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23-437: The Worcester Fragments comprise 25 short pieces of vocal music . They are referred to as "fragments" because they do not exist in one unified manuscript but have been reassembled from sheets used as book-binding material in later centuries. These old materials had themselves at some stage been bundled together into several collections of flyleaves and saved in various books which had historical connections with Worcester. Once it

46-693: A cappella ), in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered to be instrumental music (e.g. the wordless women's choir in the final movement of Holst 's symphonic work The Planets ) as is music without singing. Music without any non-vocal instrumental accompaniment is referred to as a cappella . Vocal music typically features sung words called lyrics , although there are notable examples of vocal music that are performed using non-linguistic syllables, sounds, or noises, sometimes as musical onomatopoeia , such as jazz scat singing . A short piece of vocal music with lyrics

69-733: A technique called Sprechstimme in which singers are half-talk, half-sing, and only approximate pitches. Bobby McFerrin Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter , and conductor . His vocal techniques include singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch —for example, sustaining a melody while also rapidly alternating with arpeggios and harmonies—as well as scat singing , polyphonic overtone singing , and improvisational vocal percussion . He performs and records regularly as an unaccompanied solo vocal artist. He has frequently collaborated with other artists from both

92-456: Is broadly termed a song, although in different styles of music, it may be called an aria or hymn . Vocal music often has a sequence of sustained pitches that rise and fall, creating a melody , but some vocal styles use less distinct pitches, such as chants or a rhythmic speech-like delivery, such as rapping . As well, there are extended vocal techniques that may be used, such as screaming, growling, throat singing , or yodelling. Vocal music

115-519: Is probably the oldest form of music, since it does not require any instrument besides the human voice . All musical cultures have some variation of vocal music. Solfege , a vocalized musical scale , assigns various syllables such as "Do-Re-Mi" to each note. A variety of similar tools are found in traditional Indian music , and scat singing of jazz. Hip hop music has a very distinct form of vocal percussion known as beatboxing . It involves creating beats, rhythms, and scratching . The singer of

138-590: The Icelandic group Sigur Rós , Jón Þór Birgisson , often uses vocals without words, as does Icelandic singer/songwriter, Björk . Her album Medúlla is composed entirely of processed and acoustic vocal music, including beatboxing , choral arrangements, and throat singing . Singer Bobby McFerrin has recorded a number of albums using only his voice and body, sometimes consisting of a texted melody supported by untexted vocalizations. The Second Viennese School , especially Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg , pioneered

161-531: The U.S. He has collaborated with his son, Taylor, on various musical ventures. In July 2003, McFerrin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music during the Umbria Jazz Festival where he conducted two days of clinics. In 2009, McFerrin and psychologist Daniel Levitin hosted The Music Instinct , a two-hour documentary produced by PBS and based on Levitin's best-selling book This Is Your Brain on Music . Later that year,

184-1240: The United States and Canada, including the San Francisco Symphony (on his 40th birthday), the New York Philharmonic , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , the Cleveland Orchestra , the Detroit Symphony Orchestra , the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra , the Philadelphia Orchestra , the Los Angeles Philharmonic , the London Philharmonic , the Vienna Philharmonic and many others. In McFerrin's concert appearances, he combines serious conducting of classical pieces with his own vocal improvisations, often with participation from

207-688: The Worcester Fragments. 15 original leaves of the Worcester Fragments were recovered from late-medieval bindings of Worcester Cathedral Priory and are now at the Bodleian Library in Oxford (Bodleian Library MS. Lat. liturg. d. 20). This Medieval music -related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Vocal music Vocal music is a type of singing performed by one or more singers, either with instrumental accompaniment, or without instrumental accompaniment (

230-477: The audience and the orchestra. For example, the concerts often end with McFerrin conducting the orchestra in an a cappella rendition of the " William Tell Overture ," in which the orchestra members sing their musical parts in McFerrin's vocal style instead of playing their parts on their instruments. For a few years in the late 1990s, McFerrin toured a concert version of Porgy and Bess . He said that his production

253-478: The field of recording." McFerrin is married to Debbie Green and has three children; musicians Taylor and Madison , and actor Jevon. In an interview with Daniel Levitin , McFerrin revealed that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease , prompting him to sell his home in rural Pennsylvania and move to San Francisco . As a vocalist, McFerrin often switches rapidly between modal and falsetto registers to create polyphonic effects, performing both

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276-484: The final version of the short film includes these lyrics during the end credits. Also in 1989, he formed a ten-person "Voicestra" which he featured on both his 1990 album Medicine Music and in the score to the 1989 Oscar-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt . Around 1992, an urban legend began that McFerrin had committed suicide; it has been suggested that the false story spread because people enjoyed

299-570: The irony of a man known for the positive message of "Don't Worry, Be Happy" suffering from depression in real life. In 1993, he sang Henry Mancini 's " Pink Panther Theme " for the 1993 comedy film Son of the Pink Panther . In addition to his vocal performing career, in 1994, McFerrin was appointed as creative chair of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra . He makes regular tours as a guest conductor for symphony orchestras throughout

322-639: The jazz and classical scenes. McFerrin's song " Don't Worry, Be Happy " is the only acapella track to ever reach No. 1 in the US, which it reached in 1988 and additionally won Song of the Year and Record of the Year honors at the 1989 Grammy Awards . McFerrin has also worked in collaboration with jazz fusion instrumentalists including pianists Chick Corea (of Return to Forever ), Herbie Hancock (of The Headhunters ), and Joe Zawinul (of Weather Report ), drummer Tony Williams , and cellist Yo-Yo Ma . McFerrin

345-745: The two appeared together on a panel at the World Science Festival . McFerrin was given a lifetime achievement award at the A Cappella Music Awards on May 19, 2018. He received the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters award on August 20, 2020. McFerrin was honored with the Grammy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022. This award is given to "performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to

368-480: The use of his song, and said that he was going to vote against Bush. He also dropped the song from his own performance repertoire. In 1989, McFerrin composed and performed the music for the Pixar short film Knick Knack . The rough cut to which he recorded his vocals had the words "blah blah blah" in place of the end credits (meant to indicate that he should improvise ). He decided to sing "blah blah blah" as lyrics, and

391-468: The voice of Santa Bear in Santa Bear's First Christmas , and in 1987 he was the voice of Santa Bear/Bully Bear in the sequel Santa Bear's High Flying Adventure . On September 24 of that same year, he recorded the theme song for the opening credits of Season 4 of The Cosby Show . In 1988, McFerrin recorded the song " Don't Worry, Be Happy ", which became a hit and brought him widespread recognition across

414-488: The world. The song reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988. The song's success "ended McFerrin's musical life as he had known it," and he began to pursue other musical possibilities on stage and in recording studios. The song was used as the official campaign song for George H. W. Bush in the 1988 U.S. presidential election , without McFerrin's permission or endorsement. In reaction, McFerrin publicly protested

437-467: Was a soloist and taught voice at Fullerton College in Southern California. McFerrin's first recorded work, the self-titled album Bobby McFerrin , was not produced until 1982, when he was 31 years old. Before that, he had spent six years developing his musical style, the first two years of which he attempted not to listen to other singers at all, in order to avoid sounding like they sounded. He

460-634: Was born in Manhattan, New York City in 1950, the son of operatic baritone Robert McFerrin , who was the first black man to sing at America's flagship opera company – the Metropolitan Opera, and singer Sara Copper (1924-2019). He attended Cathedral High School in Los Angeles , Cerritos College , University of Illinois Springfield (then known as Sangamon State University) and California State University, Sacramento . His mother Sara (Copper) McFerrin

483-517: Was influenced by Keith Jarrett , who had achieved great success with a series of solo improvised piano concerts including The Köln Concert of 1975, and wanted to attempt something similar vocally. In 1984, McFerrin performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles as a sixth member of Herbie Hancock 's VSOP II, sharing horn trio parts with the Marsalis brothers. In 1986, McFerrin was

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506-421: Was partly in honor of his father, who sang the role for Sidney Poitier in the 1959 film version , and partly "to preserve the score's jazziness" in the face of "largely white orchestras" who tend not "to play around the bar lines, to stretch and bend". McFerrin also participates in various music education programs and makes volunteer appearances as a guest music teacher and lecturer at public schools throughout

529-487: Was recognised that these scattered fragments came from the same source it was possible to piece them together, though much remained missing. The pieces are from the late 13th century to early 14th century. None of them is longer than five minutes, with some as short as one minute long. They demonstrate a variety of musical forms from the period, including the conductus and motet . Parts of several polyphonic compositions attributed to Willelmus de Winchecumbe are included in

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