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For veteran French composer Alexandre Desplat, “The Shape of Water” provided a rare romantic love story to score. And for Brooklyn punk rocker Tamar-kali, “Mudbound” offered a first-time score about oppression and unity featuring her eclectic musical talents. Not surprisingly, both composers found the appropriate musical metaphors to express water and earth in their scores.

Scoring the Life Aquatic

In Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” everything becomes an aquatic metaphor in this 1962 love story between a mute night janitor named Eliza (Sally Hawkins) and a majestic aquatic creature (Doug Jones) who cannot speak.

“Guillermo’s opening the door to a fairy tale and I tried to figure out how I could bring the audience into that world and capture the sound of water, the sound of impossible love, the sound of danger, the sound of torture,” said Oscar-winner Desplat (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”).

The composer found a...

Musician Glen Donnelly is attracting worldwide media attention for his naked skydiving campaign to raise awareness for men’s body image issues. On Aug. 27, the violinist who formerly played in the London Symphony Orchestra, celebrated his 30th birthday by jumping out of a plane, wearing no clothes, while playing the violin. Donnelly launched a GoFundMe campaign ahead […]...

Over the last few decades, Pete Townshend’s status as a composer has thankfully caught up with his formidable reputation as a guitar smashing, eardrum splitting rock god. Several of his most famous works with the Who have been given the orchestral treatment, earning rapturous responses at the world’s most prestigious concert houses. Most recently, the 1973 double disc Quadrophenia received a symphonic reimagining courtesy of Rachel Fuller, a singer-songwriter, arranger and also Townshend’s wife. Released as Classic Quadrophenia in June 2015, the piece had its live debut the next month at London’s Royal Albert Hall, with tenor Alfie Boe...

I'm in the midst of full-on Game of Thrones withdrawals right now, so this video came along at just the right time. Musical duo 2Cellos performed a stirring medley of music from the show accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra, and it appears as if they shot this video in Dubrovnik, Croatia, the same location the show uses to portray the fictional city of King's Landing.

If the awesome drone footage and slow start aren't enough for you, jump ahead to the 3:00 mark where things start to get a little crazy with dueling cello solos. The seventh season of Game of Thrones premieres on HBO sometime this summer.

Via: LaughingSquid...

Many consider Dmitri Shostakovich the greatest composer of the 20th century. Born September 25, 1906, he might not have lived past his teens if he hadn't been talented. During the famines of the Revolutionary period in Russia, Alexander Glazunov, director of the Petrograd (later Leningrad) Conservatory, arranged for the poor and malnourished Shostakovich's food ration to be increased. Shostakovich's Symphony No. 1, his graduation exercise for Maximilian Steinberg's composition course at the Conservatory, was completed in 1925 at age 19 and was an immediate success worldwide. He was The Party's poster boy; his Second and Third Symphonies unabashedly subtitled, respectively, "To October". (celebrating the Revolution) and "The First of May". (International Workers' Day).

His highly emotional harmonic language is simultaneously tough yet communicative, but his expansion of Mahlerian symphonic structure, dissonances, sardonic irony, and dark moods eventually clashed with the conservative edicts of Communist Party officials. In 1936 he was viciously denounced by Pravda...

The Royal Opera, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Curve present the world premiere of Ravi Shankar’s only opera Sukanya which tours venues across the UK in May 2017. With a libretto by Amit Chaudhuri, the semi-staged opera is directed by Suba Das and conducted by David Murphy, with soprano Susanna Hurrell in the title role, bass-baritone Keel Watson, Brazilian baritone Michel de Souza, the BBC Singers and the full force of a 60-strong London Philharmonic Orchestra. The Orchestra is supplemented with Indian classical instruments including the sitar, shennai, tabla, mridangam and ghatam. The innovative Aakash Odedra Company provide the choreography and dancers and Tony Award-winning 59 Productions are providing production design.

Shankar was composing his pioneering opera Sukanya at the time of his passing, an opera exploring the common ground between the music, dance and theatrical traditions of India and the West. Conductor and collaborator David Murphy – who worked with Shankar for many years,...

With the recent release of Weiner, Tickled, and Depalma in the last few months, 2016 is turning out to be a great year for quality documentary feature films. There’s one type of “doc” that’s been absent so far, that’s the profile of an acclaimed music maker. A compassionate look at the all too brief life and career of Amy Winehouse, Amy, grabbed an Oscar at the last ceremony, winning over another terrific singer’s profile, What Happened, Miss Simone? (about the jazz great Nina). The wait for another music doc is over, but instead of another sultry singer, we’re being given a look at a rock and roll icon of the 1960’s, a man who continued to create and perform for three more decades: Frank Zappa. While many just recall him for his unique look or appearance (all that hair!), this new film takes us past the...

There are always plenty of Christmas-music roundups this time of year. This one's different. The others usually focus on the newest offerings. Nothing I've gotten this year has really struck a chord, but there is no shortage of favorites from years past that have proven their merits and held up over time. It is those in the classical realm, where trends matter least; and choral, because it's sacred choir music that's at the heart of the celebration of Christmas, that are listed below. 

Ancient

If you want some Christmas music you don't already know by heart, just look further back in history.The early music movement of the past half-century has unearthed many long-forgotten masterpieces from the Medieval and Renaissance eras.

Sequentia: Aquitania: Christmas Music from Aquitanian Monasteries (12th century) (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)

This was Sequentia's second album of Aquitanian Christmas season music, following on the heels of the much-praised Shining Light.

George Lucas had a lot to answer for in 1983. Would audiences ever see Han Solo again? Was there any chance for Leia and the Rebellion to come back from such a crushing defeat? And was Darth Vader really Luke Skywalker’s father? As the third chapter in the original Star Wars trilogy, Return of the Jedi would answer all of these questions, but not without controversy — even at the time.

Among Lucas’s three original films, Jedi is the turning point for the series’ creator and his subsequent kid-ification of a saga that had, up until that point, been accessible to both children and adults alike. Part of Jedi‘s scattered tone is artificially inflated by the “series of down endings” in The Empire Strikes Back. On the other hand, there’s something about the cuddly nature of the Ewoks and the broad hamminess of Jabba’s Palace that doesn...

Among the many sweeping divisions that separate the original Star Wars trilogy from the Prequels is in how “used” the films feel; or to put it another way, how the Prequels don’t. The franchise’s earlier installments have endured trends of computer graphics and frenetic editing across several generations in part because George Lucas leveraged a tight production budget with rusty edges and sputtering engines. The Millennium Falcon needs a few loving punches to fire up its nav-comptuer. The Rebel base on Hoth looks more like a rundown snow fort than an outpost fit for a princess. And the most powerful being in the galaxy might actually be a Grover-voiced frog puppet, rubber lips and all.

As covered in the first volume of this series, John Williams taps into the charm of used futurism with his music, doubling down on A New Hope‘s distressed and worn out compositions for its first sequel,...

Among the many sweeping dichotomies that separate the Star Wars Trilogy from the Prequels is how “used” the original films feel; or to phrase it another way, how the Prequels don’t. Part of the charm that’s allowed the franchise to persist for generations lies in how George Lucas leveraged a risky production budget with rusty edges and sputtering engines. The Millennium Falcon needs a few loving punches to fire up its nav-comptuer. The Rebel base on Hoth looks more like a rundown snow fort than an outpost fit for a princess. And the most powerful being in a galaxy far, far away might actually be a Grover-voiced frog puppet, rubber lips and all.

As already outlined in the first volume of this series, John Williams mirrors Star Wars’ “used future” masterfully in his music, doubling down on A New Hope‘s distressed and worn out compositions for its sequel.

Lucasfilm

Despite its ‘Episode IV’ appendage, this, A New Hope (the subtitle of which was added for a theatrical re-release in 1981), remains the original Star Wars movie, a seismic pop-culture bomb which altered the face of cinema forever; a film which, along with Jaws, helped usher in a new era of blockbuster-based film making (both have been cited as key influences in the shift from the experimental ’70s to the more action-packed ’80s).

Rewatching the film for the first time since the prequels were released – and watching them on the back of a marathon of said prequels (the write-ups of which can be found here, here, and here) – A New Hope proves itself to be a flawed classic, not quite a masterpiece but still an influential, innovative, ultimately iconic movie.

There’s no way to accurately gauge the excitement of the film’s initial release without having been there, but...

It’s easy to take the music of Star Wars for granted. After all, that would mean no iconic opening fanfare. There would be no disco remixes nor any “Cantina Band” for future filmmakers to quote from. College marching bands would have to find something other than “The Imperial March” to tease the away team with, and Nick Winters would never treat his lounge audience to his timeless cover. A reality without Star Wars music would find a different soundtrack sitting atop AFI‘s greatest film scores.

Fortunately, John Williams’s original Star Wars score did happen, and in 1977 it was a big deal. Disco and R&B owned the pop music charts. For science-fiction and fantasy cinema — genres whose idealism had diminished in the wake of the Vietnam War and Watergate –soundscapes were defined by synthetic music that separated viewers from their fantastical worlds onscreen. Context is essential to...

In the wake of the terrible attacks in Paris, I found myself listening to a lot of French music and thinking about the Leonard Bernstein quote going around on Facebook: "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before." This list came to seem like my natural response. A very small response, I know. This list is chronological and leaves off people I should probably include. The forty [note: now forty-one] composers listed below are merely a start.

Léonin Aka Leoninus (c.1135-c.1201)

The Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris in the 1100s was a major musical center, and Léonin (the first named composer from whom we have notated polyphonic music) was a crucial figure for defining the liturgical use of organum, the first polyphony. Earlier organum was fairly simple, involving parallel intervals and later contrary motion, but the mid-12th century brought...

A major glossy magazine that used to be devoted largely to music -- but long ago fell under the spell of Hollywood celebrity -- still continues to cover music, specializing in listicles that seem designed mainly to provoke ire in those who care more about music than does said magazine (named after a classic blues song, in case you can't guess without a hint). This summer it unleashed a list of songs that, with that aging publication's ironically weak sense of history, managed to overlook the vast majority of the history of song. To put it bluntly, if you're claiming to discuss the best songs ever written and you don't even mention Franz Schubert, you're an ignoramus. My ire over this blinkered attitude towards music history festered for months, so I finally decided to do something about it by writing about some of the timeless songs omitted in the aforementioned myopic listicle.

Varèse Sarabande will release the Everest – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally and on CD September 18, 2015.

The album features the original music composed by Dario Marianelli (Atonement, The Boxtrolls). The score is great and it’s what makes the movie even more intense!

“My initial instinctive approach to the score, which our director, Baltasar Kormákur, liked and encouraged me to follow, was to have a calling voice, a distant siren call,” explained Marianelli. “It is at the same time a voice that represents the ancient goddess-like mountain, but also a luring and irresistible calling to one’s own destiny.”

Marianelli’s musical “siren call” was performed by singer Melanie Pappenheim. “The same tune that I wrote for Melanie was also played by two wonderful string players in many variations—Caroline Dale and David La Page, with whom I also have worked on several other movies,” he said. “There were also moments...

When I was in middle school, I had a copy of "Aliens" on VHS -- not an official VHS, mind you, but a shabby taped copy of an edited TV airing with all the cursing taken out. Didn't matter. I knew it was a masterpiece. In addition to Sigourney Weaver's legendary, Oscar-nominated performance and James Cameron's brilliant direction, one major element kept me coming back again and again: James Horner's thrilling, indelible score. As we previously reported, Horner is feared to have died in the crash of his single-engine plane near Santa Barbara, California on Monday, and it's first and foremost a huge loss for his loved ones, most importantly his wife Sarah and two daughters. It's also a loss, no doubt, for filmgoers. In addition to his "Aliens" score -- which brought him the first of a total of ten Oscar nominations -- Horner composed the...

Family feature will go head-to-head with Under The Skin and Pride.

Jonathan Glazer’s dark sci-fi Under The Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, is to go up against family comedy Paddington and gay/miners strike feature Pride at the UK’s South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The awards, which announced its nominees today, will be hosted by Melvyn Gregg in London on June 7.

The TV comedy category will see Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip to Italy, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, go up against BBC satire W1A, and Sky Living’s Doll & Em. A film version of The Trip To Italy premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.

The TV drama category includes Golden Globe winner The Honourable Woman starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, which will compete against crime drama Line of Duty and Happy Valley.

Full list of nominees

Dance

A Dream within a Midsummer Night’s Dream - Ballet Black

Lest We Forget - English National Ballet...

Kenneth Branagh chats to us about directing Cinderella, Cate Blanchett, Patrick Doyle and his favourite Jason Statham film.

With an opening weekend that topped $70m in the Us, Kenneth Branagh may have the hit of his movie directing career on his hands with his live action Cinderella take. It's a strong film too, that finally makes it to the UK this week. And ahead of its release, he spared us some time for a natter about it...

I think I've worked out what you're up to. I've worked out your ruse. You do Thor, Cinderella and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit. Three different juggernauts, aimed at three different segments of the market, opening your work up to an audience that may otherwise not be familiar with it.

This is all about selling DVDs of Peter's Friends, isn't it?

[Laughs] That would be a lovely by-product.

Were you consciously looking for different audience subsets,...

On Friday, March 13, Disney will release the live action version of Cinderella from director Kenneth Branagh.

The original animated movie opened on February 15, 1950 to universal acclaim and 65 years later, Cinderella has become one of studio’s most treasured titles.

Branagh has once again turned to the Scottish composer Patrick Doyle for the score. The album features original music by Doyle marking the eleventh time he has teamed with Branagh.

In 1989, the director commissioned Doyle to compose the score for Henry V and they have subsequently collaborated on numerous pictures, including Dead Again, Mary Shelley’S Frankenstein, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, As You Like It and Thor, and most recently Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.

Doyle scored Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes for 20th Century Fox and Brave for Disney Pixar, which was awarded Best Original Composition for Film at the International Music and Sound Awards.

From the worlds...

Walt Disney Records will release the original motion picture soundtrack for Cinderella on March 10, 2015.

The album features original music by Patrick Doyle (“Brave,” “Thor”) marking the eleventh time Doyle has teamed with director Kenneth Branagh. The score was recorded at Air Lyndhurst Studio in London, and was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Shearman and produced by Maggie Rodford. The film arrives in theaters on March 13, 2015.

Patrick Doyle’s long-time creative collaboration with Branagh began in 1989 with “Henry V.” The film’s song ‘Non Nobis Domine’ was awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme. In 1991, they re-teamed for “Dead Again,” which earned Doyle a Golden Globe-nomination. Subsequent collaborations include “Frankenstein,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” “As You Like It,” “Hamlet” (for which Doyle received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score), “Sleuth,” and “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.”

Patrick Doyle at the World Premiere of Cinderella.

[Press Release] Burbank, Calif., Feb. 25, 2015 -- Walt Disney Records will release the original motion picture soundtrack for Cinderella on March 10, 2015. The album features original music by Patrick Doyle ("Brave," "Thor") marking the eleventh time Doyle has teamed with director Kenneth Branagh. The score was recorded at Air Lyndhurst Studio in London, and was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Shearman and produced by Maggie Rodford. The film arrives in theaters on March 13, 2015. Patrick Doyle's long-time creative collaboration with Branagh began in 1989 with "Henry V." The film's song 'Non Nobis Domine' was awarded the 1989 Ivor Novello Award for Best Film Theme. In 1991, they re-teamed for "Dead Again," which earned Doyle a Golden Globe®-nomination....

Martha Argerich & Claudio Abbado Complete Concerto Recordings (Deutsche Grammophon)

One can't help but assume that this five-cd compilation is a tribute to its conductor, Claudio Abbado, who passed away last year. Certainly his collaborations with thankfully-still-with-us pianist Martha Argerich reveal music-making of brilliant spontaneity and imagination. Consider, for instance, their two recordings of Ravel's G major concerto. Their 1967 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic won immediate acclaim as one of the most sparkling and lively renditions the work had ever had. What good could come of re-doing it in 1984 with the London Symphony Orchestra? How often we have heard artists return to repertoire in which they'd made landmark recordings only to fail to reach their previous levels of achievement. Yet Argerich and Abbado came up with a new yet equally valid and compelling interpretation in 1984: darker, more detailed (and in better sound), and more emotionally profound.

The earlier Ravel was...

Controversial composer Alfred Schnittke was born November 24, 1934 in the Soviet Union's Volga Republic, an ethnic German enclave. In his mid-thirties he pioneered a broadly eclectic style of composing that drew on many classical styles (even sometimes quoting familiar Beethoven or Bach works, among others) as well as the occasional foray into jazz and pop. By 1972 his experimentalism had earned the disapproval of the Soviet Composers Union (the Soviets also weren't enamored of his occasional expressions of religion, for that matter), but a number of esteemed musicians who had left Russia to live in the West supported his work and brought him an international reputation. His work was basically pessimistic in outlook, but its emotional impact, and the accessibility of some of the styles he drew on, nonetheless seduced many listeners.

The contradictions in Schnittke's style are laid out in his liner notes to the Bis recording of his Symphony No.

Dvořák (1841-1904), from Bohemia (at the time, part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and later in Czechoslovakia) peppered his colorful, amiable music with folk rhythms. The Ninth, subtitled "From the New World" and inspired by and written during his time in the United States, is Dvořák’s most beloved symphony and contains both Bohemian and American influences. Prompted by the current exhibit of the work's original manuscript in New York City at the Bohemian National Hall, I have followed up my review of Jiří Bĕlohlávek's new Dvořák symphony cycle box set on Decca and his concert with the Czech Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall with a trawl through my collection of "New World" recordings, selectively augmented by streaming recordings available on Rdio.com.

There is much debate concerning the materials of the Ninth. The composer himself said that its middle movements were intended to depict scenes from Longfellow's narrative poem The Song of Hiawatha,...

Czech conductor Jirí Bělohlávek recently won the Antonín Dvořák Prize for his promotion of Czech classical music in general and Dvořák's in particular. At Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon, Nov. 16, he will actually receive the award after a concert in which he will lead the Czech Philharmonic and in a program of Janáček's tone poem Taras Bulba, Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2 with soloist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, "From the New World."

Nov. 16 is also the 25th anniversary of the start of the 1989 "Velvet Revolution," which peacefully ended Communist rule of what was then Czechoslovakia (it split into two countries in 1993). This is no coincidence. In connection with this concert, the government of the Czech Republic has allowed Dvořák's original manuscript for the symphony [title page shown above] out of the country for the first time since the composer brought it home on returning from his sojourn in the United States, where it...

Sony Classical has announced the release of the original motion picture soundtrack of The Imitation Game, a biographical drama about the English code-breaker Alan Turing starring Benedict Cumberbatchand Keira Knightley. Composed by Alexandre Desplat, the score soundtrack will be available digitally on November 10 and on CDNovember 24.

The opening track of Desplat’s score for The Imitation Game introduces a descending, rippling keyboard theme that reappears in variations in later tracks – first as a string accompaniment that sets the mood for a tragic, dramatic story. The second track skillfully interprets its title, “Enigma” (a reference to both the man Alan Turing and to the code-breaking project that made him famous), with fascinating sounds that evoke the ping of a sonar location and the underwater world, thus playing on the main theme of the story. While “U-Boats” features military sounds, other tracks such as “Carrots and Peas” provide contrasting quietness and emotion,...

Ten classical musicians who have faced addiction will perform with the London Symphony Orchestra in a new Channel 4 documentary.

The show, led by composer and musician James McConnel, will examine the restorative effect that music can have on people struggling with addiction.

McConnel, who himself has fought alcoholism, lost his 18-year-old son Freddy to a heroin overdose in 2011.

The new documentary will see McConnel following the personal stories of each of the musicians involved before they come together with the Lso for a final performance.

"Addicts' Symphony is one of those rare programmes which is not only entertaining and informative, but which has done some real, long-term good," McConnel said. "For all the participants it was a fascinating experience, but for some it has been truly life-changing.

"For me, watching a group of people brave enough to address their addictions and fear - through music - was both humbling and inspirational.

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (July 9, 1879-April 18, 1936) was a master of colorful orchestration whose evocative symphonic tone poems and suites arranging Baroque material in modern garb have been audience-pleasers since they were first heard.

The son of a piano teacher who gave him lessons on both piano and violin, Respighi excelled on the latter. It was while first violinist in the Russian Imperial Orchestra at St. Peterburg that Respighi was able to study with master orchestrator Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. He may have studied later with composer Max Bruch in Berlin (this is disputed), then returned to Italy, mostly working as first violin in the Mugellini Quintet. He moved to Rome in 1913 to teach and lived there for the rest of his life, which was ended by heart failure at the age of 56.

Luckily for listeners, a high percentage of Respighi's most popular works, in graceful, idiomatic performances, can be found on an...

A classicist using Romantic harmonies, Johannes Brahms (1833-97) was hailed at age 20 by Robert Schumann in a famous article entitled "New Paths." Yet by the time Brahms wrote his mature works, his music was thought of as a conservative compared to the daring harmonies and revolutionary dramatic theories of Richard Wagner. But in the next century, Arnold Schoenberg's 1947 essay titled "Brahms the Progressive" praised Brahms's bold modulations (as daring as Wagner's most tonally ambiguous chords), asymmetrical forms, and mastery of imaginative variation and development of thematic material.

The son of a bassist in the Hamburg Philharmonic Society, Brahms was an excellent pianist who was supporting himself by his mid-teens. His first two published works were his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2, and throughout his career he penned much fine music for that instrument, not only solo (including the later Piano Sonata No. 3) and duo but also his landmark Piano Concertos Nos.

BBC Radio 3 produces little-known screenplay The Beach of Falesa, taken up by Richard Burton but never made into a film

It is not a typical Dylan Thomas subject – murder, mystery and intrigue in the South Pacific – and the script he wrote, despite being bought by the actor Richard Burton, never developed into the film he was hoping for.

But now at least it will be performed on the airwaves. Radio 3 has said it will broadcast the world premiere of the all but forgotten work The Beach of Falesa.

The drama will be broadcast in May to mark the centenary of Thomas's birth and will be the first production of the little-known piece.

Matthew Dodd, head of Radio 3 speech programmes, called the production a "fantastic thing" for the station and said it continued a relationship with Thomas that went back 50 years – it was the Third Programme, Radio 3's predecessor, that first broadcast Under Milk Wood.

File this under Clever Super Bowl Ad Alert

Jaguar North America has announced the three British thespians to appear in “Rendezvous,” its 60-second television advertisement to debut during the second half of Super Bowl Xlviii, along with details of its largest-ever brand and product marketing campaign, called “British Villains,” which introduces the Jaguar F-type Coupe (on sale spring, 2014).

“Rendezvous” stars Sir Ben Kingsley, Tom Hiddleston and Mark Strong, and was filmed by Oscar-winning British director, Tom Hooper, in London. It is Jaguar’s first Super Bowl TV advertisement.

Jaguar also previewed its Super Bowl spot with “The Setup,” staring Sir Ben Kingsley, during the CBS and Fox NFL Divisional Playoff games, January 11 and 12. At the end of the commercial, viewers were invited to view “The Setup” on the campaign’s dedicated landing page, www.BritishVillains.com, and use the unique hashtag, #GoodToBeBad to engage with the brand throughout the campaign.

After the sumptuous promise of the rousing La Traviata (The Strayed Woman) operatic music filling the senses, the second thought that springs to mind when beginning to watch this docu-opera is, why is Pierre from Channel 4’s creepy The Returned taking time out from harbouring zombies to masquerading as a theatre/opera director? It throws you just for a second; is it actually a fictional recreation on offer?

The truth is, French actor Jean-François Sivadier has more strings to his bow, and film director Philippe Béziat’s intriguing (but equally frustrating) behind-the-scenes look at getting a production of Verdi’s famous opera off the ground is in fact directed by Sivadier who has a list of theatre credits as a ‘metteur en scène’ (stage director) for at least three other operas.

The story of La Traviata (in three acts) – originally named Violetta after the lead character (played by Met...

Bells, wires, computers are all part of the music in Edgar Wright’s The World’S End. As you head off to the theaters this weekend to see the film, have your ears on the lookout, or listenout, for Award winning composer Steven Price’s score.

Reteaming director Edgar Wright with actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, The World’S End reunites five friends who return to their hometown to relive an epic pub crawl from their youth. Along the way, the “five musketeers” uncover an alien invasion and soon learn that they are mankind’s only hope of survival.

Price joins the dynamic comedic team of Wright, Pegg, and Frost following the trio’s success with Shaun Of The Dead and Hot Fuzz.

His passion for music began early: a guitarist from the age of five, he went on to achieve a First Class degree in Music from Cambridge University.

Derek Watkins, the trumpeter who played on every James Bond soundtrack, has died aged 68.

The British musician performed on every Bond film from Dr No to 2012's Skyfall.

He passed away at his home in Esher, Surrey, on Friday (March 22) after a long illness.

Watkins was "widely considered to be the foremost British Big Band trumpet player" of all time, Philip Biggs of the Brass Herald said.

The trumpeter is survived by his wife Wendy and their three children.

Watkins turned professional aged 17, before playing in his conductor father's band the Spring Gardens Brass Band in Reading.

Dizzy Gillespie described him as "Mr Lead", and he also played with the likes of The Beatles, Sir Elton John, Eric Clapton, Frank Sinatra, the London Symphony Orchestra and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

He also played with the BBC Big Band, while also performing with jazz musicians including Johnny Dankworth, Maynard Ferguson and Benny Goodman.

Bond movie wins film prize and BBC2's Twenty Twelve scoops comedy, while London 2012 cauldron takes visual arts gong

James Bond movie Skyfall, London Games comedy Twenty Twelve and the Olympic cauldron were among the winners at the 2013 South Bank Sky Arts awards.

The 23rd James Bond outing won the film prize at the awards ceremony, hosted by Lord Bragg in London at Tuesday lunchtime.

Continuing the Olympic theme, the visual arts award went to Thomas Heatherwick's London 2012 cauldron, while Twenty Twelve helped the BBC to a clean sweep in the TV categories, picking up the comedy prize.

Tom Stoppard's BBC2 adaptation of Ford Maddox Ford's Parade's End won the drama award, in an all-bbc shortlist also featuring Shakespeare adaptations The Hollow Crown and police thriller Line of Duty.

Tom Hiddleston picked up the Times breakthrough award for his acting in The Hollow Crown and films including War Horse and Avengers Assemble.

Chennai, Feb 6: Director Gunasekhar says music maestro Ilayaraja plans to record songs for upcoming Telugu period drama "Rudrama Devi" with the London Symphony orchestra.

"Since it's a period film, Raja sir insisted that we record the songs with the London Symphony orchestra. He has already composed six songs for the album and we will start recording very soon with the orchestra in London," Gunasekhar, who is directing and producing the film, told Ians.

"Rudrama Devi" is about one of the prominent ruling queens of the Kakatiya Dynasty. Anushka Shetty has been roped in to play the queen in the film.

It has art.

Skyfall, Alan Partridge comedy Welcome to the Places of My Life, and the Olympic Velodrome are among the nominees for this year's South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The awards, which are now in their 16th year, celebrate the best of British culture of the last 12 months and take place at the Dorchester Hotel on Tuesday, March 12. They will air on Sky Arts later in the week.

© BBC

[Left: Skyfall / Right: Alan Partridge]

Other nominees this year include music stars Jessie Ware and Plan B, writers Hilary Mantel and Will Self, and TV comedies Twenty Twelve and Hunderby.

Melvyn Bragg is editor and master of ceremonies at the event, which hands out accolades to visual art, theatre, opera, dance, comedy, classical music, pop, TV drama, literature and film.

"2012 was a remarkably fine year for British achievement, not least in British art, by British artists," said Bragg.

© Pete Mariner

© BBC

[Left: Jessie Ware / Right: Twenty Twelve]

"Arriving at this shortlist was a tough job for our judges.

Skyfall, Alan Partridge comedy Welcome to the Places of My Life, and the Olympic Velodrome are among the nominees for this year's South Bank Sky Arts Awards.

The awards, which are now in their 16th year, celebrate the best of British culture of the last 12 months and take place at the Dorchester Hotel on Tuesday, March 12. They will air on Sky Arts later in the week.

[Left: Skyfall / Right: Alan Partridge]

Other nominees this year include music stars Jessie Ware and Plan B, writers Hilary Mantel and Will Self, and TV comedies Twenty Twelve and Hunderby.

Melvyn Bragg is editor and master of ceremonies at the event, which hands out accolades to visual art, theatre, opera, dance, comedy, classical music, pop, TV drama, literature and film.

"2012 was a remarkably fine year for British achievement, not least in British art, by British artists," said Bragg.

[Left: Jessie Ware / Right: Twenty Twelve]

"Arriving at this shortlist was a tough job for our judges.

Iamus is one of those rare musicians who’s attained global stardom without the outsized ego or sense of entitlement that often goes hand-in-hand with fame.

Iamus is also one of those rare musicians who is an algorithm.

The computer-composer, created by a research team led by Francisco Vico at Spain’s University of Malaga, has released an album, composed symphonies performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and “written” over 1 billion songs in every genre imaginable. (Vico says rock and funk were among the most difficult styles for Iamus to master).

The machine's music is all but indistinguishable from the melodies created by humans. The Guardian held a musical Turing test that asked its audience to choose the clip, from a list of five, that had been composed by a computer. Twenty-five percent of readers correctly identified Iamus’ "Hello World" as the algorithm’s. But 30 percent picked a Gustav Mahler piece.

Hartford, Conn. (AP) — Jazz composer and pianist Dave Brubeck, whose pioneering style in pieces such as "Take Five" caught listeners' ears with exotic, challenging rhythms, has died. He was 91.

Brubeck died Wednesday morning at Norwalk Hospital of heart failure after being stricken while on his way to a cardiology appointment with his son Darius, said his manager Russell Gloyd. Brubeck would have turned 92 on Thursday.

Brubeck had a career that spanned almost all American jazz since World War II. He formed The Dave Brubeck Quartet in 1951 and was the first modern jazz musician to be pictured on the cover of Time magazine – on Nov. 8, 1954 – and he helped define the swinging, smoky rhythms of 1950s and `60s club jazz.

The seminal album "Time Out," released by the quartet in 1959, was the first ever million-selling jazz LP, and is still among the best-selling jazz albums of all time. It opens with "Blue...

On Sunday afternoon, Wamg attended the AFI-fest Gala screening of Rise Of The Guardians . and man was that fun!! On hand to introduce the film were director Peter Ramsay and star Alec Baldwin. The film is a high-octane romp through the magical worlds of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, the Sandman, and Jack Frost.

The 3-D works spectacularly and the voice talent is brilliant. Opening on Thanksgiving weekend, this is a great movie for the whole family. (5 out of 5 Stars!). The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences announced on Friday that Rise Of The Guardians was among the twenty-one features submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 85th Academy Awards®. It has my vote!

Spoiler Alert: Lots of cool details below so stop reading if you want to experience the movie with child-like wonder.

What if there were more to the histories of...

The trailer for the London 2012 Olympic Games DVD/Blu-ray Collection has been unveiled. The 60-second promotional clip will receive its TV premiere during Coronation Street on Monday (October 29) as part of a TV roadblock at 8.45pm.

The collection features Danny Boyle's director's cut re-edit of the entire opening ceremony, accompanied by an optional audio commentary from Boyle and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce. Other Opening Ceremony highlights in the package include The London Symphony Orchestra's Performance of Elgar's 'Nimrod' and 'Isles of Wonder Deconstructed', (more)...

The trailer for the London 2012 Olympic Games DVD/Blu-ray Collection has been unveiled. The 60-second promotional clip will receive its TV premiere during Coronation Street on Monday (October 29) as part of a TV roadblock at 8.45pm.

The collection features Danny Boyle's director's cut re-edit of the entire opening ceremony, accompanied by an optional audio commentary from Boyle and writer Frank Cottrell Boyce. Other Opening Ceremony highlights in the package include The London Symphony Orchestra's Performance of Elgar's 'Nimrod' and 'Isles of Wonder Deconstructed', (more)...

The son of a vicar (and Charles Darwin was his great-uncle), Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) became one of the most popular English composers. He studied under Charles Villiers Stanford and Hubert Parry at the Royal College of Music, but also read history and music at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he palled around with the philosophers Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore. He also went to Germany for lessons with Max Bruch, but ultimately rejected the 19th century German Romantic style Friendships with fellow Rcm students Gustav Holst and Leopold Stokowski later bore more fruit, in different ways: Stokowski, who moved to the United States, became Rvw's biggest supporter there; Holst and Vaughan Williams critiqued each others' work and joined in the study and collection of English folk songs. "The knowledge of our folk songs did not so much discover for us something new, but uncovered something which had been hidden by foreign matter,...

After having a look at the fundamentals of chord voicings in Part 1, we’ll have a look at other important factors for good chord voicings.

Another basic element of effective chord voicings are so called “Low Interval Limits” (Lil). The lower you get on the piano, for example, the more tricky it is to find chords that don’t sound muddy. Many people trust their ear on these things, which is basically a good idea. However sometimes you might be mislead by the sound texture, for example of your piano that you compose on, to believe something does sound fine when it actually translates into muddyness on real instruments. For every two notes that sound together in a certain interval, there is a limit how low you can go with them without them sounding muddy. Basically you can dissect every voicing with these limits into every internal interval.

You’ll...

Shortly after 9/11, and very definitely as a personal response to that event, I wrote an article about Requiems for Cdnow, where I worked at the time (just a few blocks away from Ground Zero; fortunately our workday started at 10 Am, so I wasn't there yet that day, but in the weeks that followed there were days where, if the wind came from the wrong direction, we would go home early, it made us so sick). In the years since, I have written about music composed in response to that tragedy, such as John Adams's On the Transmigration of Souls. But now I find myself being drawn back to the Requiem idea. Here's a much-expanded take on it.

This roughly chronological list confines itself to works with a sacred basis, though the 20th century yielded secular Requiems, most notably Paul Hindemith's When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom...

Born August 22, 1862 in St.-Germaine-en-Laye, France, Claude-Achille Debussy was a child prodigy pianist who was admitted to the Paris Conservatory at age 10. Now generally considered to have been the greatest French composer, Debussy is proof that great art can come from terrible human beings. He was supremely self-centered and selfish. Two women -- one his wife -- attempted to kill themselves after he ended his relationships with them in cruelly casual fashion; his behavior was so beyond acceptable norms, even by bohemian French standards, that many of his friends turned their backs on him. In the midst of his greatest personal controversy, when he'd left his wife for a married woman and moved with the latter to England for awhile after to escape the constant recriminations, he wrote his biggest masterpiece, La Mer.

But, of course, there's nothing the French enjoy more than a controversy. Debussy's music was controversial as well.

Monty Python took over the 2012 London Olympics Closing Ceremony.

As had been rumored, original Monty Python comedy troupe member Eric Idle led an Olympic Stadium singalong of "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life," a song made famous in "Monty Pyton's Life of Brian."

The popular song -- which placed third on a 2005 British poll of songs people wanted to play at their respective funerals -- was sung during the finale of "Life of Brian," when the film's title character (Graham Chapman) was sentenced to death by crucifixion. When Chapman passed away in 1989, the surviving Python members sang the song together.

Idle's "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" performance ended with some stuntpeople getting launched out of a cannon.

As previously reported, George Michael, The Pet Shop Boys, Ray Davies of The Kinks, The Spice Girls and more classic acts from the last 50 years all appeared during the Closing Ceremony,...

Anyone who has seen the trailer for Searching For Sugar Man knows that the title character has indeed been found (but there’s much more to his unbelievable life story than that). If you’d prefer to keep Sugar Man a mystery until after you see the film, please bookmark this interview to refer back to after you’ve had your own discovery of this man’s unbelievable story.

In our age of instant music sharing, it seems like any artist can get recognition with a hip enough music video or high amount of followers on Twitter. Searching for Sugar Man, directed by Malik Bendjelloul, is a documentary about Sixto Rodriguez, a great talent from the early 70s (think poppier Bob Dylan) who slipped through the cracks of notoriety (at least in America). It is the story of a man’s disappearance, as well as it is his unbelievable return.