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Notes from a Composer
Author Archives: dannyashkenasi
THE COW BELL CANTATA – and a Splatterrific Intermezzo
Wild Emperors, Coxcombs and Horny Mountains in Tirol Plus Heidi-centric Encores! COW BELL CANTATA – CANTATA DA CAMPANA MUCCA registrato da maestro Daniello Ashkenasi 1. Movimento – Allegro con Forte Subito Encountered some musical cows on the slopes … Continue reading
Posted in Chamber Works, Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged Alps, Austria, brass band, Cantata, Cow, Cow Bell, Frl. Menke, Hahnenkamm, Heidi, Hohe Berge, Intermezzo, Kitzbühel, Kitzbüheler Horn, Lebenberg, mastication, music, Neue Deutsche Welle, Platzkonzert, subito, Tirol, Wilde Kaiser
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AIDS Memorial, Greenwich Village, NYC
Breaths – The Flirtations Jesus to a Child – George Michael Smalltown Boy – Bronski Beat Boy Blue – Cyndi Lauper
Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged Aids, Being Boring, Boy Bue, Breaths, Bronksi Beat, Bruce Springsteen, Chains of Love, Cyndi Lauper, Elton John, Erasure, George Michael, GMHC, Greenwich Village, Jenny Holzer, Jesus to a Child, John Grant, Joseph Sonnabend, LGBT, LGBTQ, memorial, Neil Young, New York City, Pet Shop Boys, Philadelphia, Return to Oz, Scissor Sisters, Smalltown Boy, Song of Myself, Streets of Philadelphia, TC and Honeybear, The Flirtations, The Last Song, Walt Whitman
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SECRET GARDEN SONGS or The View From My Lawn Chair
Secret Garden Song #1 The other day I was lying in my lawn chair under the Japanese maple tree in my little back yard in Brooklyn and I got intrigued by the variety of colors and shapes and shades catching … Continue reading
Posted in Melodies Linger On, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Elton John, Empty Garden, Garden, I Want You, Kate Bush, lawn chair, Maple Leaf Rag, music, nature, Octopus's Garden, photos, Safe in My Garden, Savage Garden, Scott Joplin, Secret Garden, The Beatles, The Garden of Allah, The Mamas and the Papas, Under the Ivy
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TOTAL ECLIPSE in PAINTED HILLS, OREGON
The Total Eclipse of August 21, 2017 As Seen from the Magnificent Painted Hills, Oregon With Eclipstastic Music! We left Redmond, Oregon, at 7:15am. Madras, just north of Redmond, would be smack in the path of totality, but we decided … Continue reading
Posted in Melodies Linger On, Notes in the News, Two-fisted Touristing
Tagged 2017, A-Ha, Another Day of Sun, August 21, Black Hole Sun, Blondie, Bonnie Tyler, C Moon, David Bowie, desert, Eclipse, Elton John, Fiddler on the Roof, George Michael, Good Day Sunshine, Good Morning Sarshine, Hair, Here Comes the Sun, In the Sun, Invisible Sun, Kate Bush, La La Land, Lea DeLaria, Let the Sunshine In, Man on the Moon, Moonage Daydream, occlusion, Oregon, Painted Hills, Paul McCartney, Pink Floyd, REM, Shoe Tree, Sole Tree, Soundgarden, Sun King, sunflowers, sunrise, sunset, The Beatles, The Dark Side of the Moon, The Great Gig in the Sky, The Police, The Sun Always Shines On TV, Total Eclipse of the Heart
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SONGS to RING IN the NUCLEAR APOCALYPSE
Remember the good old days of daily nightmares of nuclear armageddon? They’re back! Yippee! So let’s replay some golden oldies of the atomic age! Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War satire “Dr. Strangelove or How I learned to Stop Worrying and … Continue reading
Posted in Beginnings, Melodies Linger On, Notes in the News
Tagged Alphaville, apocalypse, armageddon, Atomic, Blondie, Bomb, Breathing, Dancing with Tears in My Eyes, Dear Leader, Dr. Strangelove, Forever Young, John Oliver, Kate Bush, Last Week Tonight, North Korea, Nuclear, Please Don't Nuke Us, Prokofiev, Russians, So Long Mom, Sting, Tom Lehrer, Ultravox, War, We Will All Go Together, We'll Meet Again, Weird Al Jankovic
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WATER LILIES (Pics and Tunes)
Testing out the new camera at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden Lily #1 (for details on the “Lily” songs, check on the “tags” at the bottom of the post) Lily #2
QUEEN, ADAM LAMBERT, my dinky little camera, & ME
Wednesday I treated myself to the Queen & Adam Lambert concert. Today (Friday) I could have seen them up the street in Brooklyn’s Barclay Center, but I have family visiting, so instead I trekked out to New Jersey’s Prudential Center … Continue reading
Will Whoopi Goldberg Get Andy Serkis his Overdue Oscar?
“War for the Planet of the Apes” has opened to universal acclaim and a renewed call to give an Oscar to Andy Serkis, the actor who pioneered and perfected motion capture acting as lead ape Caesar in the Planet of the … Continue reading
The Birthday Evocation Born in a Memorial Service
It’s Ed’s birthday today. Happy Birthday, Love. And as is tradition now in our relationship, I will gift Ed another viola/piano duet I compose for the occasion, each one called “Evocation”. This year my husband will receive Evocation … Continue reading
Posted in Beginnings, Chamber Works
Tagged 15th Street, Alzheimers, chamber music, chamber piece, duet, Evocation, Evocation XXIV, Friends of Friend, KenKen, Meeting House, memorial, New York Times, piano, Quaker, service, Vince Buscemi, Viola
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In Which I Complete the 30 DAY SONG CHALLENGE
Fun on Twitter. Last month I took on the #30daysongchallenge. Here are the complete results, lightly annotated: No kidding. Kurt Weill’s haunting masterpiece. The subject of one of this blog’s most widely read pieces: Speak Low, Phoenix, Speak Low… … Continue reading
Posted in Beginnings, Melodies Linger On, Musicabilia
Tagged #30daysongchallenge, Beyoncé, Brazil, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Charlene, Cyndi Lauper, Dschinghis Khan, Ella Fitzgerald, Gangsta's Paradise, I'm So Excited, Ian McKellen, Kate Bush, Kurt Weill, Linda Ronstadt, Love and Anger, Miss Marple, Neil Young, NPR, Philadelphia, Scissor Sisters, She Bop, Speak Low, Tears for Fears, The Beatles, Tue Colors, Wind of Change, Witches, Yes Sir I Can Boogie
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The Young Lovers’ Path to Speak Easy
Two Fawns in the Wood Dance into the Light Maybe it’s just a dream. Maybe it’s real. Maybe it doesn’t matter either way. For the shame and the betrayal are felt just as acutely. In the musical Speakeasy, an … Continue reading
Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, The Speakeasy Chronicles
Tagged 1920s, 1930s, adultery, Alice in Wonderland, Dance into the Light, Dream, Fawn, Fawn in the Wood, Gershwin, Jane Allison, John Allison, Lewis Carroll, magical realism, musical, Prohibition, Queer, same-sex, sexual identity, Speakeasy, Through the Looking Glass, Trial of the Tarts
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SPEAKEASY – The Irony of the Young Lovers’ Duets
Curious Colorful Night – It’s a Dream – Momentary Bliss Three lovers’ duets that are not what they seem to the ear Ah, young lovers’ duets. A hallmark of musicals, especially those of the 1920s and 1930s, and so of … Continue reading
Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, The Speakeasy Chronicles
Tagged 1920s, 1930s, Curious Colorful Night, curiouser, drag ball, duet, ingenue, irony, It's a Dream, Jane Allison, John Allison, Lewis Carroll, lovers, magical realism, Momentary Bliss, musical, Queer, Roaring Twenties, Speakeasy, Subculture, Wonderland
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SPEAKEASY – Advice from a (Lesbian) Caterpillar
Two songs from “Speakeasy” explore two sides of a closeted 1920’s lesbian For many years I hoped to write a musical about the queer subculture of Roaring Twenties New York, but didn’t find my “in” until I came upon the … Continue reading
Posted in LGBTQ Alphabet Soup, Literary Lyricism, Notes in the News, The Speakeasy Chronicles
Tagged 1800s, 19th Century, Alice in Wonderland, Caroline Chrysalides, Caterpillar, Female Friendships, flappers, Jane Allison, Jazz Age, lesbian, Lewis Carroll, LGBTQ, magical realism, musical, My Passion, operetta, Roaring Twenties, sexual revolution, Speakeasy
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