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highpriestessofjogan · 3 years

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Every once in a while I’m not in the mood to write fiction...

Sometimes I like to do literary analysis for funsies, or, surprisingly enough thanks to the content of this post, music analysis as well.

When I first watched Guardian, there was one song that stood out to me more than most of the others from the OST. It was always used in the scenes with more emotional weight, and was so haunting that it lingered in my mind long after the scene had passed. Once I was able to hunt the soundtrack down on Amazon (a feat that was much more difficult than it should have been imho) I came to learn that this song was actually Shen Wei’s theme. Shen Wei’s theme was in all of the emotionally hard hitting scenes and haunted me for long after the show had finished.

One day I was driving to work and I was just looping it over and over for my entire commute. It’s an hour long commute ya’ll. Just that song, over and over and over (and I’ve played it for several hours on a loop before and I have no doubt I will do it for many more times to come, this song is beautiful and haunting and I love it to death). As I listened I started to make some realizations, and as those realizations came to light it left me even more heartbroken than originally.

The Shen Wei OST is a perfect character journey. It tells his story in a way that words simply could not come close to. I’ve tried to sum up my best analysis of this song and what it means, and I’m sure I don’t even come close to what Luo Kun intended when he composed the song, but I hope that he would at least agree I have parts of it right.

I’m going to put the actual analysis beneath a “Read More” so please, drop me a line if you like what you read or if you want to discuss it further. I’d love to chat about this! It’s broken up into five distinct movements that I think relate to different points in Shen Wei’s life, and I should mention that this is looking at the character purely from the perspective of the drama. At some point I might go back and see if I can tie it into the novel at all, but that has not been taken into consideration here.

I’d like to state above the cut that my thanks go out to @elvencantation and @eirenical for looking over my initial drafts and giving me their opinions and helping with musical instrument identification. I might come back and clean this up someday, but for right now, I wanted to get something out there for everyone to read. I hope that you enjoy it.

Part I. Gege (0:00 - 0:35)

There is a very melancholy feel to the song, but it also has the quiet grace and strength that the audience can always associate with Shen Wei. This is the beginning of his journey though. This is a young boy caring for his brother. A boy who tries to protect and is cast aside, thrown down to the dirt, and returns too late to save the one remaining person still precious to him. The beginning of this song paints the picture of a solitary figure against the horizon, short in stature from age and inexperience, a blade much too big gripped in too small a hand. The piano solo here emphasizes his lone search for his brother and hoping against all hopes that he might one day find him and the two of them could be reunited.

Part II. Xiao Wei (0:36 - 1:08)

At 37 seconds in the strings make their entrance. I like to think it was a deliberate choice to have Zhao Yunlan pick up the violin during the Tan Xiao and Zheng Yi case, because I firmly believe the strings in this soundtrack are supposed to represent Zhao Yunlan just as the piano represents Shen Wei. These 32 seconds represent the Shen Wei that we see during episodes 34 and 35 in Ye Olde Haixing Era. A bright eyed energetic young warrior who cares about his men despite his position. He hides his fear behind a mask, under a hood, and does what he can to help in the war. But here is also when Kunlun arrives. A famous general who miraculously takes an interest in HIM. And what has he done to warrant such attention? The kindness that he is shown here helps to shape him, mold him into a stronger warrior, a stronger person, but it will be millennia before he will learn why Kunlun saw him for the person he was rather than the blade and power he wielded.

The strings here do not try to overwhelm the piano here, even though they easily could. Instead they seem to try to entwine with the notes from the piano and guide them. It’s a graceful dance between the two that represents the close partnership that Shen Wei and Kunlun shared during the war.

Part III. The Black Cloak Envoy (1:09 - 1:39)

This part of the song is particularly interesting to me. The piano is still present, but the tune has changed, the same for the strings, but now the sounds of a woodwind have joined the other two. It’s at this point Shen Wei has woken up after 10,000 years. He’s thrust into a new world that he must learn, and a Dixing that is far worse off than he ever imagined it would be. He is a legend, but he does not try to take power. His duty is still his to fulfill, but he does not seek to take power aside from that. This is the new life that he forges for himself, from who he was as a boy, to who Kunlun helped him become, but this is something he creates to survive in a world that is unfamiliar to him.

Now he is not needed as just a blade, although he will be that when it is necessary. Now he can pursue his love and inherent gift for learning. This is the man who emerges from the ground and takes up bioengineering as a field of study. This is the person who befriends Cheng Xinyan and probably has more than one or two study sessions with her. This is the college student that I’m sure was dragged to at least one karaoke night to blow off some steam, and may have discovered his aversion to alcohol that same night. This is someone who lived.

Part IV. Professor Shen (1:40 - 2:11)

The woodwind fades out and we are left with the string and the piano once more. The string though is more like the tide, pushing and pulling against the piano, but that is very fitting for the section of the song, and Shen Wei’s life, that Zhao Yunlan is introduced into. The strings surge forth and ease back, pushing Shen Wei for answers, but also easing back when he seems ready to break. The piano has returned to its tune from the first two movements, and it’s probably due to the uncertainty that Zhao Yunlan has brought into his life. Why has Kunlun suddenly reappeared and why is he acting like he doesn’t know who Shen Wei is? Why does Da Qing not remember him? In the face of these questions he retreats to who he was before, until he can determine what the best course of action to take is. If Kunlun is testing him or doesn’t remember too he doesn’t want to risk the chance that the man will not recognize him. This could be why we see the fond smiles and confused blinks, aspects that are so inherent to his character.

Part V. Shen Wei (2:12 - End)

I’m not going to lie, it was coming up with this part that really broke my heart. The strings remain, but fade to the background and are only faintly known. The piano has returned, and is at the forefront once more with no question as to who the lead is. Through all the changes in his life, he has come to realize who he truly is. He is a brother who is afraid he has failed his twin. A warrior and leader afraid he has failed his people. A man afraid that he will lose everything, but willing to make that sacrifice to save his friends and family, to keep the man he loves safe. He is no longer just a blade to be used. He has a purpose, one that has not been forced on him but that he has chosen for himself.

This is the Shen Wei who decides to use the light energy from Zhao Yunlan to make himself a living bomb. The man who decides that if his brother cannot be made to stand down then he will force him to. This is the man who looks into the eyes of his lover as he lays bloodied and broken on the ground, who sees all that they could have had in their lives, and silently begs forgiveness even as he makes the ultimate sacrifice.

And then the song fades out with the slowing piano notes, just as Shen Wei’s life ends with the slowed beating of his heart...

#guardian #zhen hun #镇魂 guardian #shen wei #zhao yunlan #kunlun #weilan #black cloak envoy #hei pao shi #caitlin analyzes stuff and things #caitlin also makes herself sad doing it #caitlin makes great life choices

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cianishere · 3 years

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why richard robbins is a king among men, or an analysis of the maurice (1987) soundtrack

hello, i am gay, a former band kid, and a slut for classical music analysis…… so i’ve been wanting to do an in-depth analysis of Richard Robbins’ absolutely breathtaking soundtrack for Maurice (1987) for some time. it’s an incredibly emotionally moving work of art, but i also feel like there’s so much care and thought and soul put into the pieces of the soundtrack, and Robbins absolutely deserves all the credit in the world for writing the perfect accompaniment to the film. the songs have lives of their own, outside of the film, but they also breathe a certain life into the scenes when paired with the performances of the actors and the cinematography and camera work. the soundtrack means so much to me, so i wanted to take a moment (or a few thousand words or so) to expand on all of its intricacies. i’m not a professional musician or a music student, i’ve j been playing woodwinds for over a decade and can find my way around a guitar and piano, so these are my thoughts and interpretations as a musician. feel free to share yours! this was a bit of an undertaking, so i recommend reading while listening, and i hope u enjoy!

(the pieces are listed in order of their appearance in the film, not the album)

PROLOGUE - THE LESSON

The opening piece is a very traditional overture, setting the mood for the film and foreshadowing the (musical) events to come. It begins with a mysterious, almost eerie sound with pizzicato in the low strings and high woodwind and harp lines before opening into the dominating melody in the high strings. Though the melody is grand and moving, it also has an air of hesitancy, almost melancholy, and in this moment, we’re introduced to Maurice’s musical signature, the clarinet (specifically, the low clarinet line). The low clarinet triplets and the sets of five recurring notes in the low flute and violin create a sense of impatience and forward motion, as we can sense young Maurice’s uncertainty in his conversation with his headmaster. This section transitions into a solo in the English horn, which Robbins uses to represent the idyllic, pastoral English countryside. Here, it seems to signal both the natural surroundings that the scene takes place in, as well as the pastoral beauty of childlike innocence. This solo honestly gets me EVERY TIME, it’s so gorgeous and the gradual layering of other instruments underneath is mesmerizing. The piece ends with shrieking upward woodwind scales, capturing the sense of impending fear that we can sense in young Maurice.

AT THE PIANOLA

This piece is a bit strange to listen to outside of the film, as it plays in the scene as Clive and Maurice play Featherstonehaugh’s pianola in his Cambridge dorm room. The piece captures Clive and Maurice’s pianola playing, which echoes the thematic melody introduced in the opening composition, but the single piano line is quickly swept away by a traditional string orchestra before moving into a call-and-response between the high strings and high woodwinds. I always thought this piece was so beautiful in its development, growing from a simple piano melody into a fully orchestrated concerto. The melody, particularly in its piano form, always struck me as very French, reminiscent of the French Romantic pianists with some impressionist elements as well. The transition from piano melody into the full orchestra is welcome, but overwhelming—it evokes the excitement and intensity of falling in love, as the film reaches the precipice of Clive’s confession. The instrumentation is also fascinating here: as I mentioned previously, Maurice is musically represented by the clarinet and/or woodwind melodies, but Clive usually comes through as high strings. This piece is pushed forward by the strings, as the violin and viola take on the melody under the piano and are followed by the woodwinds. The woodwinds follow the strings in a call-and-response pattern, musically establishing Clive’s lead in their romance, with Maurice following along with his advances, especially at first.

MISERERE (GREGORIO ALLEGRI)

UGH I have so much to say about this piece. I want to start with its origins, which is a setting of Psalm 51 to music, at first for the exclusive use in the Sistine Chapel during Holy Week (a nod to this scene taking place in the spring, around Easter). We all know this piece and the scene it accompanies, as those shots of Cambridge (and that wicker chair) are forever immortalized in my heart (<333) The lyrics are incredibly significant, as Psalm 51 is a confession of sin by David—specifically, of his feelings of lust for Bathsheba.

Have mercy upon me, O God: after Thy great goodness. According to the multitude of Thy mercies, do away mine offences. Wash me thoroughly from my wickedness: and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my faults: and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that Thou mightest be justified in Thy saying, and clear when Thou art judged.

David is asking for mercy for his act of sin, and to be “cleansed” from his lustful act by God.

Make me a clean heart, O God: and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence: and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. O give me the comfort of Thy help again: and stablish me with Thy free Spirit.

He prays for God to return to his life, and to give him salvation again.

I think this choice of psalm is SO fascinating, as it can take on two meanings. On one hand, it represents the feelings of guilt that both Maurice and Clive feel for their attraction to each other, knowing that their feelings are considered to be sinful in their (and the societal) understanding of Christianity. In a way, this piece can signify both Clive and Maurice asking for that salvation and asking to be saved from their desire. On the other hand, however, I think the choice to overlay this particular piece with Maurice and Clive’s first moment of physical intimacy is critical in interpreting its meaning. Rather than asking for salvation from God, the psalm’s lyrics could also represent Maurice and Clive asking for salvation from each other through their desire. There are a few points in the psalm that could be read in a rather different light in this context, particularly “Thou shalt open my lips, O Lord: and my mouth shall shew [show] Thy praise.” The “high spirit” that they are searching for, in this case, is not the forgiveness of sin by God, but rather the intimacy and physical affection of a lover. (As Forster points out in a later section of the book, one’s God and one’s lover can be equal “incentives to virtue.”) I feel like this psalm is being used in both ways: as a reminder of the internal and external pressure that Maurice and Clive face, but also to musically express the reciprocal desire they are seeking from each other as they begin to explore the physical side of their relationship. This piece is also just so damn beautiful, the high C just gets me every fucking time. The specific vocal arrangement—and the excerpt of that arrangement—that Robbins decided to use highlights a solo female soprano, sounding almost like a Greek siren. As her voice emerges from the varying vocal textures, there is a sense of seductiveness, but there is also a loneliness there, as she stands alone among the choir. The choice to center the soloist was a beautiful way to show the loneliness that Maurice and Clive feel as they both continue to hold that fear and hesitancy about their feelings and desire.

THE CAFE ROYAL

This piece plays during the infamous “to the ladies!” scene, during which the Halls and the Durhams are dining together, and Clive announces his decision to become a barrister and enter politics. This piece begins as a classic, grandiose waltz, representing the glamor and high society lifestyle that the two wealthy families live within. At the beginning especially, it seems almost overstated, hinting at the façade of British upper-class life that Maurice desperately despises. As the piece continues, a duet of low clarinet and oboe emerge with a woeful melody that is built upon on its repetition by a dark solo cello line. (I don’t play double reeds or cello but they’re two of my favorites, and all I can say is that Richard Robbins knew how to pick instruments that fuck, plain and simple.) The contrast in mood created between this grand waltz sound and the individual instruments emphasizes the trapped, isolated feeling that both Maurice and Clive feel as upper-class British men, expected to have careers, marry, and build families. Stuck in the middle of their constructed lives, Maurice and Clive are represented by the duet and solo lines, standing out among society and desperate for an escape.

IN GREECE / THE WEDDING

This piece opens with a haunting melody that sounds almost like a chorus—I’m still not entirely sure what the instrumentation of this section is, but it sounds like high woodwinds and strings layered together and/or an echoey, chime-like percussion instrument. The lone melodic line overlaid with harp runs (again, Robbins said I will exclusively highlight instruments that fuck hard, and ignore everything else) in the beginning brings the same sort of haunting loneliness as in “Miserere,” evoking the duality of the Greek siren as well as the hymnal church choir. Gradually, the piece builds into a waltz through the development of a pizzicato bass line as well as running woodwind and string harmonic lines. I think the use of a waltz in this section of the piece is a symbol of the bitter end of Maurice and Clive’s relationship, as the minor key and legato melody in the high woodwinds gives the waltz a mournful quality.

The opening section of the piece is quickly interrupted by the abrupt and angry sound of an organ. Rather than romantic, this interlude is loud and overwhelming, representing Clive’s overzealous transition into heterosexual marriage and family life. The interlude then transitions into a beautiful but incredibly sad melody, reminiscent of the music that might accompany a funeral service. This short but emotive section is probably one of my favorites in the entire soundtrack—as it plays, we can see Maurice exiting the wedding chapel after Clive and Anne, and that hidden pain and fear and loneliness is brought to life by this melody.

PENDERSLEIGH IN GLOOM

Simultaneously romantic and melancholy, this short piano interlude demonstrates the inspiration that Robbins took from classical French pianists. This composition reminds me of a transition section within a Debussy piece as the uneven tempo and dynamics exude emotion, conflict, and hesitation. In this moment in the narrative, between Clive’s marriage and Maurice’s meeting of Alec, Maurice is in a state of contemplation and uncertainty, and Robbins has reflected that perfectly.

MISS EDNA MAY’S SURPRISE / THE TRAIN

Though this piece is definitely not the most sonically appealing, I think it is the most texturally interesting on the soundtrack. The piano melody in “Miss Edna Mae’s Surprise” begins as a playful, jaunty, idyllic piece, but quickly builds drama and transitions into the surreal and eerie. The melody wavers between fun and nightmarish, never fully settling into one, but establishing tension through the contrast between the two. As the piece builds layers of woodwinds and strings, it continues this contrast between the expected, playful melody and something more sinister before suddenly merging into a screeching, forceful ending with high woodwinds and piano. Similar to “The Café Royal,” this piece represents the internal conflict that Maurice faces and his fear of settling down into the heterosexual family structure. While there is a sense of joy and happiness on the surface level, as Maurice acts the part to uphold societal norms, internally he is incredibly afraid of being trapped in a cycle of marriage and family that would be unfulfilling and dishonest to his selfhood.

The next section of this piece, “The Train,” is one of the most creative compositions I’ve heard in a long time, and I was honestly blown away when I listened to it closely (and LOUDLY). Rather than using train sound effects, Robbins uses the sounds of the orchestra to emulate the different sounds one might hear on a steam engine train. The rhythmic beat of the railway tracks underneath the train car are created by repetitive staccato notes in the strings and percussion. The airy, legato sound of the steam engine is actually created by single reed woodwind instruments played in a particular way. The woodwind players are blowing air into their instruments with a very loose embouchure, which is the muscle tension created by the lips around the mouthpiece that forces the wooden reed to vibrate and create sound. By loosening their embouchure, the players are blowing air into their instruments without the reed vibrating, resulting in a sound resembling air or stream escaping from engine pipes (can u tell im a clarinet player :-)). The melody of this piece emerges in the high woodwinds, including upper clarinets, flutes, and oboe. The melody line is eerie and tense, much like the mood of the train scene in the film, and the blended lines are erratic and dissonant. They seem to echo and fade in strange ways, mimicking the sound of an approaching or departing train whistle. Robbins is able to capture the sounds of a steam engine locomotive while also establishing the tension and conflict in Maurice’s character in this scene. As a woodwind player, I am in complete awe at Robbins’ creativity in building this composition, and I honestly think his ability to layer these sounds to create such a complex, textured sonic landscape is nothing short of genius.

THE MOONLIT NIGHT (a tiny bit nsfw, feel free to skip!)

Maurice’s nightmare of the “sinking ship” of heterosexuality is brought to life through an eerie, isolated English horn solo over tense string chords, eventually transitioning into a low clarinet melody, Maurice’s musical signature. Slowly, as Maurice’s nightmare fades away and he wakes up from his sleep, the low clarinet melody diminishes and is overtaken by low, warm chords in the lower woodwinds (bass clarinet, my beloved <3). These low sounds are interrupted by hesitant but curious flute runs, through which Robbins introduces Alec’s musical manifestation. The flute sounds grow faster in tempo and more intense in sound as Alec watches Maurice from outside his room but reduce to a single line of low strings, woodwinds, and percussion as he climbs through Maurice’s window. This ominous and minimal sound is gradually layered with sudden high strings, led by Maurice’s low clarinet, before fading away into near silence until the first touch suddenly takes the piece into swift motion. It develops into a beautiful and intricate waltz as Maurice and Alec embrace, representing their intimacy through the style of a partnered ballroom dance. The melody of the waltz, layered over staccato strings, is an ascending, fluttering scale that begins in the clarinet before finishing in the flute. Robbins’ choice to compose the melody as a shared scale between Maurice and Alec’s respective instrumental representation is a perfect way to express their first night together, and the airy, light, understated flute is a brilliant way to embody the spirit of Alec’s character. In the final section of the piece, as the melody grows irregular and begins to fade away, the ascending lines and rhythmic pizzicato strings begin to mirror the gasping breaths and soft moans of intimacy, constructing a gorgeously imaginative musical landscape for this critical scene.

ALEC’S FAREWELL

This short but expressive piece captures Maurice’s transition from dejected acceptance of Alec’s departure to a tentative hope as he realizes that Alec has missed his boat to Buenos Aires. Plucked bass and a fragmentary string melody overlay a tense, oscillating clarinet line, representing Maurice’s internal anticipation as he anxiously fidgets in the taxi ride back to Pendersleigh. At this point, Maurice does not have confirmation that Alec has purposefully missed his boat to reunite with him, but the suspense created by Robbins’ minimalistic composition leaves room for such a possibility, without completely revealing its certainty.

THE BOATHOUSE

This piece begins as Maurice makes his way towards the boathouse on the evening of Alec’s expected departure. He has just spoken to Clive, confessing his love for Alec, and now hopes to be reunited with his lover in the boathouse, the safe haven that Alec had promised Maurice after their first night together. Continuing where “Alec’s Farewell” left off with an oscillating clarinet line and minimal strings, the piece quickly erupts into motion as a solo clarinet begins a low triplet melody, accompanied by strings and a solo oboe harmony (the clarinet line is fucking FIRE and I would pay so much goddamn money for the sheet music). The clarinet solo moves swiftly, desperately, shifting between major and minor keys to represent Maurice’s restless search for Alec. As he enters the boathouse, the clarinet ascends a scale before lingering on a high A, as if he is calling for Alec. When the call is not answered, the clarinet line repeats, bringing Maurice’s anticipation to its height until he opens a second door and finds Alec resting within the room behind it. As the two meet and share a moment of reconciliation (“So, you got the wire, then?”), a lingering bass note (another one of Alec’s musical representations) swells into serene, legato woodwind chords that echo until their final kiss, and Alec’s “Now we shan’t ever be parted, and that’s finished.”

While listening to this song more closely, I was completely struck by its similarities to Leonard Bernstein’s “Somewhere” from the 1957 musical West Side Story. The final chords in “The Boathouse” are strikingly similar to the final high woodwind chords echoed by a low bass line in “Somewhere.” Bernstein also highlights clarinets throughout the musical, particularly to emphasize the vocals of the protagonist, Tony, while using flutes to underscore the voice of María, Tony’s love interest. Aside from the musical similarities, I think the thematic parallels between the story of Tony and María are worth mentioning as a source of musical inspiration for Robbins. A retelling of Romeo and Juliet set in 1950s New York, Bernstein’s West Side Story is a classic tragedy of an unconventional relationship that is unaccepted by society. Although not sharing in its tragic ending, Maurice definitely builds on the cultural trope of two star-crossed lovers desperate for an escape from a prejudiced society. Bernstein himself was gay, although he spent much of his career closeted, and West Side Story (particularly “Somewhere,” but also “One Hand, One Heart,” “Tonight,” and “Finale”) became emblematic of the struggles that gay couples face, especially with the popularity of musical theatre among American gay men. The lyrics (copied below, but I highly recommend finding the 1957 ballet version or the 1961 film version!) represent Maurice and Alec’s story beautifully, and the fact that Robbins was inspired by this piece of media that holds so much significance for queer people when composing the soundtrack for Maurice makes my gay little heart grow three sizes <3

There's a place for us, Somewhere a place for us. Peace and quiet and open air Wait for us, somewhere.

There's a time for us, Some day a time for us, Time together with time spare, Time to learn, time to care. Some day, Somewhere, We'll find a new way of living, We'll find a way of forgiving. Somewhere, Somewhere . . . There's a place for us, A time and place for us. Hold my hand and we're halfway there. Hold my hand and I'll take you there Somehow, Some day, Somewhere!

CLIVE AND ANNE

For Clive’s final scene, Robbins returns to piano and string instrumentation in the melody, representing a return to the traditional life that Clive now finds himself living with Anne. This variation on Clive’s signature melody, however, is significantly slowed down, almost to the tempo of a funeral march or dirge. As he shuts each of the windows, eventually stopping for a brief moment to reminisce on his time with Maurice, the melody grows increasingly loud and desperate as the high woodwinds are layered in. The sudden and dramatic development of this piece sound like a futile cry out for help, as Clive remains trapped in a prison of his own creation. The composition ends without a concluding chord, tense and unresolved. It’s fascinating to me that we can hear Robbins’ simultaneous resentment and pity for Clive—though the piece is deeply sorrowful, Robbins does not leave Clive with a satisfying ending, choosing to keep him suspended in the societal purgatory that he chose for himself.

END TITLES

Are you crying yet? No? I don’t believe you. Robbins establishes the ending to the story by building the piece off of a gentle, pastoral variation of Maurice’s low clarinet melody. The legato chords and balance of high and low instrumentation recall Robbins’ musical sampling of “Somewhere” before the melody shifts into a call-and-answer duet between the clarinet (alongside an oboe) and flute. Much like the clarinet and flute duet in “The Moonlit Night,” the two lines blend together—but in this final composition, Robbins has written the two parts as complementary, yet distinctly different, rather than imitations of one another or two segments of a single line. The melody becomes a conversation between two harmonizing entities who are sharing in the creation of something wholly new. The duet tapers off into an English horn solo over a harp line, bringing back the idyllic English countryside that we first saw young Maurice exploring in “Prologue – The Lesson.” In this final piece, Robbins adds on to this solo with the clarinet and flute before the melody spreads throughout the full orchestra and builds to a grandiose and rousing finale. I think the English horn solo is the part that breaks me every time because of its introduction in the very beginning of the story— through this understated melody, Robbins is assuring us that Maurice did stay true to himself, and he did find his happiness, though it may not be what Ducie or anyone else wanted for him. Maurice and Alec in the clarinet and flute, alongside the English horn, managed to find harmony in each other and peace in a life built on a love they shared, and nothing more.

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rainbow-arrow · 3 years

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Miraculous Drum Corps AU Pt. 1

**if you know what drum corps is you can just skip to the lists at the bottom lol**

The perfect kind of people to be superheroes are also surprisingly the perfect kind of people to spend all summer working towards a common goal. And I realized, the miraculous kids, if aged up a bit would make a fantastic drum corps, so I created Miraculous Drum Corps.

I did realize Most people don’t actually know what drum corps is so I’m doing a lil ~introduction series~ to the concept and to My Take on it.

((for a point of reference, drum corps is essentially intensified marching band without the woodwinds. I marched color guard in DCI for five years so it’s clear I know the most about it lol. if a character isn’t listed they might be added later if I figure them out. this also looks more formal than it is.))

Drum Corps is a summer long activity beginning mid-May and ending the first week of August, typically broken down by 4-6 weeks of intensive 14-hour training days (see also: All Days, Move-ins, Pre-Tour), and 4-6 weeks of traveling cross country, driving all night, rehearsing in the day and performing at night in front of thousands of people. There’s about 150 people aged 16-22 (21 is the age out :( sad times being ‘old’) on the field making up the corps and they travel in tour buses from high school to high school where they rehearse and perform said show at local arenas.

A typical move-in day can look typically as (from what i remember at BK lol): 8am wake/breakfast 9am block (typically dance and basics for color guard, and visual for brass/battery, pit is always playing) 1pm lunch 2pm block again (typically show stuff or music and sectionals for hornline? color guard is probably learning choreo for the show) 5pm dinner (most corps do an hour dinner but 1.5 dinners at bk saved my soul) 6:30pm ensamble (all sections come together on the main field to put together what they’ve been working on all day) 10pm snack/break (when you shower and get ready for bed. don’t forget to drink water and stretch!!! also some self-led rehearsing happens here too. better every day!) 12am lights out! get some sleep!!!

lather rinse repeat. a typical back to back show day could look like (once again BK is a p good corps, having marched a nonfinalist corps, bOY is the experience different):

11am wake up/’breakfast’ 12pm sectionals 2pm ensamble 3:30pm run through 5:50pm butts-in-seats (always 10 min before!) 6pm depart for show 7:20pm arrive at show 9:17pm Perform! (from there post-show they evaluate when BIS is going to be, on account of how long it takes the front ensamble to reload the truck, typically just less than two hours) 11:10pm BIS 11:20pm depart for next housing site (typically one or two stops for a six hour) 5:30am arrive at new housing site, unload stuff to blow up air mattresses on gym floor, sleep until wake up (this case would be hmmmm about 11 again? BK was p nice about our sleep time compared to sOME oTHER corps)

So who’s doing this? 160-ish members with about 20 staff members at a given time, as well as about 20 volunteers (oh boy that’s a big ol guess). The corps itself is where all of our characters are going to be in one of the following (no none of them are drum majors):

Brass: A majority of the corps is in the hornline, consisting of both high and low brass (traditionally 3-valved instruments. Trombones were only allowed as of 2017!). Typically, trumpets, mellophones, euphoniums, and tubas (some corps march baritones but honestly i don’t know enough to even be able to tell a difference between baritones and euphs. they might be the same thing.)

Trumpet: Max (I will fight people on this) Mellophone: Adrien, Wayhem Euphonium: Nino, Alya Tuba: Marc, Ivan

Percussion: Percussion is divided into two sections, one being the battery who plays their drums and march and the front ensamble (see also: pit). The battery consists of a snare line, quad line, and bass line. I think only one corps still has a cymbal line, but it’s my AU so yes, Miraculous has one. The front ensamble is made of marimbas, vibraphones, at least one synth player, a drum set? oh well that’s in the rack, sometimes a bassist is there? We had an electric violin my second year too. They play the instruments Too Big to march with and sit (typically) on the front of the field between the rest of the corps and the drum majors.

Front Ensamble: Kagami (marimba), Zoe (vibes) Battery: Luka (quads), Kim (bass 4), Alix (cymbals)

Color Guard: Color guard my beloved!! The ~visual~ part of the corps, spinning (traditionally) flags, sabres, and rifles, as well as whatever else the show calls for. I’ve danced with fabric, spun flags where the pole is rope, double swing flags, crosses, and I’ve seen some even crazier stuff. There’s typically about 40 people with a few alternates spin and dance through the show

Color guard: Marinette, Chloe, Rose, Juleka, Lila, Nathaniel

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appassaddle · 3 years

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In worldbuilding, one of the best touchstones you can give people is in arts. Music is especially great because it’s one of the longest lasting sense-memories people have, so giving that to your fictional characters makes them that much more real and relatable. ATLA, as a great fantasy world, makes great use of this (how many times have you sung a song from the show? be honest.) so this is a list of possible musical influences that could be part of the various nations outside of the music we’re given in-show. The musical possibilities with bending and having benders has just... so much cool potentital, because look at what we’ve got without even having powers!

Check it:

Earth kingdom – lithophones

The Earth Kingdom would have absolutely sick lithophones (instruments made from resonating stone).

Lithophones are also some of the oldest dated musical instruments, going back to prehistoric times, and can be found in locations/cultures around the globe (singing/ringing/sonic/resonant rocks of different types are everywhere) in both natural and man-made settings. (Musical caves/stalactite organs vs carved or shaped settings)

Some examples:

Bianqing: (also known as qing, biên khánh in Vietnam, and pyeongyeong in Korea) A stone gong originating from China, played in a set (or singular) hung on racks, with a characteristic angular shape. (Not to be confused with bianzhong, which are metal bells, often played together with bianqing.)

[example] [example] [example]

Ðàn đá: a stone mallet instrument from the western/central highlands of Viet Nam. They are a historic instrument and got a revival in the 1950s, so they are fairly common in the modern era as well.

[example] [example]

If you’re interested in checking out the work of Viet musicologists, check out their website: https://www.vienamnhac.vn/home-page

For a look into how stone based instruments can be made, check out this report from a small town in Japan that specializes in a specific type of musical stone (sanukite): https://www.kensanpin.org/en/report/no47/

Some examples of instruments made from sanukite: [example] [example]

(I can also totally see towns in the EK having stones specific to their region and their local musical tone.)

Post metalbending revolution they would probably partner up with…

The Fire Nation likely has a strong lean towards metallophones. In Western music the most well known of these would be vibraphones, glockenspiels, and bells. (In the ATLA soundtrack, a notable metallic sound is Azula’s signature sting.) But for the FN, more likely influences could be along the lines of:

Gamelan: this is a genre/type of ensemble from Indonesia, the main three styles being Javanese, Balinese, and Sudanese. (Styles depend on island of origin and cultural purposes.) It has a rich history and cultural importance that cannot be done justice in a few lines her, but it’s absolutely amazing music. Gamelan is used for religious/spiritual purposes, dance, puppeteering/storytelling, theater, general concerts, community gathers, and more. Ensembles range in size and instrumentation, but the main timbre is in the various metallophones (barred, gongs, cymbals, etc.), as well as drums, strings, woodwinds, and singers. [example] [example] [example]

[If you’re interested in learning more, the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan actually has whole video modules via youtube to learn about the various styles of gamelan and multiple sources both print and online to access!]

Steelpan/steel drums: Originating from Trinidad and Tobago, these instruments have a very universal popularity for their bright tone and accessibility. There are many variations on steelpan such as the hang drum, handpan, steel tongue drum, and others. [example] [example] [example]

For the polar Water Tribes, I’d imagine they’d have a much stronger oral/vocal tradition than instrumental, with the exception being portable/durable instruments like hands drums, bone flutes, etc. (So this section is a little less instrument based and more appropriate vibes.)

Vocal/oral tradition: It’s hard to find a culture that doesn’t have some form of oral or sung tradition, but with the cultural influences behind the Water Tribes, I’d guess that a strong tradition would be in throat singing. Throat singing is found in multiple indigenous cultures around the world with various styles of overtone singing (producing more than one tone at once). Some examples are:

Inuit - [one] [two]

Tuvan (Mongolian) - [one] [two] [obligatory plug for The Hu bc they are some of the coolest people on the planet]

Tibetan - [one] [two]

Italian - [one] [two]

Ainu - [one] [two]

Tan Dun, Water Music: Tan Dun is a composer who has done film scores and currently focuses on what he calls “organic music” where the main focus is using naturally occurring materials/sounds. [performance]

Water drumming: One of the coolest ensemble performances, just straight up using water as an instrument. These examples are from Vanuatu and the Baka people of Cameroon. [one] [two] [three] [four] [five]

Sea Organ: Located in Zader, Croatia, this experimental instrument is played by the tides and waves. [video]

Hand drums/frame drums: these styles of drums can be found around the world, throw a dart at a map and there’s probably a style of hand drum from there. They are among the simplest style of drum to make, needing a round frame and hide to stretch over it. Here are just a few examples: [one] [two] [three] [four] [five] [six]

Air Nomads probably had a hug musical tradition between the temples, skybison herding, and traveling. Both singing and wind instruments were probably very popular (we see Aang being able to play multiple instruments). Simple flutes make good travel instruments and being able to share news and information via song when stopping at towns would be a valued skill (in communities before reading was a common skill, it would usually fall to either dedicated criers or bards to pass along information in an understandable and memorable way).

Singing/chants: Learning songs from around the nations would be fun for those who travel, it’s easy to imagine an informal song competition for the most variety or strangest or most locations or dirtiest ones learned during their travels. But given the strong influence of Tibetan Buddhism on the Air Nomads, some traditional Tibetan vocal music examples (a couple of other examples are under the Water Tribe section as well)- [one] [two] [three] [four] [five]

(Tibetan musical notation is also regarded as some of the most beautiful in the world, I’d strongly recommend taking a look.)

Sheng- This is a free-reed mouth organ from China and it has an incredibly long history. Traditional shengs are handheld with few keys, more modern versions vary in size, number of pipes, and keys. It’s a pretty delightful instrument imo. [one] [two] [three]

Panflute: There a lots of different kinds of panflutes found around the world, the most famous being the Greek and Peruvian styles. Some different kinds include paixiao (China), wot (Laos, northern Thailand), nai (Romania, Moldova), siku (Andean), and kuvytsi (Slavic). Variations include the cut of pipes to produce the sound, arrangement of the pipes, and materials used.[siku] [paixiao] [wot 1] [wot 2]

It would also be very cool to have carvings into the mountains that could be played by airbending oh man.

All of these are, of course, just barely dipping a toe into the vast amounts of beautiful musical cultures out there, but hopefully it helps inform and build on what is there. If something tickles your fancy, please feel free to go digging and find more about it! (If you aren’t sure where to start, I’m happy to help, just drop me a line and I can at least point you in the right direction. I make no claim to be any kind of expert here, but I can get you to them!)

#atla #atla meta #worldbuilding #musical meta #headcanons #recovered the post from yesterday recovered lol

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thekillerssluts · 4 years

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The Story Behind Every Song On Will Butler’s New Album Generations

Will Butler has a lot on his mind. It has, after all, been five years since his solo debut, Policy. A lot can happen in half a decade, and a lot has happened in this past half-decade — much of it quite dire. Butler was in his early 30s when Policy came out, and now he’s closing in on 40. He’s a husband and father. And he’s shaken by the state of the world, the idea of being an artist and a soon-to-be middle-aged man striving to guide his family through the chaos.

At least, that’s how it comes across through much of Generations, his sophomore outing that arrives today. Generations is a big, sprawling title by nature, and the album in turn grapples with all kinds of big picture anxieties. Mass shootings, the overarching darkness and anxiety of our time, trying to reckon with our surroundings but the system overload that occurs all too easily in the wake of it. Then there are more intimate songs, too, tales drawn from personal lives as people plug along just trying to navigate a tumultuous era.

Butler is, of course, no stranger to crafting music that seeks to parse the cultural moment and how it impacts in our daily lives. Ever since Arcade Fire ascended to true arena-rock status on The Suburbs 10 years ago, they have embarked on projects that explicitly try to make sense of our surroundings. (Not that their earlier work was bereft of heavy concepts — far from it — but Reflektor and Everything Now turned more of a specific eye towards contemporary ills and trials.) But as one voice amongst many in Arcade Fire, there is a cinematic scope to whatever Butler’s playing into there.

On Generations, he engages with a lot of similar concerns but all in his own voice — often yelping, desperate, frustrated then just trying to catch a breath. Butler leans on his trusty Korg MS-20 throughout Generations, often giving the album a synth-y indie backdrop that allows him to try on a few different selves. There are a handful of surging choruses, “la-la” refrains batting back against the darkness, slinking grooves maybe allowing someone the idea of brief physical release amidst ongoing strife.

Ahead of Generations’ arrival, Butler sent us some thoughts on the album, running from inspiration between the individual tracks to little details about the arrangement and composition of different songs. Now that you can hear the album for yourself, check it out and read along with Butler’s comments below.

1. “Outta Here”

I think this is the simplest song on the record. Just, like, get me out of here. Get me fucking out of here. I’m so tired of being here. No, I don’t have another answer, and I don’t expect anything to be better anywhere else. But, please, I would like to leave here.

I can play plenty of instruments, and can make interesting sounds on them, but kinda the only instrument I’m good at is a synth called the Korg MS-20. That’s the first sound on the record. It makes most of the bass you hear on the record. It’s a very aggressive, loud, versatile machine, and I wanted to start the record with it cause I’m good at playing it and it makes me happy.

2. “Bethlehem”

This song partly springs from “The Second Coming” by William Butler Yeats: “What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?” Like a lot of folks, I woke up after the election in 2016 mad and sad and scared and exhausted. This song is born of that emotion.

My bandmates Jenny Shore, Julie Shore, and Sara Dobbs sing the bridge, and it’s a corrective to my (appropriate?) freaking out — this isn’t the apocalypse. You’re misquoting Yeats. Get your fucking head on straight. History has not ruptured — this shit we’re in is contiguous with the shit we’ve been dealing with for a long, long time. But still, we sometimes do need an apocalyptic vision to make change. Even if it’s technically wrong. I dunno. It’s an ongoing conversation.

There’s a lot of interplay with backing vocals on this record — sometimes the narrator is the asshole, sometimes the backing vocals are the asshole. Sometimes they’re just trying their best to figure out the world. This song starts that conversation.

3. “Close My Eyes”

I tried to make these lyrics a straightforward and honest description of an emotion I feel often: “I’m tired of waiting for a better day. But I’m scared and I’m lazy and nothing’s gonna change.” Kind of a sad song. Trying to tap into some Smokey Robinson/Motown feeling — “I’ve got to dance to keep from crying.”

There’s a lot of Mellotron on this record, and a lot of MS-20. This song has a bunch of Mellotron strings/choirs processed through the MS-20. It’s a trick I started doing on the Arcade Fire song “Sprawl II,” and I love how it sounds and I try to do it on every song if I can.

4. “I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know”

This makes a pair with “Close My Eyes” — shit is obviously fucked, but “I don’t know what I don’t know what I don’t know what I can do.” I’m not a proponent of the attitude! Just trying to describe it, as I often feel it. In my head, I know some things that I can do — my wife Jenny, for instance, works really hard to get state legislatures out of Republican control. Cause it’s all these weirdo state legislative chambers that have enormous power over law enforcement, and civil rights, and Medicaid, and everything.

The image in the last verse was drawn from the protests in Ferguson in 2015: “Watch the bullets and the beaters as they move through the streets — grab your sister’s kids — hide next to the fire station…” It’s been horrifically disheartening to see the police riot across America as their power has been challenged. I’ve got a little seed of hope that we might change things, but, man, dark times.

More MS-20 bass on this one, chained to the drum machine. This one is supposed to be insanely bass heavy — if it comes on in a car, the windows should be rattling, and you should be asking, “What the heck is going on here?” Trying for a contemporary hip-hop bass sound but in a way less spare context. First song with woodwinds — rhythmic stuff and freaky squeals by Stuart Bogie and Matt Bauder.

5. “Surrender”

This song is masquerading as a love song, but it’s more about friendship. About the confusion that comes as people change: Didn’t you use to have a different ideal? Didn’t we have the same ideal at some point? Which of us changed? How did the world change? Relationships that we sometimes wish we could let go of, but that are stuck within us forever.

It’s also about trying to break from the first-person view of the world. “What can I do? What difference can I make?” It’s not about some singular effort — you have to give yourself over to another power. Give over to people who have gone before who’ve already built something — you don’t have to build something new! The world doesn’t always need a new idea, it doesn’t always need a new personality. What can you do with whatever power and money you’ve got? Surrender it over to something that’s already made. And then the song ends with an apology: I’m sorry I’ve been talking all night. Just talk talk talking, all night. Shut up, Will.

Going for “wall of sound” on this one — bass guitar and bass synth and double tracked piano bass plus another piano plus Mellotron piano. The “orchestra” is about a dozen different synth and Mellotron tracks individually detuned. And then run through additional processing.

6. “Hide It Away”

This song is about secrets. Both on an intimate, heartbreaking level — friends’ miscarriages, friends’ immigration status, shitty affairs coming to light — and on a grand, horrible level: New York lifting the statute of limitations on child abuse prosecutions, all the #MeToo reporting. There’s nothing you can do when your secret is revealed. Like, what can you do? You just have to let the response wash over you. If you’ve done something horrible, god-willing, you’ll have to pay for it in some way. If it’s something not horrible, but people will hate you anyway, goddammit, I wish there were some way to protect you.

This song has the least poetic line on the record, a real clunker: “It’s just money and power, money and power might set them free.” But it’s a clunky, shitty concept — the most surefire protection is being rich and knowing powerful people. But even then, shit just might come out. Even after you’re long dead.

Came from a 30-second guitar sample I recorded while messing around at the end of trying to track a different song. I liked the chords, looped them to make a demo. And the song was born from there. This is the one song I play drums on. Snare is chained to the MS-20, trying to play every frequency the ear can hear at the same time on some of those big hits.

7. “Hard Times”

[Laughs] I sat down and tried to write a Spotify charting electro-hit, and this is what came out: “Kill the rich, salt the earth.” Oh well. Written way before COVID-19, but my 8-year-old son turned to me this spring and asked, “Did you write the song ‘Hard Times’ about now, because we’re living through hard times?” No, I didn’t.

In Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground, the narrator is a real son-of-a-bitch—contrarian, useless. Mad at the strong confident people who think they’ve got it figured out. And they don’t! And neither does the narrator — but he knows he doesn’t, and he at times yearns for some higher answer, and he’s funny, and too clever, but still knows he’s a piece of shit. I read Notes From Underground in high school and kinda forgot how it shaped my worldview until I sat down with it a couple years ago. The bridge on this song is basically smushed up quotes from Notes From Underground.

I was asking Shiftee, who mixed the record, if there are any vocal plug-ins I should be playing around with. He pointed me toward Little AlterBoy, which is basically a digital recreation of the kind of pedal the Knife use, for instance, on their vocal sound. It can shift the timbre/character of a voice without changing the pitch. Or change pitch without changing character. Very fun! Very much all over this track. Tried to make the bridge sound like a Sylvester song.

8. “Promised”

Another friend song masquerading as a love song. I’ve met a handful of extraordinary people in my life, who stopped doing extraordinary work because life is hard and it sucks. People who — I mean, it’s a lottery and random and who cares — could be great writers or artists, who kind of just disappeared. And it’s heartbreaking and frustrating. I don’t blame them. Maybe they weren’t made for this world. Maybe it’s just random. Maybe they’ll do amazing work in their 60s!

We tracked this song before it was written. Julie and Miles came over and we made up a structure and did a bunch of takes, found a groove. Which I then hacked up into what it is now! The bed tracks are lovely and loose. Maybe I’ll put out a jammier version of this song at some point. The other big synth on this record is the Oberheim OB-8, and that’s the bass on this one (triple tracked along with some MS-20).

9. “Not Gonna Die”

This song is about terrorism, and the response to terrorism. I wrote it a couple weeks after the Bataclan shooting in Paris in 2015. For some reason, a couple weeks after the shooting, I was in midtown Manhattan. I must have been Christmas shopping. I had to pop into the Sephora on 5th Avenue to pick up something specific — I think for my wife or her sister. I don’t remember. But I remember walking in, and the store was really crowded, and for just a split second I got really scared about what would happen if someone brought out a gun and started shooting up the crowd. And then I got so fucking mad at the people that made me feel that emotion. Like, I’m not gonna fucking die in the midtown Sephora, you fucking pieces of shit. Thanks for putting that thought in my head.

BUT ALSO, fuck all the fucking pieces of shit who are like, “We can’t accept refugees — what if they’re terrorists?” FUCK OFF. Some fucking terrified family driven from their home by a war isn’t going to kill me. Or anyone. Fuck off. Some woman from Central America fleeing from her husband who threatened to kill her isn’t going to fucking bomb Times Square. You fucking pieces of shit.

In November/December 2015, the Republican primary had already started — Trump had announced in June. And every single one of those pieces of shit running for president were talking about securing our borders, and keeping poor people out, and trying to justify it by security talk. FUCK OFF. You pieces of shit. Fuck right off. Anyway. Sorry for cursing.

I kind of think of the outro of this song as an angry “Everyday People.” Everyday people aren’t going to kill me. Lots of great saxes on this track from Matt Bauder and Stuart Bogie.

The intro of the song we recorded loud, full band, which I then ran through the MS-20 and filtered down till it was just a bass heart-pulse, and re-recorded solo piano and voice over that.

10. “Fine”

I kind of think that “Outta Here” to “Not Gonna Die” comprise the record, and “Fine” operates as the afterword and the prologue rolled into one. An author’s note, maybe. It was kind of inspired by high-period Kanye: I wanted to talk about something important in a profane, sometimes horribly stupid way, but have it be honest and ultimately transcendent.

In the song, I talk semi-accurately about where I come from. My mom’s dad was a guitar player who led bands throughout the ’30s and ’40s. In post-war LA, he had a band with Charles Mingus as the bass player. Charles Mingus! One of the greatest geniuses in all of American history. But this was the ’40s, and in order to travel with the band, to go in the same entrances, to eat dinner at the same table, he had to wear a Hawaiian shirt and everybody had to pretend he was Hawaiian. Because nobody was sure how racist they were supposed to be against Hawaiians.

Part of the reason I’m a musician is that my great-grandfather was a musician, and his kids were musicians, and their kids were musicians, and their kids are musicians. Part of the reason is vast generations of people working to make their kids’ lives better, down to my life. Part of the reason is that neither government nor mob has decided to destroy my family’s lives, wealth, and property for the last couple hundred years. I tried to write a song about that?

Generations is out now via Merge. Purchase it here.

https://www.stereogum.com/2098946/will-butler-generations-song-meanings/franchises/interview/footnotes-interview/

#Arcade Fire #will butler #generations #interview #hq

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silver-lily-louise · 4 years

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One Better Than Palladium

Summary: ‘Alright, so what’s the traditional seventy-sixth anniversary present?’ ‘There isn’t one, sweetpea. The system’s of mundane origin, I don’t think many mortal couples get that far.’ It's Magnus and Alec's seventy-sixth anniversary, and Magnus wants to find his husband the perfect present.

Read it on AO3, or below!

~oOo~

Magnus Lightwood-Bane is currently in the throes of the nicest problem he’s ever had, and he’s sorely disappointed with the reinforcements he’s drafted in. ‘You do realise that you two are being completely unhelpful,’ he grumbles, raising his voice over the high street bustle.

Catarina chuckles. ‘Only because you’ve shot down every one of our suggestions. Look, I told you – it doesn’t even matter what you get him. You know he’s going to love it, because it’s from you. He even appreciated the candy canes you got him that one year.’ ‘Don’t remind me,’ Magnus mutters. He’d gotten them as part of a hamper for one of their early anniversaries, knowing how much Alec liked mint at the time. Unfortunately, he hadn’t known how much Alec disliked hard candies.

He jolts back to the present as he stumbles into someone. ‘Spiacente,’ he apologises, before giving a deep sigh and turning back to his entourage. ‘I’m not sure inspiration is striking me here. Perhaps we gave up on Seoul too quickly-‘ ‘Magnus,’ Madzie interrupts, half-laughing, half-groaning. ‘This is the fourth city we’ve been to. I don’t think location is the real issue.’ Magnus huffs, annoyed at how reasonable she’s being. ‘Remind me why I invited the pair of you?’ ‘Because your other option was Ragnor,’ she points out, matter-of-fact, ‘and we all know how that trip would have gone.’ She pulls him to the side, away from the flow of foot traffic, and stops him in his tracks. ‘Okay. Let’s just think for a moment,’ she says. ‘What did you get him last year?’ ‘Last year was easy,’ he says, a little bitter at how good past Magnus had it. If only the poor bastard had known what was coming. ‘Seventy-five years is apparently also known as a palladium anniversary, so I inlaid a seraph sword sheath with a palladium design and a protection charm.’ ‘Alright, so what’s the traditional seventy-sixth anniversary present?’

Magnus rolls his eyes. ‘There isn’t one, sweetpea. The system’s of mundane origin, I don’t think many mortal couples get that far.’ ‘Oh!’ Catarina’s suddenly at his side again, grabbing his arm in excitement. ‘Magnus, I think I may have just solved your problem.’ She spins him around, pointing across the street at a low-ceilinged, plainly-painted shop, almost invisible amongst the flashier, more modern boutiques. He raises an eyebrow, sceptical. ‘Catarina, Alexander doesn’t play any instruments.’ ‘Well, he’s over a hundred now. High time he learned,’ she declares, and she’s dragging Magnus over to the music shop before he can offer up more than a token protest.

The inside of the shop is surprisingly large, stretching back quite a long way from the street. The lighting is fairly dim, but warm and welcoming, and the noise of the street dies down to almost nothing once the door swings shut. The shop is quiet aside from the low mutter of a few other patrons, and the faint strains of Wagner in the background. The first floor is almost entirely dedicated to pianos, and with Jace gone less than ten years, Magnus thinks that might hit a little too closely to be a viable option; so instead, they head up to the second floor, home to the more portable instruments.

Catarina and Madzie soon drift away from him, giving him time to browse alone. (He hears the noise of a gong being struck – albeit softly – and then a hiss of ‘Mom, I don’t think you’re supposed to touch-‘ ‘Oh, relax, sweetheart. I’m not going to break it. Besides, I’ve always wanted to do that.’) Magnus walks through the different displays, trying to choose an instrument that will suit his husband. Anything bowed is out immediately – Magnus already lived through Ragnor’s short-lived attempt to learn the double bass, and he’s not eager to repeat that experience at a higher pitch. The woodwind section tempts him for a moment – Alexander keeps himself fit, so he’s definitely got the breath control for it. Plus a very talented mouth, he thinks with a smirk. He’s sure there must be some… transferable skills involved in playing the saxophone -

The next display, however, is revelation enough to stop even that train of thought. Magnus finds himself staring, before starting to grin in triumph.

Perfect.

***

‘That was incredible, Alexander,’ Magnus declares once they’ve finished their lasagne. It’s always worth complimenting his husband purely to see the look of bashful joy on his face, but in this case, Magnus also happens to mean every word. After coming to the end of his stint as Consul, Alec’s spent the last twenty years as a sort of part-time diplomatic consultant for the Clave, and he decided fairly early on that he’d like to spend his extra free time sharpening his culinary skills beyond his usual read-the-recipe-and-pray approach. It took him a while to start trusting his instincts – but nowadays, they nicely complement his attention to detail, and he’s become a well-rounded chef. (A few years back, he even managed to fix the infamous Trueblood Stew, his newfound culinary understanding lending context and helping him better decipher his grandmother’s looping cursive. ‘Eight tablespoons? What the hell was I thinking, Magnus? Obviously that says ‘three teaspoons’, because any more than that and the bitterness would just overpower-‘)

Alec smiles, glowing at the praise just as Magnus expected he would. ‘Thanks. Dessert’s still chilling down, so in the meantime…’ He stands, taking Magnus’ hand and pulling him over to the couch. Magnus goes willingly, an absent-minded handwave taking care of the dirty dishes, and drops onto the seat beside his husband. A pristinely-wrapped box is immediately placed in his lap. ‘Happy anniversary,’ Alec says.

Magnus plants a kiss on his cheek. ‘Thank you, darling.’ He gets to work unwrapping the gift (Don’t hold it upside down, Alec warns hurriedly), and the shiny gold paper tears away to reveal a plain cardboard box. Curious, Magnus opens the lid – and his mouth falls open in surprise and delight. ‘Alexander…’ he breathes.

Inside the box are twenty-four jars, each neatly labelled, each containing a different potion ingredient. Black sand, dried honeysuckle, and eagle feathers are among the more commonplace; but what takes his breath away are the likes of oceanic volcanic ash, powdered saint’s teeth, and honeyed rafflesia. ‘Alexander, some of these are incredibly rare,’ Magnus points out, unnecessarily. ‘How on earth did you come by them?’ ‘Hey, I can’t give away all my secrets,’ Alec teases. He’s practically beaming, now. ‘But no-one’s coming to arrest me, if that’s what you’re worried about.’ Magnus scoffs. ‘As if they’d get through me, in any case.’ He gently closes the lid of the box, and with a flicker of magic, it’s deposited safely in his apothecary. He pulls Alec in closer with one hand under his chin, and kisses him appreciatively. ‘Thank you, Alexander,’ he murmurs against his lips. ‘I love it. It’s so thoughtful of you.’

He pulls away then, laughing at the brief frown that crosses Alec’s expression. ‘Oh, stop that,’ he chides good-naturedly. ‘There’ll be plenty of time for kissing once you’ve opened your gift.’ He gives a flourish of his wrist, and the large, triangular package appears on the coffee table in a spiral of pale blue sparks.

Alec’s eyes widen as he hauls the – admittedly sizable – present onto his lap, and he’s clearly trying to work out what it could be, even as he peels away the scotch tape from each end and removes a perfect rectangle of flocked green wrapping paper. He unzips the soft black case – and freezes.

Magnus fidgets a little. ‘Catarina suggested that you might like to learn an instrument,’ he says, scanning Alec’s face for a hint of his reaction. ‘And I thought it might be an interesting new endeavor for you to embark on, after your culinary quest proved so successful.’

‘…It’s beautiful,’ Alec murmurs, and a wave of relief washes through Magnus. Alec lifts out the lever harp, holding it almost reverently, fingertips brushing lightly over the silver runes Magnus magically inlaid in the brindled wood. Perseverance. Technique. Creation. Quietude. ‘I’m glad you like it,’ Magnus says softly – but then he grins. ‘I did consider a few other instruments, but this seemed… an appropriate choice.’ Alec rolls his eyes, though his gaze goes straight back to the harp. ‘We’re still not doing that angel-and-demon couples costume for Hallowe’en.’ Magnus waves a hand dismissively. ‘You’ll come around on that. I’ll wear you down eventually.’

Alec finally puts the harp down, sliding it gently back into the case and standing it carefully on the coffee table. ‘Thank you,’ he says sincerely, wrapping his arms around Magnus, before pulling back a little to kiss him again. ‘I love it. It’s beautiful.’

Magnus closes his eyes, humming a little in contentment as he rests their foreheads together, trading lazy kisses back and forth. ‘You’re welcome,’ he says. ‘Happy anniversary, Alexander.’

The rest of the evening is wonderful, and Magnus feels his quiet happiness – a familiar emotion, these days, and isn’t that positively miraculous? – settle soul-deep. The lemon posset turns out to be just as delicious as expected, and after a few cocktails, Magnus even manages to convince Alexander to dance with him for a few turns.

They wake in a tangle of limbs and silk sheets, and Magnus gazes softly, almost disbelievingly, at the man before him. Alexander is more than a century old, and he’s still here, still young and healthy, still lighting up Magnus’ world with every step he takes. It’s more than Magnus ever dared dream of, and he doesn’t think he’ll ever run out of gratitude for the life they’re building together.

Later, Magnus is in his apothecary, carefully arranging his precious new ingredients into place on his shelves. A hesitant, disjointed melody starts to surround him – coaxed from the harp strings in the next room by his very own angel – and he smiles.

~oOo~

#malec #malec fanfic #immortal husbands #shadowhunters #shadowhunters fanfic #shtv #magnus lightwood-bane #alec lightwood-bane #catarina loss #madzie loss #shs #mine #food cw #alcohol mention #death mention

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neuroticphysiologist · 4 years

Text

Alan and the Generator

Jamming session again!

I've been writing this since March and abandoned it for a long time while joining fic challenges. Well here it is, my second Musical Tracy AU fic!

***

"Hey guys, check these out!" Gordon brought a few stuff from the antique store he and Alan have been to.

"You guys went to the antique shop again?" Scott folded his arms.

"His idea, not mine," Alan said. "But we did find some cool stuff!"

Virgil paused his piano playing and turned to see what the two of his brothers bought.

"Ta-da!" Gordon bought a pirate ship steering wheel, made with fine materials.

"Seriously, Gordon?" Virgil said. "What's that for?"

"It's for my collection. I've been looking for this in years."

"You know there are a lot of those in antique shops, right?"

"Not this kind. Can't believe my undersea collection is almost complete!"

"And this is the best one I bought," Alan showed it to his brothers.

"A guitar effect pedal?" Scott guessed.

"A battery powered music genre generator. It also has a sensor. I turn this on, place it to the nearest musical instrument, like Virgil's piano for example," Alan walked to the piano and changed the settings of the generator. "I changed the choice of instrument to piano, then I press this green button and the generator will start shuffling. And in under a minute, the generator will show the next genre."

"Does it determine if the tune is right?" Gordon asked.

"Yes, it can. This one's a genius, Gordo. If it thinks that the tune is right, the green light shows up and the next genre is shown. If the tune is wrong, the bulb will turn red and still, it will show another one."

"I'm still wondering if you two really bought useful items," Scott had a look at Gordon's wheel. "Because I'm not sure if these..."

"Oh come on, Scott," Gordon said. "I've always wanted to buy this pirate ship steering wheel."

"And I was interested with this cool invention," Alan added. "I tried it with a vintage guitar in the shop and it worked. By the way, the guitar I played there was cool. It was a Chet Atkins, Scott. You know how cool it sounds? Man, I wish I bought that one too."

"You know you already have a guitar, right?"

"Yeah. And that guitar's pretty big. So I only bought this generator. We can use it for jamming sessions."

"Looks like Virgil is using it now."

They heard Virgil play the piano, and after thirty seconds, the vibe changed from coffee table jazz to ragtime that can be heard from silent movies. Then in another thirty, Virgil switched to early blues. The three brothers smiled and they gathered round the piano.

"I knew this invention can be useful," Alan said. "You enjoying this, Virg?"

"Looks like this generator wanted me to prove that I can play anything," Virgil replied.

"You can turn off the generator if you like. Or press PASS if you want to skip the genre."

Virgil turned off the generator. "I'm just testing it out, Alan."

"Thanks, Virgil."

"Well, whoever made this invention, I bet he had crazy ideas."

"Alan, why don't you bring out your Kramer 84 to test this thing out?" Scott said.

"Sure thing!" Alan rushed to his room.

Gordon picked up the steering wheel he bought. Virgil was still on the piano stool, glancing at his big brother. "Hey, Scott..."

"Yeah?"

"Why don't you bring yours out too? I know you often play with Alan just to teach him a few techniques, but I really want to see you with your guitar."

"Oh yeah," Gordon agreed. "Bring yours out too, Scooter!"

But Scott refused. "Ah, don't convince me, Gords. Not this time."

"Come on!"

"What about you? You play too."

"But you play better! And plus, if Alan's gonna bring out his cool electric one, I'm gonna lose. I don't have one."

"Have you ever considered buying one?" Virgil just got up from the piano stool.

"I never thought of buying one for myself before. When I saw Alan playing that big guitar in the store, that's where I thought of getting my own."

"If you like blues, you can get a blues one," Scott suggested.

"I like something for beach vibes, bro."

Virgil sat on the couch. "Hey Gordo, you remember Scott's story about being the coolest guitar player in his small band in high school?"

"Wait, what?"

"That was only for a short stint, Virg," Scott explained. "I gave that up when I joined the football team. Also, our lead singer sucked and the band wanted me to sing so, that's another reason why I gave up."

"Man... Scott was in a band? That's something I don't know."

"I think I told you that story, Gordon," Virgil said.

"Bro, what I know is that Alan was in a band for a short time in his high school. It was only for a project, he told me," then he referred to Scott. "But still, I want to see you play, bro."

Scott sighed. "Fine, as you requested, Gordon."

He headed to his room and picked up a guitar case under his bed. It's his old 64 Fender Strat that he bought back in college. It was after he sold his black Explorer just to buy it. It may look a bit beaten up, with the tremolo a bit loose and the dusty strings and headstock, but the sound stays the same.

He picked up his amp and cable and headed back to the lounge. Alan has already set up his equipment. "Yay, finally! Scott's gonna play!"

While Scott was setting up his equipment, Alan changed the settings of the generator. Then they adjusted their tones to make their guitars sound the same. Alan agreed to the choice that they'll go for drop D, since it's Scott's standard tuning, and drop D sounds awesome.

"You first, Alan."

Each of them had different genres to play. A few were skipped because they wanted to. Alan has improved his skills. One of them is plucking since he's a sloppy player. Well, for quite a bit. Scott's a sloppy player too, but at times, he played well. Another one is that Alan knows how to play more than one genre with a single instrument. Challenge was accepted.

The guitar was the second instrument he learned, his first was the drums. He owns an electric drumset and he can plug his headphones to practice since it can bother everyone in the whole villa. He never tried to upgrade his room into a soundproof one for various reasons.

If the Tracy brothers were to be in a band, Alan would be the drummer, Scott and Gordon would be the guitar players, Gordon being the rhythm guy. Virgil, of course, would be the pianist, and John would probably be the bass player, or a woodwind player if they wanted to play the blues, and either Scott or Gordon would play the bass. If John doesn't want to play, then their roles would change. What's left is a singer. Well, all of them can sing, they can take turns, but it's up to them to decide who takes the spot if ever.

Okay, going back.

They went from blues to punk rock to grunge to hard rock to heavy metal. Scott showed off with a little bit of the tapping technique, something that Alan has to learn more about. They also played riffs from popular bands the generator suggested. Virgil and Gordon were enjoying the challenge they're watching, even MAX, who's still doing the chores, but stopped to join the fun. Scott and Alan have played five genres for each. Then later, the generator showed that the next is to play sleaze rock, and it was Alan's turn. He paused for a while, thinking of what to play. He started playing a small riff, then Scott takes the challenge.

"You're too young for sleaze, Alan."

He played a really good sleazy riff with some of the moves he showed. Gordon was completely surprised at the riff his brother just played. It's like something that can be played in the clubs.

Okay, Scott was great. Alan felt like he was about to give up the challenge. He turned off the generator.

"Alright, alright, you win, Scott. As always. So much for playing a sleazy riff."

"Aw don't worry about that, little bro. We're having fun."

"How did I do?"

"I'd say, you really improved your playing. You were awesome."

Alan smiled. "Gee, thanks. By the way, can you teach me how to do the tapping technique?"

"Of course I'll teach you. So, one more song?"

"FAB."

They played another song and the rest were having fun watching them play together. Even Gordon started to sing along. Minutes later, the rest of the family came to join in. The Tracy brothers took turns to play their instruments and the rest, they were just jamming along.

Alan felt satisfied about what he bought. Gordon was too, even though it was only for display and his brothers were scratching their heads, still not sure of the use. Well that's Gordon. He brought the wheel to his room and placed it near the treasure box.

He went back to lounge to join in the jamming session.

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds fanfiction #alan tracy #scott tracy #gordon tracy #virgil tracy #neurotic phys tag

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halfmoonshines · 4 years

Text

Devil In Me

Hi, this is me posting a chapter of a fanfic of mine here because... it’s the only thing I’m semi good at?

‘Five people that made Azula feel less than human, and one man who tried his best to understand.’

My own mother thought I was a monster. She was right, of course, but it still hurt.

Azula was six when she realized she was different. It was one day playing with her friends, when they came across an orphaned tigerbear cub.

“Oh no!” Ty Lee exclaimed, taking a few cautious steps forward. “It looks injured. We have to do something, right guys?”

The animal was small, fur matted and eyes dull. It looked, frankly, on her verge of death.

“Should we try to do something for it?” Mai raised one eyebrow from beside Azula, voice high pitch but still lacking certain emotion, a trait that would follow her into adulthood.

“Absolutely we should!” Ty Lee chimed in again, high energy as always. “We can bring it back to the palace. I’m sure your mom will know what to do Azula, she’s really nice and really good with animals.”

Before she knew it, Azula had scoffed, a small incredulous smile on her face. Ignoring her friend's words, she announced - “If it’s own mother didn’t want it Mai, who are we to intervene? I say we let nature take its course. Besides, mother barely even has time for me anymore, let alone some weak cub. Come along.” Azula turned on her heel and began walking away from the wooded area they were exploring, keen to get back to the palace.

Mai and Ty Lee glanced at each other, the latter looking thoroughly worried, before following quickly behind the princess.

---

A ten year old Azula stood on the hot concrete, chest heaving as sweat poured down her face. She faced her third opponent calmly, watching his steps.

As he circled her, she noticed a slight hesitation as his left food would leave the ground. A right leg injury. The princess smiled, Everyone always gives themselves away.

She swept her foot out in a thin line of fire, clipping her enemies left food and causing him to hop onto his right. She quickly raised her fists and sent four fiery punches at the man, directly in the chest, knocking him off balance and onto the ground.

Azula laughed loudly, giddy at the win, and glanced over to her family sitting on the sidelines.

“Mother did you see how open he left himself?” Azula quickly realized her mother did not share her pride, and was almost uncomfortable in her response.

“Yes, Azula. Very efficient.”

---

Azula was 11 now, wandering in the gardens of the palace, when she came across her mother and brother. She blatantly stared at her mother and Zuko practicing some sort of musical instrument across the courtyard. What an odd thing to be so proud of, Zuko. Azula thought, watching him struggle to coax an enjoyable sound from his woodwind instrument.

The young princess thought back to the training she had done with her father that morning, and with a smirk, began a quick walk toward her mother, determined to show her something she should actually be proud of.

“Mother, Zuzu.” She greeted, a closed lipped smile on her face.

Zuko looked annoyed by the intrusion, untrusting of his sister's intentions. Ursa glanced over at her daughter patiently, “Good afternoon, Azula. Are you okay?”

Azula nodded and said. “Don’t be silly mother, I just saw you over here with Zuko and I thought maybe I could show you what I learned today.” The princess leveled a subtle glare at her brother.

“The flute is a complex instrument Azula, it’s not the same as some weird move father teaches yo-” He was interrupted by Azula snatching the instrument from his hand, wild anger in her eyes.

Ursa blinked, mouth wide. “Now, Azula-”

“You think this takes skill, you complete idiot? Skill is,” Azula’s hand began to glow bright yellow, flames dancing to the top of the instrument she clutched between her fingers. “Being able to gain the upper hand.”

“Azula, are you crazy?! What is wrong with you!” Zuko yelled, standing quickly and tackling his younger sister, attempting to stop the fire from destroying the object.

“Azula, children, that is enough.” Ursa stood quickly and grabbed at Zuko, placing him behind her and turning to Azula who laid sprawled on the ground, pieces of hair stuck to her face and a half burnt flute in her hand. “You need to think seriously about how you treat others. This behavior is unacceptable.” At that the older woman turned and stalked off, asking Zuko to follow behind her.

Zuko looked once more to his sister before following behind his mother. Azula laid there, chest heaving, caught somewhere between furious and humiliated.

She sat up with a snarl, throwing whatever was still left of the flute violently away from her. Of course she wasn’t humiliated. It was her mother that was the joke. Favoring the meek son over her only daughter? Whatever. Azula thought, standing up to make her way to her father, tears pricking at the back of her eyes. Who needs mother’s approval anyways?

Azula was 12, and her mother was gone. Her grandfather was dead and her father was the fire lord.

That morning she awoke to Zuko shaking her, “Azula!” He called.

She pushed him off of her and rubbed her eyes. ‘What could have possessed you to come into my room at such an hour and shake me?” Her voice was annoyed, cold.

“Mother’s gone. She left after she came to see me last night. Did she come to see you too?”

Azula sat up quickly, looking into her brother's eyes silently. No, no she hadn’t.

#azula #atla #avatar the last airbender #fanfiction #ursa #family dynamic #character study #kinda?#i have more if this is sort of okay #zuko

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ladylynse · 4 years

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um... you play instruments right? i'm trying to write characters that are going to put on a show together but i have absolutely no idea about music. i just wanted to ask, how long would it take/you give yourself to practice a piece that is like 5 minutes long? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? like... if you know how to play the instrument, how many days would you need to practice the music?? idk terms either oops... if not, just disregard this ask lol

Hey, Anon! You’re right; I do play instruments–a bit of piano/organ but mainly alto sax. (Also voice and handbells, as part of choirs.) That’s a more complicated question than you realize, though. It depends a lot on the person and the type of music/difficulty of the song as opposed to the length of the song.

The longer someone has been playing a particular instrument, the better they are at it. In a relatively simple piece of music–not too fast, not too many black notes (faster sections, since the white notes are held for a longer period of time), easy key signature and time signature that don’t change every few bars (not a lot of sharps/flats/accidentals which are sharps or flats not in the key signature and the counting isn’t )–some experienced people could sight read it without much trouble. That is, see it for the first time and play it through very well. Less experienced people would take longer, and how much longer would depend on how long they’ve been playing that instrument, how long they’ve been reading music (if it’s not the only instrument they know how to play, they might have been reading music for longer), and how complicated a particular piece of music is.

When most people practice, they don’t play the entire song over and over. They’ll work on the sections that give them the most trouble. They’ll play it slower, trying to get the timing right and then the notes right, and then they’ll work on playing it up to speed. (You can use a metronome to help you with this, to tick every beat.) The more difficult sections there are, the longer it will take. I’ve practiced two different sections in the same song (read: multiple bars of running sixteenth notes (which are quick), trying to get the right metering (the beat in the right spot) and the right emphasis and the right notes at the fast tempo we’re supposed to be playing it at) for two hours straight and felt like I’ve made no progress. With a different song, a much easier song, I’ve played through it three times with someone (my accompanist) and then played it for a concert.

There are also people who can hear a song and then sit down and play a close approximation of it–good enough that you as a listener might not be able to hear much of a difference from what you were expecting. This is called having a good ear. Some of these people have what’s called perfect pitch–hearing a note and being able to name it and mimic it exactly (with voice, or hit the right note on the instrument if it’s an instrument); a lot of them have what’s called relative pitch, where they’re still very good at knowing their intervals and getting stuff right or faking it if they get it wrong. The rest of us have to practice more to get to their base level. Even people who can’t play a song (even a simple one, like happy birthday or the national anthem) without music learn a lot by ear, though, especially if it’s something like jazz. Sometimes, what’s written on the page is not what’s actually played, depending on the style of music. (It’s the equivalent of reading between the lines.)

That being said, I know multiple musicians who cannot read music. It means nothing to them. They learn entirely by ear–listening to a song over and over and working it out. Most of these people sing, play guitar, or play the piano, but for those who play instruments like the trumpet, they’ve learned how to make a certain note on their instrument but have no concept of what that note would be on a different instrument, and they could not tell you that it’s an A or a G or a B flat or a C sharp, just that that’s how they play it.

Five minutes is longer than you think it is in music. Most of the songs I play run about 2-4 minutes, and in the longer ones–7 minutes? 11-15 for ones with multiple movements or featuring quartets/quintets with a band backup, but those are outliers for my norm–I have a lot of bars of rest where I don’t play at all. Some songs are slower and take longer; a one page song with multiple repeats and a slow tempo (say, quarter note = 70) could be the same playtime length as a more complicated song with three or four pages at a faster tempo (say, quarter note = 160) or which starts slower and then switches to a faster tempo. Some songs have a lot of repeated sections. Some of them feature solos. If you’re playing an instrument that requires you to blow air to sound it–woodwind, brass–then the more you play without getting a rest in the music, the more tired you get, and the harder it is (with brass instruments especially) to hit notes in tune. In longer songs that feature vocals, there are often instrumental breaks where the band plays and the singer gets a chance to rest, or different solos where a particular instrument is featured (piano, bass, guitar, sax, trumpet, depends on what kind of music you’re playing) as much to highlight the skill of that player as to give other people a chance to rest. With jazz music, a lot of solos are improvised. Some people are very, very good at making up a solo on the spot. They are at a skill level where they don’t need to practice to do this. Others (like me) cannot do that at all and need to write something out and try to follow that.

I know people who practice diligently for at least an hour every day, and then a three hour weekly practice with their band, to prepare for a concert in two-three months (somewhere between 15 and 45 minutes of music). I myself tend not to practice as much as I should on my own for the first month and then try to put in an additional 1-4 h/week on top of the 3 h group practice in preparation for a concert, usually practicing 1-3 times a week, depending on how much time I have and how prepared (or rather, unprepared) I feel. Most music groups will meet one night a week and expect their members to practice on their own time; depending on how busy people are and how prepared they are for something, there might be additional practices, but it can be difficult to free up more than one night a week for multiple people.

For one-off concerts that aren’t a regular thing with a regular group, I don’t tend to practice as much because that tends to be easier music. Maybe five times before the concert itself, for a single song, sometimes just playing that song once or twice with whoever I’m playing it with, sometimes working on it a little longer by myself if there’s a tricky timing/more difficult part I need to work out, but I wouldn’t spend more than half an hour on it at once. (So, with a song with a tricky part, maybe 1 h total by myself and 15 minutes total with someone else. If not a tricky part, well, maybe half an hour total. I dunno. I did a two minute song for a concert earlier this month and practiced it three times; it was a very straightforward song, and I had the melody, and I knew the melody.) That being said, I am related to people who practice once before the concert and call it good (for a song or two), 2-5 minutes, and who probably wouldn’t practice at all except they all collectively go, “I guess we should practice this once.”

tldr; different people will practice the same song for different periods of time. Some people might not practice at all on their own and just practice when they show up to the group practice, and if they’re skilled, this might not matter. If they’re less skilled, and the others practice, their lack of practice will be more evident. People can work on a song for months or for a week, depending on how easy it is and how good they are at music. Unless your characters are getting a specific song ready for a specific concert/show, they will be learning to play more than one song at once. Listening to a song they’re trying to learn will help them learn it faster, and they’ll hash out the more difficult parts in practice rather than play through the entire song with all the easy parts that they don’t need to really practice because they can already play it well. (Also, didn’t say this before, but learning the timing and rhythm is often more important than learning the notes; the notes come after.)

(tiny addition)

#ladylynse #music #asks #tbh my experience is mostly jazz concert band music and church music #with some folk and disney and pop and rock thrown in #so I dunno how much this helps #feel free to ask me to clarify #or to expand upon something #or to give you a quick run down on reading music if you think that'll be important #Anonymous

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theawkwardterrier · 4 years

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things left behind and the things that are ahead, ch. 23

AO3 link here

It starts with England for their thirtieth anniversary. He surprises her with the tickets three weeks in advance, mid-August, so that she has enough time to arrange to be away. She’s been back since the end of the war, but mostly on business and they’ve never been together. Now Peggy takes him to what was once her house, sketching with hands and words the way things had been, the way that they still are in her memories, although the reality has changed so much. He had done the same as they went past now-demolished tenements and renovated schoolhouses back in Brooklyn. They walk arm in arm down London streets they once strode down in uniform, side by careful side, and marvel at how different it all has become.

After that, they chose somewhere new every year: Spain, Japan, Brazil, Morocco. They try to find native guides in each destination, someone to show off the hidden treasures that tourists don’t usually know about or take the time to see. Steve puts together albums to show the kids when they come home. As he flips through the pages, he notices that they have automatic positions that they assume for pictures together, wherever they are in the world.

They have been in Russia for a week before they go to Volgograd, and even then Steve delays. They go to a few museums, take a city walking tour, visit the Eltonsky Natural Park and its surprisingly lovely salt lake, and Peggy is wondering how much longer he is going to put it off when he asks her if she would like to do some shopping after lunch.

“Certainly,” she says, finishing off the last of the medovik she had ordered for dessert. “And it seems the perfect time for it: to be honest, I’m not sure that even I could tour another war monument.”

They pick up some general souvenirs for the kids - pretty little pottery dishes, elaborately painted Matryoshka dolls, lovely and delicate Orenburg shawls - at the various shops along the street. They are each carrying a weighty bag by the time they reach the music store.

“Good afternoon,” a woman’s voice calls in Russian from deep in the crowded shop, and a moment later she steps out to rest her hands on the counter. Her face is young but a bit careworn, a few silvery strands already sneaking into her hair, although it is hard to tell whether it is from age or simply the propensity for redheads to begin getting white hairs early.

“Can I help you?” she asks, looking between Peggy and Steve.

Peggy steps forward. “Good afternoon. We are visiting from America, and were doing some shopping in your neighborhood.” Her Russian is, as she would say with just a bit of satisfaction, quite serviceable. The woman smiles.

“We do not see many tourists here, so I am happy you were able to visit. Are you shopping for something special?”

Before Peggy can answer, there is the light, sharp sound of heels tapping downstairs and a small girl, red hair pinned back from her face, enters behind her mother.

“Mamochka, are you certain I don’t have my dancing class today?” she asks winningly, barely glancing at the strangers in the shop.

“Yes, Natashenka,” says the woman, with that mix of fondness and real weariness that Steve knows well. “I am certain that you don’t have your dancing class today, because it is Wednesday and you dance on Monday.”

“Ah.” The girl purses her lips, standing on her tiptoes and taking a few steps back and forth, running a finger along the counter.

“But Wednesday,” continues her mother, “is the perfect day to practice the violin, hmm?”

With a charming smile: “Are you sure? Maybe Thursday would be better.”

“Wednesday and also Thursday would be just fine for me,” and Steve stifles a laugh at the pout on Natasha’s face before she sighs and moves back among the rows of instruments and sheet music.

“I apologize,” says the woman, turning back to Steve and Peggy. “What were you looking for?”

“Our daughter plays the piano,” Peggy lies. “And we wondered if you might have some traditional sheet music for us to bring back. Folk songs, perhaps.”

“I’d like to explore the shop, if you don’t mind,” Steve says, knowing that his Russian is more formal and less fluid or practiced than Peggy’s. It doesn’t seem to matter; he is waved back as the two women fall into conversation.

The shop is narrow but fairly deep. There are thick carpets on the floors, handheld instruments along one wall - strings hanging or propped on stands, woodwinds in little carved nooks, a few brass items and an accordian interspersed between - and drawers along the other, presumably for sheet music. He follows the tentative plucking of violin strings back until he finds a little rehearsal space with music stands and a small upright piano. Little Natasha stands in the center with her shoes off, toes curling in the carpet as she rests the instrument on her shoulder.

“Hello,” he says, his voice pitched not loudly enough to disturb, but not softly enough for a secret either.

“Hello,” she returns, eagerly letting her bow rest against the floor as she turns to him, ready to be distracted.

“Would you play something for me?” he asks. “It can be anything you like.”

“I don’t know how to play songs I like yet,” she says, drooping a little. He smiles. He remembers a preference for - simultaneously - classical music and female fronted punk, but he doesn’t think that’s what this girl has in mind.

“Then maybe just something you’ve been practicing? I’d like to hear you.”

She takes a deep breath in and plays a simple but lively piece. Even he can hear the mistakes, but it’s pretty and more than he could ever attempt. The melody continues rising, not quite hitting a crescendo before she pulls the bow away and says, “That’s all I remember.”

He puts down his bag to clap politely. “That was very good,” he says. “I’m sure your mother is very proud.”

She makes a face. “She says that I could be better, that she started practicing when she was even younger than me. But she also says that Papa was born with a violin in his hand, and I don’t think that can be true.”

“I suppose you come from a very musical family,” Steve says, trying to blank his face although he suspects that a smile is still playing around his mouth.

“Mama says that music comes to us like water comes to the Volga.” She sets the violin on the piano bench and perches up on her tiptoes again. “But I have a secret.” She tilts her head in question, wondering if he is trustworthy, and he crouches automatically, tilting his head in receptive return.

She leans in a little before she whispers, “I want to be a dancer, not a musician.” She does a little pirouette, girlish and clumsy and eager, her arms out and toes barely avoiding being tangled in the carpet pile. She faces him again with an enormous smile, a little mischievous in a way that is familiar, free in a way that is not.

Steve thinks of the restraint in Natasha as he knew her, the deliberation taken with every action, even with her joy. He swallows against the pain in his throat.

“I think that you will be a very excellent dancer,” he says. “But music is good for learning too. My children did not learn about music from me, and needed to learn on their own.”

“How many children do you have?”

“Four.” He takes a photo out of his wallet and shows her. “My daughters,” he says, pointing. “And my son. And my grandsons. And two husbands and one wife.”

She looks at the smiling strangers in the picture then back up at him. “Why do you talk like that? Your words are so strange.”

“I’m American. I usually speak English. I haven’t spoken Russian in a long time.”

Natasha considers this, then declares magnanimously, “For a Russian, you do not speak very good Russian, but for an American you are excellent.”

“Thank you.” Steve laughs, and stands to his feet once more. “A friend taught me.”

He had not asked her to do it, but in those years of partnering on missions for SHIELD and then later, after Tony had stepped away and Clint had left and Bruce was locked in his lab, when it was just the shattered two of them helping to keep some sort of order...He never questioned when or why she started her little lessons, just took them in. He had trusted Natasha, had admired and fought beside her, had mourned her, mourns her still in some ways, but there was so much he had hoped to understand about her and never can.

The little girl who will never be Natasha Romanoff slips her hand into his. “She must have been a very good friend. I would not have so much patience.”

“She was,” Steve says, gently squeezing her small fingers, “a very good friend.”

The information he had to find her had been so limited. Red hair. Russia. “Natasha, daughter of Ivan,” Clint had reported to them, and despite its source, Steve trusted that more than he did whatever information had been fed to Zola. He assumed that Natalia Alianovna Romanoff was a Red Room created background, but even that couldn’t be certain.

“Less common names would have been quite helpful,” Peggy had said each time she watched Steve pore over SHIELD-provided records of births in Russia. Later, once they had narrowed things down and moved on to the photographs snapped by agents in the area on other assignments, she reminded him carefully that they did not know whether she had been born somewhere rural or at home, without complete records, with a different name, if her parents had perhaps never been in a position to meet at all. But Peggy also never stopped him or told him to give up or refused to transmit his requests. She would have done the same for a missing agent, an untraceable friend.

(There were so many factors and it was still quicksilver confusion, even after all this time, especially after all this time - the changes and their ripples. Twenty-five years ago, he had the SHIELD clipping bureau on a standing assignment for local Iowa birth announcements, ten years ago for circus advertisements. Now he’s moved on to crime blotters, and in the surrounding states too, but he hasn’t found a trace of Clint or his brother. He doesn’t know if they’ve disappeared or if he just hasn’t come across them.)

And then the Volgograd file had been delivered.

She was a year younger than had been claimed, not quite three in the picture he saw and more daughter of Alyona now, considering Ivan had been killed in a car accident before she could walk. Living in an apartment above the family music store, living in a world where the Red Room would never come knocking, where she would grow up entirely different from the person he had known. He had recognized her immediately.

He had told Peggy for several years that he hadn’t needed to see her, that he knew that she was safe and that was enough.

And then she suggested Russia. And suddenly he did want to see.

They are slightly quieter than usual but only slightly as they return to their hotel to deposit their bags, as they find a restaurant for dinner and chat over their meal (lamb-filled dumplings called beriki for Peggy, a delicious but less adventurous beef stroganoff for Steve), take a short walk and return to their hotel to get ready for bed.

Steve can’t sleep. He lies on his back and stares up at the ceiling until he finally whispers, “Peg? Are you awake?”

Though she’s turned over on her side and burrowed beneath the blankets, she answers immediately and with surprising lucidity. “Well, I was wondering how long you would take.”

“What do you mean?”

She eases over onto her other side to look at him even in the darkness. “You were going to ask me once again if I think that you’ve endangered the world further by shifting the circumstances that resulted in your friends becoming heroes. And I would remind you that people can have perfectly average and non-traumatic childhoods and still find courage within themselves when called for it, and also point out that fortunately, shifting the circumstances has created less of a need for a band of enhanced crime-fighters and will hopefully continue to do so. And then you were to have some sweet and honorable realization about human nature being good at the core and not needing the crucible of damage for that to come out, and you would tell me that I’m correct and kiss me and then finally be able to fall asleep.”

He laughs. “We’ve done this before, huh?”

“Several times,” she says dryly, but not without fondness.

“It’s hard for me to really take it in,” he says, turning toward her too. His voice is serious again. “I keep wondering if I’ve taken away these amazing people who could have been, who could have protected the world if we had made a mess of things.”

“Or,” she points out, equally serious now, “you’ve simply allowed them to be amazing in different ways, and to suffer less as they work toward it.”

He thinks of Bruce, in school even now, still brilliant, with a mother and stepfather he apparently goes to visit over breaks. Steve had glimpsed him once while visiting Drea in Boston. They had passed each other at the Public Gardens entirely by coincidence, Bruce grinning at a friend as they went down into the subway station in a way that Steve almost didn’t recognize, not noticing the man staring at him. He thinks of Sam, still a kid now. Military recruiters don’t come to high schools anymore. He remembers Natasha today, loved and loving, unbounded.

“It’s harder than I thought it would be,” he says. “Thinking of them out in the world, but that I’m the only one who will ever know the versions of them that I did. It’s hard to carry the reality of it alone, even if I think they’re better for it.”

“It’s always been hard, the things we carry, but worthwhile, I think. And necessary.”

He kisses her. “You’re probably right,” he says, stroking a thumb along her temple and brushing the hair back gently from her face.

“Hmm.” She turns back over, settling against him. After a moment she says, “Perhaps someplace warm and relaxing for next year?”

“We’ve tried that. You always say that you want to relax but then end up solving a local murder or getting rid of a corrupt police chief,” Steve points out.

“Well, precisely,” she says, and he laughs and puts an arm around her and allows himself to try for sleep.

More chapters here

#Steggy #Steggy fic #Steve Rogers #Peggy Carter #Natasha Romanoff #things left behind fic

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kin-kendry · 5 years

Text

A Kiss in the Dark Part 1

AO3 (Part 2 included)

“You ready for our set?” Dutch asked her twin as she entered the dressing room.

“Yes, I’m ready, Yala,” Aneela answered.

“Don’t call me that in front of the girls… Anyway, thanks again for helping us out. Clara busted her prosthetic, so she’s out of commission until Alice is fixed.”

“It’s alright, it’s fun to play something different every once in a while,” Aneela said, looking at her sister through the mirror’s reflection. “How do I look?”

She finished her makeup and turned around, showing off her outfit to her twin. Dutch always found it a novelty when her sister put on her clothes. She picked out a pair of ripped black jeans, a tattered cropped top, heeled boots, and various accessories. The only thing that wasn’t different to what Aneela usually wore was her dark makeup.

“You look exactly like me. Funny that,” Dutch laughed. “You look great, now come on. We’re on in five.”

The twins headed over to the stage where the rest of Un-Ladylike Lucy were waiting. Pawter was warming up her voice, while Zeph was on stage double checking their equipment. Yoki was chatting to her girlfriend Clara, who was wearing just a regular prosthetic rather than Alice.

“Alright fuckers, we good to go?” Dutch asked.

“Yeah, we’re ready,” Zeph came back and gave a thumbs up.

Everyone headed on stage which earned cheering from the raucous crowd in the Royale. Un-Ladylike Lucy was popular in the queer punk scene, and they often had gigs in various queer friendly spaces. Dutch took her place front and centre, Pawter stood behind the mic off to stage left, Aneela took the right side with her bass, Zeph situated herself behind her keyboard, and Yoki took a seat at her drum kit.

“Hello all you beautiful freaks! I hope you’re having a fucking fantastic night so far. It’s about to get a hell of a lot better. One, two, three, four!” Dutch yelled into the mic, and the band jumped right into their first song of the night.

Every time Aneela played with the band, it always surprised the other members at how well she seemed to adapt to their style of music. Aneela was a fairly well known classically trained musician and singer, mostly playing the violin, piano, and a mix of woodwind and brass instruments. So, seeing her play in a punk rock band was very off brand. While she had no formal training on bass guitar, it wasn’t that hard for her to pick up. She actually enjoyed playing it whenever she had the chance to experiment.

Aneela was always enamoured by the energy of the crowds at these gigs, how unrestrained and free everyone became. She liked being a part of that, liked to shed her more elegant, professional persona in favour of letting loose a little. She appreciated her sister’s enthusiasm and passion for this type of music.

By the end of the set, the crowd was deafening, all cheering and chanting. They made their way off stage and Clara was waiting with a big smile.

“You guys killed it!”

“Thanks, babe,” Yoki said as she walked over and kissed her girlfriend. “Although I missed flirting with you on stage.”

“Get a room,” Pawter laughed.

“Planning on it,” Clara flipped her friend off.

“Good stuff out there, as usual,” Dutch smiled at her sister.

“Yeah, it’s kinda trippy that you play bass too,” Zeph remarked.

“Well, once you learn one instrument, it’s pretty easy to pick up others,” Aneela shrugged.

“Not all of us went to university to study music, you know?” Clara rolled her eyes and smiled.

“Shut it, yeah? Let’s grab a drink. On me,” Dutch announced and herded her girls to the bar.

They crowded around the bar where their friend Pree was working. Clara and Yoki lit up when they saw their girlfriend Olli waiting for them.

“You came!”

“Of course I did, wouldn’t miss it for the world. Dutch, your sister is pretty killer on bass. Mind if I poached her for my band every once in a while?” Olli grinned.

“While I’d love to, I really only do this for Ya- I mean, Dutch,” Aneela smiled.

“Shame. If you ever change your mind you should hit me up.”

“We’re literally right here, Olli.”

“I swear I’m not flirting!”

“Anyway, enough of your little lover’s quarrel. Let’s get fucked up!” Dutch said as she leaned over the bar to greet Pree.

Moments later they all had shots in front of them. Aneela didn’t partake, and instead opted for a glass of red wine. While she enjoyed the music and the atmosphere, Aneela wasn’t a huge fan of the whole partying aspect. While the band was getting shit-faced and making fools of themselves, Aneela kept herself confined to the bar.

She watched Dutch dance with anyone willing to give her the time of day. Zeph had been cornered by a rather intimidating goth, dominatrix type woman who was very intent on kissing her. Clara, Yoki, and Olli had snagged a booth and were all over each other. Pawter had found her boyfriend Johnny and was more focused on kissing him than worrying about the people jostling them from all sides.

Pree kept Aneela entertained for the better part of an hour before a stunning woman in a gorgeous purple dress took a seat at the bar not too far away from her. Her hair was pinned up in an elegant bun, with a couple of tendrils framing her face. Aneela was instantly drawn. She looked so out of place among the rest of the people in the bar. Her eyes tracked down the woman’s body, following the curves of her body and down her legs. She really liked the stilettos she wore, she could probably kill someone with those.

“If you’re going to stare you might as well buy me a drink,” The woman spoke, her head tilted slightly towards Aneela.

Their eyes locked and Aneela swore she could get lost in them. The pretty woman raised a brow at her admirer. Aneela smirked.

“Pree, give this lovely lady whatever she wants, on me,” Aneela didn’t break eye contact even as she moved to the seat next to the woman. “So, what brings you to this fine establishment?”

“Fine is a bit of a stretch,” The woman laughed and took a sip of the wine she ordered. “My cousin dragged me here after a family dinner. He and his boyfriend are in one of the bands playing tonight. This isn’t exactly my scene.”

“And what is your scene?”

“Something a little less damaging on the ears, for a start. I prefer music with a little more… Sophistication.”

“You don’t think punk is a sophisticated genre?” Aneela offered her own raised brow.

“It’s just noise and people banging on their instruments. I’d hardly call that sophisticated. Shit, you were in one of the bands, weren’t you? With your twin, right? I probably shouldn’t shit-talk your kind of music.”

“Go right ahead. I’m not that invested in the genre. I really only help my sister out when she’s down a member.”

“Well, I can’t deny that you do look good in those clothes,” The woman let her eyes roam over Aneela’s body, much like Aneela had done to her previously. “So, if punk isn’t your usual style, what is?”

“Oh, I dabble in a bit of everything, I suppose. Classical and jazz are what I went to university for.”

“Seriously? You went to university to study music?”

“Why is that so surprising? Just because I play in my sister’s band and dress like this on occasion?”

“I suppose I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I’m not quite convinced,” The woman took another sip of her wine.

Oh, she is fun, Aneela thought.

“You don’t believe me?” She asked, leaning in closer to her companion. “Maybe I could show you.”

“Mm, that sounds like a very tempting offer but I’m not that easy, sweetheart,” The woman smirked.

Every second Aneela spent with this woman, the more intrigued she was by her. She desperately wanted to know her, to indulge in her, and worship her. It had been a while since she felt like this, but this woman wouldn’t just be another one night stand. No, there was so much more to her that Aneela wanted to uncover.

“Are you sure? I have a rather pretty name you could be moaning later tonight,” Aneela reached out and traced her fingertips along the woman’s forearm resting on the bar.

The woman’s eyes slipped closed for a moment, relishing in the teasing contact. She moved her fingers up higher and higher, ghosting over her shoulder and grazing her neck. The woman leaned into Aneela’s touch which only made her smirk. She traced her jawline before using her finger to tilt the woman’s head towards her.

“Delle,” The woman finally spoke once she opened her eyes again. “My name is Delle.”

“My, what a pretty name for such a pretty woman,” Aneela’s quiet words were barely audible over the pounding music coming from the stage. “I’m Aneela.”

“Aneela,” The way her name rolled off Delle’s tongue made it sound so exotic.

The pull between them was irresistible. They inched closer and closer until their lips were mere millimetres apart. Red lips met with black in a slow exchange, a gentle give and take. It left both women breathless by the time they parted, gazing into each others eyes.

“I think I’d like to take you up on that offer now,” Delle whispered, the soft puffs of breath caressing Aneela’s lips.

“It would be my pleasure.”

#killjoys #killjoys syfy #green queens #aneela kin rit #delle seyah #aneela x kendry #aneela x delle seyah #fanfic #there are a bunch of other ships an characters in this but it's primarily a green queens thing #also i forgot to post this earlier lol

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estelanel · 4 years

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Day 2: Carl Orff - O Fortuna (Carmina Burana)

This is the recording I listened to.

There’s really something about music that goes all in on the very first measure, and boy, oh boy. Orff really went for it there, didn’t he. I was looking at the orchestra line-up for Carmina Burana, and apparently, they were like, okay what instruments would you like to use, and Orff was like, yes. Five timpani. Two piccolo flutes. A big choir and a chamber choir and a children’s choir. Carl, you greedy bastard.

Anyway, back to O Fortuna. The beginning is the musical equivalent of someone shouting really loudly in a crowded room to have everyone pay attention, and then start to tell a story in a really low voice. It’s brilliant. It’s super simple, harmonically. The melody is super simple as well. Everyone can sing along the second time around. How Orff really creates tension is through dynamics and instrumentation (and... vocalization? usage of the choir XD). At 2:18 in the recording I linked above the orchestra goes crazy for about 10-15 seconds, like, everyone gets to play forte. And then at 2:32 it’s immediately back to the bass of the choir and very few instruments (I hear low woodwinds, low strings, piano, and bass drum? correct me if I’m wrong or missed some :D). If you keep in mind that the piece is about Fortuna, the Latin goddess of fortune, you’re soon starting to feel her multiple different faces. The sense of lingering doom during the quiet, mysterious parts. The thundering feeling of perdition when the bass drum and the sopranos are unleashed. Then the blazing triumph of good fortune when the music shifts to a major key and the trumpets are allowed to let loose. It’s just fun to listen to.

Extremely different to yesterday’s piece. Where Beethoven used a single instrument and modulated through the harmonies like there’s no tomorrow, Orff went easy on the harmonies while using an almost hilariously big line-up of orchestra and choir. Probably a nice occasion to contemplate for a minute over the different methods of creating and resolving tension in music.

#Carl Orff #Carmina Burana #Classical Music Challenge 2020 #ooooooooo fortunaaaa #veeeeeeelut lunaaaaaaaa #don't tell me y'all didn't sing along #don't tell me this piece isn't just FUN

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dippedanddripped · 4 years

Link

In October 1958, a teenage boy walked into a music shop in San Fernando. He bought a sleek Gibson ES-225 electric guitar.

Tourists sometimes look incredulously at shop owner Ed Intagliata when he reveals the Pacoima teenager’s name. But then he just shows them the receipt, signed by Ritchie Valens’ mother.

Founded in 1948 by Albert Cassell, the music shop is a San Fernando Valley institution. Originally housed in a shopping center on San Fernando Road, it relocated in the mid-’80s to the corner of Maclay Avenue and Lucas Street. Since being featured in the movie “Wayne’s World,” it has drawn tourists from every inch of the planet, becoming a local museum as much as a place of business.

Through a partnership with local schools, Intagliata helps parents who struggle to afford a musical instrument for their children. The Play-It-Forward program lets some of them pay only $1.

“It’s not a giveaway charity thing. The kids don’t know a dollar from a hundred dollars,” Intagliata said. “All they know is: My dad bought me a guitar. I’m going to learn it.”

The program, he said, would not be possible without the generosity of customers. He cited one former student who had paid for 10 lessons before having to move away. Instead of asking for a refund, she donated the lessons to students in the program.

“People wanna help. They really do,” said Intagliata. “I’m not looking to be the biggest, baddest music store around. We do a good business. I make a living for myself and my family, and we pay our bills. And I’m happy with that.”

Intagliata came to California from Connecticut as a child and grew up in affluent Palos Verdes. He was appointed to run the shop by his father, a now retired aerospace engineer. His father purchased Cassell’s Music in 1978, after seeing an ad for it in the Los Angeles Times. His hope, said Intagliata, was to provide his eight children with a place to work during their college years.

At the time, Intagliata was working in the customer service department at Sears, where clients habitually returned worn shoes and dried-up cans of paint. He had a degree in music from Cal State Fullerton.

His father, said Intagliata, “had to put up some heavy collateral to buy the store. I didn’t find that out till later, that he was putting his future on my shoulders.” Intagliata was 24 — the second oldest of the Intagliata children. His employees were his siblings, which could cause a little tension.

“One of my brothers thought he could do his homework on the counter here,” he said. “And I told him: ‘No, man, no. You do that at home.’”

Nowadays, Intagliata, 64, welcomes everyone who comes through his glass doors and greets the mailman with a fist bump. To better serve some of his Latino customers, he made it a point to learn Spanish — using the language to communicate in a suburban San Fernando Valley city where, in the 1940s, people of Mexican descent had to sit in the balconies of movie theaters.

Intagliata enjoys peppering visitors with trivia questions. “Did you know,” he asks, “that Ritchie Valens’ real name was Richard Valenzuela; that he was buried at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery ; that ‘La Bamba’ was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress?”

A scene in “Wayne’s World” filmed at the shop in the ‘90s helped put Cassell’s Music on the map. In the movie, the protagonist, played by Mike Myers, makes repeated visits to the shop just to gaze longingly at a white 1964 Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. Nearly three decades later, Intagliata still has wide-eyed tourists pop into his shop every summer. Sometimes they try to re-enact the scene in which Wayne finally takes the instrument in his arms. On Facebook, Intagliata has posted photos of smiling tourists from Florida, South Carolina, Wisconsin, Australia, Argentina and El Salvador.

In addition to a framed photo autographed by the actors in “Wayne’s World,” the walls of Cassell’s Music are covered with mementos showcasing Intagliata’s customers. Thank-you cards from recipients of the Play-It-Forward program adorn one area. On another, he keeps a framed article that recounts a visit from The Master’s Kids, a pre-kindergarten program at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley.

The visit, documented by Music & Sound Retailer, highlights Hannah Carmichael, who went on a field trip to Cassell’s Music when she was 4 years old. Years later, she returned to the shop as a chaperone with her daughter’s class. That day, she brought a photo with her, taken by her mother at the shop in 1993. In the article, Intagliata proudly notes: “Mrs. Carmichael told me that, out of all the field trips her preschool had taken, the visit to the music store was the only one she remembered.”

Julie Chung of Granada Hills has accompanied three of her five children on field trips to Cassell’s Music. Normally, she said, parents of 4-year-olds make for anxious chaperones. Their main goal is to ensure that the little ones do not touch — and break — anything.

But that fear dissipates at Cassell’s Music, she said. During the field trips, the children and their parents get the store to themselves, and Intagliata starts off by playing the same tune using woodwinds, strings, percussion and brass.

“So that the children can hear the difference,” said Chung. Following the presentation, he leads the handsy children to a table full of instruments. “Go on,” he says. “Give it a try.”

None of Chung’s children have taken up music classes. Still, she said, “I know many kids who��ve been inspired by Ed. And I’m talking about entire families, generations.”

Esteban Andrade, a freshman at Cal State Northridge who began taking violin classes at Cassell’s Music in kindergarten, is one of them. Back then, said Intagliata, “we just called him ‘Stevie.’ Now, he’s this accomplished musician, and he’s got all these mariachi groups trying to recruit him. Makes me real proud.”

Andrade is one of three brothers, all of whom have taken classes at Cassell’s Music. Their father, Francisco Andrade, described Intagliata and his store as “indispensable.”

“Whether it’s support with acquiring new instruments or teaching us how to make small repairs, there’s always this generosity,” he said. “Without Ed, we would’ve had to go out of our community to provide for our boys.”

Intaglatia has begun flirting with retirement. He’d like to travel, he said.

“I want to see your Vienna, your German towns and Italy, all the places where classical music flourished. I want to go to the Holy Land, all the biblical sites,” he said. “Maybe go to the South Pacific and get one of those bungalows over the ocean — God, that looks great.”

But he can’t pinpoint when that will all take place. “I just don’t know,” he said. “I’m having so much fun right now.”

Outside of Cassell’s Music, Intaglatia keeps busy with more music. He plays bass on his church’s worship team, directs “a small choir” and sings with the Santa Clarita Master Chorale. He also brushes up on the seven instruments he knows how to play, including the accordion — his “first love.”

“It’s a good conversation piece,” Intagliata said. “People always ask, ‘What’s your favorite instrument?’ And I tell them, ‘Well, you gotta guess.’”

He laughed. “They never guess.”

As cars whizzed past the intersection where he’s worked for decades, Intagliata pulled up two images on his computer.

“You gotta see this,” he said.

On the left side of the screen, he had a picture of Sophia, a local student and the first recipient of the Play-It-Forward program. With a shy smile, she holds her first guitar with both arms. On the right, Sophia, now in middle school, juggles two instruments: her first and a blue electric guitar.

“She outgrew the first one,” Intaglatia explained. “Wants to play electric now, which is great. And you know what she did? She says, ‘Here. Give my old guitar to someone who needs it.’” Intagliata said, his face beaming. “Can you believe that?”

#waynes world #cassel's #Cassell’s Music #music blog #ritchie valens

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heartlessfujoshi · 5 years

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21 Questions Tag Game

Tagged by @sommerannie. Thanks for tagging me! ^_^

Rules: Answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people you want to get to know better.

1. Height: 5′3″

2. Zodiac: Cancer

3. Last movie I saw: Captain Marvel

4. Favourite Musician: Oof, this is a difficult question. Do composers count? Because I would say Yoko Shimomura is my favorite musician. :D

5. Favourite Author: Stephen King. I love the way he writes, and I really love all his minute details.

6. Favourite Fanfiction: Oh, gosh. This is tough, because I’ve got a lot that I love from all different fandoms. I’ll just say that my favorite to read is anything that my other half writes for me. :)

7. Favourite Movie: Another tough question. Which genre? Does it matter? I guess I will go with Wall-E. I can watch that movie on a loop.

8. Favourite Anime: I’ll name five, because again - I have a lot of love. BNHA, Haikyuu!!, Kuroshitsuji, Tiger & Bunny, Princess Jellyfish.

9. Play any instruments?: I do! I play the piano, and the flute, and I’m also a singer. I had to learn how to play all the woodwind instruments, the brass instruments, and string instruments for my college degree (music education). But I don’t consider that legit. XD

10. Random fact: I used to ice skate competitively when I was a kid. I ice skated from when I was 4 until I was 12. Gave it up because I grew six inches in six months, and lost my center of balance. But it’s okay, because I discovered my love of music in that time, so it all worked out in the end. :D

12. Do you get asks?: Not as many as some people I follow. XD But it’s okay! I’m grateful for the ones that I do receive. ^_^

13. Fandom(s): Currently? Kingdom Hearts, FFXV, Haikyuu!!, BNHA, Kuroshitsuji. Fandoms I will forever be in: Tiger & Bunny, Free!, YOI, Junjou Romantica, Bleach, Gangsta, MCU, Disney Animation, Star Wars

14. Favourite song: Currently, it’s one of the battle themes in KH3. But, I don’t want to post it because LOL spoilers. Another favorite song of mine would be ‘See You - Foo Fighters’.

15. What are you wearing?: Shirt and pj pants.

16. Hair colour: Naturally? Light brown with a fuckton of grey/white. Right now it’s red with pink lowlights. ^_^

17. Eye colour: Blue

18. Favourite food: I really love popcorn a lot. And ice cream. I am super healthy. LOL.

19. Hobbies: Writing, playing video games, playing with my cat.

20. Favourite weather: Cold. I live in a suburb of Los Angeles, so anything in the 50s-60s range is perfect. And it’s almost never that temperature here (well, it was this winter but still). I love that I can layer. If it’s hot? I can have no clothes on and still be fucking miserable.

21. Favourite superhero: Mrs. Incredible

I am a rule breaker. I’m not tagging 21 people. XD However, I’ll tag: @novathevozni, @cowbeau, @clinic-crew, @lavendartwine, and @remembertheotherpromise

#about me #tag meme #text post #thanks for tagging me!!#i didn't even get the notification??#i'm so glad i just happened to be going through your blog and saw it LOL

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silver-lily-louise · 4 years

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Tag Game - Artist Edition

Rules: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you’ve brought into the world. tag as many writers/artists/etc as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

I was tagged by @sugarandspace, @thelightofthebane, and @chibi-tsukiko (a while ago whoops ^^; ) - thanks darlings! <3

This was surprisingly difficult to choose aha, so mission accomplished as far as this game is concerned - turns out, there’s a lot I’m proud to have created in the past year! ^^ BUT I have narrowed it down, and my top five are as follows:

5. We Always Seem To Find Our Way Back To Each Other (AO3)

Alec swallows. ‘Before,’ he says, his voice breaking a little. ‘Way before. In France. I didn’t know you were a warlock, did I?’ It’s the first time Alec’s ever referred to Édouard as though he’s talking about himself. ‘No, you didn’t,’ Magnus says quietly, numb with surprise. Alec nods, and gives a shaky smile. ‘I loved you then, Magnus, and I love you now. Powers or not.’ He moves his hands to cradle Magnus’ neck, the back of his head. ‘Please,’ he whispers, and his eyes fill with tears. ‘Don’t do this. Don’t make me lose you again. Not after it took me so long to find my way back.’

This was the first instalment of my past lives canon AU for Malec :) At the time, it was the second-longest thing I’d ever written. I remain remarkably proud of it, and look forward to adding to the AU in the future ^^

4. in floribus veritas (AO3 / tumblr)

Alec appears to be manifesting plants into existence, inadvertently conjuring or summoning them from gods-know-where. Magnus has heard rumours of this before, once or twice, but it’s not nearly as well-documented as the general minor blessing. As far as he knows, it’s a sign of overwhelming emotion, of something too powerful to be contained by the soul alone.

A language of flowers canon AU in which Nephilim have a certain magic regarding plants. This is my most popular fic to date in terms of AO3 metrics, too!

3. One Better Than Palladium (AO3 / tumblr)

Magnus walks through the different displays, trying to choose an instrument that will suit his husband. Anything bowed is out immediately – Magnus already lived through Ragnor’s short-lived attempt to learn the double bass, and he’s not eager to repeat that experience at a higher pitch. The woodwind section tempts him for a moment – Alexander keeps himself fit, so he’s definitely got the breath control for it. Plus a very talented mouth, he thinks with a smirk. He’s sure there must be some… transferable skills involved in playing the saxophone - The next display, however, is revelation enough to stop even that train of thought. Magnus finds himself staring, before starting to grin in triumph.

Immortal husbands fic in which Magnus tries to find the perfect gift for Alexander on their seventy-sixth wedding anniversary. The innuendo above is one of the first times I’ve ever written one into a fic lol, I’m usually too aroace for them. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t one of the reasons I’m so proud of this work XD Though I do also just like the fluffiness of it!

2. Planes, Trains, and Portalmobiles (AO3 / tumblr)

‘Aisle or window?’ ‘Aisle,’ Magnus says decisively. Alec had expected that, knowing that being hemmed in gives Magnus less space to wield his magic if he needs to. ‘Okay,’ he says, taking his window seat and settling back into the comfortable padding with a quiet sigh. Magnus snorts. ‘How are you so calm?’ he asks, taking his own seat. ‘It’s not like you’ve been on a plane before, either.’ Alec shrugs. ‘Thousands of Mundanes use them every day,’ he says. ‘And statistically, they’re incredibly safe. I was probably in way more danger walking around New York, especially while I was glamoured and invisible to traffic.’

I have a real soft spot for this fic because it involves fluff, mutually supportive husbands, and Malec technically travelling through three of the cities I’ve called home in my time. <3

1. To My Love (original song on YouTube)

I'll take the time to thank my lucky stars That of all the stories out there, I had the fortune to find myself in ours

Probably what you weren’t expecting after listing fics for the others XD But yes, I’m an aspiring singer-songwriter ( @louisec-m for my music tumblr), and this is my most recent upload. I’m really happy with how it turned out. <3

Thanks again for the tag! ^^

I tag @ralfstrashcan, @cuubism, and @arialerendeair. No pressure of course, and sorry if you already did it and I missed it! ^^; <3

#tag games #about me #malec #i think I can get away with that tag because four of these are malec fics i'm self-promoting lmao

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