by Kate Soper | Jan 31, 2019 | Song of the Day
Tori Amos is a truly captivating performer. Example: I made the mistake of keeping the youtube track running as I was coming up with this intro and quickly forgot how to form words in my brain and type them, as her voice overrode my mental circuits. Amos runs the...
by Kate Soper | Jan 30, 2019 | Song of the Day
Many works by the famed medieval poet-composer Guillaume de Machaut are formes fixes: complex musico-poetic structures requiring skill and finesse to create. This is an example of one such form, a rondeau. In order for a rondeau to work, the first phrase has to...
by Kate Soper | Jan 29, 2019 | Song of the Day
What is it about vocoders? They add a distance to the human voice that, in the skilled hands of Laurie Anderson, renders it omnipotent, supernatural. And marching through the uncanny valley right alongside her processed singing is that “ah ah ah”...
by Kate Soper | Jan 28, 2019 | Song of the Day
The underrated Earl Kim’s setting of Samuel Beckett’s “thither” occurs twice in Now and Then, Kim’s 1981 song cycle for soprano, flute, viola, and harp. At just over 30 seconds, “thither” the song is a haunting shiver, a...
by Roberto Sierra | Jan 25, 2019 | Song of the Day
When I think of of exquisite writing for the voice and absolute masterful orchestration, I always think of this piece. For me this is the way to write for voice and orchestra. Absolute care about the registers, and the way Ravel keeps the balances has not been...
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