Music Archives - US Represented

Mozart’s Kept Canaries: Music and Technology

Malcolm McCollum — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 08:25:04 +0000

“The late humorist James Thurber wrote a fable set in a medieval court, and he has the Royal Astronomer report that all the stars are going out! It turns out that he is simply going blind. I am probably making the same mistake.” – Dan Wakefield, ed., Kurt Vonnegut Letters, Delacorte, 2012 I needed to be sure to get up at five this morning to drive a friend to a

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Scanning Poetry

Malcolm McCollum — Sun, 20 Nov 2022 08:00:54 +0000

People probably invented poetry to help them remember things they wanted to remember – what their gods and ancestors did, how to get from one place to another, what plants were good to eat and what plants were poisonous – all sorts of things that rhythmic patterns and regular rhyme schemes made easier to remember. So, for a long time, much poetry was written in regular rhythmic patterns called stanzas,

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A Full-Tilt Tribute to the 1896 Harmonica

a featured contributor — Wed, 12 Oct 2022 08:41:04 +0000

A harmonica? The thing’s only four inches long! All kinds of notes are missing! Harp players have to show up with a briefcase full of different keys, just to play! They’re so tinny and shrill! So why would a serious musician ever choose the harmonica to play music on? Admittedly, this is good question. But a large one. American harmonica has a long and venerable tradition. For now, this means

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The Little Giant of Blue-Eyed Soul

a featured contributor — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 07:33:30 +0000

I saw the danger, yet I walked Along the enchanted way. . . . “On Raglan Road” More than three months now and I just can’t get the music of Van Morrison out of my heart and feet. After five full decades his voice, his songs, his high-art approach to backstreet blue ballads and stonegood rocking continues to astonish and humble and anchor. When I was young, I heard his

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If It Ain’t Got That Swing – Jazz Then and Now

Malcolm McCollum — Sun, 10 Apr 2022 07:47:48 +0000

The Aim Was Song Before man came to blow it right The wind once blew itself untaught, And did its loudest day and night In any rough place where it caught. Man came to tell it what was wrong: It hadn’t found the place to blow; It blew too hard – the aim was song. And listen – how it ought to go! He took a little in his

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The High Art of Vocal Interpretation

a featured contributor — Sat, 02 Apr 2022 15:49:44 +0000

It started out with Bob Dylan, I think, the grand concept of the sensitive and confessional singer/songwriter. And he was very good at it, as were Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Randy Newman, Phil Ochs, even Carole King. Some of these folks were VERY good singers and others made do with the voices they had. But it became the mark of “authentic” to write your own songs and sing only those songs.

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