Originally published February 20, 2013. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 I’m ashamed to admit it, but Benjamin Britten is a composer I managed to live most of my life without knowing really anything about. Chalk it up first to the anti-British bias there is in classical music overall.…
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Meet Michael Nyman
Originally published September 15, 2012. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 Today’s treasure is one that I found over twenty years ago: the modern British composer Michael Nyman. I first discovered Michael Nyman when I went to see the film “Prospero’s Books”. I admit, I didn’t know who Greenaway…
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Take a Bow Mr. Wagner
Originally published April 30, 2011. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 Any good geek will tell you that for some movies it pays to stay in the theater through the end of the credits. Filmmakers sometimes like to give a little something extra for those who stay. The Return…
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Wish You Were Here
Originally published April 30, 2011. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 In a previous post, I mentioned that I simply love Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” And I love Rasputina So it’s a treat to find a Rasputina cover of “Wish You Were Here”.
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Menacing Covers
Originally published December 14, 2010. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 When I was a kid, I was very closed-minded about a lot of things. One way this closed-mindedness would manifest around music is that I didn’t like the idea of covers. In my mind, there was always only…
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Bear McCeary and Battlestar Galactica
Originally published June 5, 2010. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 Update: On this post I’ve changed it from its original “The Mind of the Composer” to the current title. I’ve realized that the old title was not clear or useful. If you watched Battlestar Galactica, the revisioned series,…
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Music of the Distant Past
Originally published June 12, 2009. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 One thing that I had in mind in starting this blog was for it to be a place where I could note those particularly rare and unexpected musical finds. The world of music is really so much more…
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David Bowie Days
Originally published May 15, 2009. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 I’m a bit of an archivist. If I like something or someone, I really want to lay hands on all that I can get (you saw reference to this in my Ute Lemper post in fact). And David…
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NewMusicBox
Originally published May 4, 2009. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 Update: One interesting thing in reviewing and revising posts is that sometimes things you forgot about or figured were long gone aren’t. That’s the case with NewMusicBox, which is apparently still live and still doing their work, now…
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Obituary: Maurice Jarre
Originally published April 24, 2009. Updated, revised and republished May 29, 2025 I’m behind in my reading so I just found today that the Economist ran a nice obituary for Maurice Jarre. I didn’t know that Jarre didn’t start his music education until he was 16: it’s always good to…