Dictionary of Music - Birding America

456 vampby using valve 3 alone; this is true because valves 1and 2 together lower the pitch by one and one-halftones, and so does valve 3 alone. The fact that differentvalve combinations can be used for certainnotes allows the player to select the most convenientfingering. —ascending valve A valve thatcloses off a section of the tubing, thereby raising thepitch. Today these are used only in the double horn(see FRENCH HORN) and in ordinary French hornsbuilt in France.vamp 1 An improvised passage of chords toaccompany a vocal soloist. 2 In popular music andjazz, a preparatory passage to fill in until a singer isready to perform.Varèse (vä rez′), Edgard, 1883–1965. AFrench-born composer who from 1915 on livedmostly in the United States, and who was one ofthe pioneers of electronic music. After early studiesin Paris with d’Indy, Roussel, and Widor, Varèseorganized and conducted several choral groups inEurope. Upon his arrival in America he foundedthe New Symphony Orchestra for the performanceof modern music, and in the next few years hehelped organize various groups to help contemporarycomposers. In his own compositions, Varèseworked out some wholly original ideas. Rejectingboth traditional melody and traditional harmony, hecombined pure sounds, creating music from texture,tone color, and strong, lively rhythms. Thereis no melodic or harmonic movement in the conventionalsense: the music consists of blocks ofsound, clarified by rhythm. This technique is evidentin such early works as the octet Octandre(1924) and Arcana (1927), for a large orchestra.Ionisation (1931) is scored for percussion instruments(including a siren) and piano, and it has beendescribed as a combination of rhythm and wailingnoises. Density 21.5, on the other hand, is for soloflute. Varèse was one of the first to experiment withMUSIQUE CONCRÈTE (taped real-life sounds); outstandingare his Déserts (1954), which combineslive instruments with taped sounds, and Poèmeélectronique (1958), presented over four hundredloudspeakers in a huge pavilion at the BrusselsWorld’s Fair.variable meters The practice of using a newmeter in every measure of a composition, employedby several twentieth-century composers (BorisBlacher was one of the first to do so).variation A repetition of a subject (melody) orfigure (motif) that differs in certain respects from itsoriginal presentation. The melody may be varied bybeing ornamented, or its key altered, the modechanged (from major to minor or vice versa), therhythm altered, the voice-parts switched (the melodymoved from the soprano part to the bass part, forexample), etc. Moreover, such changes may occursingly or in combination. Variation has been a basictechnique of composition for many centuries. Animportant musical form based on it is THEME ANDVARIATIONS.variations, theme andTIONS.See THEME AND VARIA-vaudeville (vōd vē′y ə ) French. 1 In the earlyeighteenth century, a song whose text usually madefun of a current event or person and whose musicwas a popular melody. Such vaudevilles were oftenincluded in French comic operas (see OPÉRA-COMIQUE, def. 1). 2 In the nineteenth century, a typeof French entertainment consisting of a short,humorous play and popular songs. 3 (vôd′vil). In thetwentieth century, especially in the United States, avariety show consisting of songs, skits, and otherlight entertainment.Vaughan Williams (vôn wil′yəmz), Ralph(rāf), 1872–1958. An English composer andconductor who is remembered for his choral andsymphonic works, which combine a variety ofinfluences, ranging from impressionism to folksong. Notable among his works are Fantasia on aTheme by Thomas Tallis for string orchestra, TheLark Ascending for violin and orchestra, the balladopera Hugh the Drover, Mass in G minor, and TeDeum. Of his nine symphonies, A London Symphony(no. 2) and Sinfonia antartica (no. 7) are frequentlyperformed. Vaughan Williams’s music isparticularly notable for his emphasis on melodyand, influenced by Elizabethan and Tudor music,