Origins of The Imperial March / Darth Vader Theme

The Imperial March first appeared in the second Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back, and was not heard in the preceding original movie. Indeed, not only is the march absent from A New Hope, there's no theme…

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Close Encounters: How John Williams Wished Upon a Star

It is well known that the classic song When You Wish Upon a Star appears several times in the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and mostly in the score composed by John Williams:

  • Fairly early in…
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Synaulia: How the Romans Got Their Groove On

Several years ago, I went down a shallow rabbit hole on Roman history and culture, and eventually ended up googling “roman music”. The early music group Synaulia seemed to be leaders in the field of performing Roman music, so I…

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Vertigo's Deeper Connections to Tristan und Isolde

Much ink and “ink” have been spilled about Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece Vertigo. This includes reference to, if not discussion of, how the musical score (composed by Bernard Herrmann) evokes Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. However, many such articles that…

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Vader Variations: How the Imperial March is Varied Throughout Star Wars

This is the first in what I plan to be a series of posts focusing on aspects of John Williams’ scores for the Star Wars movies. What I hope will be unique about my analyses is that they will examine…

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House of Rabbits: When Kurt Weil Met Jello Biafra

Group: House of Rabbits
Album: Songs of Charivari

I honestly have no recollection of how I first heard of this band, but I do remember the description of “vaudcore” grabbing my interest. Vaudcore is a term coined by the band…

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Theresa Brooks: The Breath in the Machine

(Photo credit: Bill Hatzinger)

Picture a stereotypical classical musician. Then take that a step further and picture a stereotypical bassoon player. Got that in your mind?

Almost guaranteed, bassoonist Theresa Brooks looks nothing like what you pictured. With blonde…

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Steel + Honey: Creating Musical Unity in Electronic/Industrial Music

A look at how composers can create musical unity in compositions that are wide-ranging in terms of musical material, mood and style. 

The single Steel + Honey sprang from the simple concept of doing something fundamentally industrial that also had…

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Breath in the Machine: You've Never Heard Bassoon Like This

What would be the most unlikely instrument to hear in industrial music?

Another way to approach the question might be, “What is the most inherently classical musical instrument?”

A quick survey reveals that most traditional classical instruments appear in many…

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Rimur: A Wind from the North

Group: Trio Mediaeval and Arve Henriksen
Album: Rimur
Track: O Jesu Dulcissime

It’s odd that Norwegian vocal ensemble Trio Mediaeval came across my radar only relatively recently, given my long-standing love of Anonymous 4. Perhaps love is truly, as they…

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