Shiver

Yale String Quartet Plays Lady Gaga Medley.
You Shouldn't Question People's Love (for) Gaga'd Musicians.

Oh, Live Like It's The Style / Whoa, Waltz On Your Front Porch

Henri Chopin is known as the father of the Sound Poets. Sounds like a college IM team. Maybe broomball.

Sound Poetry! Think: the manipulation of the human voice, "verse without words." Right up my alley, kittens.
I've embedded this video (Chopin was 85 years old, by the way), but I also recommend poking around the ubuweb page for more audio bits.

I Don't Care Too Much For Money / Money Can't Buy Me Love

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT:

Yahoo HotJobs has an article detailing the Top (bottom?) Ten Worst-Paying Jobs. Music comes in at a solid #4. HEY!

(via collabpiano)

Tonight / Not Again

SUPPLEMENTARY PROGRAM NOTES FOR HUSBANDS FORCED TO ATTEND THIS EVENING'S PERFORMANCE OF HAYDN'S MISSA CELLENSIS by Howard Zaharoff

("Whom would you prefer singing solo in this mass, Beverly Sills or Renée Fleming? Is either Flemish? Would that affect their singing? Suppose they came to blows over who had the better voice: Would Renée's youth and smarts best Beverly's age and sagacity? Or would Beverly win, because it's creepy to fight dead people? " I laughed out loud.)

(thanks, maureen!)

Someday We'll Find It / The Rainbow Connection

The music world is notoriously small. Which is why EchoNest has created a 6-Degrees style database devoted to tracking relationships between musical figures/groups/songs. Ch-ch-check it out:

Philip Glass
-who collaborated on Philip Glass and Foday Musa Suso
-who was a member of Mandingo
-that has member Bill Laswell
-who was a member of Praxis
-that has member Bryan "Brain" Mantia
-who was a member of Cobra Strike
-that has member DJ Disk
-who was a member of Invisibl Skratch Piklz
-that has member Mix Master Mike
-who was a member of Beastie Boys

Success! Another, you say?

Bob Dylan
-who created the track Huck's Tune that was performed by Tony Garnier
-who was member of The Million Dollar Bashers
-that has member Nels Cline
-who was a member of Wilco
-that created the track You and I that has vocal performed by Feist
-that is a performance name for the person Leslie Feist
-who was member of Broken Social Scene
-that has member Emily Haines
-who was a member of Metric

(Find your own: 6 Degrees of Black Sabbath; via metafilter)

Dream The Impossible Dream

Matt Manos (who, as it turns out, was also the design intern for the Bravo Gustavo online/iphone game) learns how to to play a mandolin and ride a unicycle at the SAME TIME: The Mandolin & Unicycle Project.



Now THAT is a senior thesis, you know? The practical application may be a bit fuzzy, but you could say the same about musicology.

(For the more advanced team: Unicycle with Tuba and Trombone)

(via metafilter)

Flash Dance

Verdi-style.



(via metafilter)

You're Gonna Miss Me When I'm Gone

I love this. It involves voices and plastic cups. And it's very, very catchy. Don't say I didn't warn you when you wake up with it stuck in your head tomorrow.



(lulu and the lampshades via neatorama)

Play Me A Song / You're The Piano Man

Play Me I'm Yours! by Luke Jerram

"From 21st June – 5th July, 60 upright pianos will be distributed across New York City by Sing for Hope. Located in public parks, streets and plazas the pianos will be available for any member of the public to play and engage with....Disrupting people’s negotiation of their city, the pianos are also aimed to provoke people into engaging, activating and claiming ownership of their urban landscape."

New York is the latest in a line of cities (including London, São Paulo, and Sydney) getting the piano treatment - and it makes me giddy-happy. Imagine walking down the street: oh a piano! And you stop to play a little ditty, keep on walking down the street...
If you're in NYC this summer, find one and send me a picture please.

(via boingboing; Montage by Luke Jerram)

(Bonus: scores and pictures of Annea Lockwood's Piano Transplants series.)

Married To A Mermaid

Here's to the grog, boys, the jolly, jolly grog
Here's to the rum and tobacco
I've a-spent all my tin with the lassies drinking gin
And to cross the briny ocean I must wander

That one's from the sea-shanty classic "Here's To The Grog." Hey, Ho!
Lesley Nelson has a fantastic website dedicated to Songs of the Sea. Information, lyrics, and midi files - SoftheS has got it all.

Oh, Lovely Molly.
Don't let my long absence be a bother to you, dear
Don't let my long journey cause you any pain
Although we are parted I will be true hearted
And I will return in the springtime again.

SIng Like Nobody's Listening

Sing-Along Tongs!
I suppose you could bring them into the shower too if you were so inclined. In fact, what's to stop you from bringing them everywhere?
Yours for $11.95 at the Neatorama Shop.

The Whole World In His Hands

Less-than-greater-than-or-equal-to six-hands piano (aka piano triet)? You decide.



(For comparison purposes: Exhibit B)

An Alpine Symphony

Franzl Lang, the YodelKing: Best Yodeler in the WORLD-D-D-D-D-D-D-D???

I Could Be Purple / I Could Be Anything You Like

"Opera's coolest soprano" (that would be Danielle de Niese) teams up with Mika on "Pop Star to Opera Star". So...that happened.

Collect Call

Collecting musical autographs and manuscripts. That sounds like a nice (/expensive) hobby.
Stefan Zweig owned a collection of almost 4,000 - most of which are now held by and displayed at the British Library. Read all about it. And he wasn't even a musician.

(via AMS in the news)

Swing 42

Joscho Stephan & Swing Manouche: sitting around in a café playing Gypsy jazz. This is very much how I imagine my life in sideways-world.

It's All Right Here / In My Box Set

Cajon! Drum in a box! That's what it is. Often with guitar strings attached to one side. For the resonance, you know.
Captivated.



How to play one, Where to buy one, and How to build one of your very own.

Please Take My Advice / Please Take My Advice

Composing for the Theremin: Some Practical Issues
An article by Eric Ross

SNEAK PEEK:
"While vibrato is the soul of the theremin tone, a bad player uses vibrato, like a bad cook uses too much sauce."

I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer

Chilean winemaker Aurelio Montes sponsored a Heriot Watt University study that found how a wine tastes changes up to 60% depending on the music played while drinking it. (60% of what? Don't ask. I don't know.)

The point here, kids, is that cabernet sauvignon is most affected by "powerful" music, while chardonnay moves on "zingy".

Recommended wine and music pairings at the BBC...

(via fridayinformer)