Urceopolis (City) and Music in Urcea: Difference between pages

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{{Infobox settlement
===Genres===
|name                    = Urceopolis
====Traditional music====
|native_name            = ''Civitas Urceopolitania''
"Traditional music", called "river music" in other countries, is a genre of folk music that developed in Urcea. As opposed to other forms of Urcean music, it is thought that traditional music descends from Urcea's Gaelic roots as opposed to other, supposedly Latinic forms of music. Within earlier kinds of traditional music there were at least ten instruments in general use. These were a small and a large harp, the timpan (a small string instrument played with a bow or plectrum), the fife, the flute, a bassoon-type horn, hornpipes, bagpipes, a kind of trumpet, and bones. Modern traditional bands often employ accordions, fiddles, acoustic guitars, electric bass guitars, and other instruments, though modern traditional music is differentiated from many other forms of Urcean popular music by its lack of a full drum kit. Traditional music often employs more overtly nationalist or patriotic lyrics than other genres. Though its songs are widely known as classics it does not have a strong contemporary media presence.
|native_name_lang        = {{wp|Ecclesiastical Latin|Latin}}
|settlement_type        =  
|image_skyline          = , 美利堅合眾國, Empire State Building, Manhattan, New York, New York City, , United States, America, , USA, US (50261445816).jpg
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|image_flag              = Urceopolis Flag.png
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|etymology              =
|nickname                = <br>The Archcathedral City<br>The Holy City<br>''Urbs Aeterna'' ({{wp|Ecclesiastical Latin|Latin}})<br><small>The Eternal City</small>
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|subdivision_name        = {{flag|Urcea}}
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|seat                    = [[The Praetorium (Urceopolis)|The Praetorium]]
|government_footnotes    =
|government_type        =
|governing_body          = Archcathedral Council
|leader_party            =
|leader_title            = Lord Prefect
|leader_name            = Justano Helitra
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|population_as_of        = 2025
|population_total        = 19,374,201
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|area_codes              = 212, 516, 518, 646, 718
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|website                = urceopolis.city.gov
|module                  =
|footnotes              =
}}


'''Urceopolis''' is the {{wp|capital city|archcathedral}} city of [[Urcea]]. It is also the cathedral city of the [[Urceopolis (Archduchy)|Archduchy of Urceopolis]] and the largest city and largest metropolitan area in Urcea, both in terms of population and area.
====Country music====
Country music is a genre of music in Urcea that is thought to have developed from traditional music and developed primarily in rural communities and features lyrics focused on a sense of place or development of a story. In 2019, it was the most listened to genre of music on the radio.


The earliest record of the settlement of Urceopolis comes from accounts during the [[Latin Heroic Age]], but many modern historians believe it probable that small, transient settlements of [[Gaelic people]] lived in and around the area prior to the arrival of the [[Latinic people|Latins]].
====Rock music====
Rock music is a genre which many music historians view as a development of country music based on imported musical traditions from Sarpedon during the Great War. It is distinguished from country and folk traditions by a lack of fiddle and focus on guitars and a heavy driving percussive beat.


==Etymology==
====Contemporary pop music====
==History==
===History===
===Ancient History===
Throughout its history, Urceans have been an extremely musical society, embracing not only the Ecclesiastical tradition of polyphonic chant but also folk songs and storytelling. Urcean traditional music was the organic development of these trends, creating a genre and style based on the use of fiddles, harps, accordions, and, later, guitars and snare drums. Urcean traditional music has remained vibrant and retains many of its cornerstone aspects, such as instrument choice and semi-nationalistic themes in its storytelling. It has heavily influenced various modern music genres, such as country and roots music. It has occasionally been blended with styles such as rock and roll and punk rock. Urcea has also produced many internationally known artists in other genres, such as rock, pop, jazz, and blues. The rhythmic and lyrical styles of traditional music have deeply influenced Urcean music at large, distinguishing it from Sarpedonian Latinic traditions.
===Early Modern History===
===Modern History===
==Geography==
===Climate===
==Government==
==Boroughs==


Urceopolis is divided into twenty four boroughs as well as the [[Papal State]], a sovereign nation existing within its city limits but outside the city's jurisdiction. Old City, New City, the Flats and Aricia, and Crescent are commonly referred to collectively as "the Pale", describing the extent of the city for most of its history. Outside of Urcea, the existence of the Pale as a distinct borough is a common misconception.
====Medieval beginnings to early modern period====
The earliest record of music in Urcea comes from Gregorian chant and various other religious arrangements suitable for mass. Rising from the 9th century, polyphonic Church music was the primary and most regular way that the early Urcean people experienced music. Consequently, many people in the Medieval period received their musical training - however basic - to serve in scholas for mass. In most communities, the rural parish was the gateway to the experience of the divine and the experience of music, and many peasants had the opportunity to learn to sing, to carry a tune, and for the lucky few, the ability to learn how to read the earliest forms of musical notation. From the legions of rural peasant scholas came the very first minstrels, or musical entertainers. Minstrels typically traveled around the nearest county, providing entertainment in taverns and, more rarely, at court. These minstrels played instruments like the lyra, wooden flutes, and various other chordophones. Their songs were typically story-based, recounting real world events, such as military campaigns and the lives of various sovereigns, through the medium of musical entertainment. While secular music was typically looked down upon by civilized society, minstrels were tolerated so long as they didn't stray into salacious topics for their music, beginning a long history of "best practices" guidelines for Urcean cultural productions. Many of the songs played and invented by minstrels would become repeated and, in many cases, distorted, by groups of workers singing during the manual labor required of nearly every task in the Medieval period. It reduced the boredom of repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it set the pace of many activities such as planting, weeding, reaping, threshing, weaving, and milling. Working people and peasants also recounted minstrel songs or original songs at family gatherings and Christian feast days as a way to entertain guests. The songs invented by minstrels were also passed along by oral tradition in this period, retaining some cultural memory of historical events and passing along cultural memory and legends. These early folk songs were rarely recorded in notation, as the need to transcribe and copy songs by hand precluded their preservation; only liturgical and ecclesiastical songs survived in the written medium, given the lengthy time and effort that only monks could provide. Those early songs that did survive were typically transcribed due to the song being widespread, memorable, and about a momentous historical event, such as the Tale of Father Lucás at the Glen, a song about the victory of King Lucás II at the Battle of Glens Falls in 1401.


===Old City===
The invention of the printing press was a pivotal moment in the development of coherent styles of music in Urcea, as what were once local developments that lasted the lifetimes of single minstrels could become lasting accomplishments, catching the ear of the wealthy and peasant alike. The Renaissance period in Urcea also lead to diversification of music types. Wealthy young privilegiata - and some optimates- began writing compositions for larger groups of musicians as well as for new instruments like the harpsichord. These composers wrote Church music as well as compositions for court and, in some cases, even composed music for minstrels to purchase. While there was no central music industry, individual minstrels and composers began to make a living selling compositions. Individual minstrels entered a decline by the beginning of the 1500s, as there were more avenues for the freemen and privilegiata to hear and write music outside of the context of Church, and additionally, finding a trained transcriber to record their music was difficult and expensive. Despite the relative availability of music compared to previous eras, sheet music remained rare and expensive due to the rarity of transcribers outside the Church. The music of the vanquished class of minstrels remained, however, in the imagination of the rural populations, who continued to pass down versions of their songs from generation to generation, though by the 1550s most songs that remained in the rural consciousness were so distorted and, in some cases, deliberately altered that they sounded and read nothing like the songs initially received. The decline of the minstrel lead to the growth in popularity of the composer among the privilegiata and optimates, while the freemen took an interest in the new phenomenon of the so-called bardic-band, part-time locals who would gather to play music in one-off arrangements using songs that they had received from popular memory or songs that they had purchased from the city or courts. New instruments were making their way into the hands of rural bands as well, influenced by the music of the courts. The violin entered popular usage in Urcea in the 1540s, and it became the primary lead instrument of court music for the next few centuries. Older court violins were acquired by rural musicians, who developed a style vaguely resembling the style of the modern fiddle and other non-conventional styles of playing the violin. For the first time, violins were joined by the common lute, the most popular instrument in the home and in the tavern. Rural tavern band music remained story-oriented, though new stories relating love stories appeared. The sense of loss, a later staple of country music, made some appearances in these rural songs according to historians, loss brought on by the fighting of the Great Confessional War and the chaos of The Anarchy. The sense of loss as a central theme remained a staple of rural music. During the era of the war, rural music diverged into two forms, which initially retained nearly-identical instrumentation for a time. The first style was what is known as traditional music, which included stories about the Kingdom, the King, the troubles the Kingdom was undergoing, and how the peasant and family related to current events. A common song type during this period was that of a farm being raided or a love story ending with the singer, a man, "going off to fight cavalry", a euphemism for going to war without chance of return. This traditional style was considered a continuation of the earlier minstrel style, but it retained the musical developments of the era. The second style, referred to broadly as "proto-folk music", related more to the individual than to greater themes; it involved love stories without reference to war or political happenings, as well as the aforementioned sense of loss due to the hardships endured as part of the human condition, which was the focus of the proto-folk style. Both styles retained their Catholic heritage, with the traditional form of music including an appeal to God to end the Kingdom's hardship while the proto-folk form included either appeals to end the personal hardship or an acknowledgement of fault for the hardships incurred. Many of the proto-folk songs of the period retained a moral, offering that the hardships incurred in life were due to a negative action taken rather than the regular hardships of life, though not all songs retained this element. Between the two styles, instrumental compositions were often shared during this early period of their existence. Later, by the early 1600s, the two genres would begin to diverge musically; maintaining the element of "labor song" and songs sung in the home, compositions of proto-folk dropped the use of flutes and fifes, while the traditional style retained them.
===New City===
===the Flats and Aricia===


The Flats and Aciria, although now a single borough, consists of two areas of the city which existed during antiquity. Aciria was the port district of the Old City which largely had its own political apparatus during the era of [[Great Levantia]]. The adjacent area known as the Flats was originally the city's harbor, sheltered from the [[Urce River]] to the west by New City, which was originally a peninsula. The existence of the Flats as a sheltered, usable harbor, is most likely the original reason for the city being established where it is. Changing climate lead to the Flats transitioning from useful harbor land to marshy swamplands around 350 BC, after which much of Aciria's usefulness as a port came to an end as most port operations moved to the areas adjoining the river, especially with the construction of the city of Ardotalia in around 150 AD. Aciria, which had its own system of walls within the city, became an isolated and poor area during most of the Great Levantine and medieval periods, occasionally being repurposed as a quarantine ward for disease outbreaks. The Flats were drained during the initial reign of [[House de Weluta]] ca. 1450 and became one of the most fashionable parts of the city, with land being available to build large and lavish structures, including theaters and opera houses as well as urban mansions. Aciria experienced significant growth following the Flats being drained, with the walls separating the two areas eventually coming down to be used as building materials. The two areas subsequently became closely associated since the 17th century, although Aciria's position as a prominent hill relative to the Flats made it a well sought after location. During the 19th century, much of the Flats were demolished in order to erect the [[Royal Green]], which now bisects the borough. It is a common misconception that the area of the borough to the north of the Green is "the Flats" while the area to its south is "Aciria", though this information is commonly taught abroad. Today, the borough is not only home to the Green, the city's major park, but also many museums and government buildings.  
The reemergence of both popular and court theater in the 17th century gave rise to new genres of music. Unlike the two popular styles, the music of theater valued virtuosity and technical excellence, but unlike court styles of music, it also valued improvisation and individual flourish and used many of the same inexpensive and easily available instruments used in taverns and at home, such as the various predecessors of the guitar as well as flutes and other similar instruments. Many theater productions - which could last from two to four hours - required music of some kind to be played in the background for some or all of the play. Consequently, this not only continued to improve the stamina and skill of the musicians but gave them a proving ground of sorts to try new methods and develop new styles of playing. Though these "theater men" - a relatively small professional group of musicians - did not, themselves, revolutionize either popular rural genre, those who heard them were greatly inspired. Old theater songs and styles of play originating from urban theater swept through the countryside as both genres acquired some of the new elements. Since the music of plays did not feature any singing, improvised lyrics were often attached to them in rural areas, and many different songs arose during the early to mid-17th century using the same tune but vastly different lyrics.


===Crescent===
The 18th century saw the emergence of a fused theatrical-court style, emphasizing the high technical excellence and virtuosity of the composer with some room for improvisation within the piece. The Court-Theater Style is widely considered to be the birthplace of the modern solo. Unlike the 17th century's court music, however, this new "higher-end" form of music was available for limited public consumption. Due to the saturation of musicians in and around Urceopolis, it no longer became possible to survive on patronage, and many newly organized groups of musicians began to play for the price of admission to relatively small concert grounds. The commercial success of such endeavors lead to a significant boom period in the 1700s-1730s of public musical expression for profit. The audience were typically urban privilegiata and the concerts were often priced in such a way that they were unaffordable for the nascent working class and peasants, but through this point in Urcean history it was the most democratized music had ever been. A considerable deal of public theater and open space construction occurred in the first three decades of the 18th century, making so-called "audience music" even more viable, and the trend spread throughout other cities in Urcea. Having a much larger audience than courtiers, and having music for ears outside of the top refined optimates made an immediate impact on the kind of music being played, as Court-Theater music changed rapidly in the first half of the 18th century in order to appeal to the wider audiences. While the virtuosity and apprentice-master relationship of court music was retained, these first popular audiences much preferred more solos during pieces, leading to a kind of resurgence of the previous century's theater music. The "audience boom" came to an end with the beginning of the War of the Caroline Succession, however, as the time for audience music was replaced with church attendance duty for novenas for the benefit of the cause of Urcea and the Apostolic King. During the war, proto-folk songs sung by soldiers in camp took on new forms, incorporating the regional diversity of Urcean soldiers called to service of the King. These proto-folk songs, in turn, began to inform the traditional music style played outside of the battlefield by the army fife-and-drum core, as the two "original" Urcean musical genres continued to influence each other despite the historiographical divergence imposed on them during the 1600s.
===Ardot===
===Tecbaile===
===Tarend===
===Ardriville===
Ardriville was established as a fortified bridge crossing and village sometime in the early 12th century.


It is the home of [[The Dispossessed]] and, accordingly, has become known as "Noble City". It has the highest amount of current or former nobility per capita of any location in the world. Their presence - which includes a large number of lavish mansions and estates - has become a {{wp|tourist attraction}}.
====Aedanicad====
====Restoration====
Beginning in the late 1900s and 1910s, there began a renewed interest in what became known as "old-time" music, which could best be described as a mix of popular songs from the mid-to-late 19th century as well as obscure folk songs from rural parts of the country, but not truly "traditional music", which remained a separate genre. Historians and scholars have theorized the rise of interest in this music came as a consequence of the restoration of King Patrick III and the memory of the bloodshed of the Red Interregnum. According to these historians, Urceans - especially middle-aged ones - pined for the nostalgic idyll of simpler times during the Aedanicad. The invention of the phonograph and rise of the Urcean recording industry made these songs viable, and in the 1910s the phenomenon of "songhunters" - individuals who would go to the rural parts of Urcea to discover old folk songs in order to obtain the rights to the music - sprang up. Old-time music became enormously popular and commercially viable. The advent of radio lead to further widespread popularity of the genre in the 1920s through mid 1930s. Sometimes called "country music", emerged as a dominant cultural and commercial form of music during the early radio era, though during the same time traditional pop styles imported from the rest of Levantia became popular.


===Arelate===
====Great War====
Rhythm and blues music developed from foreign blues music in the mid 1930s and early 1940s and the influence of Sarpedonian and Audonian music, which soldiers of the Royal and Imperial Army became exposed to during the Great War. The short period of time in which rhythm and blues was popular lead to a decline and sharp regionalization of "old-time" or country music, which became primarily associated with rural regions of Urcea, especially those areas associated with frontier Ómestaderoi culture. Traditional pop went into severe decline in the 1940s as the ongoing Great War lead to renewed interest in traditionally Urcean styles of music that accompanied a new wave of nationalism.


Arelate was initially the site of a fortified manor house in the period between the fall of [[Great Levantia]] and the rise of the [[Holy Levantine Empire]], and accordingly was one of the few sites of economic activity to the east of Urceopolis. From these beginnings, it became a small town primarily based on mills along the creeks which ran east of the city. During the 19th century, rail lines were established running northeast of Urceopolis through Arelate and neighboring Flucirk, with a junction being established in Arelate in 1862. From there, the population of the area grew exponentially and the mills were replaced with larger industrial manufacturing plants taking advantage of the water power available in the region. It was annexed into the city as part of the [[Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892]].
====Postwar====
The influence of country and traditional music blended with rhythm and blues to develop an entirely new form of music in the 1950s which some historians have referred to as Rockabilly or "the King's Rock" since it was a uniquely Urcean sound distinguishable from other countries. The new rock styles quickly supplanted what remained of traditional pop, and beginning in the 1960s "new pop" took its place, heavily influenced by the backbeat driven "King's Rock" sound. Since that point, a mix of rock and mainstream pop exists alongside country music as the most popular genres in the country, though some have noted rock music to be in decline since the end of the 20th century, particularly going in a more indie direction as country music has displaced it in many parts of society.


===Mannacht===
====Modern music====
===Flucirk===
The popularity of country has also inspired an indie movement in that genre as well, and "insurgent country", a style similar to bluegrass, has become popular since the mid-2020s. Insurgent country seeks to reclaim the sound and heritage of Urcean traditional music and the initial "old-time" music genre in an effort to undo the dominance of what is perceived to be the "corporate sound", which incorporates electronic and pop elements.


Flucirk was established sometime during the medieval period as a small mill village which grew up around a small country [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] parish. Its name originates from the [[Lebhan]] word for "river church". Flucirk, like neighboring Arelate, became a fast growing area during the 19th century as railroad lines were erected through it running northest. Becoming a relatively major city in its own right, Flucirk was home to many tenement buildings with the rise of rapid transit in Urceopolis area in the latter half of the 19th century. It was annexed into the city as part of the [[Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892]].


===Elmont===
[[Category: Culture of Urcea]]
 
Elmont is likely named for the Latin term "Eletan Mons", meaning hilly area. Largely unsuitable for urban construction, what would become the borough of Elmont was long a popular spot for animal grazing and became the sight of some well known horse riding grounds during the medieval period. Sitting between Narbo Martius and Flucirk, the area was annexed as part of the [[Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892]]. [[Patrick III of Urcea|King Patrick III]] continued the equine tradition by building [[The Hippodrome (Urceopolis)|the Hippodrome]] in Elmont. Although urban sprawl has long eliminated the grazing and riding grounds from Elmont, the [[Horse racing in Levantia|equine industry]] still plays a major role here due to the presence of the Hippodrome as well as the many backstretch jobs associated with its presence. In 1920, the Equine Science University - part of the [[Collegium Scientificum]] - was established in Elmont.
 
Today, much of Elmont is single family or multi family homes of primarily working class families.
 
===Narbo Martius===
===Brocks===
===Campori===
===the Monastic Quarter===
===Landsmeet Square===
===the Royal Burgh (the Strip)===
The Royal Burgh, most commonly known as the Strip, is an area which sits between the [[Papal State]] to the west and Churchcreek to the east, giving it its popular name. The area was historically associated with the Papal State, but was formally ceded to Urcea and recognized as part of the city as part of the [[Papal_State#River_Concordat_of_1815|River Concordat]]. It acquired the name "Royal Burgh" as a generic governing term while becoming popularly referred to as the Strip. The borough is notable for its well preserved urban architecture from the 18th and 19th centuries, having been the site of urban expansion under the Papal State just before being ceded to Urcea. Due to its history, it was primarily occupied by people from outside of Urceopolis prior to its cession, giving the area a unique cultural character that has been amplified by the older architecture. Accordingly, the Strip is a common tourist destination in the city and also a popular center of cuisine and nightlife.
 
===Collect Pond===
===Popeswood===
===The Papal State===
{{Main|Papal State}}
Although an independent state not within the city jurisdiction of Urceopolis, the Papal State, home of the [[Pope]] and center of the [[Catholic Church]], sits approximately within the center of Urceopolis along the south bank of the [[Urce River]]. Sometimes referred to as "Vatican City", the Papal State contains many of the oldest extant structures within city. Originally part of the core of the city during the [[Great Levantia]] period, the area became associated with the Church by means of {{wp|St. Peter's}} burial in the area following his {{wp|crucifixion}}. A popular Christian site, [[St. Peter's Archbasilica]] was erected over the burial site upon the Christianisaton of Great Levantia, which became the official seat of the Bishop of Urceopolis and, accordingly, one of the holiest sites in Catholicism. Largely depopulated after the fall of Great Levantia, Vatican City began to grow once again in the 800s. Historically, the position of the Pope separated from the [[Julian Palace]] by the [[Urce River]] gave him a great degree of independence and influence south of the Urce, which eventually became formalized as the [[Duchy of Transurciana]]. The current borders of the Papal State, following centuries of uncertainty, were established by the River Concordat of 1815 during the [[Recess of the Julii]].
 
Many former noble houses became part of the Papal State complex in administrative capacity, and the State is densely packed with churches and chapels. The Papal State is also full of gardens, observatories, and other scientific and religious structures including the Apostolic Palace and [[St. Peter's Archbasilica]].
 
===Petersbaile===
===Southlawn===
===Kingswood===
===Arvan===
 
==Demographics==
===Education===
===Crime===
==Economy==
==Infrastructure==
===Transportation===
====Archcathedral Rapid Transit====
The Archcathedral Rapid Transit system, known both officially and unofficially as "the Subway", is a {{wp|rapid transit}} system owned by the city government of Urceopolis.
 
=====History=====
Several competing rapid transit systems were constructed in Urceopolis during the 19th and early 20th century. The first {{wp|Elevated railway|elevated railway}} with service from Crescent to Arelate opened in 1871 in conjunction with the construction of a long distance rail hub erected in Arelate. This first elevated train saw significant use and lead to a population explosion in Arelate, and the successful concept saw the construction of several elevated rail lines throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Most of these lines were constructed by a new company known as the Interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) Company. Construction largely came to a half during the [[Red Interregnum]], though during this time of hiatus the government of [[Gréagóir FitzRex]] did give approval for the IRT to experiment with underground lines, and the first line - the Crescent Circulator, a now-defunct line running mostly in a straight line from Old City to New City with a stop along the [[Royal Green]] - opened in 1897. The increase of the city's land area with the [[Administrative Reorganization Act of 1892]] also created significant opportunities for rail developers The end of the Red Interregnum and restoration of [[Patrick III of Urcea|King Patrick III]] saw a major uptick in construction, in part with government funding. By 1910, the city was dominated with a largely tangled network of elevated rail lines operated by IRT and its primary competitor Citylines, both of whom were shifting new line construction underground. The primary tunnels for lines for these competitors were constructed in the period 1907-1909, and most are still in operation during the 21st century. The city government created a public rapid transit company known as Royal Transit in 1914 to try and build additional underground lines in order to put the problematic elevated lines out of business, and accordingly the city constructed additional tunnels from 1914 to 1920. The loss of revenue for elevated lines gradually lead Citylines to declare bankruptcy in 1927, and the company was purchased by the city and integrated within its systems. Interboro Rapid Transit would also struggle during this period, but a halt to major acquisitions as a result of the [[Second Great War]] lead to it receiving subsidies from the [[Government of Urcea]] until 1943, when the war ended. That year, the IRT was acquired by Royal Transit, which renamed itself Archcathedral Rapid Transit. Most of the elevated lines were closed during the war and their resources recycled for the war effort. Today, the three different types of lines are still recognized by their division indicators; the Interborough Rapid Transit lines in the IRT Division, the Royal Transit lines in the ROY Division, and the Citylines lines in the CLR (Citylines Railroad) division.
 
=====Current lines and areas served=====
 
==Culture==
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[[Category: Cities]]
[[Category: Urcea]]
[[Category: Urcea]]
[[Category: Geography of Urcea]]
[[Category: Music]]

Revision as of 10:24, 6 April 2022

Genres

Traditional music

"Traditional music", called "river music" in other countries, is a genre of folk music that developed in Urcea. As opposed to other forms of Urcean music, it is thought that traditional music descends from Urcea's Gaelic roots as opposed to other, supposedly Latinic forms of music. Within earlier kinds of traditional music there were at least ten instruments in general use. These were a small and a large harp, the timpan (a small string instrument played with a bow or plectrum), the fife, the flute, a bassoon-type horn, hornpipes, bagpipes, a kind of trumpet, and bones. Modern traditional bands often employ accordions, fiddles, acoustic guitars, electric bass guitars, and other instruments, though modern traditional music is differentiated from many other forms of Urcean popular music by its lack of a full drum kit. Traditional music often employs more overtly nationalist or patriotic lyrics than other genres. Though its songs are widely known as classics it does not have a strong contemporary media presence.

Country music

Country music is a genre of music in Urcea that is thought to have developed from traditional music and developed primarily in rural communities and features lyrics focused on a sense of place or development of a story. In 2019, it was the most listened to genre of music on the radio.

Rock music

Rock music is a genre which many music historians view as a development of country music based on imported musical traditions from Sarpedon during the Great War. It is distinguished from country and folk traditions by a lack of fiddle and focus on guitars and a heavy driving percussive beat.

Contemporary pop music

History

Throughout its history, Urceans have been an extremely musical society, embracing not only the Ecclesiastical tradition of polyphonic chant but also folk songs and storytelling. Urcean traditional music was the organic development of these trends, creating a genre and style based on the use of fiddles, harps, accordions, and, later, guitars and snare drums. Urcean traditional music has remained vibrant and retains many of its cornerstone aspects, such as instrument choice and semi-nationalistic themes in its storytelling. It has heavily influenced various modern music genres, such as country and roots music. It has occasionally been blended with styles such as rock and roll and punk rock. Urcea has also produced many internationally known artists in other genres, such as rock, pop, jazz, and blues. The rhythmic and lyrical styles of traditional music have deeply influenced Urcean music at large, distinguishing it from Sarpedonian Latinic traditions.

Medieval beginnings to early modern period

The earliest record of music in Urcea comes from Gregorian chant and various other religious arrangements suitable for mass. Rising from the 9th century, polyphonic Church music was the primary and most regular way that the early Urcean people experienced music. Consequently, many people in the Medieval period received their musical training - however basic - to serve in scholas for mass. In most communities, the rural parish was the gateway to the experience of the divine and the experience of music, and many peasants had the opportunity to learn to sing, to carry a tune, and for the lucky few, the ability to learn how to read the earliest forms of musical notation. From the legions of rural peasant scholas came the very first minstrels, or musical entertainers. Minstrels typically traveled around the nearest county, providing entertainment in taverns and, more rarely, at court. These minstrels played instruments like the lyra, wooden flutes, and various other chordophones. Their songs were typically story-based, recounting real world events, such as military campaigns and the lives of various sovereigns, through the medium of musical entertainment. While secular music was typically looked down upon by civilized society, minstrels were tolerated so long as they didn't stray into salacious topics for their music, beginning a long history of "best practices" guidelines for Urcean cultural productions. Many of the songs played and invented by minstrels would become repeated and, in many cases, distorted, by groups of workers singing during the manual labor required of nearly every task in the Medieval period. It reduced the boredom of repetitive tasks, it kept the rhythm during synchronized pushes and pulls, and it set the pace of many activities such as planting, weeding, reaping, threshing, weaving, and milling. Working people and peasants also recounted minstrel songs or original songs at family gatherings and Christian feast days as a way to entertain guests. The songs invented by minstrels were also passed along by oral tradition in this period, retaining some cultural memory of historical events and passing along cultural memory and legends. These early folk songs were rarely recorded in notation, as the need to transcribe and copy songs by hand precluded their preservation; only liturgical and ecclesiastical songs survived in the written medium, given the lengthy time and effort that only monks could provide. Those early songs that did survive were typically transcribed due to the song being widespread, memorable, and about a momentous historical event, such as the Tale of Father Lucás at the Glen, a song about the victory of King Lucás II at the Battle of Glens Falls in 1401.

The invention of the printing press was a pivotal moment in the development of coherent styles of music in Urcea, as what were once local developments that lasted the lifetimes of single minstrels could become lasting accomplishments, catching the ear of the wealthy and peasant alike. The Renaissance period in Urcea also lead to diversification of music types. Wealthy young privilegiata - and some optimates- began writing compositions for larger groups of musicians as well as for new instruments like the harpsichord. These composers wrote Church music as well as compositions for court and, in some cases, even composed music for minstrels to purchase. While there was no central music industry, individual minstrels and composers began to make a living selling compositions. Individual minstrels entered a decline by the beginning of the 1500s, as there were more avenues for the freemen and privilegiata to hear and write music outside of the context of Church, and additionally, finding a trained transcriber to record their music was difficult and expensive. Despite the relative availability of music compared to previous eras, sheet music remained rare and expensive due to the rarity of transcribers outside the Church. The music of the vanquished class of minstrels remained, however, in the imagination of the rural populations, who continued to pass down versions of their songs from generation to generation, though by the 1550s most songs that remained in the rural consciousness were so distorted and, in some cases, deliberately altered that they sounded and read nothing like the songs initially received. The decline of the minstrel lead to the growth in popularity of the composer among the privilegiata and optimates, while the freemen took an interest in the new phenomenon of the so-called bardic-band, part-time locals who would gather to play music in one-off arrangements using songs that they had received from popular memory or songs that they had purchased from the city or courts. New instruments were making their way into the hands of rural bands as well, influenced by the music of the courts. The violin entered popular usage in Urcea in the 1540s, and it became the primary lead instrument of court music for the next few centuries. Older court violins were acquired by rural musicians, who developed a style vaguely resembling the style of the modern fiddle and other non-conventional styles of playing the violin. For the first time, violins were joined by the common lute, the most popular instrument in the home and in the tavern. Rural tavern band music remained story-oriented, though new stories relating love stories appeared. The sense of loss, a later staple of country music, made some appearances in these rural songs according to historians, loss brought on by the fighting of the Great Confessional War and the chaos of The Anarchy. The sense of loss as a central theme remained a staple of rural music. During the era of the war, rural music diverged into two forms, which initially retained nearly-identical instrumentation for a time. The first style was what is known as traditional music, which included stories about the Kingdom, the King, the troubles the Kingdom was undergoing, and how the peasant and family related to current events. A common song type during this period was that of a farm being raided or a love story ending with the singer, a man, "going off to fight cavalry", a euphemism for going to war without chance of return. This traditional style was considered a continuation of the earlier minstrel style, but it retained the musical developments of the era. The second style, referred to broadly as "proto-folk music", related more to the individual than to greater themes; it involved love stories without reference to war or political happenings, as well as the aforementioned sense of loss due to the hardships endured as part of the human condition, which was the focus of the proto-folk style. Both styles retained their Catholic heritage, with the traditional form of music including an appeal to God to end the Kingdom's hardship while the proto-folk form included either appeals to end the personal hardship or an acknowledgement of fault for the hardships incurred. Many of the proto-folk songs of the period retained a moral, offering that the hardships incurred in life were due to a negative action taken rather than the regular hardships of life, though not all songs retained this element. Between the two styles, instrumental compositions were often shared during this early period of their existence. Later, by the early 1600s, the two genres would begin to diverge musically; maintaining the element of "labor song" and songs sung in the home, compositions of proto-folk dropped the use of flutes and fifes, while the traditional style retained them.

The reemergence of both popular and court theater in the 17th century gave rise to new genres of music. Unlike the two popular styles, the music of theater valued virtuosity and technical excellence, but unlike court styles of music, it also valued improvisation and individual flourish and used many of the same inexpensive and easily available instruments used in taverns and at home, such as the various predecessors of the guitar as well as flutes and other similar instruments. Many theater productions - which could last from two to four hours - required music of some kind to be played in the background for some or all of the play. Consequently, this not only continued to improve the stamina and skill of the musicians but gave them a proving ground of sorts to try new methods and develop new styles of playing. Though these "theater men" - a relatively small professional group of musicians - did not, themselves, revolutionize either popular rural genre, those who heard them were greatly inspired. Old theater songs and styles of play originating from urban theater swept through the countryside as both genres acquired some of the new elements. Since the music of plays did not feature any singing, improvised lyrics were often attached to them in rural areas, and many different songs arose during the early to mid-17th century using the same tune but vastly different lyrics.

The 18th century saw the emergence of a fused theatrical-court style, emphasizing the high technical excellence and virtuosity of the composer with some room for improvisation within the piece. The Court-Theater Style is widely considered to be the birthplace of the modern solo. Unlike the 17th century's court music, however, this new "higher-end" form of music was available for limited public consumption. Due to the saturation of musicians in and around Urceopolis, it no longer became possible to survive on patronage, and many newly organized groups of musicians began to play for the price of admission to relatively small concert grounds. The commercial success of such endeavors lead to a significant boom period in the 1700s-1730s of public musical expression for profit. The audience were typically urban privilegiata and the concerts were often priced in such a way that they were unaffordable for the nascent working class and peasants, but through this point in Urcean history it was the most democratized music had ever been. A considerable deal of public theater and open space construction occurred in the first three decades of the 18th century, making so-called "audience music" even more viable, and the trend spread throughout other cities in Urcea. Having a much larger audience than courtiers, and having music for ears outside of the top refined optimates made an immediate impact on the kind of music being played, as Court-Theater music changed rapidly in the first half of the 18th century in order to appeal to the wider audiences. While the virtuosity and apprentice-master relationship of court music was retained, these first popular audiences much preferred more solos during pieces, leading to a kind of resurgence of the previous century's theater music. The "audience boom" came to an end with the beginning of the War of the Caroline Succession, however, as the time for audience music was replaced with church attendance duty for novenas for the benefit of the cause of Urcea and the Apostolic King. During the war, proto-folk songs sung by soldiers in camp took on new forms, incorporating the regional diversity of Urcean soldiers called to service of the King. These proto-folk songs, in turn, began to inform the traditional music style played outside of the battlefield by the army fife-and-drum core, as the two "original" Urcean musical genres continued to influence each other despite the historiographical divergence imposed on them during the 1600s.

Aedanicad

Restoration

Beginning in the late 1900s and 1910s, there began a renewed interest in what became known as "old-time" music, which could best be described as a mix of popular songs from the mid-to-late 19th century as well as obscure folk songs from rural parts of the country, but not truly "traditional music", which remained a separate genre. Historians and scholars have theorized the rise of interest in this music came as a consequence of the restoration of King Patrick III and the memory of the bloodshed of the Red Interregnum. According to these historians, Urceans - especially middle-aged ones - pined for the nostalgic idyll of simpler times during the Aedanicad. The invention of the phonograph and rise of the Urcean recording industry made these songs viable, and in the 1910s the phenomenon of "songhunters" - individuals who would go to the rural parts of Urcea to discover old folk songs in order to obtain the rights to the music - sprang up. Old-time music became enormously popular and commercially viable. The advent of radio lead to further widespread popularity of the genre in the 1920s through mid 1930s. Sometimes called "country music", emerged as a dominant cultural and commercial form of music during the early radio era, though during the same time traditional pop styles imported from the rest of Levantia became popular.

Great War

Rhythm and blues music developed from foreign blues music in the mid 1930s and early 1940s and the influence of Sarpedonian and Audonian music, which soldiers of the Royal and Imperial Army became exposed to during the Great War. The short period of time in which rhythm and blues was popular lead to a decline and sharp regionalization of "old-time" or country music, which became primarily associated with rural regions of Urcea, especially those areas associated with frontier Ómestaderoi culture. Traditional pop went into severe decline in the 1940s as the ongoing Great War lead to renewed interest in traditionally Urcean styles of music that accompanied a new wave of nationalism.

Postwar

The influence of country and traditional music blended with rhythm and blues to develop an entirely new form of music in the 1950s which some historians have referred to as Rockabilly or "the King's Rock" since it was a uniquely Urcean sound distinguishable from other countries. The new rock styles quickly supplanted what remained of traditional pop, and beginning in the 1960s "new pop" took its place, heavily influenced by the backbeat driven "King's Rock" sound. Since that point, a mix of rock and mainstream pop exists alongside country music as the most popular genres in the country, though some have noted rock music to be in decline since the end of the 20th century, particularly going in a more indie direction as country music has displaced it in many parts of society.

Modern music

The popularity of country has also inspired an indie movement in that genre as well, and "insurgent country", a style similar to bluegrass, has become popular since the mid-2020s. Insurgent country seeks to reclaim the sound and heritage of Urcean traditional music and the initial "old-time" music genre in an effort to undo the dominance of what is perceived to be the "corporate sound", which incorporates electronic and pop elements.