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Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Song
In music, a song is a composition that contains vocal parts ("lyrics") that are performed ("sung"), commonly accompanied by musical instruments, exception in the case of a cappella songs. The lyrics of songs are typically of a poetic, rhyming nature, although they may be religious verses or free prose.
Songs are typically for a solo singer, though they may also be in the form of a duet, trio, or larger ensemble involving more voices. See part song. (Works with more than one voice to a part, however, are considered choral.) Songs can be broadly divided into many different forms, depending on the criteria used. One division is between "art songs", "pop songs", and "folk songs". Other common methods of classification are by purpose (sacred vs secular), by style (dance, ballad, Lied, etc.), or by time of origin (Renaissance, Contemporary, etc.).
A song is a piece of music for accompanied or unaccompanied voice or voices or, "the act or art of singing," but the term is generally not used for large vocal forms including opera and oratorio[1]. However, the term is, "often found in various figurative and transferred sense (e.g. for the lyrical second subject of a sonata...)."[1] The word "song" has the same etymological root as the verb "to sing" and the OED defines the word to mean "that which is sung"[2].
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Art songs
Art songs are songs created for performance in their own right, usually with piano accompaniment, although they can also have other types of accompaniment such as an orchestra or string quartet, and are always notated. Generally they have an identified author(s) and composer and require voice training for acceptable performances. German-speaking communities use the term art song ("Kunstlied") to distinguish "serious" compositions from folk song ("Volkslied"). The lyrics are often written by a poet or lyricist and the music separately by a composer. Art songs may be more formally complicated than popular or folk songs, though many early Lieder by the likes of Franz Schubert are in simple strophic form. They are often important to national identity.
Art songs feature in many European cultures, including but not limited to: Russian (romansy), German (Lieder), Italian (canzoni), French (mélodies), Scandinavian (sånger), Spanish (canciones). There are also highly regarded British and American art songs in the English language. Cultures outside of Europe that have a classical music tradition, such as India, may or may not feature art songs.
The accompaniment of European art songs is considered as an important part of the composition. The art song of the period in which they originally flowered is often a duet in which the vocalist and accompanist share in interpretive importance. The pieces were most often written to be performed in a home or salon setting, although today the works enjoy popularity as concert pieces. The emergence of poetry during this era was much of what inspired the creation of these pieces by Brahms, Schumann, Schubert and other composers. These composers set poems in their native language. Many works were inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich Heine. Another method would be to write new music for each stanza to create a unique form; this was through-composed form known in German as durchkomponiert. A combination of both of these techniques in a single setting was called a modified strophic form. Often romantic art songs sharing similar elements were grouped as a song cycle.[3]
[edit] Folk songs
Popular songs
Modern popular songs are typically distributed as recordings, and are played on the radio, though all other mass media that have audio capabilities are involved. Their relative popularity is inferred from commercially significant sales of recordings, ratings of stations and networks that play them, and ticket sales for concerts by the recording artists. A popular song can become a modern folk song when members of the public who learn to sing it from the recorded version teach their version to others. Popular songs may be called pop songs for short, although pop songs or pop music may instead be considered a more commercially popular genre of popular music as a whole.
Many people consider songs in popular music to have in general simpler structures than art songs, however, musicologists who are, "both contemptuous and condescending [of popular music] are looking for types of production, musical form, and listening which they associate with a different kind of music...'classical music'...and [thus] they generally find popular music lack
Yala National Park
| Yala National Park | |
| IUCN Category II (National Park) | |
 Patanangala, a rock outcrop in the Yala beach | |
| Location of Yala National Park | |
| Location | Southern and Uva Provinces, Sri Lanka |
|---|---|
| Nearest city | Hambantota |
| Coordinates | 6°22′22″N 81°31′01″E / 6.37278°N 81.51694°ECoordinates: 6°22′22″N 81°31′01″E / 6.37278°N 81.51694°E |
| Area | 97,880.7 hectares (377.919 sq mi) |
| Established | 1900 (Wildlife sanctuary) 1938 (National park) |
| Governing body | Department of Wildlife Conservation |
Yala National Park or Ruhuna National Park is the second largest and most visited national park in Sri Lanka. Yala is situated in the southeast region of the country, and lies in Southern Province and Uva Province. The park covers 979 square kilometres (378 sq mi) and is about 300 kilometres (190 mi) from Colombo. It had originally had been designated as a wildlife sanctuary in 1900, and, along with Wilpattu it was one of the first two national parks in Sri Lanka, having been designated in 1938. The park is best known for its variety of its wild animals. It is important for the conservation of Sri Lankan Elephants and aquatic birds.
There are six national parks and three wildlife sanctuaries in the vicinity of Yala. The park is situated in the dry semi-arid climatic region and rain is received mainly during the northeast monsoon. The national park hosts a variety of ecosystems ranging from moist monsoon forests to freshwater and marine wetlands. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami caused severe damage on the Yala National park and 250 people has died in the park.
Yala is one of the 70 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) in Sri Lanka. Yala harbours 215 bird species including six endemic species of Sri Lanka. The number of mammals that has been recorded from the park is 44, and it has one of the highest leopard densities in the world. The area had been a centre of past civilisations. Two important pilgrim sites, Sithulpahuwa and Magul vihara, are situated within the park. The number of visitors has risen in 2009 since the security situation in the park improved.
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History
In 1560 Spanish cartographer Cipriano Sanchez noted Yala in his map "is abandoned for 300 years due to insalubrious conditions."[1] Chief Justice Sir Alexander Johnston wrote a detailed account on Yala in 1806 after travelling from Trincomalee to Hambantota. On March 23, 1900 the government proclaimed Yala and Wilpattu reserves under the Forest Ordinance.[2] Initially the extent of the reserve was 389 square kilometres (150 sq mi) between the Menik and Kumbukkan Rivers. At that time the reserve did not bear the name Yala. The Game Protection Society (now the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society) was instrumental in establishing the reserve. The forest area between Palatupana and Yala was declared a hunting site reserved only for the resident sportsmen.[2]
Henry Engelbrecht was appointed as the first park warden.[1] He was a Boer officer served under General de Wet in the Second Boer War. He was taken as a prisoner of war in 1900 and had deported to Ceylon with 5,000 other prisoners. As Engelbrecht refused to swear allegiance to Edward VII, he was not allowed to repatriate to South Africa. Although he was granted the freedom of movement within the country, he could obtain his pension only from the Kachcheri of Hambantota. The governor of Ceylon, Sir Henry Arthur Blake met him on a journey to Hambantota from Badulla, and as a result, in 1908 Engelbrecht was awarded the position of warden. He administrated the area well, took care of wildlife and apprehended illegal hunters. However during the World War I, he was imprisoned for supplying meat to a German cruiser, SMS Emden. Engelbrecht was released after three months, and he returned to Hambantota. He died in poverty after a few years on 25 March 1922. In 1931 Captain S. Withoift, who was the second in command of the ship came to Colombo and addressed the Colombo Rotary Club. Lucien Poulier, the lawyer of Engelbrecht wrote a letter to him and received a letter from Withoift claiming that the ship never received meat or had any connection with Ceylon during the ship's voyage in the Indian Ocean.[1]
o n 1 March 1938 Yala became a national park when the Flora and Fauna Protection Ordinance was passed into law by D. S. Senanayake, the minister of agriculture. The park consists of five blocks.[3] Subsequently four other blocks were incorporated to the park. There are six national parks and three wildlife sanctuaries in the vicinity of Yala. Kumana National Park, Yala Strict Nature Reserve and Kataragama, Katagamuwa, and Nimalawa sanctuaries are continuous with the park.[2]
| Block | Extent | Date added to the park |
|---|---|---|
| Block I | 14,101 hectares (54.44 sq mi) | 1938 |
| Block II | 9,931 hectares (38.34 sq mi) | 1954 |
| Block III | 40,775 hectares (157.43 sq mi) | 1967 |
| Block IV | 26,418 hectares (102.00 sq mi) | 1969 |
| Block V | 6,656 hectares (25.70 sq mi) | 1973 |
| Source: Sri Lanka Wetlands Information and Database[3] | ||
Physical features
The Yala area is mostly composed of metamorphic rock belonging to the Precambrian era and classified into two series, Vijayan series and Highland series. Reddish brown soil and low humic grey soil are prominent among six soil types. Yala is situated in the lowest peneplain of Sri Lanka, which extends from Trincomalee to Hambantota. Topographically the area is a flat and mildly undulating plain that runs to the coast with elevation is 30 metres (98 ft) close to the coast while rising in the interior to 100–125 metres (330–410 ft). The national park is situated in the dry semi-arid climatic region and rain is received mainly during the northeast monsoon. The mean annual rainfall ranges between 500–775 millimetres (20–30.5 in) while the mean temperature ranges between 26.4 °C (79.5 °F) in January to 30 °C (86 °F) in April. It is windier in Yala, during the southwest monsoon compared to the wind during the northeast monsoon with wind speeds from 23 kilometres per hour (14 mph) to 15 kilometres per hour (9.3 mph).[3]
Water is abundant after the northeast monsoon, but during the dry season surface water becomes an important factor. The bodies of surface water appear in the forms of streams, tanks, waterholes, rock pools, and lagoons. Waterholes occur in low lying places while rock pools of varying size are capable of containing water year-round, and are hence an important source of water for elephants. For many water birds and water buffaloes natural waterholes are ideal habitats. Such reservoirs are largely concentrated to the Block I followed by Block II. Several tanks are there including, Maha Seelawa, Buthawa, Uraniya, and Pilinnawa tanks.[2] Many rivers and streams flow in a southeasterly direction, originating in the highlands of adjacent Uva and central hills. Kumbukkan Oya in the east and Menik River and its tributaries in the west flow across the park, and provide an important water source in the dry season to wild animals of the park. Normally the streams of the park are dry during the drought season. These rivers and streams exhibit a degree of runoff fluctuations between wet and dry seasons. Kumbukkan Oya discharges seven times as much water than in rainy season than in the dry season. A number of lagoons are situated along the coast line of the park.[3] There are several routes to get to Yala from Colombo, while the route via Ratnapura and Tissamaharama is the shortest with 270 kilometres (170 mi).[2]
Impact of 2004 tsunami
Yala lay in the direct path of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which impacted Sri Lanka 90 minutes after its generation.[4] The tsunami caused severe but localised damage on the park,[5] with around 250 people being killed.[6] The tsunami wave was reported to be 20 feet (6.1 m) high. The tsunami waves reached inland only through the river-mouth gaps in the coastal dunes.[7] Inundation distances from ranged up to 392 to 1,490 metres (429 to 1,630 yd). The main habitats affected were scrub forest and grasslands. About 5,000 hectares (19 sq mi) of grassland, forest and wetland are directly affected by the tsunami. The satellite images revealed that mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) range from 0.245-0.772 in the Block I and II. After the disaster the NDVI value fell dramatically to 0.2111. Around 60% of the area along the coastline has changed. The damage was worse close to the sea.[5] The movement patterns of two radio collared elephants were analyzed. The study found out that their movements were consistent with behaviour prompted by immediate cues generated by the tsunami waves rather than a response to a "sixth sense".[8
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