Classical Music Stories

Pride and Prejudice: A Choose Your Own Adventure Story with Classical Music

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If YOU were in control of the story, what would happen next?

If you’re like me and love to read novels, you also love to use your imagination. Traveling to foreign places, having adventures, and experiencing all kinds of emotions and experiences through the characters we read about can be a fun escape from the world!

Classical music can also transport us into new worlds. Film scores can transport us to a very specific place, but you can imagine your own images and storyline to match any piece of instrumental music you hear!

Here’s a choose-your-own adventure version of Pride and Prejudice, then, with which you can follow along as you listen to some music written waaaaaay back in the 18th century (around when the book was actually written in the first place!). Some details are different than what you’ll actually find in the book, but others are the same.

Ultimately, the choice is yours.

What will happy to Lizzy Bennet? Continue reading “Pride and Prejudice: A Choose Your Own Adventure Story with Classical Music”

Classical Music Stories

A Music Version of Doublethink (Classical Music Stories: 1984)

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Every new version of this unsettling theme is the Thought Police altering the facts.

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible!

At first, it’s easy to hear how the music keeps playing the same melody over and over again in slightly different ways. But over time that becomes harder and harder to hear. Continue reading “A Music Version of Doublethink (Classical Music Stories: 1984)”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Rapunzel’s Daydreams

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From the composer of Clair de Lune comes piano music that is equally dreamy, equally magical…

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible! Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Rapunzel’s Daydreams”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Romeo, Juliet, and Grieg

Adventure, drama, despair, irony…this music has it all! (And speaking of having it all, check out this photo where Grieg is rocking a truly SPECTACULAR hat and mustache…)

But anyways.

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible! Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Romeo, Juliet, and Grieg”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Mozart and Sydney Carton (A Tale of Two Cities)

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Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible!

Spoilers ahead for Charles Dickens’ novel, A Tale of Two Cities! Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Mozart and Sydney Carton (A Tale of Two Cities)”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Bilbo Baggins and His Search for Adventure

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It’s Hobbit Day! I stumbled upon this fact thanks to Holly’s blog over at The Nut Free Nerd, so I thought what better way to celebrate than with our beloved Bilbo Baggins and some short but hobbit-y classical music?

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible! Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Bilbo Baggins and His Search for Adventure”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Anna Karenina’s Mental Illness

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There’s a frantic undercurrent in this music that reminds me a lot of Anna Karenina’s mental struggles, complete with lush orchestral textures and a solo flute!

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible!

WARNING: As fitting the novel, the story I describe at the end of this music is dark. Please do not enter into the mind of a depressed/suicidal character if this is a trigger for you. Make sure you are comfortable and safe. Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Anna Karenina’s Mental Illness”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: To Kill a Mockingbird

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This short 3 minute piano piece reveals a facade of beauty that is the perfect match for a birds-eye view of Boo Radley’s town. Both the music and novel invite us to reconsider our perspectives by presenting a world that is both otherworldly and hauntingly similar to our own.

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story, imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible! Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: To Kill a Mockingbird”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Dumbledore and J.S. Bach

If Mermaids Wore Suspenders is officially BACK after a two-month-long, mini hiatus. If you’re new ’round these parts, welcome! If you’re a long-time follower, welcome back! I hope you’ll find these music and literature mash-ups to be as fun and engaging as I have–and that you’ll find this to be a space where you can share your own ideas about books and music, as well!

SO, what better way to kick things back off than with a Dumbledore/Bach mash-up?? Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Dumbledore and J.S. Bach”

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Peter Pan and Following the Leader

We’re back with more classical music stories! Today we’re looking at some more music that may inspire thoughts of Peter Pan, and Wendy in particular.

Classical Music Stories is a series that connects music to your favorite books and characters. Since listening to classical music can be like hearing a story (albeit an abstract one), imagining specific stories that match the music can make it that much more fun and accessible! Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Peter Pan and Following the Leader”