Search Results for: music on money

Celebrating Tyagaraja ārādhana in South India

The social organization of musicians in South India is often reflected in the Tyagaraja ārādhana, the annual death-anniversary celebration in honor of the revered composer Tyagaraja (1767–1847, pictured above). Thousands of musicians appear at this huge annual celebration, including men … Continue reading

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Filed under Asia, Performers, Religious music, World music

Joni Mitchell and 1960’s women’s sexual freedom

Born in Fort MacLeod, Alberta in Canada, a young Joni Mitchell (born Joan Anderson) moved to North Battleford, Saskatchewan with her parents shortly after World War II. Inspired by an older friend, she begged her parents at age 7 to … Continue reading

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Filed under North America, Performers, Politics, Popular music, Women's studies

The dark side of the rainbow

Fifty years ago today Pink Floyd’s album The dark side of the moon soared to number one on the US Billboard chart, beginning a record-breaking 741-week chart run; it has since sold over 45 million copies worldwide, making it the … Continue reading

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Filed under Curiosities, Film music, Popular music

Piatigorsky’s youthful adventure

Already a cello prodigy with a full scholarship to the Moscow Conservatory, the ten-year-old Gregor Piatigorsky found himself stranded in Astrahan’ due to one of his father’s failed enterprises. Tall enough to pass as a teenager, he found a temporary … Continue reading

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Filed under Curiosities, Performers, Romantic era

Moroccan insult contests

A performance that occurred almost daily in a public square in Marrakech in the early 1980s traded on ethnic identity for fun and profit. The performance began with an Arab duo singing in Arabic; as a crowd began to gather … Continue reading

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Filed under Africa, Curiosities, Humor

Women and gramophones

A letter published in the June 1925 issue of Gramophone noted the magazine’s general absence of women correspondents: “are the sweet little things too shy, or what?” A response published in August of that year dismissed the idea of women … Continue reading

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Filed under Curiosities, Mass media, Reception, Women's studies

Shine and the Titanic

Religious African Americans saw the sinking of the Titanic as an example of God’s intervention in human affairs, as a divine overriding of the advantages conferred by wealth and mastery of technology. Their secular songs about the disaster either nihilistically … Continue reading

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Filed under Black studies, Humor

Doctor Love’s diagnoses

The Zimbabwean singer-songwriter Paul Matavire was widely celebrated for his witty but sharply pointed songs addressing themes of intimacy, romance, and social relations, earning him the nickname Doctor Love. Matavire’s well-calculated social commentary, disseminated through sungura music, continues to hold … Continue reading

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Filed under Humor, Performers, Popular music

Rosie Flores and “Working girl’s guitar”

In an interview, Rosie Flores discussed the title cut of her 2012 album Working girl’s guitar: There’s a friend of mine who does, well, everything. He does bodywork, he’s written books on rolfing, how to play the banjo, and how … Continue reading

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Filed under Performers, Popular music

The Smithsonian Institution’s Object of the Day, November 22, 2019: Jenny Lind Concert Program

“Music is prophesy. Its styles and economic organization are ahead of the rest of society because it explores, much faster than material reality can, the entire range of possibilities in a given code. It makes audible the new world that … Continue reading

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Filed under Iconography, Performers, Romantic era