Yes, "Secret Garden" belongs to New Age Music

New Age Music----New Age Music, which is also translated as New Age Music. There are different opinions about its origins, but one thing is certain, the emergence of this music form cannot be earlier than the 1970s. The Oxford Dictionary of Music published at that time did not have an entry for New Age. In the late 1960s, some German musicians integrated the concept of electronic synthesizer sound into original sound performance or improvisational performance, inspiring many new musicians to use more diverse techniques to explore new fields. The music of this period already had the prototype of New Age development. In 1973, a group of strangers met at a music festival in San Francisco. These people suddenly discovered that although they had never communicated before, their music had a lot in common. Their music is created from the starting point of meditation and soul. This type is different from any previous music. They named this non-popular, non-classical, and experimental music style New Age. It refers to a kind of "epoch-making, new century music". Today in the 1990s, New Age music presents a more diverse look. The music industry has formed a new force with hundreds of schools of thought contending and each having its own unique ideas. Because of this, New Age is not just a term that simply defines the difference between music styles, but a new style of the century that symbolizes the evolution of the times and the improvement of metaphysical spiritual connotations.

There is also a little allusion here. New Age also refers to The Aquarian Age. Western mystics believe that mankind is entering the Aquarius Age, which symbolizes the transition of mankind from material pursuits to one's own inner self. Although human beings are different in race, skin color, language, religious beliefs, etc. in material terms, there is a common point deep in the human soul. Because of this, all people are of the same origin and equal. As Loveland, the creator of Secret Garden, said: Everyone has a secret garden in their heart. You can find solace here. When you calm down and listen to "Song From A Secret Garden" alone, you will know that this statement is true.

New Age music often sounds around us, and now more and more advertisements are beginning to use New Age as background music; many TV movies also tend to use New Age as their ending music; major shopping malls I also found that replacing the original pop sound with new age sounds works better. If you search carefully, you will find that this kind of music has always been with us when we were growing up. When I was a child, I loved watching "Animal World" narrated by Zhao Zhongxiang, and I could never forget the opening song of the film. It was not until I grew up that I discovered that this music It's an authentic New Age song. The song is called "Westay" and can be found on the album "The Future Sound Of World"

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At first glance, New Age music is somewhere between classical music and light music, but New Age music is more varied, because it does not refer to a single category but to a category, and it includes almost all Different from the past, it symbolizes the change of the times and interprets the improved music of spiritual connotation. Therefore, you will find that the music that can be called the new age is so rich. All natural sounds may appear in the music. All types of musical instruments are treated equally here. The human voices are even more abundant, from singers to indigenous musicians. Hands, everything is so natural. Generally speaking, New Age still has its own characteristics:

Firstly, New Age music rarely has a strong rhythm (but ENIGMA’s music has a very obvious rhythm), which is the same as rap and There is a sharp contrast between rock and roll. The latter two are almost full of various percussion instruments, in addition to rhythm. For the new century, having rhythm can be limiting.

Secondly, New Age music often has little sense of melody. This is different from pop music, which requires beautiful and easy-to-remember melodies so that everyone can sing.

Sometimes after listening to a certain New Age music several times, I still can't remember its melody. This is why New Age gives everyone so much room for imagination.

Thirdly, new age music always avoids the use of harsh and rapid sounds, because this will increase the pressure of the music and thus destroy the listener's feeling.

Fourthly, the basis of new century music is harmony and consonance. She abandoned the vocal methods of jazz and rock because it would bring dissonance and unpleasantness.

In the mid-1980s, the new century had gradually matured, and magazines began to establish new century lists. The 29th Grammy Awards held in 1986 also added the [Best New Age Recording of the Year] award. The first person to win this award was the Austrian musician who played the harp: Follen Wilder. This is the first time that New Age has clearly become one of the music categories.

Here are some new century masters.

Enya

She is the most influential among all New Age people. After all, not many people like New Age, but Enya’s popularity is no less than those of them. pop singer. Enya's real name was Eithne Ni Bhraonain, but she later changed her name to Enya. Replacing it with this word with a similar pronunciation can not only make it easier for people to remember her, but also avoid pronunciation problems. In 1986, BBC television began to produce a documentary about Celtic history and culture, and Enya signed on to compose and perform the music for the documentary.

The Celts first aired in 1987 with a collection of music titled Enya, but her debut album went largely unnoticed. WaterMark, released in 1988, became an instant hit, and its single "Orinoco Flow" topped the charts in many countries. The next "Shepherd Moons" amazingly achieved global sales of 11 million copies and won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. Her other album "The Memory Of Trees" also won this award. It should be noted that behind Enya, there is also the cooperation of producer and arranger Nicky Ryan and lyricist Roma Ryan. These three people are indispensable. Another point worth mentioning is that Enya never holds solo concerts. This shows that without a dedicated team responsible for handling Enya's voice, it would be impossible for her to achieve today's results.

Secret Garden

For Chinese music fans, Secret Garden is another familiar name. On the official homepage of Secret Garden, you can see the following passage: Once upon a time, a Rolf met a Fionnuala., and they made magical music together. This sentence is the most incisive introduction to the two of them. Lovland is a Norwegian musician and Shirley is an Irish violinist. They became famous after they won the 1995 Eurovision Songwriting Competition for their song "Nocturne". The lyrics of the nocturne are only 24 words: now let the day just slip away so the dark night may watch overyou nocturne though darkness lay it will give way when the dark night delivers the day. It can be said to be a purely instrumental piece, but there has never been a precedent for this type of music winning in the Eurovision Song Contest, so some say Secret Garden redefined the competition.

So far, Secret Garden has released four albums: "Songs From A

Secret Garden", "White Stones", "Dawn Of A New Century", and the latest "Once In" A Red Moon". Since the quantity is not large, it is easy to collect them all if you are interested. Secret Garden brings us a unique charm of Nordic style and Irish Celtic style. At the same time, its classical temperament has also impressed many serious music lovers. The main members of Secret Garden are Norwegian composer and pianist Rolf Lovland and Irish female violinist Fionnuala Sherry. They sang in Europe in 1994 They met for the first time at the Grand Prix and came together because of the same musical ideal. *** Together, we support the glory of Secret Garden!

Rolf Lovland was born in Kristiansand, a small town in southern Norway. His composing talent was revealed as early as the age of nine when he formed his first band. Since then, music has been with him throughout his youth and has become an important part of his life. He later studied at the music school in Kristiansand and received his Master of Music degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music. Rolf has won many awards such as the Norwegian Grammy Award and is also known as Norway's most successful pop songwriter. The establishment of the Secret Garden Group gave Rolf more inspiration to explore music with deep emotions, which enabled his composing career to be engaged in a wider music field. In the group, he plays important roles in song creation, arrangement, and keyboard performance. He is undoubtedly the soul of Secret Garden.

Fionnuala grew up in an Irish musical family and was born in Naas, a small town in Kildare, Ireland. She was influenced by various influences since she was a child, which led to her great interest in music. She later graduated from the Conservatoire of the University of Ireland. In addition to classical symphony and concerto performances, Fionnuala also dabbles in a variety of musical themes that interest her. Before the establishment of Secret Garden, Fionnuala had provided accompaniment for the albums of famous Irish singers Shane O'Connor and Van Monison. In the Secret Garden Band's performance, Fionnuala's exquisite and unique violin performance vividly demonstrated Rolf's compositional mood, and the coordination was perfect.

Bandari

This is almost a well-known band among people who like new age in China, translated as Bandari. According to the general introduction, the Bandari band comes from Switzerland. The band members do not like to be in the public eye. Once they start music production, they live in seclusion in the Alps until it is completed.

ENIGMA

Enigma comes from the Greek word, which means "mysterious and mysterious things". Therefore, in addition to being translated as Ingmar, the name is also translated as "mystery". In 1990, German music producer Michael Cretu released his first single "Sadness Part One" under the name Enigma. The song topped the charts in 23 countries and stayed on the U.S. Billboard album chart for five years. Albums released include: "Cross of Changes" in 1994; "Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi" in 1996; "The Energy of Sound" in 1998; "The Screen Behind the Mirror" in 2000.

KITARO

Kitaro is the best Japanese new age musician. He was born in Joyohashi, Japan on February 4, 1953. Kitaro’s original name was Masanori Takahashi, and he was quite upright. However, his music style has a strong mysterious color, although the two are somewhat incompatible.

He has had long hair since high school, so his friends named him "Getaro" from the manga, which later became his stage name. The pronunciation of "Kitaro" in Chinese and "Gitaro" in Japan are the same, but the meaning has changed in color.

Kitaro formed a rock band shortly after graduating from high school and performed on stage at the disco. He spread electronic synthesis

music to India and other Asian regions far away from Japan, allowing people there to have a better understanding of this novel music form.

After the release of Kitaro's album "Tenkai" (Heaven), this music style with strong synthetic music characteristics was quickly spotted by NHK broadcasting company, and Kitaro was asked to compose the music for the TV series "Silk Road". This work, which contains contemplation of life, has a concise and smooth melody and a calm beat. It has made Kitaro's talent recognized by music critics and fans at home and abroad. This musician from Nagoya, a small town in central Japan, relies on his unique reflection on life and integrates some accumulated thoughts into his music. In the mid-1980s, Kitaro was also supported by the Western music scene with his outstanding musical contributions. In 1986, Kitaro signed with Geffen Records as one of its main artists, which also confirmed his status as a world-class pioneer artist.

Won the 43rd Grammy Award for Best New Age Music Album (he had been nominated five times before). Kitaro once moved to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado at an altitude of 3,000 meters. It was the cold and silent environment that gave birth to Kitaro's music. It is said that he also lived in seclusion in Dunhuang, China, for 10 months. What's interesting is that Kitaro has never received any music education and can't even read musical notation. It can be seen that people who are talented in music are not burdened by staffs. Here I recommend his albums "Heaven and Earth", "Song Dynasty" and "Silk Road".

There are also many new age musicians such as: Yanni, Deep Forest, Kevin Kern, Nichols Gunn, Bella Sonus, etc. Due to space limitations, I will not introduce them one by one. Finally, in terms of music classification, NUAGE represents the new century.

How to describe New Age? Let’s use the “four major elements” in classical music to summarize the characteristics of New Age!

1． Rhythm:

New Age rhythm often exists between the natural rhythm of music and the strength of notes. In fact, the reason why most New Age abandons traditional rhythms is because with drums, bass and percussion instruments, the form of music will be restricted, while New Age is natural and free, with wind-like streamlines. attitude.

2. Melody:

The melody of New Age is completely different from pop music, and its improvisational flavor is very strong. Not only is it difficult for the listener to remember the melody, but he also has no idea when and where the melody will end. This is one of the reasons why the New Age music structure gives everyone a lot of room for imagination.

3． Harmony:

Most of the harmonies used in New Age are quite harmonious, and dissonance is rarely used in New Age. This is why New Age sounds very peaceful.

4. Timbre:

The timbre of New Age is transparent, mysterious, and full of hazy atmosphere. To be honest, one of the biggest enjoyments when listening to New Age is the change of timbre.

In addition to the four major elements of music, the greatest charm of New Age is that it gives the listener a huge imagination space. You can freely roam in the infinite imagination space without being restricted by form.