Daily Hit of Music's 100th post! Thank you for reading our posts on Daily Hit of Music. We hope you're enjoying them and here's to the next 100! Eitetsu Hayashi is an acclaimed Japanese musician best known for his solo performance work in taiko. Taiko are a broad rang of Japanese percussion instruments. In Japanese, the term refers to any kind of drum, but outside of Japan, it is used specifically to refer to any of the various Japanese drums called wadaiko. The process of constructing taiko varies between manufacturers, and the preparation of both the drum body and skin can take several years ..read more

Beethoven's Violin Sonata No. 9 is a sonata for violin and piano, known for its technical difficulty and unusual length. The sonata was originally dedicated to the virtuoso violinist George Bridgetower.  George Bridgetower, virtuoso violinist born to a Polish mother and West Indian father. Lived in England for much of his life. (1778-1860) Image source Shortly after the completion, the work was premiered by Bridgetower and Beethoven on 24 May 1803 at the Augarten Theatre at a concert that started at the unusually early hour of 8am. Allegedly, Bridgetower sight-read the sonata, h ..read more

Pokarekare Ana is a traditional New Zealand love song. It emanated North of Auckland and was popularised by Māori soldiers who were training near Auckland before embarking for the war in Europe.  The Māori are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand.  Portrait of a young maori woman with moko by Louis John Steele (1891) Image source Read more about Ta moko Māori originated with settlers from eastern Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of waka (canoe) voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several centuries in isolation, thes ..read more

Caterina Assandra was an Italian composer and Benedictine nun born in the province of Pavia. She became famous as an organist and published several works during her lifetime, some of which reached outside the borders of Italy.  Caterina Assandra (c.1590 - after 1618) Image source The local composer Agostino Agazzari influenced Assandra's style. Due to Assandra's residence in the convent, her vocal music was often written for female voices so that her music could function without male singers.  Listen to Assandra's setting of Duo Seraphim: Latin text: Duo seraphim clamabant ..read more

The Sagbutt (also spelled Sackbut) is an early trombone invented in the 1400s, probably in Burgundy. Man playing the sackbut. Engraving by J.C. Weigel (1661 - 1726) Image source Possessing thicker walls and a narrower bell, the sagbutt imparts a softer tone compared to a modern trombone. The word derives from the Old French word saqueboute meaning "pull-push": this motion refers to the sliding mechanism which enables the instrument to achieve lower pitches than the trumpet. However, in Italy, composers such as Giovanni Gabrieli, would have known the instrument as trombone, mean ..read more

The Chick Corea Elektric Band is a jazz fusion band, led by legendary keyboardist and composer Chick Corea. Their second album, Light Years (1987) has been described as a fusion of jazz, funk and rock. Musically, 'funk' refers to a style of urban dance music driven by syncopated bass lines and drumbeats and accented by any number of instruments involved in rhythmic counterplay, all working toward a "groove".  The line-up of the band at the time of Light Years formed what is considered the band's definitive lineup: Chick Corea - Keyboard Image source John Patitucci - Bass ..read more

Konnakol (கொன்னக்கோல்) is the art of vocally performing percussive syllables in South Indian Carnatic music. Carnatic music is one of two main subgenres of Indian classical music. The rhythmic language of konnakol is one of the most intricate systems in the world and is the spoken component of solkattu, which refers to a combination of spoken konnakol syllables while simultaneously "counting" the tala (meter) with the hand.  Image source In the Tamil language, the word "konnakol" means to stammer. Konnakol, however, is hardly akin to that which is involuntary - instead, masterin ..read more

Kathleen Ferrier (1912 - 1953) Image source Kathleen Mary Ferrier was born in Lancashire, England. During her short career as a contralto, she went from one triumph to another, whilst maintaining humility, humour and  love for truth, people and life.  Listen to her recording of Handel's Ombra mai fu: DHM YouTube Ferrier's father was the village schoolmaster at Higher Walton. A good singer himself, he taught most of the music at the school. He then became headmaster at a school in Blackburn, where the family moved when young Kathleen was just two years old. Ferrier was ..read more

In music, 'fugue' is a compositional procedure characterised by the systematic imitation of a principal theme (the subject). Over time, these imitations sound in simultaneous melodic lines (counterpoint).  Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) The works of J.S. Bach stand at the very pinnacle of the history of the fugue: Bach's fugues remain unsurpassed in their extraordinary variety and no other composer produced so many examples of fugues for every musical medium available to him at the time. Watch Inside the Score's quick introduction to the concept of the 'fugue': DHM YouTu ..read more

As well as being the prototype of the modern violin virtuoso - expanding the technical possibilities of the instrument - Antonio Vivaldi also wrote some beautiful vocal music.  Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741) Image source The aria "Vedrò con mio diletto", has became a famous concert piece to sing, especially for countertenors, but was originally intended to be sung by the character Anastasio in Vivaldi's opera 'Giustino'.  Listen to it here: DHM YouTube Italian (original) Text: Vedrò con mio diletto L'alma dell'alma mia Il core del mio cor pien di contento. E se da ..read more