song Short and usually simple piece of music for voice, with or with¬ out instrumental accompaniment. Folk songs—traditional songs without a known composer transmitted orally rather than in written form—have existed for millennia but have left few traces in ancient sources. Virtually all known preliterate societies have a repertory of songs. Folk songs often accompany religious ceremonies, dancing, labour, or courting; they may tell stories or express emotions; the music follows obvious conventions and is often repetitive. Songs written by a particular composer or poet generally are more sophisticated and are not attached to activities. In the West the continuous tradition of secular art songs began with the trouba¬ dours, trouveres, and minnesingers of the 12th—13th centuries. Polyphonic
songs, originating in the motet, began to appear in the 13th century. Com¬ posers of the 14th century produced a great body of polyphonic songs in the formes fixes. Later the Italian madrigal became the most distinguished genre. Notated accompaniments to solo songs appeared in the 16th cen¬ tury. The Romantic movement made the 19th century a golden age for the art song, notably the German lied. In the 20th century the popular song displaced the more cultivated art song, and popular music is today syn¬ onymous with popular song.
Song dynasty or Sung \'suq\ dynasty (960-1279) Chinese dynasty that united the entire country until 1127 and the southern portion until 1279, during which time northern China was controlled by the Juchen tribes. During the Song, commerce flourished, paper currency came into increasing use, and several cities boasted populations exceeding one mil¬ lion people. Wang Anshi worked for more equitable taxation and state- centred solutions for China’s problems. Widespread printing brought increased literacy and a broader elite, and private academies and state schools sent increasing numbers of candidates through the Chinese exami¬ nation system. In the 12th century, Zhu Xi systemized Neo-Confucianism. The Song was also an era of scholarship: groundbreaking treatises on architecture and botany were published, as was the famous history Zizhi tongjian (“Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government”) of Sima Guang. Landscape painting is said to have reached its peak during the Northern Song, which was also famous for its magnificent architecture. See also Taizu.
Song Hong See Red River
Song Huizong See Huizong
songbird Any oscine passerine (suborder Passere), all of which have a complex vocal organ, the syrinx. Some species (e.g., thrushes) produce melodious songs; others (e.g., crows) have a harsh voice; and some do little or no singing. See also birdsong.
Songhai \ , soq- 1 hI\ Ethnolinguistic group chiefly inhabiting the area of the great bend in the Niger River in Mali, centred on the site of the old Songhai empire. Numbering some 1.5 million, the Songhai speak a Nilo- Saharan language. Songhai society traditionally was highly structured, comprising a nobility, free commoners, artisans, griots (bards and chroni¬ clers), and (formerly) slaves. They cultivate cereals in the rainy season (June to November) and also engage in cattle raising and fishing. The Songhai have traditionally prospered from caravan trade. Many young Songhai leave home for the coast, especially Ghana.
Songhai \'s6q-,hl\ empire or Songhay empire Ancient Muslim state. West Africa. Centred on the middle Niger River in what is now cen¬ tral Mali, it eventually extended to the Atlantic coast and into Niger and Nigeria. Established by the Songhai people c. ad 800, it reached its great¬ est extent in the 16th century before falling to Moroccan forces in 1591. Its important cities were Gao and Timbuktu.
Songhua Jiang See Sungari River
Songjiang \'suq-'jyaq\ or Sung-chiang Town (population 1998 est.: 490,300), Shanghai municipality, eastern China. It was a superior prefec¬ ture under the Ming and Qing dynasties. Originally a major rice-growing centre, by the 18th century it had gained an international reputation for cotton textiles. During the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) it was badly dam¬ aged in the fighting to defend Shanghai; it is the burial place of the U.S. adventurer Frederick T. Ward, who commanded Western troops who fought the rebellion. Shanghai’s phenomenal 19th-century growth took away the town’s role as a commercial centre; although it remains domi¬ nated by Shanghai, it has some industry and is a tourist destination for Shanghai residents.
sonnet Fixed verse form having 14 lines that are typically five-foot iambics rhyming according to a prescribed scheme. The sonnet is unique among poetic forms in Western literature in that it has retained its appeal for major poets for five centuries. It seems to have originated in the 13th century among the Sicilian school of court poets. In the 14th century Petrarch established the most widely used sonnet form. The Petrarchan (or Italian) sonnet characteristically consists of an eight-line octave, rhym¬ ing abbaabba, that states a problem, asks a question, or expresses an emotional tension, followed by a six-line sestet, of varying rhyme schemes, that resolves the problem, answers the question, or resolves the tension. In adapting the Italian form, Elizabethan poets gradually devel¬ oped the other major sonnet form, the Shakespearean (or English) son-
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Sonni ‘All ► Sorby I 1785
net. It consists of three quatrains, each with an independent rhyme scheme, and ends with a rhymed couplet.
Sonni ‘All \s6n-'e-a-'le\ (d. 1492) West African monarch who initiated the imperial expansion of the Songhai empire. His first major conquest (1468) was the city of Timbuktu, one of the chief anchors of the declining Mali empire. A seven-year siege of the city of Jenne (now Djenne) resulted in its conquest in 1473. He spent most of his reign repulsing attacks on his empire by the Dendi, the Fulani, the Mossi, and the Tuareg. Little is known about his administration, but Arab chroniclers characterized him as a cruel and capricious tyrant.
Sonora \so-'nor-9\ State (pop., 2000: 2,216,969), northwestern Mexico. Bordering the U.S. and the Gulf of California, it covers 70,291 sq mi (182,052 sq km); its capital is Hermosillo. Explored by Spaniards in the 1530s, it became an important colonial mining district for copper, gold, and silver. It became a state in 1830, but the Yaqui Indian peoples were not finally subdued until the 20th century. It is generally arid and semi- arid, and irrigation is used to grow winter vegetables, cereals, cotton, tobacco, and com (maize).
Sonoran Desert Arid region, western North America. Covering 120,000 sq mi (310,000 sq km), the Sonoran Desert is located in south¬ western Arizona and southeastern California, U.S., and northern Baja California and western Sonora state, Mex. The desert’s subdivisions include the Colorado and Yuma deserts. Irrigation has produced many fertile agricultural areas, notably the Coachella and Imperial valleys. Warm winters in the Sonoran Desert attract tourists to resorts such as Palm Springs, Tucson, and Phoenix. Indian reservations (see Papago; Pima) are located there.
Sontag Vsan-.tagV, Susan orig. Susan Rosenblatt (b. Jan. 16, 1933, New York, N.Y., U.S.—d. Dec. 28, 2004, New York) U.S. writer. She studied at the University of Chicago and Harvard University and taught philosophy at several institutions. In the early 1960s she began contributing to such periodicals as the New York Review of Books, Com¬ mentary, and Partisan Review, her French-influenced essays being char¬ acterized by a serious philosophical approach to aspects of modem culture rarely taken seriously at the time, including films, popular music, and “camp” sensibility. Collections of her essays include the influential Against Interpretation, and Other Essays (1966) and Styles of Radical Will (1969). Her later critical works include On Photography (1977), Illness as Metaphor (1978), and AIDS and Its Metaphors (1989). She also wrote screenplays and novels, including The Volcano Lover (1992) and In America (2000).