Chris Stephens | |
|---|---|
 Chris Stephens performing at MU School of Music, September 4, 2024 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | 11 May 1983 Dexter, Missouri, USA |
| Genres | World music |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Years active | 2004 – |
Chris Stephens (born May 11, 1983) is an American musician who specializes in lutes from the silk road (Middle East, Persia, India, and Asia) as well as guitar and banjo. [1]
Stephens studied anthropology and geography at the University of Missouri and Southeast Missouri State University. He started as a guitar player, belonging to the jam band scene of the late early 2000s which primed his interest in improvisation. After hearing Bela Fleck, he was inspired to take up learning eastern music. [2] His curiosity led him to learn instruments such as the oud, sitar, pipa, shamisen, tar, baglama, as well as the banjo, which is central to American bluegrass music. [3] [4] He studied sitar under Imrat Khan. [5]
Stephens is an active performer, teacher, and cultural ambassador through his educational programs, combining music with historical and geographical learning. He is renowned for his ability to perform on a wide range of instruments, including traditional instruments from Asia and the Middle East, as well as Western instruments. He has performed across the United States as a solo artist and in collaboration with other musicians and ensembles. [6] [7] [8] His music draws from compositions across diverse regions and historical periods, showcasing his mastery of improvised musical traditions such as Maqam, Dastgah, and Raga. [9]
He is the first American Pipa player to be hosted by the US China Music Institute at Bard College. A significant part of his career is the "Open Strings" program, designed as an educational platform for students of all ages. This program provides insight into global musical heritage through hands-on experiences with instruments and musical traditions, blending music with history, geography, and cultural studies. [10] He teaches music lessons at Compass Music in Columbia, Missouri and online. [3] [11]
A lute is any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted.
In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners.
The sitar is a plucked stringed instrument, originating from the Indian subcontinent, used in Hindustani classical music. The instrument was invented in the 18th century, and arrived at its present form in 19th-century India. Khusrau Khan, an 18th-century figure of the Mughal Empire has been identified by modern scholarship as the inventor of the sitar. According to most historians, he developed the sitar from the setar, an Iranian instrument of Abbasid or Safavid origin.
The oud is a Middle Eastern short-neck lute-type, pear-shaped, fretless stringed instrument, usually with 11 strings grouped in six courses, but some models have five or seven courses, with 10 or 13 strings respectively.
The pipa, pípá, or p'i-p'a is a traditional Chinese musical instrument belonging to the plucked category of instruments. Sometimes called the "Chinese lute", the instrument has a pear-shaped wooden body with a varying number of frets ranging from 12 to 31. Another Chinese four-string plucked lute is the liuqin, which looks like a smaller version of the pipa. The pear-shaped instrument may have existed in China as early as the Han dynasty, and although historically the term pipa was once used to refer to a variety of plucked chordophones, its usage since the Song dynasty refers exclusively to the pear-shaped instrument.
In music, a drone is a harmonic or monophonic effect or accompaniment where a note or chord is continuously sounded throughout most or all of a piece. A drone may also be any part of a musical instrument used to produce this effect; an archaic term for this is burden such as a "drone [pipe] of a bagpipe", the pedal point in an organ, or the lowest course of a lute. Α burden is also part of a song that is repeated at the end of each stanza, such as the chorus or refrain.
The tar is a long-necked, waisted lute family instrument, used by many cultures and countries including Iran, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia, Tajikistan, Turkey, and others near the Caucasus and Central Asia regions. The older and more complete name of the tār is čahārtār or čārtār, meaning in Persian "four string",. This is in accordance with a practice common in Persian-speaking areas of distinguishing lutes on the basis of the number of strings originally employed. Beside the čārtār, these include the dotār, setār, pančtār, and šaštār or šeštār.
The sanxian is a three-stringed traditional Chinese lute. It has a long fretless fingerboard, and the body is traditionally made from snake skin stretched over a rounded rectangular resonator. It is made in several sizes for different purposes and in the early 20th century a four-stringed version, the jiaxian sanxian (加弦三弦), was developed. The northern sanxian is generally larger, at about 122 cm (48 in) in length, while southern versions of the instrument are usually about 95 cm (37 in) in length.
A setar is a stringed instrument, a type of lute used in Persian traditional music, played solo or accompanying voice. It is a member of the tanbur family of long-necked lutes with a range of more than two and a half octaves. Originally a three stringed instrument, a fourth string was added by Mushtaq Ali Shah by the mid 19th century. It is played with the index finger of the right hand.
The qinqin is a plucked Chinese lute. It was originally manufactured with a wooden body, a slender fretted neck, and three strings. Its body can be round, hexagonal, or octagonal. Often, only two strings were used, as in certain regional silk-and-bamboo ensembles. In its hexagonal form, it is also referred to as meihuaqin.
Plucked string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by plucking the strings. Plucking is a way of pulling and releasing the string in such a way as to give it an impulse that causes the string to vibrate. Plucking can be done with either a finger or a plectrum.
Rubab, robab, or rabab is a lute-like musical instrument. The rubab is the national musical instrument of Afghanistan; it is also commonly played in India and Pakistan, mostly by Pashtuns, Balochis, Sindhis, Kashmiris, and Punjabis. Variants of the rubab include the Kabuli rebab of Afghanistan, the Rawap of Xinjiang, the Pamiri rubab of Tajikistan and the seni rebab of northern India. The instrument and its variants spread throughout West, Central, South and Southeast Asia. The Kabuli rebab from Afghanistan derives its name from the Arabic rebab and is played with a bow while in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, the instrument is plucked and is distinctly different in construction.
The bipa is a pear-shaped lute that is a traditional Korean musical instrument. It is derived from Chinese pipa and was introduced through the Silk Road to Goguryeo and Silla. There are two major types of bipa: the four stringed dang-bipa and the five stringed hyang-bipa. While dang-bipa was a Tang-style pipa first introduced from the Chinese Tang dynasty and localized over time to have Korean characteristics, hyang-bipa was created in the Korean Kingdom of Silla. The instrument is also related to other derivatives such as Vietnamese đàn tỳ bà and the Japanese biwa.
Bluegrass mandolin is a style of mandolin playing most commonly heard in bluegrass bands.
The veena, also spelled vina, is any of various chordophone instruments from the Indian subcontinent. Ancient musical instruments evolved into many variations, such as lutes, zithers and arched harps. The many regional designs have different names such as the Rudra veena, the Saraswati veena, the Vichitra veena and others.
The Museum of Multiethnic Musical Instruments "Fausto Cannone" is dedicated to music and is located inside the Ex Church of Saint James of the Sword at 75, Via Commendatore Navarra in Alcamo, Italy.
Charles Dennis Cawood is an English multi-instrumental musician, composer and music journalist, known for his cross-disciplinary musical skills as well as his work with a wide variety of projects and artists.
Lutes are stringed musical instruments that include a body and "a neck which serves both as a handle and as a means of stretching the strings beyond the body".