Tag: #classical music

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Anna Karenina’s Mental Illness

Aubrey Leaman

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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

Aubrey Leaman

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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

Aubrey Leaman

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

Aubrey Leaman

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” →

Music

Hens and Chicks (Or Easter-ish Classical Music)

Aubrey Leaman

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In the spirit of Easter being tomorrow and spring coming (although if you live in the midwest you’d never know it), behold! Classical music inspired by chicks and hens. Is this a poorly-veiled excuse to share some of my favorite music ever? I’ll leave that for you to decide. Continue reading “Hens and Chicks (Or Easter-ish Classical Music)” →

Music

Rhetorical Questions: Classical Music Style

Aubrey Leaman

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First of all, my apologies for the hiatus. Illness can really knock you out, am I right?

And with that question, I have oh so masterfully segued into the topic of today’s post. (Mwah ha ha!)

Rhetorical Questions In Books…and Music Continue reading “Rhetorical Questions: Classical Music Style” →

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: The Great Gatsby and Debussy

Aubrey Leaman

The Great Gatsby headphones music

Wow, has it really been over two years since I shared a Classical Music Story with The Great Gatsby?? We’re breaking the streak today with a short piano piece by Debussy, composer of the beloved “Clair de Lune.”

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!

Estampes No. 3: Jardins Sous La Pluie by Claude Debussy Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: The Great Gatsby and Debussy” →

Music

Music Mash-Ups: Rock + Chopin, Rock + Opera

Aubrey Leaman

And one more thrown in for good measure!

If you’re like me, one of the coolest things to find is an amazing mash-up book, like with a fairy tale re-imagined in a different world or a horror retelling of a literary classic (I’m looking at you, Jane Slayre). But what I’ve been discovering more and more lately is that music can be a mash-up, too, and when it is…well, let’s just say it can be pretty cool.

So behold! My top 3 music mash-ups (at different levels of mash-upiness.) Continue reading “Music Mash-Ups: Rock + Chopin, Rock + Opera” →

Music

Silent Night: A Creepy Classical Version

Aubrey Leaman

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Christmas continues to approach, and what better way to celebrate than with some Christmas music? But not just any Christmas music…behold, the classical composer Alfred Schnittke’s rendition of “Silent Night” for violin and piano:

What starts out as a relatively simple, beautiful version of the carol starts to become unhinged towards the end of the first Continue reading “Silent Night: A Creepy Classical Version” →

Classical Music Stories

Classical Music Stories: Wuthering Heights

Aubrey Leaman

 

This week I started rereading one of my all-time favorite books, Wuthering Heights. It seemed only natural then to share another classical music story inspired by this novel, paired with an equally mystical (and equally loved) piano piece!

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!

Liszt-Paganini Etude in G#-minor (La Campanella)
Composed by Franz Liszt Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Wuthering Heights” →