th President of the United States John F. Kennedy said: :What kind of peace do we seek? I am talking about a genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living. Not merely peace in our time, but peace in all time. Our problems are man-made, therefore they can be solved by man. For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, we all breathe the same air, we all cherish our children's future, and we are all mortal. Virtually every aspect of life in virtually every human society changed in some fundamental way or another during the twentieth century and for the first time, any individual could influence the course of history no matter their background. Arguably, the 20th century re-shaped the face of the planet in more ways than any previous century.
- Death rates
- Infant mortality
- Infectious disease
- Life expectancy
- Maternal death rates
- Battles Scientific discoveries such as relativity and quantum physics radically changed the worldview of scientists, causing them to realize that the universe was much more complex than they had previously believed, and dashing the hopes at the end of the preceding century that the last few details of knowledge were about to be filled in. For a more coherent overview of the historical events of the century, see The 20th century in review. The 20th century has sometimes been called, both within and outside the United States, the American Century, though this is a controversial term.

Important developments, events and achievements

Science and technology

- The assembly line and mass production of motor vehicles and other goods allowed manufacturers to produce more and cheaper products. This allowed the automobile to become the most important means of transportation.
- The invention of heavier-than-air flying machines and the jet engine allowed for the world to become "smaller". Space flight increased knowledge of the rest of the universe and allowed for global real-time communications via geosynchronous satellites.
- Mass media technologies such as film, radio, and television allow the communication of political messages and entertainment with unprecedented impact
- Mass availability of the telephone and later, the computer, especially through the Internet, provides people with new opportunities for near-instantaneous communication
- Applied electronics, notably in its miniaturized form as integrated circuits, made possible the above mentioned rise of mass media, telecommunications, ubiquitous computing, and all kinds of "intelligent" appliances; as well as many advances in natural sciences such as physics, by the use of exponentially growing calculation power (see supercomputer).
- The development of Nitrogen fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides resulted in significantly higher agricultural yield.
- Advances in fundamental physics through the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics led to the development of nuclear weapons (known informally as "the Bomb" and dropped on the industrial town of Hiroshima and the historic one of Nagasaki), the nuclear reactor, and the laser. Fusion power was studied extensively but remained an experimental technology at the end of the century.
- Inventions such as the washing machine and air conditioning led to an increase in both the quantity and quality of leisure time for the middle class in Western societies.
- Most influential inventions in the 20th century: antibiotics, oral contraceptives, new plastics, transistors, Internet
- More...

Wars and politics

- Democratic nations began to extend voting privileges to all adults.
- Rising nationalism and increasing national awareness were among the causes of World War I, the first of two wars to involve all the major world powers including Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and the British Commonwealth. World War I led to the creation of many new countries, especially in Eastern Europe. Ironically, it was said by many to be the 'War to end all Wars'.
- The economic and political aftermath of World War I led to the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe, and shortly to World War II. This war also involved Asia and the Pacific, in the form of Japanese aggression against China and the United States. While the First World War mainly cost lives among soldiers, civilians suffered greatly in the Second -- from the bombing of cities on both sides, and in the unprecedented German genocide of the Jews and others, known as the Holocaust.
- During World War I, in Russia the Bolshevik putsch led to the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the Soviet Union's involvement in World War II, Communism became a major force in global politics, spreading all over the world: notably, to Eastern Europe, China, Indochina and Cuba. This led to the Cold War and proxy wars with the western world, including wars in Korea (1950-53) and Vietnam (1957 - 75).
- The "fall of Communism" in the late 1980s freed Eastern and Central Europe from Soviet supremacy. It also led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia into successor states, many rife with ethnic nationalism, and left the United States as the world's superpower.
- Through the League of Nations and, after World War II, the United Nations, international cooperation increased. Other efforts included the formation of the European Union, leading to a common currency in much of Western Europe, the euro around the turn of the millennium.
- The end of colonialism led to the independence of many African and Asian countries. During the Cold War, many of these aligned with the USA, the USSR, or China for defense.
- The creation of Israel, a Jewish state in a mostly Arab region of the world, fueled many conflicts in the region, which were also influenced by the vast oil fields in many of the Arab countries.
- The term Southeast Asia coined.

Culture and entertainment

- Movies, music and the media had a major influence on fashion and trends in all aspects of life. As many movies and music originate from the United States, American culture spread rapidly over the world.
- After gaining political rights in the United States and much of Europe in the first part of the century, and with the advent of new birth control techniques women became more independent throughout the century.
- Rock and Roll and Jazz styles of music are developed in the United States, and quickly become the dominant forms of popular music in America, and later, the world. The Beatles, a 1960s British Rock and Roll band, becomes one of the most successful acts of all time, and is credited, in their experimental later albums, with permanently changing what was thought possible in popular music.
- Modern art developed new styles such as expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.
- The automobile provided vastly increased transportation capabilities for the average member of Western societies in the early to mid-century, spreading even further later on. City design throughout most of the West became focused on transport via car. The car became a leading symbol of modern society, with styles of car suited to and symbolic of particular lifestyles.
- Sports became an important part of society, becoming an activity not only for the privileged. Watching sports, later also on television, became a popular activity.

Disease and medicine

- Although the availability and quality of medicine continued to improve, epidemic diseases continued to spread, aided by modern transportation. An influenza pandemic, the Spanish Flu, killed 25 million between 1918 and 1919, while AIDS is yet uncured and treatments remain too expensive for wide use in developing countries.
- Advances in medicine, such as the invention of antibiotics, decreased the number of people dying from diseases. Contraceptive drugs and organ transplantation were developed. The discovery of DNA molecules and the advent of molecular biology allowed for cloning and genetic engineering.

Natural resources and the environment

- The widespread use of petroleum in industry -- both as a chemical precursor to plastics and as a fuel for the automobile and airplane -- led to the vital geopolitical importance of petroleum resources. The Middle East, home to many of the world's oil deposits, became a center of geopolitical and military tension throughout the latter half of the century. (For example, oil was a factor in Japan's decision to go to war against the United States in 1941, and the oil cartel, OPEC, used an oil embargo of sorts in the wake of the Yom Kippur War in the 1970s).
- A vast increase in fossil fuel consumption leads to depletion of natural resources, while air pollution has led to the develoment of an ozone hole and, many believe, global warming and both local and global climate change. The problem is increased by world-wide deforestation, also causing a loss of biodiversity. The problem of a depletion of natural resources is decreased by advances in drilling technology which led to a net increase in the amount of fossil fuel that is readily obtainable at the end of the century, as compared with the amount considered obtainable at the beginning of the century.

Significant people

Pleng luk thung

Thai language

Languages and dialects

Script

Grammar

Adjectives

Verbs

Adverbs

Nouns

Pronouns

Particles

Phonology

Tones

Consonants

Vowels

Vocabulary

References

External links

Music of Thailand

History

Genres

Classical music

Fundamentals

Traditional or folk

Luk thung

Mor lam

Kantrum

Pop and rock

References

Link

Tempo

Measuring tempo

Musical vocabulary for tempo

Understood tempos

Italian tempo markings

Basic tempo markings

Common Qualifiers

Mood markings with a tempo connotation

Terms for change in tempo

Tempo markings in other languages

French tempo markings

German tempo markings

Tempo markings in English

Rushing and dragging

Can tempo terms be defined with the metronome?

Tempo markings as movement names

Usage note: plural

External links

Vibrato

Vibrato in classical music

External links

20th century

Overview

Important developments, events and achievements

Science and technology

Wars and politics

Culture and entertainment

Disease and medicine

Natural resources and the environment

Significant people

World leaders

Scientists

Humanities

Business

Aerospace pioneers

Military leaders

Spiritual figures

Artists