Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Ambience |
AmbienceNoun1. A particular environment or surrounding influence; "there was an atmosphere of excitement". 2. The atmosphere of an environment. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Electrical Engineering | The background-sound quality of a listening room, surround processor, and/or recording. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Ambient music is a loosely defined musical genre that incorporates elements of a number of different styles - including jazz, electronica, new age, modern classical music and even noise. It is chiefly identifiable as having an overarching atmospheric context.
The Cover of Brian Eno's Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, widely considered one of the best ambient releases.
History
The term was first coined by Brian Eno in the late 1970s to refer to music that would envelop the listener without drawing attention to itself. Hence, Brian Eno is considered the father of ambient music. Sometimes associated with elevator music and Muzak, it is more often similar to mood music or an ambient background in movie and radio sound effects. Often listeners will forget they are listening to ambient music, which is one of the biggest attractions of the genre. It can be any musical style, including jazz, electronica and modern classical music.
Retrospectively, some of the works of the 20th century French composer Erik Satie, today best known for his Trois Gymnopédies suite, can be regarded as predecessors of modern ambient music. The invention of the first electronic instrument, the theremin in the early 20th century is also considered an important influence on the later development of ambient music. Similarly some of the works of the French composer Edgar Varèse, who used the theremin extensively in his music can also be viewed as predecessors of ambient music.
Although purely Ambient music is traditionally beatless, a lot of modern Ambient electronica (sometimes referred to as Ambient techno or Ambient Dub) has reconciled rhythm with the dreamy, meandering reverb of the first wave of Ambient music. With the birth of a new wave of electronic music in the late 1980s, ambient saw a resurgence in the works of artists like The Orb, Aphex Twin and the Irresistible Force.
Ambient electronica
Ambient electronica is the current most popular form of the genre and began in its modern form in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Early works from the 1970s by Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis have greatly influenced the genre. Other earlier artists such as Ray Lynch and Mannheim Steamroller, both of which were considered at the time, the 1980s, to be "New Age" also influenced the growth of ambient electronica.
Artists considered to be part of the inception of the late 1980s, early 1990s ambient electronica movement included Aphex Twin, The Orb, Moby and William Orbit. Other prominent artists that make ambient electronic music include Air, Biosphere and Bill Laswell. Initially an underground movement, ambient electronica continued to rise in popularity until its less obscure status in the early 2000s.
Some types of ambient electronica:
Conventional
This most closely reflects typical electronic dance music. This combines a conventional techno beat (trance, drum and bass, etc) with a soothing electronic sound such as heard on Voodoo Child's (aka Moby) "The End of Everything" album.
Beatless
Beatless ambient electronica has no overt drum machine or explicit drum sound-driven beat, but maintains rhythm through repetition of some sort of sound as exemplified on Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II.
Soundscape
No overt repetition of a sound or sound phrases is clear. This kind of ambient electronica is for some listeners, the least accessible. Some examples include Radiohead's track "Treefingers" from the Kid A album, some of the work of Japanese musician Nobukazu Takemura, and IDM artist Hrvatski's album "Playthroughs" (recorded under his real name, Keith Fullerton Whitman).
Nature
The music is composed from samples and recordings of naturally occurring sounds. Sometimes these samples can be treated to make them more instrument-like. The samples may be arranged in repetitive ways to form a conventional musical structure or may be random and unfocussed. Sometimes the sound is mixed with urban or "found" sounds. Examples include much of Biosphere's Substrata, Mira Calix's insect music and Chris Watson's Weather Report.
Sound
- Guaka's GTRSHV
See also
- List of ambient artists
- Intelligent dance music (IDM)
- glitch
External links and references
- David Toop Ocean of Sound: aethertalk, ambient sound and imaginary worlds (1995) Serpent's Tail ISBN 1-85242-382-X ISBN 1852427434
- Factory Of The Green Light, a simple example of ambient music
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Ambient music."
Synonyms: AmbienceSynonyms: ambiance (n), atmosphere (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Ambience |
| Specialty definitions using "ambience": Meteorological Synthesizing Centre ♦ surround speakers, synthesising processors, synthesizing processors. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
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| "Celebration - ChristmasTime 2" by Bobbie Osborne Commentary: "This is part of a series, I did for Christmas cards. Slight blurs and dark coloring were intentionally setup for ambience. 2003-12-01." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. |
| Play | Caption |
 | Loud restaurant; background noise; noisy; ambience; ambient sound; atmospheric sound. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | These exhibit/seminar/meeting facilities offer an American ambience at below market rates for seminars or individual trade shows. (references) | |
Travel | Ghana | Excellent French food and wines, nice ambience. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Ambience" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.98% of the time. "Ambience" is used about 196 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.98% | 194 | 22,014 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.02% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 196 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "ambience"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | ambient (atmosphere, environment, medium, milieu, setting, surroundings), mjedis (background, climate, environment, location, medium, milieu, setting, surroundings). (various references) | |
Arabic | محيط (circumference, circumscription, entourage, environment, medium, milieu, ocean, perimeter, setting, surroundings), جو (air, mood, weather), بيئة (climate, environment, medium, milieu). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | среда (background, circle, core, entourage, mean, medium, middle, setting, sphere, surroundings), околна среда (environment), атмосфера (atmosphere, aura, climate, tone). (various references) | |
Czech | atmosféra (atmosphere, feel), prostředí (environment, medium, surroundings). (various references) | |
Danish | ambiens, rumklang, efterklang (reverberation). (various references) | |
Dutch | galm (echo, resonance). (various references) | |
Finnish | värittyminen. (various references) | |
French | ambiance (ambiance). (various references) | |
German | Atmosphäre (atmosphere, feel, tone), Ambienz, akustische Atmosphäre, Gesamtheit der ambienten Informationen. (various references) | |
Greek | ηχητικό περιβάλλον. (various references) | |
Hebrew | אוירה (atmosphere). (various references) | |
Hungarian | légkör (atmosphere, environment, flavor, flavour, sky). (various references) | |
Italian | atmosfera (air, atmosphere, ethos, feel, mood), ambiente (background, circle, environment, environs, habitat, medium, room, setting, sphere, surroundings). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 雰囲気 (atmosphere, mood). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | ふんいき (atmosphere, mood). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ambienceay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | ambiente (ambient, atmosphere, climate, entourage, environs, medium, surrounding, surroundings), ambiência (ethos, mood). (various references) | |
Russian | окружение (ambit, encirclement, entourage, environment, milieu, round up, setting, surroundings). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | sredina (matrix, medium, middle, midst, milieu), okolina (entourage, environment, environs). (various references) | |
Spanish | ambiente (ambient, atmosphere, aura, background, circumjacent, climate, environment, home, milieu, surroundings), acústica ambiental. (various references) | |
Swedish | atmosfär (atmosphere, aura, savor, savour). (various references) | |
Turkish | ambians (ambiance), ortam (ambiance, ambient, ambit, aroma, atmosphere, atmospheric, environment, medium, occasion, stage), hava (aerial, aero-, air, airs, ambiance, aroma, atmosphere, atmospheric, aura, climate, Flavor, flavour, mood, ostentation, shades, showing off, side, sky, splash, splurge, strain, swank, vanity, weather, wind), çevre (adjacencies, ambiance, ambient, ambit, atmosphere, circle, circumference, climate, compass, contour, domain, ecological, entourage, environment, environmental, girth, milieu, neighborhood, neighbourhood, perimeter, periphery, precinct, precincts, premises, purlieus, radius, region, society, sphere, surroundings, vicinity). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | оточення (ambit, circumscription, encirclement, entourage, environs, milieu, setting, surround), обстановка (air, appointments, atmosphere, background, circumstance, furnishings, milieu, scenery). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "ambience": ambiences. (additional references) | |
| |
"Ambience" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: abience, abinee, ambiente, ambviance, amimeche, Emmence, Ibicenco, Mibenge, ombiance. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "ambience" (pronounced a"mbēuns) |
| 7 | a" m b ē u n s | ambiance. |
| 4 | -ē u n s | audience, dalliance, deviance, disobedience, expedience, experience, inexperience, invariance, obedience, prescience, radiance, resilience, subservience, transience, variance. |
| 3 | -u n s | absence, abstinence, abundance, acceptance, accordance, abeyance, abhorrence, acquaintance, acquiescence, adherence, admirations, admittance, adolescence, affluence, allegiance, alliance, allowance, ambivalence, ambulance, annoyance, appearance, appliance, arrogance, ascendance, assistance, assurance, attendance, avoidance, balance, belligerence, beneficence, benevolence, bioscience, brilliance, cadence, capacitance, chrominance, circumference, clairvoyance, Clarence, clearance, coexistence, cognizance, coherence, coincidence, coinsurance, comeuppance, competence, compliance, concurrence, condolence, conference, confidence, confluence, conformance, congruence, connivance, conscience, consequence, consistence, continuance, contrivance, convalescence, convenience, convergence, conveyance, correspondence, countenance, counterbalance, counterintelligence, credence, decadence, Defeasance, deference, defiance, deliverance, dependence, deterrence, difference, diligence, disallowance, disappearance, discontinuance, dissidence, dissonance, distance, disturbance, divergence, dominance, ebullience, elegance, eloquence, emergence, eminence, endurance, entrance, equivalence, essence, evanescence, evidence, excellence, existence, extravagance, exuberance, flamboyance, Florence, forbearance, fragrance, furtherance, governance, grievance, guidance, hindrance, ignorance, imbalance, immanence, imminence, impatience, impedance, importance, impotence, imprudence, inadvertence, incidence, incoherence, incompetence, incontinence, inconvenience, independence, indifference, inductance, indulgence, inference, influence, inheritance, innocence, insignificance, insistence, insolence, instance, insurance, intelligence, interdependence, interference, intolerance, intransigence, irrelevance, irreverence, issuance, jurisprudence, licence, license, luminance, luminescence, maintenance, malfeasance, negligence, neuroscience, noncompliance, noninterference, nonviolence, nuisance, observance, obsolescence, occurrence, omnipotence, omnipresence, opulence, ordinance, Ordnance, overabundance, overconfidence, overdependence, overreliance, parlance, patience, penance, performance, permanence, persecutions, perseverance, persistence, pestilence, petulance, phosphorescence, pittance, precedence, predominance, preeminence, preference, preponderance, presence, prevalence, prominence, protuberance, provenance, Providence, province, prudence, pseudoscience, quintessence, reappearance, reassurance, recalcitrance, recognizance, reconnaissance, recurrence, reemergence, reference, reinspections, reinsurance, relevance, reliance, reluctance, remembrance, reminiscence, remittance, repentance, resemblance, residence, resistance, resonance, resurgence, reticence, reverence, riddance, science, semblance, senescence, sentence, sequence, severance, significance, silence, submergence, subsidence, subsistence, substance, surveillance, sustenance, teleconference, temperance, tolerance, transcendence, transference, turbulence, unbalance, utterance, Valence, vehemence, vengeance, videoconference, vigilance, violence, virulence. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-b-c-e-e-i-m-n" | |
-2 letters: amebic, anemic, beanie, became, bemean, bename, cabmen, cinema, iceman, icemen, meanie, menace. | |
-3 letters: amice, amine, amnic, anime, cabin, ceiba, enema, manic, minae, mince, niece. | |
-4 letters: acme, acne, amen, amie, amin, bane, bani, beam, bean, been, bema, bene, bice, bima, bine, cain, came, cane, cine, emic, iamb, mabe, mace, main, mane, mean, mica, mice. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-b-c-e-e-i-m-n" | |
+1 letter: ambiences. | |
+2 letters: lambencies. | |
+3 letters: ambivalence, machineable, medicinable. | |
+4 letters: ambivalences, amicableness, cabinetmaker, greenbackism, mechanizable. | |
+5 letters: cabinetmakers, combativeness, greenbackisms, unimpeachable, unreclaimable. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Slideshow 6. Images: Digital Art 7. Sounds 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
