So in addition to doing BEDA with you lovely folks, I was going to attempt VEDA and revive my dead youtube channel. However, the first day I had a total of 2 hours to practice, record, edit, and upload a video, so much like this blog post it was late. But if you would like to see the final product I'll put it at the bottom. It's a cover of the Velvet Underground and Nico's "These Days," which I already love but am especially fond of because of its use in Wes Anderson's film "The Royal Tenenbaums."
I am currently sitting in my last quarter of Music History and listening to a glorious Ravel orchestral arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. The speakers are really pumped up today, so every time there's a bass drum roll or blast of brass my ears revel in glee at the low frequencies. There's so much dramatic cymbal that every two measures seems like an important event in the music, but really it's all important and beautiful. Then the piece ends and I remember what we discussed in class last week about the composer's life. Mussorgsky came from a pretty wealthy family in Russia, but by the time he was 22 lost basically everything and became a civil servant to support himself. He joined a group of rebellious artists who opposed the tsarist regime, and fell into a lot of bad habits, including copious amounts of drinking. Penniless and an alcoholic, he died in a military hospital a week before his 42nd birthday. For a visual representation:
Young Mussorgsky A week before death Mussorgsky
However this, he wrote tons of really epic works such as Pictures at an Exhibition, which is an important work in the pianist repertoire, as well as Night of Bald Mountain, which inspired a super creepy animation in Disney's Fantasia. Also, apparently Michael Jackson dug him: Michael Jackson does Mussorgsky
Yay learning!
Anyway looking forward to what Sarah already mentioned as well as interesting tidbits about your fields :)
Le video:
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