Dawson Vrana

  Musical History of Russia      As with any sort of musical history from many different countries of regions, The music can be very diverse. Today we will be focusing on Russian classical music that began to from during the Tsardom of Russia.       Russia was relatively slow in the growth of its musical diversity, the church was apposed to any sort of secular music or music for simply entertainment as well as it relatively removed interactions from musically progressive countries. Western composers were brought over to westernize Russia and jump start Russias musical culture. This meant that Russia composers fell by the wayside due to the previous "one trick pony" approach that had been used previously. Thus they attempted to compose in a western style, although this was difficult to achieve since they had little experience with the method.  Russian Orthodox Church music      Russian Orthodox music has a heavy e...

The Microphone It's hard to think about singing and not inherently assume you would have a microphone. In today's age, it is an integral part of almost all singing and musical venues you will see. But of course there was a time before the microphone, and that's where we will start.  Singing before the advent of the microphone Before the microphone, singing was done in much smaller venues. A tenor style of voice was prefered for its ability to project loudly and fill a room, such as Al Jolson on Broadway. This also impacted the style of music being created and performed, it wasn't necessarily limited, but there was not as much variety in style.  Nobody wants to listen to music they cant hear!        Microphones in music Once microphones and amplification began working its way into the music industry a whole new era ensued. Larger venues, different vocal ranges became more favorable, and allowing events to be held in more areas.  This also allowed p...