Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Righteous Classical Music: Overture to Tannhauser by Richard Wagner

Been a while, my chums! How're y'all doing? I'm okay. My flute AND piccolo both need repairs done, I have two critical auditions coming up, and I hit my head really hard today so we're paying close attention to whether or not I get dizzy or nauseous, haha. So if I start to get incoherent, that's why.

Ahem. Today we're going to talk about one of my favorite works by German composer Richard Wagner. The opera Tannhauser is about a knight/minstrel dude who falls in love with the Greek goddess Aphrodite (or Venus, but I don't like the cut-rate Roman names as much, LOL) and mayhem ensues. I read the synopsis, and I don't really feel like the plot warrants this emotionally charged and rich music, but hey! I'll make a final judgment when I actually see the opera.
When you listen to this music, it might sound very familiar to you! That's because they used it in the hysterical 'Where's Opera, Doc?' Looney Tunes episode! Am I annoyed that they used this music in their silly cartoon? Not at all. Thanks to that cartoon, this beautiful music has been researched and listened to by many!

Allright, so the music.
The famous 'Return my love!' theme is actually the tune of the 'Pilgrim's Chorus' from Act I. That piece is amazing too. We begin with a somber, yet uplifting low-winds chorale. From there the music grows in tension and determination until the brass burst forth with an inspiring and heroic rendition of the Pilgrim's Chorus. Listen to it! ;D
This music sends shivers down my spine! Love it. Very dramatic and powerful.


Tuesday, April 5, 2016

What am I doing here omigosh

I just realized my blog is super boring... Don't get me wrong, I'm laughing about all this, so no matter how dry this post seems, I'm not having an existential crisis, or upset because I get low views (I get views from my friends and that's pretty much what I wanted to achieve when I started!).
Blogging is fun, and I'm not upset that I seem to be the most boring person in the world.
Well, okay, I'm a little upset, but not too much!
er...
okay yeah, pretty bummed out.
It seems like everything is a lot different from when I came on, I had some buddies and we all talked about Les Mis together. Now all those buddies have moved on to Avengers, or stopped posting all together because life happens, and I'm all alone here waving my red flag...
But hey, looks like you're having fun over there fangirling over that guy who plays Loki! My only question is, why Loki? Help me understand, ladies!! I understand that he cheers up sick kids in hospitals, is that it? Because that's very sweet, haha!

Ahem. I got really into classical music sometime in late 2014.
It just happened suddenly. I quit orchestra because I was going to school out of town with one of my two best friends in ze universe. I was on a pretty different trajectory. I was starting to think that I would give up on flute, just leave it up there on the shelf where I hadn't played it all summer.
Then I was in the library listening to something we had played the year before I quit, and I got all wistful and BOOM! Rejoined (even though with the out of town school thing it was quite exhausting, LOL!), and now I'm a weirdo who does music almost in all my free time.
I still draw chibis with a passion, but most of my comics are about... orchestra. Cuz' you know, you write what you know.
I can't churn out book reviews like I used to because I feel like my insights are totally useless and lame, and aside from that, I'm reading doorstoppers now and those take a while.
And something else that takes up a lot of time that I've started doing?
I... COMPOSE!!
I'm not a great composer, but I've started and have even composed some little pieces for what I call a Hodgepodge Chamber Orchestra. A Hodgepodge Chamber Orchestra consists of
1 Harp
1 Piano
Sometimes Guitar
2 Violins
1 Cello
1 Flute (doubling Piccolo), Clarinet, Oboe
Small Percussion

I know that to get your music performed you need to (especially if you're an amateur who doesn't have any ground yet) write for traditional orchestra, or string quartet, or any other traditional group, but hey! I'm very happy that I'm able to write and I hope to be really good someday. For now I just write what comes to me (in this case, weird pieces for Hodgepodge).

So um... I guess I'm just wondering what I am even doing on my silly blog right now. I guess I'll keep on truckin' and just post what I like.
Hope you're all having a MAGNIFICENT week, all! :D