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111-659: PYP may refer to: Portland Youth Philharmonic , a youth orchestra in Portland, Oregon IB Primary Years Programme , a program developed by the International Baccalaureate for students between kindergarten and 5th grade in the United States Centre–Piedmont–Cherokee County Regional Airport (FAA LID: PYP), an airport near Centre, Alabama Topics referred to by

222-513: A Catholic boarding school , and later became a musician and teacher in Boston and New York City . After moving to Portland , Oregon , where her aunt owned a boarding house , she met and married civil engineer and double bass player Mott Dodge. Soon after they married, Mott was transferred to Harney County for a work project. In 1910, they settled in Burns in an engineering camp known as

333-768: A Chautauqua circuit. With $ 2,000 in funds raised by the aforementioned businessmen, the ensemble visited western Oregon in September 1916 and performed seven concerts in a two-day period. By that point known as the Sagebrush Symphony Orchestra, the ensemble won $ 100 at the Oregon State Fair in Salem and performed several concerts in Portland, including one at the Imperial Hotel and one for opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink at

444-413: A "normal" plucking point, producing a canonical harpsichord sound; the other has a plucking point close to the bridge, producing a reedier "nasal" sound rich in upper harmonics. A single string at a certain tension and length only produces one note. To produce multiple notes, string instruments use one of two methods. One is to add enough strings to cover the required range of different notes (e.g., as with

555-830: A British volunteer corps after Japan's invasion of China during the Second Sino-Japanese War , and eventually returned to the United States with his mother in December 1937. Avshalomov spent a year in Los Angeles, followed by two years in Portland, Oregon, and two more years at the Eastman School of Music . During World War II , he lived in London, where he conducted a performance of Johann Sebastian Bach 's St John Passion . Avshalomov became

666-550: A cave painting in the Trois Frères cave in France depicts what some believe is a musical bow , a hunting bow used as a single-stringed musical instrument. From the musical bow, families of stringed instruments developed; since each string played a single note, adding strings added new notes, creating bow harps , harps and lyres . In turn, this led to being able to play dyads and chords . Another innovation occurred when

777-431: A challenge to instrument builders, as compared with instruments that are only plucked (e.g., guitar), because on bowed instruments, the musician must be able to play one string at a time if they wish. As such, a bowed instrument must have a curved bridge that makes the "outer" strings lower in height than the "inner" strings. With such a curved bridge, the player can select one string at a time to play. On guitars and lutes ,

888-411: A clock or bell. Electric string instruments, such as the electric guitar , can also be played without touching the strings by using audio feedback . When an electric guitar is plugged into a loud, powerful guitar amplifier with a loudspeaker and a high level of distortion is intentionally used, the guitar produces sustained high-pitched sounds. By changing the proximity of the guitar to the speaker,

999-770: A conducting competition which sent him to the University of Surrey in England and Southern Methodist University in Dallas , Texas . Edwards moved to the Pacific Northwest after he held a lecturer position at Northwestern University in Chicago , where he was also a doctoral candidate. Edwards become music director of the Portland Youth Philharmonic in 1995. In 1997, he was honored by

1110-517: A half a pear shape using three strings. Early versions of the violin and fiddle, by comparison, emerged in Europe through instruments such as the gittern , a four-stringed precursor to the guitar, and basic lutes . These instruments typically used catgut (animal intestine) and other materials, including silk, for their strings. String instrument design was refined during the Renaissance and into

1221-498: A heavier metal winding produces a lower pitch than a string of equal length without a metal winding. This can be seen on a 2016-era set of gut strings for double bass. The higher-pitched G string is often made of synthetic material, or sometimes animal intestine, with no metal wrapping. To enable the low E string to produce a much lower pitch with a string of the same length, it is wrapped with many wrappings of thin metal wire. This adds to its mass without making it too stiff. The frequency

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1332-484: A key part of orchestras – cellos, violas, and upright basses, for example, were now standard instruments for chamber ensembles and smaller orchestras. At the same time, the 19th-century guitar became more typically associated with six-string models, rather than traditional five-string versions. Major changes to string instruments in the 20th century primarily involved innovations in electronic instrument amplification and electronic music – electric violins were available by

1443-511: A key that plucks the string. Other musical instruments generate sound by striking the string. With bowed instruments, the player pulls a rosined horsehair bow across the strings, causing them to vibrate. With a hurdy-gurdy , the musician cranks a wheel whose rosined edge touches the strings. Bowed instruments include the string section instruments of the orchestra in Western classical music ( violin , viola , cello and double bass ) and

1554-540: A lute-like instrument came from Mesopotamia prior to 3000 BC. A cylinder seal from c.  3100 BC or earlier (now in the possession of the British Museum) shows what is thought to be a woman playing a stick lute. From the surviving images, theorists have categorized the Mesopotamian lutes, showing that they developed into a long variety and a short. The line of long lutes may have developed into

1665-494: A new emotional thrill, and forthwith became strong advocates and supporters of the junior symphony cause." In spring 1925, the orchestra gained national attention by performing at the convention of the National Federation of Music Clubs in Portland. The Sunday Oregonian reported that convention attendees were "so deeply impressed that they declared it unhesitatingly the most wonderful organization of its kind in

1776-489: A number of other instruments (e.g., viols and gambas used in early music from the Baroque music era and fiddles used in many types of folk music ). All of the bowed string instruments can also be plucked with the fingers, a technique called " pizzicato ". A wide variety of techniques are used to sound notes on the electric guitar , including plucking with the fingernails or a plectrum, strumming and even " tapping " on

1887-401: A performance. The frequency is inversely proportional to the length: A string twice as long produces a tone of half the frequency (one octave lower). Pitch can be adjusted by varying the tension of the string. A string with less tension (looser) results in a lower pitch, while a string with greater tension (tighter) results in a higher pitch. Pushing a pedal on a pedal steel guitar raises

1998-401: A performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some string instruments, like guitars , by plucking the strings with their fingers or a plectrum (pick) , and others by hitting the strings with a light wooden hammer or by rubbing the strings with a bow , like violins . In some keyboard instruments, such as the harpsichord , the musician presses

2109-405: A professional flautist from Italy, who taught the children how to play wind instruments and conducted, Dodge assembled a small orchestra. According to former violin student Ruth Saunders, "All of the sighing, tooting and drumming soon made the citizens aware that something was going on, and due to her powers of persuasion, they found themselves devoting their time, talents, money and children to

2220-609: A successful fine arts conservatory and symphony orchestra, which continued under the Bolshevik regime. Gershkovitch and his wife left Russia in 1921 for China, where they befriended composer Aaron Avshalomov . Ballerina Anna Pavlova offered Gershkovitch an assistant conductor position with her orchestra, which was touring throughout the Orient . Gershkovitch settled in Tokyo to lead the newly organized Tokyo Symphony Orchestra until

2331-403: A violin scale is only about 13 inches (33 cm). On the shorter scale of the violin, the left hand may easily reach a range of slightly more than two octaves without shifting position , while on the bass' longer scale, a single octave or a ninth is reachable in lower positions. In bowed instruments, the bow is normally placed perpendicularly to the string, at a point halfway between the end of

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2442-597: A young age and collected batons , believing that "different pieces needed different kinds of batons". In 1989, Chen attended a concert in Taipei by the American Youth Orchestra, a touring ensemble of Boston 's New England Conservatory . The day following the concert, Chen played for conductor Benjamin Zander in a closed basement hotel bar and was offered a scholarship immediately. She performed with

2553-487: Is a method of playing on instruments such as the veena , banjo , ukulele , guitar, harp, lute , mandolin , oud , and sitar , using either a finger, thumb, or quills (now plastic plectra) to pluck the strings. Instruments normally played by bowing (see below) may also be plucked, a technique referred to by the Italian term pizzicato . Bowing (Italian: arco ) is a method used in some string instruments, including

2664-558: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Portland Youth Philharmonic Hoping to create a permanent youth symphony, Dodge approached Jacques Gershkovitch in 1923 to serve as music director of the Portland Junior Symphony. The ensemble performed for the first time in 1925, and by the 1930s, PJS concerts were being broadcast nationally. Following Gershkovitch's death in 1953, alumnus Jacob Avshalomov became

2775-402: Is impractical. Instruments with a fingerboard are then played by adjusting the length of the vibrating portion of the strings. The following observations all apply to a string that is infinitely flexible (a theoretical assumption, because in practical applications, strings are not infinitely flexible) strung between two fixed supports. Real strings have finite curvature at the bridge and nut, and

2886-457: Is inversely proportional to the square root of the linear density: Given two strings of equal length and tension, the string with higher mass per unit length produces the lower pitch. The length of the string from nut to bridge on bowed or plucked instruments ultimately determines the distance between different notes on the instrument. For example, a double bass with its low range needs a scale length of around 42 inches (110 cm), whilst

2997-409: Is mainly used on electric instruments because these have a pickup that amplifies only the local string vibration. It is possible on acoustic instruments as well, but less effective. For instance, a player might press on the seventh fret on a guitar and pluck it at the head side to make a tone resonate at the opposing side. On electric instruments, this technique generates multitone sounds reminiscent of

3108-523: Is one of the five main divisions of instruments in the Hornbostel–Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification . Hornbostel–Sachs divides chordophones into two main groups: instruments without a resonator as an integral part of the instrument (which have the classification number 31, also known as 'simple'); and instruments with such a resonator (which have the classification number 32, also known as 'composite'). Most western instruments fall into

3219-687: Is one of the oldest string instruments. Ancestors of the modern bowed string instruments are the rebab of the Islamic Empires, the Persian kamanche and the Byzantine lira . Other bowed instruments are the rebec , hardingfele , nyckelharpa , kokyū , erhu , igil , sarangi , morin khuur , and K'ni . The hurdy-gurdy is bowed by a wheel. Rarely, the guitar has been played with a bow (rather than plucked) for unique effects. The third common method of sound production in stringed instruments

3330-592: Is something so genuine about young people making music with their entire heart. Portland took a chance on me and helped me realize my goals. I couldn't have asked for more." Chen on her role as conductor of the Philharmonic Chen became PYP's fourth conductor in 2002 after being selected by a committee of "musically inclined" parents, a member of the orchestra, and representatives from the Oregon Symphony and Portland Opera . She conducted both

3441-406: Is to strike the string. The piano and hammered dulcimer use this method of sound production. Even though the piano strikes the strings, the use of felt hammers means that the sound that is produced can nevertheless be mellow and rounded, in contrast to the sharp attack produced when a very hard hammer strikes the strings. Violin family string instrument players are occasionally instructed to strike

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3552-667: The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for his programming. Edwards also made five recordings during his tenure and led the orchestra on two international tours: Canada in 1998, and Australia/New Zealand in 2000. PYP represented the United States at the Banff International Festival of Youth Orchestras in 1998. Edwards established a peer mentoring program that partnered orchestra musicians with low-income students who had little access to music education . From 1998 to 2005, he

3663-506: The Baroque period (1600–1750) of musical history. Violins and guitars became more consistent in design and were roughly similar to acoustic guitars of the 2000s. The violins of the Renaissance featured intricate woodwork and stringing, while more elaborate bass instruments such as the bandora were produced alongside quill-plucked citterns , and Spanish body guitars. In the 19th century, string instruments were made more widely available through mass production, with wood string instruments

3774-674: The Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 "disorganized all the business and musical interests of the city". The couple fled Japan and arrived in San Francisco in November 1923. They eventually made their way to Portland in 1924; it was here that Gershkovitch was approached by Dodge to lead the Portland Junior Symphony. Gershkovitch taught flute and conducted the Ellison-White Conservatory's student orchestra, at

3885-562: The Imperial Conservatory . Gershkovitch arrived with "17 rubles in his pocket and his flute under his arm"; he auditioned and was awarded a scholarship. At the Conservatory, he learned from respected Russian composers such as Alexander Glazunov , Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Nikolai Tcherepnin , and completed coursework in opera and ballet production. In 1913, he graduated with honors in flute and conducting, and

3996-747: The Malko Competition , the "world's most prestigious prize" for young conductors. She also won the Taki Concordia Fellowship in 2007, an award established by Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop to support "promising" female conductors. Chen was presented the Sunburst Award by Young Audiences for her contribution to music education and was named "Educator of the Week" by KKCW . While conductor of

4107-695: The Portland Hotel . During the symphony's week-long tour, one Oregonian reporter wrote: "The journey of the little people is considered one of the finest exhibitions of community spirit ever shown in this state." Schumann-Heink planned to support the orchestra's efforts to tour, and promised to host a benefit concert the following year. However, the nation's involvement in World War I interrupted plans for additional tours. The orchestra disbanded in 1918 when Dodge relocated to Portland. Mary Dodge initially returned to Portland with her husband when he

4218-699: The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden . Just seven years later, he was on that same podium conducting W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan 's operetta H.M.S. Pinafore . Edwards has been conducting since age seventeen, when he became music director of the Maidstone Opera Company in England, a position he held for six years. Edwards attended the University of Surrey , where he conducted the college orchestra, along with an ensemble that he formed on his own. At 23 years old, he won

4329-455: The piano , which has sets of 88 strings to enable the performer to play 88 different notes). The other is to provide a way to stop the strings along their length to shorten the part that vibrates, which is the method used in guitar and violin family instruments to produce different notes from the same string. The piano and harp represent the first method, where each note on the instrument has its own string or course of multiple strings tuned to

4440-428: The saxophone and trumpet . The development of guitar amplifiers, which contained a power amplifier and a loudspeaker in a wooden cabinet , let jazz guitarists play solos and be heard over a big band. The development of the electric guitar provided guitarists with an instrument that was built to connect to guitar amplifiers. Electric guitars have magnetic pickups , volume control knobs and an output jack. In

4551-469: The tamburs and pandura . The line of short lutes was further developed to the east of Mesopotamia, in Bactria , Gandhara , and Northwest India, and shown in sculpture from the 2nd century BC through the 4th or 5th centuries AD. During the medieval era , instrument development varied in different regions of the world. Middle Eastern rebecs represented breakthroughs in terms of shape and strings, with

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4662-688: The violin , viola , cello , and the double bass (of the violin family ), and the old viol family. The bow consists of a stick with a "ribbon" of parallel horse tail hairs stretched between its ends. The hair is coated with rosin so it can grip the string; moving the hair across a string causes a stick-slip phenomenon , making the string vibrate , and prompting the instrument to emit sound. Darker grades of rosin grip well in cool, dry climates, but may be too sticky in warmer, more humid weather. Violin and viola players generally use harder, lighter-colored rosin than players of lower-pitched instruments, who tend to favor darker, softer rosin. The ravanahatha

4773-404: The "Boston tents". Mary and Mott had one child, Glen, who learned from his mother how to play the fiddle starting at a young age. A classically trained violinist with a "love of children and ... a deeply democratic view about making music", Dodge began teaching local children how to play string instruments , first in resident tents then in a photography studio. With assistance from parents and

4884-430: The 1920s and were an important part of emerging jazz music trends in the United States. The acoustic guitar was widely used in blues and jazz , but as an acoustic instrument, it was not loud enough to be a solo instrument, so these genres mostly used it as an accompaniment rhythm section instrument. In big bands of the 1920s, the acoustic guitar played backing chords, but it was not loud enough to play solos like

4995-465: The 1960s and 1970s, such as fuzz pedals , flangers , and phasers , enabling performers to create unique new sounds during the psychedelic rock era. Breakthroughs in electric guitar and bass technologies and playing styles enabled major breakthroughs in pop and rock music in the 1960s and 1970s. The distinctive sound of the amplified electric guitar was the centerpiece of new genres of music such as blues rock and jazz-rock fusion . The sonic power of

5106-408: The 1960s, larger, more powerful guitar amplifiers were developed, called "stacks". These powerful amplifiers enabled guitarists to perform in rock bands that played in large venues such as stadiums and outdoor music festivals (e.g., Woodstock Music Festival ). Along with the development of guitar amplifiers, a large range of electronic effects units , many in small stompbox pedals, were introduced in

5217-588: The 1984 visit to Europe, the orchestra celebrated its sixtieth anniversary by performing at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City alongside the New York Philharmonic . The concert consisted of three pieces performed by PYP and conducted by Avshalomov ("Dance of the Clowns" from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 's opera The Maid of Orleans , the first movement of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and

5328-727: The American Youth Orchestra for two months before being invited to attend the Walnut Hill School , a preparatory school linked to the New England Conservatory, at age sixteen. For more than three years, Chen lived with a couple in Boston she referred to as her "American parents" (Mark Churchill and Marylou Speaker Churchill; the latter was once a member of the Portland Junior Symphony). Chen continued her undergraduate and graduate work at

5439-481: The Children's Concerts, since Gershkovitch "never gained a command of English sufficient enough for public use". Gershkovitch's often-quoted philosophy was that he did "not teach music", but rather he taught "young people through music". Though there were times when he also wished to conduct professional ensembles, Gershkovitch's primary concern was educating the youth. Apart from music education, Gershkovitch stressed

5550-539: The Conservatory and became the first person to graduate from the institution with a double master's degree in conducting and violin performance. Chen remained in Boston for nine years, then enrolled at the University of Michigan to obtain a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting. "I pushed [musicians of the Portland Youth Philharmonic] quite hard, but at the same time I was doing that for them, they helped me find my own voice. There

5661-1278: The Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra. Hattner also participated in the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen three times, where he studied with Murry Sidlin and David Zinman . He has been the principal clarinet with the Cascade Music Festival Orchestra in Bend , the Key West Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey Opera Theater, and the Princeton Symphony Orchestra. Hattner made his Oregon Symphony debut in January 2011. In addition to conducting and clarinet performance, Hattner has participated in live multimedia performances, accompanying silent films both nationally and internationally. PYP began offering Chamber Orchestra concerts during Hattner's tenure. Today,

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5772-495: The Oregon Symphony's Patty Vemer Excellence in Music Education Award. Created in memory of Patty Vemer, once the director of music education at the Oregon Symphony, the award "honors those who have made significant contributions to music education and their community and who have served as an inspiration to their students". This marked the first year the award had been given to an organization. Notable alumni of

5883-712: The Orient (when Gershkovitch and his wife met Aaron, Jacob was three years old). However, because they did not hold permanent visas, the family returned to China. Jacob graduated from British and American schools before age fifteen, then worked as a factory supervisor in Tientsin, Shanghai and Beijing over a span of four years. Avshalomov was also active in sports and won the diving championship of North China. In 1937, Avshalomov assisted his father in Shanghai with ballet production and worked on scores . He then enlisted with

5994-957: The Philharmonic Orchestra, the Conservatory Orchestra, the Wind Ensemble, and the Young String Ensemble. Participating musicians range in age from seven to twenty-two years and attend dozens of schools within the Portland metropolitan area and surrounding communities. Mary V. Dodge ( birth name Mary B. Thompson) was born in Arkansas in 1876. When she was five years old, her father died, causing her and her sisters to be placed in an orphanage while their mother finished nursing school . Mary Thompson became interested in music while attending

6105-473: The Philharmonic ensemble as well as the Conservatory Orchestra. During her five-year tenure with the organization, PYP debuted at Carnegie Hall , received its third ASCAP award in 2004 for innovating programming, and began collaborating with the Oregon Symphony (Chen was the ensemble's assistant conductor from 2003 to 2005) and Chamber Music Northwest . In April 2005, Chen became the first woman to win

6216-596: The Philharmonic for ten years, she left in 2007 to become assistant conductor of the Atlanta Symphony . She said of her departure: "The musicians at PYP have become my kids. When I look back, these five years will always be the most memorable time of my musical career." Guest conductors during the 2007–2008 season included Ken Selden, director of orchestral studies at Portland State University, former Seattle Symphony conductor Alastair Willis , and former PYP conductors Huw Edwards and Chen herself. David Hattner

6327-456: The Philharmonic, Chen set up a box in her office so that students could leave notes for her. One musician in the orchestra felt that Chen was "kind of formal" during rehearsal but felt "like a big sister" once practice ended. Chen has been described as a "firecracker: small, bright and full of ka-boom", and her enthusiasm at times caused her to lose her breath. One board member of the organization praised Chen's attitude and felt that her lack of ego

6438-565: The Portland Creative Theatre and School of Music, Drama, and Dance to collaborate. Gershkovitch suggested that the Portland Junior Symphony and the ballet studio perform portions of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker as part of Portland's annual Rose Festival . 5,000 spectators attended the Rose Queen coronation ceremony at Civic Auditorium to witness the production, which featured 100 ballerinas and dancers. The production

6549-579: The Portland Junior Symphony consisted of a full symphony orchestra, a choir , and a ballet unit. According to Wither Youth (1935), approximately 350 young artists participated in these groups each season (about 100 in the orchestra, 150 in the chorus, and 100 in the ballet). Membership was granted on "merit, ability, seriousness and interest", and there were no tuition fees for participation (this has since changed). Orchestra members were also encouraged to take private lessons. The minimum schedule for participants included two rehearsals during each week of

6660-488: The Portland Junior Symphony second orchestra conductor in 1954. During his forty-year tenure, Avshalomov produced several recordings, several of which included pieces commissioned by the orchestra, making PJS the first known recording orchestra in the Pacific Northwest . He led the ensemble on its first international tour in 1970. The orchestra became known as the Portland Youth Philharmonic in 1978. 1984 marked

6771-686: The Portland Youth Philharmonic consists of four ensembles: the Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, the Portland Youth Conservatory Orchestra, the Portland Youth Wind Ensemble, and the Young String Ensemble. Each group is selected in open auditions in the spring and fall and is highly selective. Having previously conducted ballet repertory, Gershkovitch was approached in 1934 by Willam Christensen of

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6882-545: The United States at the time, Dodge knew that a professional male conductor would need to lead the orchestra. Dodge approached Jacques Gershkovitch , a Russian immigrant in Portland who was guest conductor for the Portland Symphony (which would later become the Oregon Symphony ), after seeing him conduct. Though Gershkovitch first explained that he did not teach children, Dodge insisted that he listen to

6993-406: The action and strings of the piano were taken out of its box, it could still be played. This is not true of the violin , because the string passes over a bridge located on the resonator box, so removing the resonator would mean the strings had no tension. Curt Sachs also broke chordophones into four basic subcategories, "zithers, lutes, lyres and harps." Dating to around c.  13,000 BC ,

7104-459: The air inside it. The vibration of the body of the instrument and the enclosed hollow or chamber make the vibration of the string more audible to the performer and audience. The body of most string instruments is hollow, in order to have better sound projection. Some, however—such as electric guitar and other instruments that rely on electronic amplification—may have a solid wood body. In musicology , string instruments are known as chordophones. It

7215-423: The bare fingers or a plectrum, bowed or (in the Aeolian harp, for instance) sounded by wind. The confusing plenitude of stringed instruments can be reduced to four fundamental type: zithers, lutes, lyres, and harps. In most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which often incorporates some sort of hollow or enclosed area. The body of the instrument also vibrates, along with

7326-437: The bow harp was straightened out and a bridge used to lift the strings off the stick-neck , creating the lute. This picture of musical bow to harp bow is theory and has been contested. In 1965 Franz Jahnel wrote his criticism stating that the early ancestors of plucked instruments are not currently known. He felt that the harp bow was a long cry from the sophistication of the civilizations of western Asia in 4000 BC that took

7437-487: The bridge can be flat, because the strings are played by plucking them with the fingers, fingernails or a pick; by moving the fingers or pick to different positions, the player can play different strings. On bowed instruments, the need to play strings individually with the bow also limits the number of strings to about six or seven; with more strings, it would be impossible to select individual strings to bow. (Bowed strings can also play two bowed notes on two different strings at

7548-421: The bridge, because of its motion, is not exactly nodes of vibration. Hence the following statements about proportionality are approximations. Pitch can be adjusted by varying the length of the string. A longer string results in a lower pitch, while a shorter string results in a higher pitch. A concert harp has pedals that cause a hard object to make contact with a string to shorten its vibrating length during

7659-399: The children of Portland". Six years later, the orchestra was financially sound, and Dodge resigned to focus on teaching. She also became increasingly dedicated to a scientific approach to bowing . Dodge died in 1954. Born in 1884 to a Jewish family in Irkutsk , Russia , Gershkovitch grew up listening to chamber music and was sent to Saint Petersburg in his late teens to study at

7770-438: The creation of the Sagebrush Orchestra." The orchestra's first concert was held in 1912 at Tonawama Hall in Burns. With funds provided by rancher Bill Hanley, lawyer and artist Charles Erskine Scott Wood , and additional Burns businessmen, Dodge purchased musical instruments for the children and expanded the orchestra to between thirty and thirty-five members. By 1915, the orchestra was touring throughout eastern Oregon on

7881-441: The difference is perhaps more subtle. In keyboard instruments, the contact point along the string (whether this be hammer, tangent, or plectrum) is a choice made by the instrument designer. Builders use a combination of experience and acoustic theory to establish the right set of contact points. In harpsichords, often there are two sets of strings of equal length. These "choirs" usually differ in their plucking points. One choir has

7992-468: The dynamic and timbre (tone colour) range of orchestras, bands, and solo performances. String instruments can be divided into three groups: It is also possible to divide the instruments into categories focused on how the instrument is played. All string instruments produce sound from one or more vibrating strings , transferred to the air by the body of the instrument (or by a pickup in electronically amplified instruments). They are usually categorised by

8103-417: The eight-month season, along with dress rehearsals prior to performances. Three or four concerts were presented each season, many at Portland Public Auditorium (now known as Keller Auditorium ). The organization was sustained financially through concert admission and donations—instruments, funds towards scholarships and the general endowment, and music for the association's library were also accepted to ensure

8214-463: The entire country". The symphony's second season premiered to a capacity audience on November 25, 1925, with the 75-member ensemble performing Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in its entirety along with "In the Village" from Ippolitov-Ivanov 's Caucasian Sketches , the waltz from Rebikov 's The Christmas Tree and the march from Wagner 's opera Tannhäuser . Early in the organization's history,

8325-498: The fingerboard and the bridge. However, different bow placements can be selected to change timbre . Application of the bow close to the bridge (known as sul ponticello ) produces an intense, sometimes harsh sound, which acoustically emphasizes the upper harmonics . Bowing above the fingerboard ( sul tasto ) produces a purer tone with less overtone strength, emphasizing the fundamental , also known as flautando , since it sounds less reedy and more flute-like. Bowed instruments pose

8436-554: The fingerboard and using feedback from a loud, distorted guitar amplifier to produce a sustained sound. Some string instruments are mainly plucked, such as the harp and the electric bass . Other examples include the sitar , rebab , banjo , mandolin , ukulele , and bouzouki . In the Hornbostel–Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification , used in organology , string instruments are called chordophones. According to Sachs , Chordophones are instruments with strings. The strings may be struck with sticks, plucked with

8547-875: The fourth movement of Avshalomov's own symphony, The Oregon ), a performance by the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein 's leadership and finally Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet conducted by Bernstein with a combined ensemble of 210 musicians. The orchestra traveled to Australia and New Zealand in 2000 under the leadership of Huw Edwards, performing Dmitri Shostakovich 's Symphony No. 10 . In 2007, PYP performed six concerts throughout Taiwan (in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taipei) and South Korea (Ulsan and Seoul). In 1993, ASCAP honored PYP with its award for "Adventuresome Programming of Contemporary Music". ASCAP presented PYP with second and third awards in 1997 and 2004, respectively. In 2010, PYP received

8658-401: The guitar, bass, violin, etc.) can be played using a magnetic field. An E-Bow is a small hand-held battery-powered device that magnetically excites the strings of an electric string instrument to provide a sustained, singing tone reminiscent of a held bowed violin note. Third bridge is a plucking method where the player frets a string and strikes the side opposite the bridge. The technique

8769-419: The guitarist can produce sounds that cannot be produced with standard plucking and picking techniques. This technique was popularized by Jimi Hendrix and others in the 1960s. It was widely used in psychedelic rock and heavy metal music . There are three ways to change the pitch of a vibrating string . String instruments are tuned by varying a string's tension because adjusting length or mass per unit length

8880-506: The importance of proper conduct, manners, and "values in life and art" as ways to build character. Following Gershkovitch's death in 1953, guest conductors led the orchestra for its 30th season—one conductor was Jacob Avshalomov, a Columbia University teacher and PJS alumnus who had studied under Gershkovitch while a student at Reed College from 1939 to 1941. Jacob Avshalomov was born on March 28, 1919, in Tsingtao , China. His father

8991-478: The loudly amplified, highly distorted electric guitar was the key element of the early heavy metal music , with the distorted guitar being used in lead guitar roles, and with power chords as a rhythm guitar . The ongoing use of electronic amplification and effects units in string instruments, ranging from traditional instruments like the violin to the new electric guitar, added variety to contemporary classical music performances, and enabled experimentation in

9102-472: The orchestra for 29 years, gaining national attention for the ensemble and pioneering the youth orchestra movement. By the 1930s, PJS concerts were broadcast nationally on the CBS Radio Network . In 1956 and 1958, both NBC and CBS transmitted broadcasts of the orchestra's programs across the United States, and three transcribed programs were broadcast overseas by Voice of America . Gershkovitch

9213-604: The orchestra include Robert Mann , who helped found the Juilliard String Quartet , and Eugene Linden , founder and conductor of the Tacoma Philharmonic Orchestra. Additional students of Gershkovitch who later became professional musicians include Jesse Kregal, Marilynn (Nudelman) Kregal, Barry Lamont, Beverly LeBeck, Frederic Rothchild, Warren Signor and Jacob Avshalomov himself. Other professional musicians who were once part of

9324-620: The orchestra include Glenn Reeves, later a principal violist for the Oregon Symphony; Brian Hamilton, who became a cellist for the Tacoma Philharmonic Orchestra; and Marion Fox, who later joined the Oregon Symphony as a violinist. Harp player Frances Pozzi and Earl Rankin later became staff artists for KOIN and KGW , respectively. String instrument Plucked In musical instrument classification , string instruments , or chordophones , are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when

9435-563: The orchestra's music director. The ensemble's name was changed to the Portland Youth Philharmonic in 1978. The PYP has had five conductors and music directors during its history: Gershkovitch (1924–1953), Avshalomov (1954–1995), Huw Edwards (1995–2002), Mei-Ann Chen (2002–2007), and professional clarinetist David Hattner (2008–present). The PYP's umbrella organization, the Portland Youth Philharmonic Association, consists of four ensembles, including

9546-460: The orchestra's sixtieth anniversary as well as Avshalomov's thirtieth year as conductor. Avshalomov retired in 1995 after an estimated 640 concerts and 10,000 auditions. Huw Edwards , born in South Wales , moved with his parents to England and sang in choirs as a child. He witnessed his first opera, Giuseppe Verdi 's Un ballo in maschera , at eleven years old when his parents took him to

9657-508: The orchestra; she also assisted with sectional rehearsals , appointed a board of directors , and renamed the ensemble to the Portland Junior Symphony Orchestra in 1924. The original board of directors established the mission of the orchestra: "to encourage appreciation and rendition of orchestral music by young people, to give public symphonic and popular concerts, to discover and develop latent talent among

9768-402: The pitch of certain strings by increasing tension on them (stretching) through a mechanical linkage; release of the pedal returns the pitch to the original. Knee levers on the instrument can lower a pitch by releasing (and restoring) tension in the same way. A homemade washtub bass made out of a length of rope, a broomstick and a washtub can produce different pitches by increasing the tension on

9879-451: The player presses keys on to trigger a mechanism that sounds the strings, instead of directly manipulating the strings. These include the piano , the clavichord , and the harpsichord. With these keyboard instruments , strings are occasionally plucked or bowed by hand. Modern composers such as Henry Cowell wrote music that requires that the player reach inside the piano and pluck the strings directly, "bow" them with bow hair wrapped around

9990-491: The primitive technology and created "technically and artistically well-made harps, lyres, citharas, and lutes." Archaeological digs have identified some of the earliest stringed instruments in Ancient Mesopotamian sites, like the lyres of Ur , which include artifacts over three thousand years old. The development of lyre instruments required the technology to create a tuning mechanism to tighten and loosen

10101-427: The rope (producing a higher pitch) or reducing the tension (producing a lower pitch). The frequency is proportional to the square root of the tension: The pitch of a string can also be varied by changing the linear density (mass per unit length) of the string. In practical applications, such as with double bass strings or bass piano strings, extra weight is added to strings by winding them with metal. A string with

10212-403: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title PYP . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=PYP&oldid=1126206228 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

10323-531: The same time, a technique called a double stop .) Indeed, on the orchestral string section instruments, four strings are the norm, with the exception of five strings used on some double basses . In contrast, with stringed keyboard instruments, 88 courses are used on a piano , and even though these strings are arranged on a flat bridge, the mechanism can play any of the notes individually. Similar timbral distinctions are also possible with plucked string instruments by selecting an appropriate plucking point, although

10434-399: The second group, but the piano and harpsichord fall into the first. Hornbostel and Sachs' criterion for determining which sub-group an instrument falls into is that if the resonator can be removed without destroying the instrument, then it is classified as 31. The idea that the piano's casing, which acts as a resonator, could be removed without destroying the instrument, may seem odd, but if

10545-484: The stage after the debut concert to congratulate the musicians, Gershkovitch and Dodge, who was present and was called to the stage. One reviewer for the Oregon Sunday Journal wrote the following day that the "audience that almost filled the auditorium to capacity broke into storm upon storm of applause". According to Ronald Russell, author of A New West to Explore (1938), the audience "had experienced

10656-533: The string tension. Lyres with wooden bodies and strings used for plucking or playing with a bow represent key instruments that point towards later harps and violin-type instruments; moreover, Indian instruments from 500 BC have been discovered with anything from 7 to 21 strings. In Vietnam, a 2,000 year old, singularly stringed instrument made of deer antler was also discovered. Musicologists have put forth examples of that 4th-century BC technology, looking at engraved images that have survived. The earliest image showing

10767-449: The string with the stick of the bow, a technique called col legno . This yields a percussive sound along with the pitch of the note. A well-known use of col legno for orchestral strings is Gustav Holst 's "Mars" movement from The Planets suite. The aeolian harp employs a very unusual method of sound production: the strings are excited by the movement of the air. Some instruments that have strings have an attached keyboard that

10878-419: The strings, or play them by rolling the bell of a brass instrument such as a trombone on the array of strings. However, these are relatively rarely used special techniques. Other keyed string instruments, small enough for a strolling musician to play, include the plucked autoharp , the bowed nyckelharpa , and the hurdy-gurdy, which is played by cranking a rosined wheel. Steel-stringed instruments (such as

10989-533: The symphony's continued viability. "To command attention, maintain discipline, and secure the maximum results he resorted to sarcasm, praise, ridicule, humor, flattery, scolding, dirty looks and the highest commendation—all in a quaint and very special brand of English. The children loved it, for it always had an element of the unexpected." Jacob Avshalomov , later the orchestra's conductor and music director, on Gershkovitch's style Gershkovitch, known for his discipline and high performance standards, conducted

11100-404: The technique used to make the strings vibrate (or by the primary technique, in the case of instruments where more than one may apply). The three most common techniques are plucking, bowing, and striking. An important difference between bowing and plucking is that in the former the phenomenon is periodic so that the overtones are kept in a strictly harmonic relationship to the fundamental. Plucking

11211-503: The time directed by Jacob Avshalomov , until his new PJS duties required his full attention. The symphony performed for the first time on February 14, 1925, at Portland's Lincoln High School Auditorium (which later became Portland State University 's Lincoln Hall ), performing Schubert 's Unfinished Symphony . At the ensemble's first rehearsal, Gershkovitch introduced the composition and said, "You play, or I keel you", in his heavy Russian accent. Concert attendees reportedly rushed

11322-485: The youth ensemble she had assembled. One orchestra member recalled: "I well remember the excitement of that night when Gershkovitch climbed the stairs to Mary Dodge's attic, where we had assembled to play for him. He listened as we played our hearts out. He applauded us and said that if we got the missing instruments, he would take us on." In an attempt to hand over the baton to Gershkovitch, he simply said to Dodge, "I take." Initially, Dodge remained as associate director of

11433-478: Was Aaron Avshalomov , the Siberian-born composer known for "oriental musical materials cast in western forms and media", and mother was from San Francisco. Jacob received musical instruction from his father at a young age. At age eight, Avshalomov visited Portland from China with his parents, who were guests of Gershkovitch for several months in 1927. Aaron Avshalomov had become friends with Gershkovitch in

11544-536: Was a "rare quality in top symphony performers". Chen turned down a position with the Oregon Symphony to continue work at PYP. In 2007, she accompanied the orchestra on an international tour to Asia, where her parents saw her conduct for the first time. The Philharmonic offered a total of six performances between June 29 and July 17 in Kaohsiung, Tainan and Taipei, Taiwan, as well as in Seoul and Ulsan , South Korea . Though Chen initially thought she would remain with

11655-660: Was a faculty member at the Marrowstone Music Festival . During the same period, Edwards left PYP in 2002 for a position with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra , which he also held until 2005. Edwards was appointed music director of the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in 2003. Native to Taiwan , Mei-Ann Chen wanted to be a conductor from the age of ten. She began playing violin and piano starting at

11766-552: Was also responsible for adding a Preparatory Orchestra (later renamed the Conservatory Orchestra) due to increased membership. Gershkovitch tried to incorporate at least one American composition in each concert. He had a distinctive personality and way with words, using expressions (recollected in one former student's diary) such as "More nicely, can't you more?" and "Debussy is beauty, French beauty". For 25 years, David Campbell served as Master of Ceremonies for

11877-676: Was awarded the Schubert Scholarship for a year of study under German conductor Arthur Nikisch in Berlin . However, World War I forced Gershkovitch to return to Irkutsk and enlist in the military . Gershkovitch began his conducting career as head of the Imperial Russian Army 's military symphony orchestra, a position he held through the 1917 revolution . In 1918, Gershkovitch married in Irkutsk and established

11988-719: Was chosen from a field of candidates to be the conductor and music director of PYP in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University , Hattner was a clarinet student of Robert Marcellus . Before joining PYP, he had conducted Camerata Atlantica, the Garden State Philharmonic Orchestra and the Oklahoma Chamber Ensemble, and guest-conducted the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra , Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Sospeso, International Contemporary Ensemble and

12099-620: Was deemed a success for all involved and established Christensen as "Portland's leading ballet teacher". Gershkovitch and Christensen collaborated at the Rose Festival the following year (1935), performing Coppélia twice to enthusiastic crowds. In 1998, PYP was the sole representative of the United States at the Banff International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Canada. The orchestra's Carnegie Hall debut

12210-646: Was in 2004. In October 2010, PYP returned to Burns, Oregon, to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the establishment of the Sagebrush Symphony. A special performance honored Mary Dodge, the history of the organization and music educators with music by Howard Hanson and Charles Ives . PJS made its first international tour to England, Italy and Portugal in 1970. Subsequent international tours included Japan in 1979; Austria and Yugoslavia in 1984; Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Hungary in 1989; Japan and South Korea in 1992 and Germany in 1994. Prior to

12321-522: Was transferred there for work, but when his job fell through, the couple separated and Mary remained in Portland. Now a single woman, Dodge changed her name to Mary V. Dodge, with the "V" standing for "violin". She opened a violin school and became music director of the Irvington Grade School orchestra. With the hope of creating a permanent youth symphony, Dodge began hosting rehearsals in her attic. However, due to gender inequality in

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