I stumbled across a treasure trove (or something like that) of a 2 CD collection of rejected and unused scores. I made tremendous efforts trying to find whether it was ever actually published or whether this was something privately created by a film fanatic who has an enormous collection of film music. I’ve been sitting […]
HIDDEN LEGACIES (1992)
Music by Roger Bourland, lyrics by John Hall
Performed by the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, Jon Bailey,
conductor
For men’s chorus, 4 synthesizers, bass and drums
Live performance at the Wiltern Theater, April 1992.
1. Before the storm
2. The Nightmare
3. Give us a death undiminished
4. Left Behind
5. Dinosaur
6. Hidden Legacies (Lullabye)
7. We sing
[Lyrics can be found […]
Feeling nostalgic for old commercials I found this memory from my childhood, “New Country Cornflakes.” It’s a vague rip-off of Woodie Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” but tweaked just enough to not have to pay royalties.
Check out the amazing photography of Irene Müller. I’ve always loved watching cream as it pours into rich, dark coffee, and the patterns it creates. But Irene brings a whole new realm of symmetry that was too fast for my feeble eyes to catch. Holy moly!
[Photo: © Irene Müller; used with permission]
I discovered a marvelous resource for Los Angeles photography, taken by photographers from the LA Times from 1920 to 1990, curated by the UCLA Library Digital Collections. I typed in some composers names like Schoenberg, Stravinsky, and a few other names but didn’t come up with much. I typed in Music teachers and found this […]
Here is Lasse Gjertsen’s video of Italian cellist/composer Giovanni Sollima performing his own compositions “Terra Aria” and “Concerto Rotondo.”
Lasse is famous on YouTube for his human-beatbox videos like “Hyperactive,” and “Amateur.”
Part 1
So this is the project I’ve been working on for the last 5 months, and heres how part 1 of it is made:
On the […]
This is my favorite song of 1989. It was used by dance class instructors trying to teach their class how to shuffle (I never got it). The sexy, thrusting bass line is unforgettable, and that nasty offbeat snare slam makes me want to run to the dance floor whether I can shuffle or not.
Tonight I entertain a serious issue: who were the most handsome (dead) composers, and who are the ugliest ones? Better yet, let’s be specific:
Who was the cutest (dead) composer?
Henry Cowell
Who were the most handsome (dead) composers in their youth?
Schubert and Paderewski
Who were the most handsome (dead) composers?
Busoni and Bernstein
Who was the geekiest young (dead) composer?
Gershwin, […]
“Music textiles” is a large tactile interface for playing electronic music. It was developed by Vincent Roudaud and Maurin Donneaud.
My fantasy runs wild: I imagine a new line of clothes where each piece of clothing is programmed to make a sound when touched. I could imagine my pants being a soft rain that fades […]
In their third quarter of music theory, my students have been working on their midterm. This time, instead of an exam, they were assigned to arrange or compose three duets (one had to have a transposing instrument). The combinations were: flute and oboe; clarinet and alto sax; trumpet and trombone (or euphonium); violin, viola, or […]
I was incredulous when I learned that Max Steiner wrote the theme from ” A Summer Place.” He was in his 70s when he wrote it. The chord progression [I vi ii V] was the same one used in the majority of 1950s and early 60s rock songs so he had a built in audience. […]
Brad Wood sent this in, and with summer just around the corner, this seems a perfect song to get us ready. In this old video from the 50s, I think Johnny got the better deal. Santo seems to be chugging along but someone forgot to turn his guitar up. Oops. I love Johnny’s little rhythmic […]
One of my favorite songs to sing in the past few years has been “Complainte de la butte,” which I found on the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack, sung by Rufus Wainwright. I knew that he didn’t write it and read that it was chosen for the soundtrack because of its reference to the Moulin Rouge, central […]
The Rolling Stone has a regular section in its online magazine dedicated to new artists called ARTIST TO WATCH. In it they have photo equations that best describe what to suspect if you don’t have the courage to hit the play button on the sample song, and that song in this blurb is called “The […]
Here is a terrific little 20 minute film by Francis Picabia (screenplay), and René Clair (adaptation and screenplay) called “Entr’acte.” I’m fairly sure that the music is by Erik Satie and in 1967 was adapted and orchestrated or reorchestrated by Henri Sauguet who also added some additional music. (Which one aped Chopin’s funeral march? If […]
I know, after hearing that last song, you need more, OK here it is: “Wooly Bully.”
Here’s a rave from the grave and one that doesn’t get included on oldies radio stations. So to educate those that never heard it, and to bring back old memories to those of you that remember it, here it is: “Little Red Riding Hood” by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs.
Love your animals and they will love you back.
Last night I met, face-to-face, the brilliant and multi-talented PK, of Loose Poodle fame. We overlapped one year at the New England Conservatory from 1976-1977 and thought we knew each other. We’ve corresponded via emaiil and blogs for the past year, and knew each other that way, but when we sat and looked at each […]
This a song a cut my teeth on as a young guitar player in the early ’60s. And they actually said DAMN! I felt so naughty singing that word. That cool e minor guitar vamp at the beginning. Mmmm mm. So cool.
I just bought and listened to the audio book of David Lynch reading his new “Catching the Big Fish.” It’s a marvelous peak inside his persona and creative process. I would have thought that he was a William Burroughs type character, or Jack Nicholson, or Dennis Hopper. You know, probably smokes a lot of dope, […]
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