Music F200X - Larsen

 The Sitar is a traditional Indian instrument that has between 18-21 strings dating back to the 16th century. It is a staple in traditional and modern Indian music, and is a fairly unique instrument. It is unique in that only 6-7 of the strings are pluckable, whereas the other 12-14 are called sympathetic strings. These are not played, but rather resonate with the other strings, giving a more full feeling to the instrument.  It is theorized that the Sitar was first invented around 1200 A.D, but this is disputed. In the 1500s, the first Sitar type instrument, typically called a Tambur, was beginning to be used in India. Tamburs typically had 4 strings and no sympathetic strings, but the body shape is vaguely the same. However, it wasn't until the 1700s that the modern Sitar began to take it's shape. In the 1700s the first 5 string Sitars, with up to 13 sympathetic strings, were created. This is also when the name Sitar was first used. The string count has gradually risen to the...

 Misty Mountains, also known as Far Over the Misty Mountains Cold, is a song performed in the 2012 film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It, like the rest of the music in the film, was composed by Howard Shore. However, the song itself was written by the author of the book, J.R.R. Tolkien, as a poem. As it appears in the movie, the song is an excerpt of this poem, consisting of two stanzas. The film was released on November 28, 2012 in Wellington, New Zealand, which is the country of origin. The book was released in 1937 in England.   To give a little background on the song, in case anybody has not seen the movies/read the books, the Misty Mountains are a fictional mountain range in The Hobbit. This mountain range is between the dwarves and their home, which is a single mountain in a different area. The dwarves, in Tolkien's series, are characterized by their greed. These dwarves had collected a lot of gold, which belonged to a dragon. The dragon came and took the gold bac...

Pentatonix is an American group of acapella singers originally founded in 2011. The group has produced some original music, but is known for their covers of pop and Christmas music. Biography: The group was founded in 2011 when former high school classmates Kirstin Maldonado, Mitch Grassi, and Scott Hoying decided that they wanted to win "The Sing Off", which was a popular show on NBC at the time, with the prize of $200,000 and a recording deal with Sony. Mitch had auditioned for the show directly out of high school, while Kirstin and Scott were both in college to pursue music. In an effort to make time for the show, though, the both dropped out. Since all three shared the lead vocal duties, they were advised to find a bassist and beatboxer to complete the group. Scott met their bassist, Avi Kaplan, through a friend, and the group found their beatboxer, Kevin Olusola, on Youtube. Together, the group won the third season of "The Sing Off", and got a recording deal wi...

 Iceland has a few different types of traditional music. The example of folk music has clear western influences, but with a separate culture, and some certain differences. The second example is a Icelandic Rimur, which is a type of chant that originated in the time of the vikings. This chant carried on throughout Icelandic culture, but died out when the songs were banned by the protestant church. Attempts have been made revive the Rimur recently, and incidentally, Misty Mountains, from the Lord of the Rings series, is in the format of a Rimur. This first song is an Icelandic folk song. This is a version of Ólafur Liljurós performed by The New Wiccans. These folk songs were traditionally dances that could be performed for crowds of people. The structure is different from western music, as it is not structured into verses and choruses, but rather as one song. You can hear the call and answer style of music in the song, where one instrument will play a call, then another type will ans...

 The electric guitar is one of the more prevalent instruments in today's music, possibly even more so than the older acoustic guitar. This would not be true, however, if electric guitars did not evolve. Electric guitars have changed greatly since their inception in 1931. In the time between the production of the first electric guitar in 1931 and the production of the Stratocaster in 1954, electric guitars changed greatly. Everything from sound pickup design to wood choice was changed, and all of these things came together to result in a much different listening experience between the two. The first successful mass produced electric guitar is widely considered to be the Rickenbacker Frying Pan. This guitar was a pioneer, but is no longer widely produced, and has become somewhat of a collectors item. It was originally created to take advantage of the popularity of Hawaiian electro music, and had a electromagnetic pickup on the solid wood body. The guitar was designed to be played on ...

  Test Drive, by John Powell, is a track from the movie How to Train Your Dragon, which has one of my favorite scores. The movie was released in 2010 in the U.S. I really love how the movie, and this piece in particular, tells a story through through the music. While the characters are good and all, the music in this film, and many films, is what really evokes the emotion, and sets the scene. Every choice in the music contributes to telling the story. This movie is particularly good at that. I embedded a video of just the soundtrack, as well as linked the scene from the movie.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LECmyZB-cgM Leitmotifs For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, a leitmotif is a musical idea that is associated with a certain character or element in a movie or play. In this case, the leitmotifs in this movie are associated with each character. In the beginning of the film, there is a leitmotif established for each of the main characters or group of characters, a...