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Welcome to my outpost on the Interweb! I write SF, fantasy, and horror for fun and profit. Other interests include music, nature, science, humor, food, bib overalls, and pie throwing (metaphorically AND literally). About Me Comments Policy Photo Gallery My Books: The Song of Forgotten Stars
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Category Archives: music
Tone Poem Tuesday
Mieczysław Karłowicz was a Polish composer who was just coming into his own, and who might well have become that nation’s greatest composer, when he was killed in an avalanche while skiing when he was just 32. He did not … Continue reading
Also, this.
Here’s something in the “You learn something new every day!” Department: there is a Chinese reed instrument called the Sheng, which involves several upright pipes in a nifty kind of cross between an oboe and a calliope. Here a sheng … Continue reading
Something for Thursday
A break from the “Conversation Songs” series, in honor of actor Ray Liotta, who died today.
Posted in music, Passages
Tagged Passages, Something For Thursday
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Tone Poem Tuesday
Here’s something that I’m not sure if I’ve done in this space: shared a work I was literally listening to for the first time, all the way through, as I’m writing the post. I was on the way home from … Continue reading
No orchestra? No problem
Franz Liszt, one of the first virtuoso superstars of the music world, didn’t stop at composing his own showpieces to display his own incredible talent at the piano keyboard. He also transcribed for piano many of the great symphonic works … Continue reading
Something for Thursday
Continuing my little series on “One-way Conversation Songs”, when the lyrics are literally one side of a conversation, we take an infrequent trip into Country music this week. In this song, Jo Dee Messina is catching up with a friend … Continue reading
Tone Poem Tuesday
Film music today! This weekend was, among other things, the twentieth anniversary of the release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, which is one of my favorite installments in the series. Even now, when the Prequel Trilogy has … Continue reading
Something for Thursday: Conversation songs, No. 2
Here’s another “Conversation Song”! This is my ongoing series, started last week, in which I feature songs whose lyrics give us one side of a conversation, and we are left to infer the other half. This week’s song dates from … Continue reading
Tone Poem Tuesday
A suite of film music today! We watched Avatar the other night, our first time watching it since we first saw it when the DVD came out after the movie’s initial release, way back in 2009 or 2010 or so. The … Continue reading
Posted in music, On Movies
Tagged Movies, Music, Tone Poem Tuesday
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Something for Thursday (Conversation songs, 1)
I’m going to start something new here: a series within a series! For the next dozen weeks (or more!), Something for Thursday will be devoted to songs with a specific twist: the lyrics are one side of a conversation. The … Continue reading