5 on Friday -- The Halloween Edition -- Set 290

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

Happy Halloween, Everyone!

My favorite spooky music is by far the sweeping sounds of an orchestra transporting my muse to all the dark places that bring me to the stories I write.

Add a choral dimension into the mix, and it sends chills of delight along my spine.

Hope these pieces make your Halloween complete.

Happy Haunting!

1 - Masquerade Waltz - composed by Aram Khachaturian

2 - Danse Macabre - composed by Camille Saint-Saens

3 - Midnight from the Cinderella ballet score - composed by Sergei Prokofiev

4 - Totentanz - composed by Franz Liszt

5 - Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) from Requiem Mass - composed by Giuseppi Verdi

5 on Friday -- Set 289

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

I certainly never forsaw dedicating two musical sets to Stephen Harper.

In August, when he cynically called the longest election in Canadian history, somehow certain that using medieval seige tactics would starve out his two competitors, I dedicated Set 279 to him.

And now...

The Canadian Press

1 - Auf Wiederseh'n - Vera Lynn

2 - The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkle

3 - I'm Going Home (Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack) - Tim Curry

4 - Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye - Steam

5 - Ding Dong the Witch is Dead - Cast of 1939's Wizard of Oz

5 on Friday -- Set 288

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

Here we are, back at the cottage for our annual writing retreat. Shawna Romkey, Kelly Boyce and I travelled together with the keys to open the cottages, so we were up with the dawn. A gorgeous drive down, and now we've already got over half the retreaters here and it's still an hour to go till lunchtime.

Can you say, 'Bliss, thy name is writing retreat'?

1 - The Rain, The Park and Other Things - The Cowsills

2 - Happy Together - Turtles

3 - Just My Imagination - The Temptations

4 - #9 Dream - John Lennon

5 - Dreamweaver - Gary Wright

5 on Friday -- Set 287

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

This year I've been taking a once-a-month look at specific instruments and showcasing five songs or tunes which place that instrument front and center.

This year's feature is called Spotlight On...

...and for our tenth installment, let's move into an element of deeper tonal complexity by the addition of a string section. Strings immediately bring a sense of emotion along with them, whether it's joyfulness or melancholy.

We began the year listening to the primal body instruments of hand-clapping, whistling and vocal harmonies.

Moving on, we explored percussion with April's look at drums, May's look at the vibraphone or vibes, June's look at piano, and wrapping things up with cowbell in July.

In August I trained the spotlight on a favorite of mine, the bass guitar. In September we gave the stage over to that diva of instruments -- the lead guitar.

For October, I'm moving from stringed guitars to orchestral strings. Here are five songs where the string arrangements are the prominent feature.

1 - Tonight, Tonight - Smashing Pumpkins - 1996

And what about the awesome music video by Little Miss Sunshine directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris? 

2 - Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles -1955

3 - The World I Know - Collective Soul - 1995

4 - Cloudbusting - Kate Bush - 1987

5 - Exogenesis Part 1 - Muse - 2010

 

5 on Friday -- Set 286

Spinning Friday tunes since 2010...

For anyone who wants to join in, simply choose five pieces of music and post them for other bloggers to enjoy. Then check out the set posted by the other 5 on Friday blogger -- you can sign in over at Golch Central's Rambling Stuff.

Yesterday, October 1st was the second annual World Ballet Day, bringing ballet lovers from all over the world together online as we were invited to take part in the daily class and rehearsal periods of five major companies.

For a ballet freak like me, World Ballet Day is like being a kid and waking up on Christmas morning, with all of your presents waiting for you, all of your family gathering around, and an endless feast going on for hours and hours and hours, with none of it ever ending.

It was like heaven.

For this week's 5 on Friday, may I introduce the five companies who shared their lives with us yesterday.

1 - Suite en Blanc - composed by Edouard Lalo

Australian Ballet

2 - Spartacus - composed by Aram Khachaturian

Bolshoi Ballet

3 - Manon - composed by Jules Massenet

Royal Ballet

4 - Sleeping Beauty - composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

National Ballet of Canada

5 - Romeo and Juliet - composed by Sergei Prokofiev

San Francisco Ballet