Sarah Wallin » Humor

V.T.C.M.A. - 9

Sarah — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:44:17 +0000

This is a hilarious episode from the French comedy show, “Kaamelott”. Titled “The Perfect Fifth (La Quinte Juste)”, it takes place during the times of King Arthur and details the evolution of harmony from the “holy” perfect intervals to the “pagan” thirds, sixths, and even *gasp!* diminished!…

(Thanks to Kay for sharing!)

(Find “Kaamelott’s” Official Site here.)

ASIMO Conducts the DSO!

Sarah — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:43:16 +0000

That’s right! Everybody’s favorite little robot debuted conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in a live performance of “Impossible Dream” from the 1965 Broadway show Man of La Mancha on May 13!

(Hm…. ASIMO should have hired this guy to be his concertmaster!!…)

(...)
Read the rest of ASIMO Conducts the DSO! (435 words)

‘Glass’ Movie

Sarah — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:51:42 +0000

Yay! One of my favorite composers - exposed on documentary film!

Check the Official Site here…

April Fool…

Sarah — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 06:47:36 +0000

The Philharmonia Orchestra of London plays an April Fool’s joke on its faithful concert-goers! :p

Another Look at Carmina Burana

Sarah — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:00:32 +0000

Too much seriousness tonight… must have some hilarity!!

From Carl Orff’s 1936 cantata, Carmina Burana, here is the infamous “O, Fortuna” - with the *real* words…

Click here to check it out!

Thanks to Anne for sharing!!

The Violinist of the Future!

Sarah — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:15:07 +0000

Here’s my next Bowhold Comparison candidate…

V.T.C.M.A. - 2

Sarah — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 22:30:23 +0000

For this chapter of Videos That Caught My Attention, I stumbled upon two excellent music videos from British big beat musician, Fatboy Slim. In our first installment of V.T.C.M.A., you may remember a fun video I found merging Fatboy Slim’s “Right Here, Right Now” with images from one of my favorite video game franchises, MYST and URU.

Well, first up, is the same song with its unique, accompanying video!

Next, featuring Fatboy Slim’s song, “Weapon of Choice”, this original video is actually famous for its star - actor Christopher Walken (who was initially trained as a dancer in musical theatre before turning to acting) - and its director, Spike Jonze. According to Wikipedia, this “video won six MTV awards in 2001; as one of the video’s MTV ‘Moonmen’ was for Best Choreography, Walken became a Video Music Award winner. The clip was also cited as the best video of all time in April 2002, in a list of the top 100 videos of all time that was compiled from a music industry survey by music TV channel VH1.”

It is just a really great video!

Thought for the Day

Sarah — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 06:49:57 +0000

Charles Ives - As a composer who stubbornly struck out on his own way, who used ideas at the turn of the 20th century that we didn’t accept until the ’60’s, he was a man WAY ahead of his time! Here are some things this fiery idealist had to say:

“If a man finds that the cadences of an Apache war dance come nearest to his soul, let him assimilate whatever he finds highest of the Indian ideal so that he can use it with the cadences, fervently, transcendentally, inevitably, furiously, in his symphonies, in his operas, in his whistlings on the way to work, so that he can paint his house with them.”

“Beauty in music is too often confused with something that lets the ears lie back in an easy chair.” (I like this one!)

“The ‘unity of dress’ for a man at a ball requires a collar, yet he could dance better without it.”
(This in reference to his “chariness of conventional notions of musical unity” [Bryan Simms, Music of the Twentieth Century: Style and Structure, Schirmer 1996, pg. 299.].)

[This taken from page 8 of Schwartz and Godfrey's Music Since 1945: Issues, Materials, and Literature, Wadsworth 1993]:
“When Ives had occasion to reach audiences, either in person or by way of his writings, his zeal was remarkable, combining a romantic European belief in the artist’s mission with a uniquely American sense of moral ‘rightness’ of change, challenge, and stretching one’s limits. There is a refreshing honesty in his wanting to provide ’stronger meat for the ears and the mind,’ or in his response to hissing in the audience at a performance by Carl Ruggles: ‘You God-damn sissy!…get up and use your ears!‘”

1812 Overture

Sarah — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 22:21:55 +0000

Thanks to Kay Pech for sharing this awesome video!

The talented Swingle Singers perform this amazing a cappella rendition of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture - the instrumental version, no less, complete with canon fire!

Thought for the Day

Sarah — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 23:25:16 +0000

“It may be a good thing to copy reality; but to invent reality is much, much better.”

- Giuseppe Verdi