La Belle Dame Sans Merci (John Keats)

October 14, 2009 // Comments Off

I was pleased and surprised to find several musical settings for this great poem. There are classical versions and folk versions. There are choral versions and solo with orchestra and even instrumentals of various kinds. Here’s one I wrote for tenor and guitar, quasi folk/classical. How would you classify it?

La Belle Dame Sans Merci Keats

Last verse:

“And this is why I sojourn here,
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither’d from the lake,
And no birds sing.”

Posted in Music, Uncategorized

Shaman’s Hand: 2/22/09

February 23, 2009 // Comments Off

On Shaman’s Hand, Michael featured some of his classical work including rehearsal audio for a voice recital in 1990.

He also debuted a piece he is finalizing for his new album based on Keats’ poem “La Belle Dame sans Merci“.

And with his usual twist he brought in guests at a dinner and listening party to introduce songs for the episode.

You can listen to the February 22, 2009 broadcast of “Shaman’s Hand BlogTalkRadio” below:

Posted in Shaman's Hand BTR

In the studio again

February 19, 2009 // Comments Off

Michael recording "Little Angels, Dust Your Wings".

Here I am in the studio recreating a   recording   session. Hey, it’s a bedroom studio without all the nice stuff that “real” recording studio has. I’m working on Little Angels Dust Your Wings.  It’s…tada….finished!

Earlier in the day I was looking for some CDs to record on and I found a long lost song called At the Door.  Also on the hard drive is the full version of La Belle Dame sans Merci poetry written by John Keats.

So it’s been a full day. I came home from work with 50 CD-Rs! Hooray!

SO aside from a few machine malfunctions (my DAT headphone jack is useless) and I broke a tape in it this evening.

While working on this post I’ve been listening to Parazona and onlinewithandrea on Blog Talk Radio. Tomorrow I’m Andrea’s guest.

Hooray!

All’s well that ends well.

embedded by Embedded Video

Posted in Music