Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Considering 2010: Music

Music is not tremendously important to me. In fact, this is the first post on the subject for Section 244. There was a time (high school) when I spent a lot of time fixating on albums, music videos, concerts, etc. By college I had lost interest in music altogether and never really recaptured an ear for contemporary sounds.

Still, in 2010 I did attend a concert with my brother: we went to see the Newsboys with their new front man Michael Tait (formerly 1/3rd of DC Talk). I was impressed at Tait's ability to perform familiar Newsboys tunes from the 90s and it was clear to see the band benefited from adding him to their lineup since he brought the entire DC Talk back catalogue to their repetoire; it's a shame the band had to lose their long-time front man Peter Furler, but Tait might be the only man alive who can fit his shoes. I've bought the new album for my brother, but haven't snagged one for myself yet.

At work I listen to classical music all day long but I haven't sought out recordings of classical music. I don't know enough about particular performers to know which I would want to own and classical tends to be more expensive than contemporary.

However, thanks to some sage advice from my friend Craig, I've made film soundtracks my new diversion. In 2010, I probably played the soundtrack of Avatar more than any other disc; for his part, Craig provided me with How to Train Your Dragon. I've also found a nice collection of Bernard Herrmann scores and the various Halo soundtracks have a great sound.

Finally, I've been taking an interest in Oscar Levant's music, due to suddenly realizing...there are recordings of Oscar Levant's music! As an old-time radio buff, I had heard Levant on various broadcasts of Information Please, where he impressed me with his intellect, humour and piano playing. It took me some time to realize Levant recorded albums of his performances, albums which can obtained via cd.

So, looking ahead to 2011 I see myself finally getting the Newsboys' Born Again, tracking down more soundtracks to films I enjoy (hopefully with some more Herrmann) and scouring for a bit of Levant.

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