Imagining books and music in quirky and creative ways
I read an article about a piece of music the other day where each section started with a direction, like “to be whispered like an incantation.” Not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, it took me a while to figure out what these directions actually were. Continue reading “If Authors Told You How to Read Their Books…As Inspired by Music”
“The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting `Off with his head!’ or `Off with her head!’ about once in a minute.” —Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
A man wearing a top hat in a crowded Continue reading “Hyperbole in Literature…and Classical Music!”
“There are no facts, only interpretations.” So said the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. Each person sees the world from a slightly (or extremely) different point of view, so every time you read a story (or listen to music for that matter) it’s like you’re walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. Continue reading “Different Perspectives in Books…and Music!”
As graduate school comes to a close for the year I’ve been working on a paper about some of the music in Wes Anderson’s (amazing) movie, Moonrise Kingdom. If you’re not familiar with the movie, the basic gist is that 12-year old Sam runs away with Suzy and the two lovebirds keep trying to escape the adults. But the kids’ are portrayed as the sensible ones! Overall it’s a great, quirky movie that I’d definitely recommend for your summer viewing pleasure.
Anyways, a lot of Continue reading “Music and Meaning in Moonrise Kingdom”
A while back I posted a brief, 30 second piece and talked about how it reminded me of Tinker Bell (Classical Music Stories: Tinker Bell (Plus Flash Fiction Challenge!)). But little did you know I had more Peter Pan stories for the other bajillion movements in the piece! (Mwah ha ha!)
Here are just a couple of them: Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Peter Pan”
When the Cheshire Cat fades to just a smile in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, the reader is more or less nonplussed. Weird, abnormal stuff has been happening for the entire book, so a cat disappearing is accepted as part of the established universe of the book. But if you were Continue reading “How to Understand SuRprises in Classical Music”
Some people have what’s called synesthesia, where they actually see colors while listening to music, but what if it was the other way around? Have you ever wondered what colors would sound like??
Robert Starer has! Continue reading “Piano Music About Purple! (And Other Colors)”
What better way to celebrate the release of the live action Beauty and the Beast movie than to share a piece that encompasses all of the magic of the story? This piece really brought to life certain scenes in the fairy tale for me Continue reading “Classical Music Stories: Beauty and the Beast”
I find it fascinating that the classical piano piece “Clair de Lune” is used so much in movies. I mean, what is it about that specific piece that makes it so popular and meaningful? And how does using it in different movies give a new, nuanced meaning to either the movie scene and/or the music itself? Continue reading “Clair de Lune in Two Popular Movies (What’s Up With That?)”
Have you ever thought about how much repetition there is in music? If you read my last post on the subject (Repetition in Pop Music, Classical Music, and Poetry) then you probably have! And since you guys seemed to like that post a lot I’m back to talk about other types of cool musical repetition! Continue reading “Repetition, Fairy Tales, and Classical Music”
If Mermaids Wore Suspenders 