Song of FireSong of FireMusic and musings - a journey exploring how music is fundamental to the universe. Using mp3s and photos, the writing blends travel, culture, personal stories, humor and reader dialog about the role of music in our lives. Articles
The world?s worst love song
2008-02-14 06:59:00 What is the worst love song of all time? My vote goes for "Afternoon Delight," a perky song from the mid 1970s by Starland Vocal Band. The opening line, "Gonna find my baby, gonna hold her tight, gonna grab some afternoon delight," sets the stage for the coy, suggestive lyrics. The song is terrible in every way possible. More About: World , Love , Song , The World , Love Song
Grammys: further evidence of the sorry state of music industry
2008-02-13 06:46:00 Grammy awards in two of the three most prestigious categories went to beleaguered singer of modest talents Amy Winehouse and proved, once again, the wasteland that is contemporary music. I've come to expect that image and mass appeal trump artistry when it comes to music awards, but why all the fuss over her? Am I missing something? What does it all mean? More About: Music , Industry , Evidence , State , Grammys
The sounds of spring in February
2008-02-11 05:20:00 We coastal Californians have it pretty easy when it comes to weather. But despite the mild termperature swings and mainly timid storms, we chatter about the weather with constant surprise. Every February in Northern California there is a spate of spring-like days like today. More About: Sounds , Spring , The Sounds
The 10 best CDs ever
2008-02-07 09:00:00 If you had only 10 CDs to take with you as you flee an earth devastated by global warming, what would offer you the greatest pleasure for the rest of your days? My own choices are listed below in alphabetical order. More About: Joni Mitchell , Tori Amos , Jethro Tull , Herbie Hancock , Meshell Ndegeocello
Music and sex
2008-02-03 22:46:00 Popular music in our own era has seen explicit lyrics shift from being an underground phenomena to become mainstream. That shift has introduced a subset of songs that are not only about sex but musically suggest the experience of erotic love itself. More About: Music , Prince , Meshell Ndegeocello
The genius of Joni Mitchell
2008-01-28 07:29:00 Joni Mitchell rode to popularity during the folk music revival of the 1960s, but her music grew far beyond the confines of that genre in the ensuing decades. Even today, in a song like ?If I Had a Heart? from Shine, her music retains roots in the strophic structure that characterizes folk music: instead of ?verse / chorus,? there is a series of verses ending with the same lyric. A good example of this pattern is ?Amelia? from Hejira, where the hook that ends each verse is ?Amelia, it was just a false alarm.? More About: Joni Mitchell , Genius
The genius of Meshell Ndegeocello
2008-01-25 08:54:00 More so than most, MeShell Ndegeocello continually re-invents herself and her music. Her albums defy easy categorization but have embraced neo-soul, spoken word, rap, space funk, jazz, folk and punk. Like her provocative lyrics, the stylistic shifts in her music challenge us. If there is one characteristic that captures her artistic vision, it is ?change.? More About: Genius , Meshell Ndegeocello
The genius of Tori Amos
2008-01-24 06:53:00 In terms of the sheer expressive power of her music, Tori Amos is a brilliant composer and certainly one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century. More About: Genius
Movies about music or musicians
2008-01-22 05:47:00 UC Berkeley Media Resource Center has an excellent list of movies about music or musicians that includes the year, the director and actors, running time and a shorty synopsis. There are a few notable omissions, however. More About: Movies , Music , Musicians
Never enter a musical contest with a god
2008-01-21 04:17:00 Minerva, goddess of the mind, war and music, invents the aulos, a type of double-pipe reed, but when the other gods make fun of her for the way it makes her cheeks bulge, she throws it away. The satyr Marsyas finds it and becomes a skillful player. He challenges Apollo to a contest, to be judged by the Muses, but naturally he is defeated by Apollo, who then flays Marysas alive for his hubris. More About: Contest , Musical , Enter
The mystery of Orpheus
2008-01-21 01:18:00 The myths associated with the musician Orpheus are some of the best known of the Greek and Roman myths. But underlying the various versions of the myth are contradictions, or complementary opposites, that make Orpheus the uniter of dualities. More About: Mystery
Sound art
2008-01-20 20:37:00 There is no consensus on the definition of sound art. At best, one can say it occurs at the intersection of conceptual art, sound and music. Whether or not it qualifies in all instances as "music," it uses musical elements -- pitch, rhythm, texture, dynamics -- in an expressive way. (Interestingly enough, rap music arouses a parallel debate.) Personally, I don't think we need to get hung up on labels. The bottom line is: what is the individual trying to express, and how well does he/she succeed? More About: Sound
Drowning in spam
2008-01-15 09:29:00 Email once offered the great promise of being able to quickly, cheaply and easily communicate with fans, customers and large numbers of contacts. Not any more. We are drowning in spam, and it has undermined the effectiveness of email. More About: Spam
Songs about music
2008-01-14 02:59:00 Considering the great number of popular songs that have been written, there are surprisingly few about music or musicians. I?ve compiled a list below, omitting those in which the song is really about something else or music is not the main point of the song (an example would be Led Zeppellin?s ?Rock and Roll?). Undoubtedly, I?ve left something off, so I?ll update the list periodically. More About: Music , Songs , Joni Mitchell , Jethro Tull
Music in literature
2008-01-07 08:23:00 Here is a list of notable fiction in which music features prominently. This is a rather selective list based on books I've read, the reputation of the author, or a particularly interesting plot. More About: Literature , Music
Music of the spheres
2008-01-06 11:56:00 The Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who lived during the fifth century B.C., theorized that the planets and stars moved according to mathematical equations. Each planet, by its orbit, produced a note based on its distance from the earth, which he believed was the center of the universe. Like the mathematical subdivisions of a vibrating string, which produce specific pitches, the musical notes of the planets in motion produced a symphony: the Music of the Spheres . More About: Music of the Spheres , Eres
The landscape of anxiety
2008-01-03 07:37:00 The plane stops on the tarmac. The seat in front of me is too close, the colors too vivid. I hold out my arm to measure the distance: not even the length of my forearm. Too close. My pulse is racing. A sensation of being squeezed. Perspiration. Pressure. Muscles tensed. I must get off the plane. Let me off! More About: Landscape , Anxiety
When music was great
2008-01-02 02:39:00 There were two periods of great musical creativity during the twentieth century: 1930-1945 and 1967-78. Other periods, although not devoid of great music, have tended not to be as rich, producing more ?routine? music that is more interesting sociologically than musically. It may be that profound music is produced in more abundance during times of stress and unrest than in times of prosperity. More About: Music , Great , Tori Amos , Jethro Tull
Music notation as art
2007-12-31 23:05:00 In my last post I wrote about music as a subject for a painting. Now I’ll turn to music notation as art. Medieval church scribes copied out chants by hand and often decorated the pages with floral capitals, motifs and other elements. Although designed for very practical purposes, the manuscripts are visually striking works of art. ... More About: Music
Music in art
2007-12-31 09:00:00 Music and music-making have been subjects for artistic images throughout human history. Images of musicians are carved into millennial-old Egyptian tombs. Musical imagery was common in European art from the Renaissance onward and was typically chosen for specific symbolic purposes More About: Music
The making of ?The Nefertiti Xperience?
2007-12-30 04:55:00 This 10-minute video shows how Gemini Soul recorded "The Nefertiti Xperience" (CD scheduled for release Feb. 25, 2008).
Discovery on the Appian Way
2007-12-28 05:32:00 In a Roman piazza, I?m searching for the bus that will take me outside the city to the catacombs. The guidebook specifies the number 118 bus. I search frantically around the piazza, only to learn at the information kiosk that the bus number is actually 218. The former ? well, yes, signore, sometimes there is a number 118, but you need to take number 218. More About: Discovery , Italy , Fire
What makes American music great?
2007-12-23 09:36:00 African American s, creating a musical language out of their collective experiences of slavery and oppression, are the source that raised American music to greatness in the 20th century. As each new style emerged into the larger culture, it was initially denigrated and criticized, much like society denigrated the black men and women it had forcibly ... More About: Music , Great , American Music
The rise of compassionate music
2007-12-23 03:44:00 Starting in the 1960s, a new subject matter began appearing in popular songs that represented a shift in consciousness: brotherhood and how we treat one another. More About: Music , Compassionate , Rise
Concept album masterpieces
2007-12-22 22:17:00 Today, that notion of artistic purpose has become so pervasive that, whether consciously or unconsciously, artists routinely infuse concepts into their albums, or feel compelled to come up with a snappy response when a reviewer asks ?so what is the CD about?? I want to share four examples of especially interesting, artistically successful concept albums that stand out from the crowd. More About: Joni Mitchell , Tori Amos , Jethro Tull , Album , Concept
Making music on the wild Sonoma coast
2007-12-20 09:31:00 Gemini Soul just returned from three days at Sea Ranch, where we recorded a new CD to be titled "The Nefertiti Xperience." Instead of going to a recording studio, we decided to rent a house in the quietude of Northern California's wild and scenic Sonoma coast. Rain greeted us, the first in a parade of winter storms sweeping in from the north. We set up our instruments in the second-floor living room, where two large windows looked out over the Pacific. More About: Music , Wild , Coast
In the navel of the world
2007-12-16 08:29:00 The next morning we set off for Lake Atitlán, a large lake ringed by seven volcanoes and formed some 85,000 years ago by a cataclysmic explosion. The Maya believe this lake to be a sacred place, the crystalline waters that existed before the emergence of the first world. More About: World , Water , The World
The sound of one hand clapping
2007-12-12 07:59:00 The sun never set as we chased it across the sky on the plane to Japan. The man beside me was reading Playboy when the plane took off; in mid-flight, he switched to Catholic Digest, apparently unperturbed by any contradiction. More About: Sound , Hand
Cultures of improvisation
2007-12-10 00:40:00 Improvisation has been the norm in most cultures throughout most of human history. Nowadays, though, improvisation is largely associated with jazz, and its antithesis is Britney Spears at one end of the spectrum and a classical symphony at the other. What happened? More About: Improvisation , Cultures
What is really jazz?
More articles from this author:2007-12-08 09:32:00 Some traditionalists have appointed themselves guardians of jazz purity. Like plantation owners fearful of an assault on the virgin chastity of their daughters, they draw a narrow perimeter around the term jazz and lock the door. More About: Jazz , Miles Davis 1, 2, 3 |
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