Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 20

Instrument of the week: Harpsichord!

In the comments of my Wall Song Query, astute commenter David mentioned some music I love that I hadn’t listened to in years: Les Baricades Mysterieuses by Couperin. How fortuitous! I was looking for an instrument of the week, and it may as well be the trusty harpsichord:

This piece is, in fact, the entire reason Seraphina plays keyboards at all. When I was very young I had a disastrous course of piano lessons, ending with my teacher telling my mother to stop wasting money on me. You know it’s...

My sincere and humble thanks

For all those wonderful wall-song suggestions! Even the silly ones. Maybe especially the silly ones, because I can always, ALWAYS use a laugh. It’s good to have a pile of new music, and from so many different genres, too! I am a little astonished that nobody suggested “100 Bottles of Beer”, however.

I was thinking about walls, in particular, because I have been feeling like I’ve put a wall around myself, and I don’t like it at all. I had big defensive walls when I was young, but I tore them do...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it

Hello, darlings! This is going to sound like an eccentric request – and it certainly IS – but I’m looking for songs that mention walls. Yes, like Pink Floyd’s The Wall. An excellent example, and an album I’ve been listening to a lot. Maybe that’s what’s got me thinking in this direction. I’ve found others too, such as “The Wall” by Kansas:

It doesn’t have to be the title or central obsession of the song, though! Not by any stretch. U2′s “Where the Streets Have No Name” would qualify.

Why do I...

Coming soon: Burnaby library event!

Mark your calendars, darlings! I’m going to be appearing at McGill library in Burnaby, Saturday April 27th at 2pm. Here’s the BPL listing for it, and they would like you to pre-register if you’re planning to come because space is limited.

This is going to be a particularly special event because we’re going to talk about Renaissance music and have some real-life examples! My fabulous madrigal-singing friends have very kindly agreed to come perform a few songs, and they will even demonstrate som...

Crumhorns!

Obscure early instrument of the week: the glorious crumhorn!

To be fair, crumhorns aren’t that obscure. You may not have seen one, you may not have known the name, but the distinctive buzzy timbre immediately says “Renaissance” even to people who don’t listen to much early music. It’s memorable, to say the least. The “crum” part of the name is related to the word “crumple”, implying curvature, according to the Wikipedia (here’s their article). I have several friends who play or have played cru...

Another fine interview

This interview went up nearly a month ago, and I was so busy getting my draft of The Ominous Sequel squared away that I completely flaked on posting the link! Here it is, friends. And Katja, my apologies for being an incorrigible space-cadet, and my thanks for all your interest, enthusiasm, and patience!

Theorbo!

Obscure Renaissance instrument of the week, the mighty theorbo:

You don’t get to see the neck in all its bizarre glory in the video. Here’s a picture. Here’s another. The idea is that it’s a lute with its own bass accompaniment, but in order to fit such a range on a single instrument, the bass strings have to be much longer than the rest. It’s a SUPER-LUTE (and not to be confused with the archlute, which is a similar idea but not as low or unwieldy).

Well look who’s here!

That would be ME, darlings. I haven’t been here in a while, and I apologize. I travelled and rested, and in the meantime my editor perused the draft and came up with twenty thousand ways I could improve it. I’ve just dipped my toe back in this week, and… well, it’s always cold at first, until you get your midriff in, and then it’s all right. In fact, I’ve found a number of things to be excited about.

So there you go. Work proceeds apace (a slow pace, maybe) and work is good.

The flowers have al...

An interview and a pie

I’ve done a little interview with Miss Print which is up today. I encourage y’all to go read it, and thank you so much for your enthusiasm, Miss Print!

Today being, as it were, Pi Day, I have committed to making a pie. Why? Because I am home and have time. I admit, part of me is rebelling very slightly at the tyranny of numbers.

The other part of me really likes pie. It shall be blackberry. Blackberry is its own reason and its own reward, surely.

Today’s thought on music

There was a slight nervousness in the first notes, but then with confidence and authority the rich sound took possession of the room. Nothing is more beautifully and acceptably self-assertive than good singing. The sound filled and honeycombed the collected room, making the rapt audience one with itself, a great golden object rising slowly through space. …

There was in the singing an elusive sense of drama, a mounting atmosphere, as if the audience were sitting forward in their chairs ready to...