I still owe him a much longer post, but meantime, this past Saturday marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Leonard Bernstein, one of the greatest musicians this country has ever produced. Here he is conducting the music of another of America’s greatest musicians, Aaron Copland, in his Appalachian Spring ballet. This is still the finest performance of this work I know.
Something for Thursday
Behold…THE GEEKIVERSE!!!
Check this out, folks: I have joined local geek commentary website The Geekiverse as a staff writer! Huzzah!!
In addition to other things, I’ll be mainly writing a regular column I’m calling Curios from the Outer Rim, in which I look at geeky stuff that’s at least fifteen years old, so as to balance the ever-present focus on what’s coming out today/this weekend/this month/this year. My first installment is live now, so go take a look!
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Tone Poem Tuesday
Remember how in the movie Amadeus Antonion Salieri is presented as a basically competent composer whose music might have been nice at the time but deserved its fade from memory? Well…no, Salieri was no Mozart. But he wasn’t a boob, either. He was prolific and talented…like many a composer, really. And the movie, though great, took significant liberties with musical history. Salieri did not hound poor Mozart to his death, even if their relationship was frosty.
Here is the overture to his opera Les Horaces. This is not the work of “a mediocrity”!
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Recent walks
Something for Thursday
Tone Poem Tuesday
We did a piece by Vasily Kalinnikov last week, so this week…let’s do another one!
Just as last week I was unable to dig up much actual information about the Bylina Overture, so too am I unable to find a lot out about The Cedar and the Palm, which is a “symphonic picture” written in 1898 (which happens to be the year my maternal grandmother was born). Here it is:
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Bad Joke Friday
Announcing THE CHILLING KILLING WIND
Crossposting from ForgottenStars.net: it’s the back cover blurb for my next novel, and my first released book not in the Forgotten Stars sequence! It’s a supernatural thriller titled The Chilling Killing Wind, and I can’t wait for it to be out there in the world. I will have a date nailed down soon, but for now, I’m planning for mid to late September.
So what’s the story about? Well:
Tonight, former detective John Lazarus will finally put his old life behind him. He has a new job as a teacher, a new home, and a new love. All he has to do is get through tonight’s execution of Roy Edgar Chalmers, the last of the three men who killed John’s wife in a botched robbery. Once Chalmers is dead, John Lazarus will be done with his old life at last.
But tomorrow the murders will start: strange, violent crimes whose only connection is the pair of voices exhorting the perpetrators to kill. As an occasional police consultant, John Lazarus will increasingly suspect that something abnormal is at the heart of these killings. And when Roy Edgar Chalmers, not nearly so dead as he should be, approaches him for help, John Lazarus will realize that maybe his old life isn’t quite done with him….
Stay tuned for more!