Preparing for Game of Thrones - the best and worst tracks from season 4

We've all been ready since the finale last year, but the time has finally come to immerse ourselves in Westeros once more. We've been reading the books, consulting psychics, rewatching seasons 1 - 4 on repeat, and most importantly, listening to the tracks from last season, It was good, it was bad, it was ugly. **No spoilers for anything going forward, but I can't guarantee your sanity if you haven't seen season 4 yet**

Heavenly Holst - What "The Planets" Means to Me as a Composer and as a Performer

Image Credit: Nasa.gov

An enjoyable and accessible piece of music, The Planets is a 7-movement suite that every composer wishes they'd written. But what about the performers - do they enjoy performing the work as much as audiences like to hear it?

"Plynie" by Marina Fridman

This piece, for string quartet and electronics, sounds like it belongs in the next Resident Evil video game (which would be Resident Evil 7) - maybe the game developers should take notice of Marina Fridman, because she's destined for great things.

Going Out With a Bang - the Music of the Season 4 Game of Thrones Finale

Image courtesy: GrantLand.com

It's the episode we were all waiting for - and now we have to wait another 10 months for season 5.

"Dark Morning: Snow" by Anna Lee Hirschi

This string quartet by Hirschi is deep, introspective, and rich in color. This week has brought a lot of writing assignments, and so along with that comes a need for amazing instrumental pieces, and "Dark Morning: Snow" is just the ticket.

The Maleficent Soundtrack - Classic Disney, or Something More?

I have some friends who are hardcore Disney fans. We are talking the people who see every Disney release in the cinema at least twice (yes, even John Carter), can list every movie alphabetically and chronologically, yearly pilgrimages to the Magic Kingdom sort of folk. This review is for you.

"Elasticity" and "Ogeechee" by Nicole Chamberlain: A Beatboxing Flute and Chinook Helicopters

When Nicole Chamberlain sent me her music, I didn't know what to expect. From the moment I pressed play, I was gobsmacked by her use of extended techniques. For the first time ever, I couldn't choose between two pieces - so I'm featuring both.

May the Fourth be With You: Jedis, Jawa, and John Williams

Star Wars! Because who hasn't blasted the soundtrack while preparing for an audition or interview? (Just me, then?) This music is the definition of iconic, and even people who hate Star Wars know the music. With John Williams at the helm, who would expect anything different?

What's That Weird Sound? String Edition

We hide many secrets.

Orchestral string instruments are responsible for a great deal of sound effects and musical qualities. They certainly aren't confined to simple dynamic and rhythmic effects - the amount of variety in sound is immense.

What does Lord of the Rings and Richard Wagner Have in Common?

Answer: More than you think.

New Music Wednesdays - "Mountain Suite," by Ezra Donner

Occasionally, I will surf around on Soundcloud, listening to new music and discovering new composers. This week, it was Ezra Donner's "Mountain Suite," where even the short preview is enough to draw you in. Check it out.

The 5 Best Game of Thrones Tracks

IT'S HERE. Season 4 premiers today. I have spent the past few weeks in a total immersion rewatch of seasons 1 - 3 and listening to the soundtracks composed by Ramin Djawadi, who also wrote the jams heard in the hugely successful Pacific Rim. We are all counting down the hours until the premier - so spend a few minutes of the next few long hours reading up on the music from season 3.

Weekly Music News Roundup - Week Ending April 5th, 2014

It's finally April - the monsoon season of the northern hemisphere. With spring tidings comes music festival news, announcements, and gigs galore. Take a look:

-M.I.A and Janelle Monae are set to do a bi-coastal hologram concert and usher us into the 21st century. I feel like I'm living in Back to the Future! (Source)

-David Byrne asks an important question: Can musicians make a living off of streaming services?

-United Music Publishers has entered liquidation: a sad day for music. (Source)

-Song of the Lark's Emily Hogstad gives crucial and thorough coverage of the continued Minnesota Symphony troubles here.

-Sally Whitwell has a Pinterest account dedicated to women composers, and it is amazing. (Link)

-Violin legend Itzhak Perlman received terrible treatment by Air Canada at the Toronto airport - they left him to carry his own luggage and violin, even though he made his disability clear. (Source)

-The Sphinx competition for young Latino and Black musicians seeks to break the glass ceiling or traditional orchestras, and it is the most beautiful thing I've seen all week. (Source)

-The Guardian published a brief but accurate article about the state of whiteness in orchestras.

-There is a new app to create ambient music by waving your hands at your Mac, and I think it's safe to say that we all desperately need it. (Source)




That's the news for this week, check back every Friday for more current events in music! If you know of a story that needs some publicity, you can contact me on Twitter @AngelinaPanozzo or through my website, AngelinaPanozzo.com. Thanks for reading and have a fantastic weekend!

Am I "Hearing Voices?" - a review of Jocelyn Pook

What do you get when you mix Massive Attack, classical training, and post-modernism? Well that's simple -

You get Jocelyn Pook, the British composer most famous for composing "Masked Ball," which took center stage in Stanley Kubrick's 1999 film, "Eyes Wide Shut." 

The "Beethoven of Japan?" More like "The Great Pretender!"

As enthusiasts of video game music will already have heard, the famous composer...er, "composer," Mamoru Samuragochi admitted to be a festering fraud this week. He has built his massive career on the foundations of the immensely successful Resident Evil soundtrack, which is renowned for its spectacular atonality. That soundtrack was released in 1997 - and he has admitted that everything released under his name during the past 18 years has been written by a ghost writer.

Samuragochi has found success "writing" for video games, beginning with the iconic Resident Evil soundtrack and Onimusha, and culminating in the widely successful Symphony no. 1, "Hiroshima." This symphony was written (by someone else) as a memorial to the victims of the atomic bomb. What better way to memorialize over a half a million people than to pretend to write a symphony for them? Granted, the intent is good, but as we all know the path to hell is littered with good intentions.

A new piece of music, Sonatina for Violin, is set to premier at the Olympics in Sochi - I guess we'll have to wait and see who gets credited for it.

A man by the name of Takashi Niigaki has come forward, claiming that he is the ghost writer. In this article from IGN, Niigaki reveals that Samuragochi probably isn't even deaf - which means he decided to fake a disability to garner the moniker "Japan's Beethoven," and then hired a ghost composer to boot. That's pretty despicable, if you ask me, and admitting to the fraud is a very small consolation to his deception.

"We carry on normal conversations. I don't think he is [handicapped]," Niigaki said, "At first he acted to me also as if he had suffered hearing loss, but he stopped doing so eventually.... He told me, after the music for the video games was unveiled, that he would continue to play the role [of a deaf person]."

Niigaki also suggested that Samuragochi threatened to kill himself if the ghost-writing were to cease. Samuragochi has yet to respond to these accusations.

His record label isn't impressed. They've put an immediate moratorium on shipments of his music, ceased the online sales of his music, and a planned tour is now on hold.

Classical (Baroque) post: Brandenburg Concerto no. 3, by Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach is the composer who made all the rules, and then broke them. He was a rebel - a madman of composition. He was the John Cage of the 1700's. He was a humble man who faded into obscurity for almost 100 years after his death.