Tag: Music
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Music Album Review: ‘Casablanca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’
Casablanca – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Labels: Turner Classic Movies Music/Rhino (1997);Sony Music (Reissue) Year of Release: 1997 (Original), 2010 (Sony Music reissue) Genre: Film Score/Standards/Spoken Word 🎶 Casablanca Soundtrack: Memory, Melody, and the Music of Longing Of all the soundtrack albums I’ve collected over the years, none is quite as haunting—or as structurally unusual—as…
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Music Album Review: ‘The Empire Strikes Back (Symphonic Suite from the Original Motion Picture Score’ (Gerhardt/National Philharmonic Orchestra)
The Empire Strikes Back (Symphonic Suite From The Original Motion Picture Score)Composer: John WilliamsPerformed by: The National Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Charles GerhardtLabel: Varese SarabandeGenre: Film Scores, Symphonic MusicYear Released (This edition): 2006 For those of us who grew up with the original vinyl and cassette editions of John Williams’s score for The Empire Strikes…
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Music Album Review: ‘Holst: The Planets’
Holst – The Planets: Chicago Symphony Orchestra/James Levine Label: Deutsche Grammophon Released: 1991 Genre: Classical/Symphonic Review: Holst’s The Planets – A Celestial Tapestry in Seven Movements Two years before Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status (not that Pluto minds, I suspect), I wrote an earlier version of this reflection on Gustav Holst’s The Planets,…
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Music Album Review: ‘Tchaikovsky:1812’
Tchaikovsky: 1812 – Orchestre Symphonique De Montréal, Charles Dutoit – 1812 Overture • Capriccio Italien • The Nutcracker Suite • Marche Slave Genre: Classical (Romantic Era), Orchestral Compositions Label(s): London/Decca Year of Release: 1986 🎼 Tchaikovsky for the TikTok Era: A People’s Composer Revisited In an age where musical tastes are splintered across streaming platforms…
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Garratyverse Motif Map: Memory, Music, and Emotional Echo
Introduction to My Motif Map Understanding the Threads That Weave My Stories When I begin to dive into a story, I often find myself tracing patterns—recurring symbols, images, or themes—that act as connective tissue running through the narrative. I call this intricate web a “motif map.” For me, a motif map is more than just…
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Music Album Review: ‘Great Performances: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia para un gentilhombre’
🎼 Echoes of Spain: A Journey Through Rodrigo and Albéniz with John Williams There’s something quietly transcendent about hearing the guitar sing in the hands of John Williams. Not the film composer, but the Australian virtuoso whose fingers seem to coax memory itself from the strings. In Great Performances: Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez/Fantasia para un…
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Navigating the Garratyverse, or: How to Follow Jim Garraty’s Emotional Journey (Now That It’s a Thing)
Let’s start with a confession: I didn’t set out to create a literary universe. I didn’t even set out to coin a term. “Garratyverse” began as a tongue-in-cheek nickname—a playful way to refer to the two deeply personal stories I’d written about Jim Garraty, a character who’s equal parts emotionally constipated and quietly profound. It…
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Music Appreciation: My First Encounter with Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie Fantastique’
🎼 A Fever Dream in Five Movements: Remembering My First Encounter with Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique One of the most memorable experiences from my college years—now four decades ago—took place on a rare cool afternoon in South Florida. I was sitting in my Humanities class at Miami-Dade Community College, where Professor Jay Brown, a talented musician…
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Music Album Review: ‘Billy Joel – 52nd Street’
52nd Street Revisited: Billy Joel and the Art of Returning There’s something hauntingly familiar about the first album that makes you feel seen. For me, it was 52nd Street—acquired through teenage negotiation, a bulky eight-track cassette wrested from my sister when she moved out. At the time, “My Life” felt like rebellion’s anthem, its defiance…
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Music Album Review: ‘Superman: The Movie – Original Sound Track (1987 CD Edition)
💫 Superman: The Movie (1987 CD Soundtrack Review & Reflection) Before Rhino Records unveiled its deluxe 2-CD edition 25 years ago, the 1987 Warner Bros. release was the lone CD version of John Williams’ score for Superman: The Movie. Conducted by Williams and performed by the mighty London Symphony Orchestra, this abridged album still captures…
A Certain Point of View, Too 