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Tag: Tuesday Tunes

A love song for a train?

A love song for a train?

Photo by Kaja Kadlecova on Unsplash I’ve had a tune running through me head and I wanted to share it with you. It’s a delightful, happy song that my mother listened to on occasion. As her favorite music was classical, with a smattering of opera, I had assumed  this was an aira from something like The Barber of Seville. Hearing this song brings back memories of Bugs Bunny’s “Rabbit of Seville” episode. Imagine my surprise when I discovered was composed in conjunction with the …

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Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Today I want to share three of what I think are the prettiest Christmas songs of the past sixty years. They are not carols, but they do bring the spirit of the season. The first is “I Believe in Father Christmas” by Greg Lake. A bit of interesting trivia about this song is he did not compose it as a celebration of the season, but rather as a protest over what he saw as the increasing commercialization of the holiday….

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Tuesday Tunes – Opera anyone?

Tuesday Tunes – Opera anyone?

I stumbled across this a few days ago and had to share it. Delibes: Lakmé – Duo des fleurs (Flower Duet) is a duet for soprano and mezzo-soprano in the first act of Léo Delibes’ opera Lakmé, premiered in Paris in 1883. It is sung by the characters Lakmé, daughter of a Brahmin priest, and her servant Mallika, as they go to gather flowers by a river. While you may not recognize the name of this piece, you should be familiar…

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Tuesday Tunes – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Tuesday Tunes – Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is one of Mozart’s most beloved and enduring pieces of music. Though the origins are not known, it was likely a commissioned work, completed in about August of 1787. It is a serenade, and was written for a small ensemble, though today we usually hear it performed by a full orchestra. The name comes from Mozart’s own notation in the music, in which he almost certainly was not giving it a special name, but had only noted…

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Tuesday Tunes – Going Home

Tuesday Tunes – Going Home

I’ve been thinking a lot about life and mortality of late. If you read Colin’s tribute post you will know that our mother passed away at the beginning of the month. In the latter years of her life, she began to struggle with immobility and problems with her legs that left her walking with a walker, and then later essentially confined to a wheelchair when she wanted to get around. Even worse, she was diagnosed with dementia, which became so…

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Tuesday Tunes-The Beauty of Clair de lune

Tuesday Tunes-The Beauty of Clair de lune

I am a child of the 60’s. When Beatlemania hit in 1963, I was seven years old, but even at that age I loved their music and, honestly, about ninety-five percent of the music from that decade. Were those ten years the pinnacle of musical achievement? In my humble opinion, while some fantastic compositions were penned in that period, they don’t hold a candle to Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, and a host of other composers from the previous three or four…

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Tuesday Tunes – Wish You Were Here

Tuesday Tunes – Wish You Were Here

My brother, Colin, posted about Pink Floyd a while back, though it was not a Tuesday post. While I consider Dark Side of the Moon one of the classic albums of all time, in many ways, I have always preferred Wish You Were Here. For those of you who are not familiar with Pink Floyd or with the history of the band, there is a story behind this album. The band, Pink Floyd, formed in London in 1965, and at…

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Tuesday Tunes – The Music Man: A Masterpiece of Music and Theatre

Tuesday Tunes – The Music Man: A Masterpiece of Music and Theatre

I am not a big fan of film musicals. I love music, but when it comes to throwing songs into a film, I’m of the mind that 99% of them should stay far away from each other. In my opinion, they rarely achieve an amiable collaboration; either the music overpowers what the actors are doing, or vice versa. Of all the films I have seen that attempted this marriage, I consider no more than three or four watchable and of…

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Tuesday Tunes – Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Tuesday Tunes – Somewhere Over the Rainbow

The song “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” (really, “Over the Rainbow”) was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz. When Judy Garland sings the song near the beginning of the movie, it really draws your attention. The low note on the first syllable of “somewhere” jumping to the higher note just gives a dreamy quality to it that matches song to subject perfectly. While Judy Garland’s version is probably the best-known, I believe Israel Kamakawiwo’ole’s rendition of it is so amazing…

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Tuesday Tunes—The Incomparable Franz Joseph Haydn

Tuesday Tunes—The Incomparable Franz Joseph Haydn

Today I want to explore popular music in Jane Austen’s time, specifically Franz Haydn, the composer often referred to as “Father of the Symphony” and “Father of the String Quartet”. He was born in 1732 to a wheelright and a former palace cook. Although neither could read music, his father was an enthusiastic street musician who taught himself to play the harp. In later years Haydn said his family was extremely musical and frequently sang together and with their friends…

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