Zoopraxiscope

My father liked marches and played lots of recordings of pipes and drums and John Philip Sousa. I got sick of them. Nevertheless, this medley did catch my ear, and years later I tracked it down.

I could easily post all of Gentle Giant, and perhaps I eventually will. They were the best of all progressive rock bands (you can disagree, but you’re wrong), and of course I never heard them on the radio. This is from Three Friends.

Giacomo Rossini is best known for a series of overtures and the operas that accompanied them. Late in his life he wrote several sets of small-scale pieces collectively known as “Péchés de vieillesse,” or “Sins of Old Age.” These included a variety of playful piano music. Years later Ottorino Respighi orchestrated a number of the latter as the score to the ballet La Boutique Fantasque. Instead of picking out individual sections, here’s the whole thing.

Who is the best guitarist no one has heard of? One possibility is Kyoji Yamamoto of the Japanese band Bow Wow.¹ The vocals are exceedingly average, but that doesn’t matter when Yamamoto shuts his mouth and plays. “Silver Lightning” is from their 1977 second album, released a year before Van Halen’s first. If you’re impatient for pyrotechnics, skip to 2:35.

There were two Kaleidoscopes, one American, one British, both on the borders of psychedelia and prog rock, each very different from the other. This song is from the wacko California ensemble that gave the world David Lindley.

From the Swedish-speaking region of Finland. The translated lyrics are here.

The barcarolle is to Fauré what the nocturne is to Chopin.

Featuring Stevie Coyle: “Fortunately, not even several years of playing Folk Masses every Sunday could quash his musical spirit….”

Metal is timeless, and every age has its version. Distorted guitars are helpful but not essential. Attitude is what matters.

An innocuous little set of variations on a simple tune, performed by the pianist who kick-started the Alkan revival a half-century ago.

From the first Klezmer album I ever bought, with a cover by R. Crumb.

“The Funky Western Civilization” may be the obvious choice for Tonio K., but I like this one, too.

The “Chant de Roxane,” from Karol Szymanowski’s opera King Roger, transcribed for violin and piano by Paul Kochanski.

I don’t post all that much these days, and that’s not likely to change any time soon. Therefore, I thought I would start posting each day a piece of music that caught my ear, so that visitors will have something to listen to when there’s nothing new to read. Expect anything from Renaissance dances to Melt-Banana. No matter what your tastes are in music, there’ll be something to annoy you.

Can I keep this up indefinitely? Sure. Can you stand a year of it? We’ll see.

We’ll start with an orchestral arrangement of “Beware the Forest’s Mushrooms” from a Super Mario game, composed by Yoko Shimomura. While I have little interest in video games, I recently discovered that some game music is highly listenable, and Shimomura is one of the best composers. This particular piece reminds me of central European composers such as Dvorák and Smetana.