Search Results for: music on money

Music on money

Like postage stamps, musical subjects depicted on money represent a type of iconography that is controlled by governmental organizations; their didactic goals are minimal, and their political role is paramount. Most often they involve the celebration of a national composer … Continue reading

Comments Off on Music on money

Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Iconography

Selena shines in music, fashion, and design

Although Selena Quintanilla Pérez, better known as Selena, followed in the footsteps of pioneering Tejana (Texas-Mexican) women solo singers such as Lydia Mendoza, Chelo Silva, Laura Canales, and Patsy Torres—as well as influential duos like Carmen y Laura, Las Hermanas … Continue reading

Comments Off on Selena shines in music, fashion, and design

Filed under Performers, Popular music, Reception, Voice

The Music of Black Lives Matter

Following is a timeline of writings on the relationship between music and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. This timeline is selective–sourced from various scholarly writings and music journalism currently included in RILM Abstracts of Music Literature. We encourage the … Continue reading

1 Comment

Filed under Black studies

Vinko Dvořák and Croatian musical life

The acoustic physicist Vinko Dvořák was a gifted violinist and a tireless promoter of music in Croatia. As a member of the board of the Hrvatski Glazbeni Zavod between 1913 and 1919, he took an active part in organizing and … Continue reading

Comments Off on Vinko Dvořák and Croatian musical life

Filed under Acoustics, Romantic era, Science

The first musical comedy

The earliest known secular stage play with music, Adam de la Halle’s Le jeu de Robin et de Marion, has been touted as the first musical comedy. Of the two extant sources, the Paris version is by far the rowdier … Continue reading

Comments Off on The first musical comedy

Filed under Dramatic arts, Humor, Middle Ages

Enescu and makam

Georges Enescu’s use of elements of Romanian traditional music is well known; his most popular works today, the Rhapsodies roumaines, attest to his enthusiasm for his homeland’s music. Less known is his interest in the Turkish melodic type makam (pl. makamlar) … Continue reading

2 Comments

Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Opera

Banknotes redux

SPIN: Study Platform on Interlocking Nationalisms, a free online resource dedicated to the study of the Romantic period in Western culture, includes a database devoted to iconography on banknotes, with a special section for composers. As of this writing 33 … Continue reading

Comments Off on Banknotes redux

Filed under Iconography, Reception, Resources, Romantic era

Freddie King, the Texas blues guitar icon

At the age of six, blues musician Freddie King (known as the “Texas Cannonball”) received his first guitar and began taking lessons from his mother, Ella Mae King, and his uncle Leon King. Soon after, he earned enough money to … Continue reading

Comments Off on Freddie King, the Texas blues guitar icon

Filed under Jazz and blues, Performers, Popular music

Seiji Ozawa: An assiduous giant, a spirited man

Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa (1935–2024), who served as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 29 years and led the Vienna State Opera for eight years, was celebrated for his dynamic and limpid style on the podium and his … Continue reading

Comments Off on Seiji Ozawa: An assiduous giant, a spirited man

Filed under 20th- and 21st-century music, Musicology, Performers

Laura Jane Grace sings the gender dysphoria blues

It has been noted that the durability of punk has been driven by a communal ethos that embodies inclusivity, resistance, challenge, and transformation. First wave punk represented this ethos, and it remains evident in punk’s ongoing engagement with queer politics … Continue reading

Comments Off on Laura Jane Grace sings the gender dysphoria blues

Filed under Gender and sexuality, Performers, Popular music