This may be the most widely recognizable of Bach’s compositions. As I saw this as a fascinating way to “finger” an organ, it serves as a lighter start to my day than the usual.
Category: music
Mar 12 2025
How Did These Guys Slip Past Me?
Regular reader Abbe Faria has just introduced me to the most original and impressive musical combo I’ve encountered since I first stumbled over Glass Hammer: Future of Forestry: This chest is full of memories, of gold and silver tears I’ll give you more to own than all of this And I’ll give you more …
Mar 08 2025
Some End-Of-Winter Music
This seems appropriate, as the last snows melt away and those of us with tragically long memories remember lost opportunities and lost loves. Cherish your wounds, Gentle Reader. And be well.
Feb 09 2025
For Your Sunday Morning
Long, long ago, when giants walked the Earth, there was a radio disk jockey named Herb Oscar Anderson. He had the early-morning show on WABC-AM, beginning at 5:00 AM. Each day his first selection would be a “Hymn of the Morning.” I used to wake to those hymns, and I miss them today. (I …
Jan 29 2025
Something To Make You Feel Good (EXTRA!)
I know, I know: plenty of good things are happening just now, or at least are getting started. I feel the elation over President Trump’s confident and aggressive start to his second term, just as many of our Gentle Readers do. Things are looking up – and it seems that the sky is the …
Jan 18 2025
Some Afternoon Music
You have to be fairly old to remember a time when James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Jackson Browne were unknown even to typical music lovers. Yet there was such a time. Each of them had written a fair number of songs. Taylor in particular had released a very well-regarded first album. But they weren’t …
Jan 10 2025
Music From The Dark Side
The Police were a highly unusual band. Their songs, the majority of which were written by bassist / vocalist Gordon Sumner (a.k.a. Sting), ranged from moody to black as night. Yet despite that dark and often cutting edge, they were immensely popular during the Seventies and early Eighties. They seemed to have tapped into …
Jan 02 2025
Some Music For Your Early Evening
Way, way back when, when I was much younger than I am today, I was greatly enamored of the old PlayStation game Tomb Raider. One of the reasons that game got into my blood was the associated music. At that time, video-game music wasn’t a highly advanced art form, though in recent years it’s …
Dec 14 2024
Some Seasonal Music
…but not the of the usual sort. Here’s a winter classic from a European superstar Americans should know better: my new heartthrob, the beautiful and supremely talented Beatrice Egli: (Yes, she sings it in German. So what?)
Nov 19 2024
Some of the music that helped form me.
I don’t know why I can’t embed it. I blame my lake of skill, as well as the fact that I tend to loathe modern technology, which probably explains my lack of skill. But… Go have a listen. I grew up with classical music, big band, and jazz from my father. When we moved to …
Nov 14 2024
It’s Time For Music!
Let’s see, what haven’t we heard any of lately? Perhaps a little prog-metal: That’s The Gleam of Sword and Spear, the first track from Wyzards’ album The Final Catastrophe.
Nov 01 2024
Some Music For The Lonely And Cynical
One of the best of the previous century’s songwriters was the late Stan Rogers. Like the great Al Stewart, Rogers could take any subject and weave it into a song. His lyrics are poetry of an increasingly rare sort, though if called a poet, he probably would have demurred. This one is for …
Sep 29 2024
Things Have Been Getting Heavy Around Here
…so let us return to those halcyon days of yore, when the men were men and the… ghosts were ghosts? Let never a man a wooing wend That lacketh thinges three A store of gold, an oaken heart And full of charity And this was seen of King Henry And he likewise alone For …
Sep 22 2024
Change Of Seasons
Today, at 8:44 AM Eastern Daylight Savings Time, the plane of Earth’s equator passed through the center of the Sun. That’s the sidereal definition of an equinox. As the days are growing shorter, it was the autumnal equinox. We are now in the season of autumn. (Yes, yes, our friends in the Southern …
Sep 01 2024
Acquired Tastes
On occasion, I’ve heard people refer to various things they indulge in – foods and beverages, mainly – as acquired tastes. Also on occasion, I’ve tried whatever it was they were rhapsodizing about and said, whether to myself or out loud, “Why on earth did you want to acquire it?” This has caused me …
Aug 23 2024
Pie In The Sky By And By
Given how many of us Baby Boomers there are, there’s always someone whose 50th anniversary of something has come around. And there are quite a few old rockers and folkies available to reminisce about their golden years. The combination can be cloying, if not worse. For example, not everyone’s memory of certain musical …
Aug 21 2024
That Lucky Old Sun
Way back when I had long hair and things didn’t hurt, I was actually a pretty good musician. I played drums and saxophone, and I sang. That fell by the wayside as my military career started taking bigger and bigger chunks out of my life. There were other considerations as well, some valid and some …
Aug 14 2024
Some Music For Our Times… And All Others
Have a little music on your Curmudgeon: one of the most heart-wrenching songs in the Child Catalogue, from British folk greats Maddy Prior and Tim Hart: It’s fifty long springtimes Since she was a bride But still, you may see her At each Whitsuntide In a dress of white linen And ribbons …
Aug 04 2024
Some Time Ago…
…four musicians got together to make a little music. It’s not like they hadn’t done so already. Indeed, each of the four was a member of a rather successful group. Nevertheless, they wanted to stretch their wings in new ways, and they felt a certain commonality of purpose. So they recorded a couple of …
Jun 27 2024
Upbeat… Cynicism?
I don’t know what became of Juice Newton. Her first album did well, with the song below as its “hit.” But I haven’t heard anything about her since that first disc. Anyway, have a little remembrance, followed by one from the “other side” – of the sex wars, that is: Now, a man …
Fran’s Recent Novels
Margaret’s Recent Novels
