Music

M U S I C

In Britain we can find different kinds of music, from pop music to classical songs. There are many strong local traditions of music.

In Scotland, the national instrument is the bagpipe. It makes the sound which not everyone likes, but to the Scots, bagpipe music is the most exciting in the world and every town has a pipe band.

The north of England is the land of the brass bands. Some of them are internationally famous. The bands have an annual competition and Britain´s best classical composers write music especially for them.

The choirs singing the old hymns especially in the village churches are very popular in the central and southern England. Here in the pubs, we can also meet the singers of old folk songs.

We can find the best choral music in the west, in Wales. The Welsh have always been famous for their singing. The choral singers meet every year in a Welsh competition. Now their male voice choirs are very popular, with their special rich, strong sound.

London has a long tradition of classical music, it is one of the great classical music centres of the world. Every night English and international musicians perform in the concert halls and opera houses. In the London underground or on the London streets we can meet the young buskers- people singing or playing a guitar or a flute. People like them very much. One of them, Ed Alleyne-Johnson, became very popular.

He is a composer and violinist. He started playing on the streets in England, then he travelled round Europe and the States. He was influenced by European music a lot. But his own music is a mixture of many different styles.

He inherited his first violin from his grandfather. But it was broken, so he repaired it and painted it purple. He liked this colour and likewise people, so when he built the new one, he decided to keep the colour.

His violin has five strings, violins normally have four strings, so it´s a violin and a viola built into one. His music sounds like three or four instruments playing at the same time. But this sound is produced by just one instrument- an electric violin. He uses the effects pedals and echo box during his playing. The effects pedals change the sound of violin and make it sound like different instruments. And an echo box is a device, that records the music, he has just played, and repeats it again and again. So he can play a base line, the echo box carries it on while he plays another part on top. Then it carries on repeating both those parts while he plays the tune.

Ed also made his CD. It was very cheap to make, because he did it all himself. He could record straight onto digital tape instead of having to use a big recording studio. He has sold about thirty thousand copies. In the future, he is going to go back to Europe and to have some concerts on the streets, so he is going to carry on busking.

In the United States there is very popular also JAZZ. Jazz was formed in 19th century. It was created by black Americans. Many blacks were brought from Africa to America as slaves. The black slaves sang and played the music of their homeland. Jazz bands played in bars and clubs in many towns and cities, especially New Orleans.