La Folía (Spanish), or Follies (English), is one of the oldest remembered European musical themes, or primary material, generally melodic, of a composition, on record. The theme exists in two versions, referred to as early and late folias, the earlier being faster. Due to its musical form, style and etymology of the name, it has […]
Puccini – O Soave Fanciulla
“O Soave Fanciulla” (“O gentle maiden”) is a romantic duet from the first act of Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera La Bohème. It is sung as the closing number in Act 1 by Rodolfo (tenor) and Mimì (soprano) where they realise they have fallen for each other. The duet, between 5 and 6 minutes in length, […]
Game of Thrones
The music for the fantasy TV series Game of Thrones is composed by Ramin Djawadi. The music is primarily non-diegetic and instrumental with occasional vocal performances, and is created to support musically the characters and plots of the show. It features various themes, the most prominent being the “main title theme” that accompanies the series’ […]
Take On Me
“Take On Me” is a song by the Norwegian synth-pop band a-ha. The original version, recorded in 1984 and released in October of that year, was produced by Tony Mansfield and remixed by John Ratcliff. The 1985 international hit version was produced by Alan Tarney for the group’s debut studio album, Hunting High and Low […]
Big Yellow Taxi
“Big Yellow Taxi” is a song written, composed, and originally recorded by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell in 1970, and originally released on her third album, Ladies of the Canyon (1970). Released in April 1970 by Reprise Records, the single was a hit in her native Canada (No. 15) as well as Australia (No. 6) and […]
Boogie-Woogie
Boogie-woogie is a genre of blues music that became popular during the late 1920s, but already developed in African-American communities since the 1870s. It was eventually extended from piano to piano duo and trio, guitar, big band, country and western, and gospel. While standard blues traditionally expresses a variety of emotions, boogie-woogie is mainly dance […]
You Can’t Hurry Love
“You Can’t Hurry Love” is a song originally recorded by the Supremes on the Motown label and was the second single from the Supremes’ album The Supremes A’ Go-Go… The song “You Can’t Hurry Love”, is a memory of a mother’s words (“My mama said ‘you can’t hurry love/No you just have to wait’”) telling […]
Chaconne
A Chaconne is a type of musical composition often used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line (ground bass) which offers a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and melodic invention. In this it closely resembles the passacaglia. It originates and was particularly popular […]
Carmen Jones
Carmen Jones is a 1943 Broadway musical with music by Georges Bizet (orchestrated for Broadway by Robert Russell Bennett) and lyrics and book by Oscar Hammerstein II which was performed at The Broadway Theatre. Conceptually, it is Bizet’s opera Carmen updated to a World War II-era, African-American setting. Bizet’s opera was, in turn, based on […]
The Fields of Athenry
“The Fields of Athenry” is a song written in 1979 by Pete St. John in the style of an Irish folk ballad. Set during the Great Famine of the 1840s, the lyrics feature a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway, who stole food for his starving family and has been sentenced to transportation […]