From the category archives:
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 [...]
{ 0 comments }
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 [...]
{ 1 comment }
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 [...]
{ 4 comments }
In response to a recent Joni post, PK commented by asking some very important questions. I don’t pretend to have the answers, but will individually tackle them later this week. So that you can think about them, here they are. (PK is the proprietor of the fab blog LOOSE POODLE.)
1) What IS the difference between [...]
{ 0 comments }
I’ve installed Google Analytics on this blog to see a variety of statistics. Rest assured I never know who is reading this unless you post, and only then if you’ve given my your real name.
85% of my readers go right to rogerbourland.com or redblackwindow.com (the latter forwards to the former). Following that majority, here are [...]
{ 1 comment }
Composer William Kraft (Bill) and I were having lunch one day at the UCLA Faculty Center. Half way through a bite of his sandwich (teachers and composers ALWAYS talk with their mouths full) he bolted and said “Roger, I have a new mode I’ve been working with. It’s terrific, it has so many great qualities. [...]
{ 13 comments }
I’ve had more thoughts on “You’ve got to Hide your love away” since I posted a video of their performance in the movie HELP! a few days ago.
This is yet another one of Lennon’s famous songs about love. He wrote about love throughout his entire career. The song appears to me to be about Brian [...]
{ 0 comments }
Every once in a while, a song comes into your life and it colors your entire season, say summer. And whenever you hear this song, you go back to that place. Allow me to highly recommend a song that will take you over and be your soundtrack for a few weeks, if not months: “Dance [...]
{ 1 comment }
In 1966, rock and roll invaded classical music’s personal space by including orchestras, string quartets, oboes, and harpsichords in their arrangements “Eleanor Rigby,” Joshua Rifkin’s “Baroque Beatles” as well as his arrangements for Judy Collins were all co-existing at this time. There was also a short-lived group called The Left Banke who managed to put [...]
{ 0 comments }
BACKGROUND ABOUT CHORDS FOR NON-MUSICIANS
When musicians describe music, very often they will refer to the “chords” that are sounding in or behind the musical texture. There are seven notes in a major scale, each one can have a 3-note chord on it, and our traditional music theory teachers teach us to call those entities “triads.” [...]
{ 0 comments }