All posts tagged: soundtrack

Soundtrack to the Napoleonic Conflict

Soundtrack to the Napoleonic Conflict

Published by skeptic

  While we do not exactly know Beethoven’s views on war, we know he had a somewhat ambivalent attitude toward Napoleon Bonaparte and his wars across Europe. Initially, he dedicated his Eroica Symphony, Op. 55, to Napoleon. But after learning that Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804, he violently erased the dedication from his manuscript. In 1813, the English defeated Bonaparte at the Battle of Vitoria during the Peninsular War. Beethoven composed Wellington’s Victory, Op. 91 to celebrate the English victory. It is an almost cannon shot by cannon shot depiction of a war in short form.   War as Theme in Beethoven’s Music Liberty Leading the People, by Eugene Delacroix, 1830. Source: The Louvre, Paris   Although Beethoven never normally composed music with war in mind or even made music to commemorate an entire war, there is one oddity (and a symphony) that deserves special attention.   1. Wellington’s Victory, Op. 91 Sir Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, by Thomas Lawrence, ca. 1815-16. Source: English Heritage   Although some of Beethoven’s works may …

How A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Its Beloved Soundtrack Album, Almost Never Happened

How A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Its Beloved Soundtrack Album, Almost Never Happened

Published by José

A Char­lie Brown Christ­mas uses a cast of ama­teur child voice actors, deals with the theme of sea­son­al depres­sion, and cul­mi­nates in the recita­tion of a Bible verse, all to a jazz score. It was not, safe to say, the spe­cial that CBS had expect­ed, to say noth­ing of its spon­sor, the Coca-Cola Com­pa­ny. In all like­li­hood, it would have been can­celed, but see­ing as it had already been announced and pro­mot­ed (and in any case, was com­plet­ed only a few days before it was sched­uled to air), the show went on. In the event, not only did it please the view­ers of Amer­i­ca, it went on to become one of the most beloved pieces of Christ­mas ani­ma­tion — and that jazz score went on to become one of the most beloved Christ­mas albums. In the new Dig­ging the Greats video above, bassist Bran­don Shaw breaks down some of the dis­tin­guish­ing char­ac­ter­is­tics of Vince Guaral­di’s score, with help from drum­mer Ryan Shaw (not just Bran­don’s broth­er, but also a musi­cian with his own direct con­nec­tion …

WWE 2K24: Post Malone’s soundtrack features Grimes, 100 Gecs and Turnstile

WWE 2K24: Post Malone’s soundtrack features Grimes, 100 Gecs and Turnstile

Published by skeptic

Music icon and all-round pop culture fan Post Malone has created the soundtrack to the upcoming WWE 2K24 title, and fans will be able to hit the ropes with him. The game’s developer has announced that the music icon will feature in one of the five DLC packs being released across 2024, with the first dropping in May and the last to feature in November of this year. The main game will be hitting online and physical stores on March 5. Executive Producer Post Malone Post Malone will also be an executive producer on the game, with the soundtrack featuring the likes of Grimes, 100 Gecs, and Turnstile. Malone took on the task of crafting the music as a fan of wrestling and the 2K games themselves, blending a variety of genres including rock, country, rap, electronic music, and pop. The WWE 2K24 soundtrack features 12 songs, including: Post Malone – Chemical Post Malone – Laugh It Off 100 gecs – Hand Crushed By A Mallet Busta Rhymes – Put Your Hands Where My Eyes …

The politics of noise and silence

The politics of noise and silence

Published by skeptic

“Silence was more than the absence of noise; it was an aesthetic to be revered,” Xochitl Gonzalez wrote in 2022. David Gray / Reuters / The Atlantic February 24, 2024, 8 AM ET This is an edition of The Wonder Reader, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a set of stories to spark your curiosity and fill you with delight. Sign up here to get it every Saturday morning. One of my favorite descriptions of New York City life comes from a 2022 article my by colleague Xochitl Gonzalez: New York in the summer is a noisy place, especially if you don’t have money. The rich run off to the Hamptons or Maine. The bourgeoisie are safely shielded by the hum of their central air, their petite cousins by the roar of their window units. But for the broke—the have-littles and have-nots—summer means an open window, through which the clatter of the city becomes the soundtrack to life: motorcycles revving, buses braking, couples squabbling, children summoning one another out to play, and music. Ceaseless …

The week in TV: The Winter King; Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution; Vanishing Act; Gyeongseong Creature – review | Television

The week in TV: The Winter King; Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution; Vanishing Act; Gyeongseong Creature – review | Television

Published by skeptic

The Winter King | ITVXDisco: Soundtrack of a Revolution (BBC Two) | iPlayerVanishing Act (ITV1) | ITVXGyeongseong Creature | Netflix There can be a feast or famine feel to the television schedules before Christmas, as things turn a tad sluggish before the full-on yuletide bonanza. One hates to whinge but, at its worst, you can feel as though you’re crawling, martyred TV critic-style, through the equivalent of a barren wintry landscape, with a remote control frozen to your hand. And, yes, you are welcome. As such, I was grateful to see ITVX’s 10-part fantasy drama The Winter King nestling on the horizon. Based on The Warlord Chronicles novels by Bernard Cornwell, a retelling of the Arthurian legends, it clearly has aspirations to join the major league fantasy blockbusters (Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon et al). Does it manage it? Well, sometimes. Opening on a foggy, hellish battlefield, the show focuses on Arthur, of course, a brooding Jon Snow-alike played perfectly well by Iain De Caestecker. As the illegitimate son of King Uther (a …

Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution review – an absolute feast of a music documentary | Television & radio

Published by Sam

After the tumult of the last few years, UK nightlife is in a perilous position, battered by rising costs for venues, a lack of staff, cash-strapped clubbers and changing habits ushered in by the pandemic. But if anything can get people in the mood to go out and dance again, it’s Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution. This three-part documentary, a co-production with PBS, is the sort of top-quality music doc the BBC just casually and quietly releases, as if it does this sort of thing all the time. But this one really is a feast. It’s a history lesson with an immaculate soundtrack and it is about so much more than disco. The first episode covers the boom in gay clubs in New York City during the early 1970s, and the arrival of a new sound, and wraps it all up in a thrilling social history. It begins not with sequins and glitter balls, but with protests and activism, as the 1960s marched forwards into a tough new decade. There was, as the radio presenter …

Christopher Plummer’s singing voice included in rerelease of Sound of Music soundtrack | The Sound of Music

Published by Sam

Two years after his death at the age of 91, the voice of Christopher Plummer singing Edelweiss in The Sound of Music will finally be heard. Plummer received vocal training for the part of Capt Von Trapp in the Oscar-winning 1965 movie but a singer, Bill Lee, was dubbed in for the famous Rodgers and Hammerstein numbers. Almost six decades on, an expanded, remixed and remastered version of The Sound of Music soundtrack is to be released. Along with 40 previously unreleased tracks and alternative takes, it will include Plummer’s versions of Edelweiss, Something Good and other songs. Plummer recalled in a 2018 interview with the Guardian that he was “furious they wouldn’t let me sing” on the film or its soundtrack. “I’d worked on my singing voice for so long, but in those days they’d have someone trained who would sing through dubbing. I said: ‘The only reason I did this bloody thing was so I could do a musical on stage on film.’” The film, which won five Oscars, was “the most popular …