What do folk dances mean? Nowadays, we enjoy folk dances as entertainment but many dances once had special meanings. Some dances originated as imitations of animals or of simple kinds of work such as wood-cutting or gathering the harvest,  to mark the passing of the seasons and to please the gods. Other dances reflect times of war or commemorate warriors’ deeds. Sword dances were originally war dances. In the East, dances...

Which instruments are in a symphony orchestra? A symphony orchestra may contain over a hundred instruments, but they are not all different from one another. In fact, there are only four major groups of instruments: the strings, woodwind, brass and percussion. The group to which a particular instrument belongs depends on the way it is played. String instruments have a wooden body and four strings, and they are played by stroking...