Long before this blog was born, telling specific stories through music was a common idea. Many composers, especially in the 19thcentury, wrote what has been called “program music,” or music that expresses an image or story. You’ve probably already heard of some of these: “Clair de Lune” (“Moonlight”) by Debussy, “Night on Bald Mountain” by Mussorgsky, and “Pines of Rome” by Respighi. Hector Berlioz even wrote a piece called Symphonie Fantastique in which a man overdoses on opium, dreams he is beheaded, and then sees his true love in hell where he discovers that she’s a witch (he based it on his real-life obsession with an actress…yikes!). Continue reading “Storytelling with Classical Music throughout History”
Friar Lawrence literally looked two teens in the eye and said, why yes, I’ll help you get married. Then he proceeded to give the EXTREMELY IMPORTANT letter detailing how Juliet isn’t actually dead to someone who has no idea what the stakes are. Shouldn’t he have said something like, “Hey man, if you don’t deliver this letter it’s going to be really, really, really, really, really bad?” Or maybe he did and the other friar just thought to himself, “Ha, another one of Larry’s jokes. What a guy!” 
If Mermaids Wore Suspenders 