Random acts of music

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Mendalla said:
What age should she be appealing to? I just watched a very good video with two professional singers discussing pigeon-holing artists. The upshot was, don't do it to us, please.
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Just saying I didnt feel the instruments suited the song.
 
Waterfall said:
but I have to say the instruments are all wrong for the song and the age she should be appealing to.....but that's my opinion, maybe nobody elses.
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I would give a great deal if more people had grown up with the music I did. Mainly classical and opera, a little folk and world/roots. Mozart and Bach are most important for brain health, IMO. So, if it takes a pretty pop song to reacquaint some young people with more classical orchestration, I'm for it.

Also, I love parent-child musical collaborations.
 
Waterfall said:
Just saying I didnt feel the instruments suited the song.
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I listen to symphonic metal, which often incorporates orchestral elements with heavy metal music. So I have largely thrown any notion of particular instruments being "suited" to any particular kind of music out the window. If it sounds right for the song, it's suitable. YMMV.
 
If you'd like an introduction to symphonic music that is sort of undated, try Tom Allen's "About Time", CBC Music, noon to 3 p.m.
 
BetteTheRed said:
If you'd like an introduction to symphonic music that is sort of undated, try Tom Allen's "About Time", CBC Music, noon to 3 p.m.
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I'm familiar with symphonic music used in various ways, just didn't think it suited this song. I just gave my opinion, it differs with yours and Mendalla's and that should be okay, right?
 
From A Capitol Fourth on PBS a week ago, Pentatonix being awesome with "Seasons of Love" from Rent.

 
Okay, you might want to catch this while it is still up. This is from Floor Jansen's return to the stage last week and is strictly unofficial but, somehow, has not been hit with a takedown. Once again, Floor teams up with Dutch stage star Henk Poort but this time it's not a song from a musical. Sweet Curse was co-written by Floor (she was the lyricist, other band members wrote the music) for her band Revamp, which she formed in 2009 and disbanded after she became a permanent member of Nightwish. Needless to say, once Henk was on stage the pair also did Phantom of the Opera and Dangerous Game, the two duets that have been garnering them views on Youtube.


And listening to songs from this show and her other post-Beste Zangers work really has me wondering whether Floor is starting to look past Nightwish. While she has always been a metal singer (she joined her first band, After Forever, at 16), her recent success doing pop and musical material certainly sets the stage for a post-Nightwish career that would really take in her a new direction. Even the Nightwish songs she does in her solo shows are arranged in a style that is less obviously of a metal pedigree.
 
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I think I have posted "Strong" before but it is such a beautiful, powerful song that I figure hearing her sing it live can't hurt. It will likely be a signature tune if Floor ever does go solo. She originally wrote and performed it with After Forever and it is dedicated to her mother, who was having health struggles at the time.

 
Well, since the last two posts in the thread were about Floor Jansen, here's a little taste of what her hubby does for a living. Hannes van Dahl is the guy behind the drums for Swedish metal band Sabaton. Their obsession with war and military history is a bit off-putting for 2021 me, but I probably would have eaten it up as a kid.

Steel Commanders starts with medieval knights and ends with modern tanks, with Sabaton as the crew. It seems like it might for a videogame, to be honest, but there's nothing in the description to confirm that. Cellist Tina Guo, who does do a lot of soundtrack work, joins them, further making me wonder. Probably the first time I have seen her doing full-on heavy metal. Her style of electric cello playing does work well with this band, though.

 
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And a post from Nuclear Blast, Sabaton's label, confirms it is a tie-in with the game World of Tanks.
 
New solo cover from Floor this morning. It's a gorgeous song from a European artist that I am completely, 100% unfamiliar with outside of, now, this song.

 
Oo, another favorite female vocalist dropped a new track. It's been ages since I saw anything from Haley Reinhart. And it's a new original song,, too.

 
Someone on WC2 introduced me to Maya Rae's music a few years back and I now follow her on YouTube. She teamed up with actor and bluesman Jim Byrnes recently for this version of Wayfaring Stranger.

 
Should probably save this for this year's Christmas music thread but I might forget by then. I am not a huge fan of Swedish metal band Sabaton. Their history-influenced heavy metal gets a bit too militaristic for my taste a lot of the time. However, having watched them before and being a fan of some related bands (their drummer is married to singer Floor Jansen of Nightwish) they come up in my recommendations. And I have to say, this song is a nice tribute to the famed 1914 Christmas truce.


That wordless female chorus under the end credits is, of course, the aforementioned Floor Jansen.
 
Multi-instrumental wiz Arjen Lucassen has a history of putting out big albums. His two projects, Ayreon and Star One, do epic albums with stories or themes (in fact, I believe all the Ayreon albums follow a single storyline). He doesn't have a fixed band, but a number of musicians that he calls on, often ones associated with other bands. Floor Jansen (Nightwish), her sister Irene, Tony Martin (Black Sabbath) and Roy Khan (Kamelot) are among the vocalists he uses regularly. This is from an upcoming Star One project and features Khan and Martin on leads with a female chorus consisting of Irene Jansen and Marcela Bovio. American guitar legend Steve Vai appears as well, providing a guitar solo interlude later in the piece.


And Floor Jansen kind of hinted in a post recently that we will be hearing her and Irene together on the album at some point. The sisters don't sing together that often so it's always a treat when it happens.
 
"The Prayer" is not a Christmas song per se, but Pentatonix don't seem to care. They are including it on their annual (or so it seems) Christmas album and it is amazing. I don't think I've heard Mitch solo this much in a while and had kind of forgotten what a great voice he packs. And Scott singing the original Italian (it was originally sung by Celine Dion and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli) is impressive.

 
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