Trance music

Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 beats per minute,:252 repeating melodic phrases:261, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track:269. It is a combination of many forms of sound such as techno,:15,17 house:15, pop:16, chill-out,:17 classical music,:16:35 and film music:35.
Trance employs aural dynamics to a great degree: A characteristic of virtually all trance songs is the soft mid-song breakdown:19:252,269, beginning with and occurring after the orchestration is broken down and the rhythm tracks fade out rapidly, leaving the melody and/or atmospherics to stand alone for anywhere from thirteen seconds to three minutesFor example, SoundLift - My Garden has a 3-min breakdown (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BicMOAwAm70). When vocals are present in trance, they are generally sung by a female with a soaring, operatic voice ranging from mezzo-soprano to soprano, best described as "ethereal female leads floating amongst the synths"Hawkins, Erik (2004). The Complete Guide to Remixing. Boston, MA: Berklee Press. ISBN 0-87639-044-0: p. 51.
==History==
===Origin===
Germany is the birthplace of trance music,:251 with the original melodic sound first appearing around 1993 in Frankfurt.:15
The origin of the term is uncertain; one theory suggests that the term is derived from the Klaus Schulze album Trancefer (1981) or the early trance act Dance 2 Trance. Other schools of thought argue the name may refer to an induced emotional feeling, high, euphoria, chills, or uplifting rush listeners claim to experience, while other suggestions trace the name to the actual trance-like states the earliest forms of the music attempted to emulate in the 1990s before the genre's focus changed.:252
Some trace trance's antecedents back to Klaus Schulze, a German experimental electronic music artist who concentrated on blending minimalist music with repetitive rhythms and arpeggiated sounds. In France, Jean Michel Jarre, an early electronic musician, released two albums in the late 1970s: Oxygène in 1976 and Equinoxe in 1978. Also a possible antecedent, Neil Young's 1982 electronic album, Trans, bears a resemblance to the trance music genre.
Examples of early Trance releases include but are not limited to German duo Jam & Spoon's 1992 12" Single remix of the 1900 song The Age Of Love.:15, German duo Dance 2 Trance's 1990 track "We Came in Peace".:251
As for the roots of contemporary trance, some:15 trace it to Paul van Dyk's 1993 remix of Humate's 'Love Stimulation'.:15. In subsequent years, one genre, vocal trance, arose as the combination of progressive elements and pop music:15, and the development of another subgenre, epic trance, had some of its origins in classical music.:15, with film music also being influential.:35
==Production==
Classic trance usually employs a "four-to-the-floor" time signature:252, a tempo of 125 to 150 BPM:252, and 32 beat phrases and is somewhat faster than house music.Hewitt, Michael (2008). Music Theory for Computer Musicians. Boston, MA: Course Technology. ISBN 978-1-59863-503-4:35 A kick drum is usually placed on every downbeat and a regular open hi-hat is often placed on the upbeat or every 1/8th division of the bar.:253 Extra percussive elements are usually added, and major transitions, builds or climaxes are often foreshadowed by lengthy "snare rolls"—a quick succession of snare drum hits that build in velocity, frequency, and volume towards the end of a measure or phrase.:266
Rapid arpeggios and minor scales are common features. Trance tracks often use one central "hook", or melody, which runs through almost the entire song, repeating at intervals anywhere between 2 beats and 32 bars, in addition to harmonies and motifs in different timbres from the central melody.:266 Instruments are added or removed every 4, 8, 16, or 32 bars.:269
In the section before the breakdown, the lead motiff is often introduced in a sliced up and simplified form :269, to give the audience a "taste" of what they will hear after the breakdown :269. Then later, the final climax is usually "a culmination of the first part of the track mixed with the main melodic reprise":268.
As is the case with many dance music tracks, trance tracks are usually built with sparser intros ("mix-ins") and outros ("mix-outs") in order to enable DJs to blend them together more readily:19:269. As trance is more melodic and harmonic than much dance music, the construction of trance tracks in such a way is particularly important in order to avoid dissonant (or "key clashing," i.e., out of tune with one another) mixes.
==Subgenres==
Trance music is broken into a large number of sub-genres. Chronologically, the major sub-genres are Classic trance, Acid trance, Progressive trance, and Uplifting Trance. Uplifting Trance is also known as "Anthem trance", "Epic trance":16, "Stadium trance", or "Euphoric trance":252, and has been strongly influenced by classical music both in the 1990s and at present with the development of the sub-genre "Orchestral uplifting trance" or "Uplifting trance with symphonic orchestra" by such artists as Andy Blueman, Soundlift, and Arctic Moon. Closely related to Uplifting Trance is Euro-trance, which has become a general term for a wide variety of highly commercialized European dance music. Several subgenres are crossovers with other major genres of electronic music. For instance, tech trance is a mixture of trance and techno, and Vocal Trance "combines [trance's] progressive elements with pop music":17. Balearic beat, which is associated with the laid back vacation lifestyle of Ibiza, Spain, is often called "Balearic trance", as espoused by Roger Shah.
==Music festivals==
The following is a list of dance music festivals that showcase Trance music.
===The Netherlands===
Electronic Dance Music festivals in the Netherlands are mainly organized by four companies ALDA Events, ID&T, UDC and Q-Dance:
* Armin Only, Jaarbeurs Utrecht, Utrecht: the only DJ to mix at this event is Armin van Buuren. Organized by ALDA Events. Armin Only 2005 was held in Ahoy, Rotterdam. The 2008 and 2010 editions were held in Jaarbeurs Utrecht.
* Dance Valley, Spaarnwoude: an outdoor festival organized by UDC.
* Sensation, Amsterdam Arena. Organized by ID&T.
* Energy, (Formerly Trance Energy) Jaarbeurs, Utrecht: Previously Trance only under the name "Trance Energy", the festival was renamed "Energy" in 2011 and begun to incorporate other genres. Organized by ID&T.
* Amsterdam dance event, One of the worlds trance and electronic music festivals held every year in Amsterdam in October.
* A State of Trance, Armin van Buuren's weekly radio show A State of Trance celebrates every 50th episode with an event. Episode 400 was held in Rotterdam, Episode 450 was not held in the Netherlands, episode 500 was held in the Brabanthallen, Den Bosch, and episode 550 was in Den Bosch as well.
===United Kingdom===
* Gatecrasher also promotes sporadic events and have in the past also used venues such as Birmingham N.E.C. Gatecrasher is currently on hiatus until further notice due to fire damage.
===North America===
Electronic Dance Music festivals in North America feature various EDM genres such as Trance, House, Techno, Electro, Dubstep, Breaks, and Drum & Bass:
* Ultra Music Festival, an annual outdoor electronic music festival that occurs in March in the city of Miami, Florida, United States. In 2012, a record 165,000 people attended the festival.
* Electric Daisy Carnival, an annual massive organized by Insomniac Events that was held in Southern California from 1997 to 2010, and was moved to Las Vegas in 2011. In 2009, the festival was expanded to a two day event, which brought in 130,000 attendees. In 2010, the festival attracted a total of 185,000 attendees. The Las Vegas event lasted 3 days in 2011, attracting 240,000 people.
* Nocturnal Festival, an annual southern California massive organized by Insomniac Events, held at the NOS Events Center in San Bernardino in either August or September. Typically bringing in crowds of over 50,000 although this number has been steadily growing.
* Beyond Wonderland, an electronic dance festival in in Southern California organized by Insomniac Events
* Electric Zoo Festival, an annual electronic music festival held over Labor Day weekend in New York City on Randall's Island Park. In 2011, Electric Zoo expanded to a 3-day festival and hosted 85,000 attendees.
* World Electronic Music Festival (WEMF): held annually in Canada, this three-day-long outdoor event, consisting mainly of Trance, Hard Dance and Jungle (also featuring happy hardcore) has been held since the 1990s.
*Bal en Blanc: is a huge rave party that is hosted annually, in April during Easter holiday weekend, in Montreal, Canada. It features headliner DJs from all over the world and attracts over 15,000 attendees. This event usually has two separate rooms, one catering to house music and the other to trance music. It usually lasts for more than 14 hours. April 2009 15th anniversary line up: Insomnia, Markus Schulz, Above and Beyond, Armin Van Buuren, Roger Shah, King Louis, Uppercut, Offer Nissim, Ana Paula, Axwell, Deadmau5, Victor Calderone.
===Other===
* Portugal: Boom Festival (the last edition was in Idanha-a-Nova) since 1997. This event is an outdoor festival running every two years with a duration of several days, focusing in psychedelic goa trance. The festival also features workshops, presentations, and cinema.
* Switzerland: Street Parade – The world's biggest electronic music festival (more than one million visitors attend this event year by year).
* Belgium: Tomorrowland (festival) – The largest Belgian open-air electronic music festival. 2010 had more than 120.000 visitors. Tomorrowland in 2011 will have a capacity of up to 180.000 visitors. DJs such as David Guetta, Armin Van Buuren, Bob Sinclar, Roger Sanchez, Felix The Housecat and many more.
* India: Sunburn Festival launched in December 2007 as South Asia's first electronic music festival, and featured heavyweights like Carl Cox and John '00' Fleming. Located seaside in Goa, on India's west coast, the festival has its roots in Goa trance. Sunburn treated more than 5,000 electro revelers to a three-day party by the beach in December 2008. At the 2009 festival, DJs such as Armin Van Buuren, Roger Sanchez, and Sander van Doorn participated with audience numbers running between 15,000 to 18,000 making it the biggest edition yet.As of the 2010 festival, it showed the likes of Paul Van Dyk and many other DJ's with estimated crowds of 30,000 people.
*Thailand: Full Moon Party Held each month on the island of Koh Phangan. Thousands of people from across the world gather on Haad Rin Nok (Sunrise Beach) to dance under the moonlight.
==References==
==External links==
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