#but i have such a soft spot for mahler

[homuncvlus]

Wait you listen to Mahler?!

Yes!! We played a few simplified versions of his symphonies when I was still in youth orchestra :))

[soapkaars]

What kind of music would each medical malpractice gang member listen to?

This week is easing up on me, so I can finally answer this ask. (Either you sent it twice anon, or there are two people curious about my takes of the medical malpractice gang). I’m not going to make a drawing for it, sorry! I’m busy with several films at work and my own personal project, so I’ve been too tired to draw anything. I hope you don’t mind!

On to music! The first one is dr Gogol. He’s a pretty well developed character so there are actually some clues in the film as to what he likes! After all he doesn’t care much for Stephen Orlac’s piano playing (he was, admittedly, distracted by Yvonne but still), calling it ‘very modern’ in a very weak attempt at hiding his disappointment in Yvonne and clearly not being able to deal. Which means he doesn’t care much for his time’s contemporary music like Schönberg’s atonal music, or the popular references to Jazz you could find in pieces by George Gershwin, or Aaron Copland’s more filmic music like Appalachian Spring… Gogol is old fashioned, though I think his tastes are behind by like, say, thirty to forty years in his time. A bit like those people who only listen to classic Rock even though they weren’t even born when the Beatles were popular. We hear him operate to some soft violin music (we see a nurse put on a record) and of course he plays his organ (atonally when he’s gripped by madness!). If I were to pin him down, I’d say he’s definitely into Romantic music - as in music from the Romantic Era. Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Mahler, Dvorak, Smetana… not Wagner though!

He likes Grand Guignol, doesn’t he? He’d definitely like this.

Next up: Professor Karl Fenninger. Which isn’t even his real name! Cold, aloof, elegant… what would he like? The complete opposite of Gogol, that’s for certain! Fenninger would absolutely love his age’s contemporary music, and he’d have some pretty clear opinions about which composer he loathed and which one he’d be in line to see a performance! He might even like Stephen Orlac and be heart-broken when he had to retire from his career after that horrific accident! Composers I think Fenninger would definitely like or be interested in: Schönberg, Kurt Weill, Debussy, Satie, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Shostakovich. He might also have a huge soft spot for Jazz composers such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and good old Louis Armstrong! Also he’d positively loathe George Gershwin and Aaron Copland.

Dr Arthur Lorentz, on the other hand, wouldn’t know a Prokofiev if it came up and punched him in the face. Let alone an Aaron Copland. He’s a country man. Which doesn’t sound too bad until you realise he likes Jimmie Rodgers.

And finally we have Herman Einstein. What would he like? I'll adopt @medical-malpractice-malewife 's canon that he did cabaret in Germany, so let's roll with that. We're talking Weimar era Jazz. 'Lilli Marlene' (as sung by Marlene Dietrich), 'Mein Berlin'... You know, those soft chanson-like songs sung with nasally voices and the brass going hoompa-pa, those extremely scratchy recordings where the noise is sometimes louder than the music itself. In fact, I think Einstein might also like Chanson, and even Schlagers, though that last one is probably more of a guilty pleasure. He'll sometimes sing those old student songs from back when he was studying at Uni - 'Die Gedänken Sind Frei'. Meeting Johnny might open up his tastes to more American artists though, and if this duo managed to live beyond the 40s and into the 50s, I'm willing to bet he'd be extremely into rock and roll.

[movietonight]

For the character ask game, could I please request Charles? Thank you ^_^

Yess thank you! I have a feeling each time I rewatch mash I have a new favourite character and this time it's that bastard (affectionate)

Favourite thing: from his first episode they make it so clear that he's on an equal level to Hawkeye and BJ not just surgically but intellectually in general (the snake prank) and just so complex. Also DOS my beloved obviously but I think that goes without saying. Last but not least he likes classical music <3 I listen to a lot of different genres but I have such a soft spot for classical music that every time he talks about it I'm just like yes bestie let's discuss composers or whatever <3

Least favourite thing: Well he is really posh and arrogant and bigoted and everything that comes with it (social darwinism and racism and classism etc etc). I absolutely can't stand posh people irl and I absolutely can't stand these attitudes but the thing is. It's just so very funny. I cannot excuse any of his views in any way and there's scenes I want to punch him so badly. But I love laughing about fictional posh people.

Favourite line: this is not a line but this is my answer and I can do what I want: the entire scene in run for the money where he listens to Honoria's tape

brOTP: Him and everyone I love when he gets along with people!! Those moments in Sons and Bowlers where he and Hawkeye actually have a deep conversation! In the same episode where he schemes with BJ together! The pranks! The hug in Temporary Duty! Oh and talking more literally Honoria of course. We know so little about her but she's my bestie

OTP: As I said before, I don't actively ship anything but I don't not ship anything. Enough people have lobbied for Charles/Donna on my dash that I have started to care about it and amended my hc from gayce (gay ace) to biace (bi ace) (I love portmanteau words). I have seen people lobby for Charles/Hawkeye which is something I had not considered while watching but as long as it gives me enough brain worms I'm in. I am legally obliged to mention the Charles/JFK joke I made.

nOTP: As I said I don't like how Charles/Margaret played out on the show but it could work if done differently I suppose. I am also not a big fan of the other two brief romantic encounters he had like nothing against Martine and Sooni but it just didn't work for me at all.

Random Headcanon: The reason why he so desperately wants to listen to Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in Friends and Enemies is because it's the anniversary of his brother's death

Unpopular Opinion: That is not a neutrotypical man

Song: the Mozart Clarinet Quintet as featured in GFA & Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture

Favourite Picture:

He has a little halo :)

[anewbeginningagain]

I am rooting for HD this season for the one podium spot left for the Olympics. But I think what’s happened to them on some level is a little bit parallel to VM after Carmen. What I mean is that it was hard for VM to go back to the Mahler style Seasons program after people saw them really go for the fierceness in Carmen. That’s why MR was a good choice because it combined the love of a Mahler with the fierceness of Carmen. (And I digress but it was also smart to have Latch the season before to get people invested in their connection again).

With HD I can’t un-see or un-want the Caught Out in the Rain FD from 2018. It is to me the best expression of HD’s skills and innate chemistry there could be. And while they may see themselves as a more lyrical team, it’s hard not to want those hard edges from them. That may be what holds people back from giving them the scores and accolades for this program. It’s not because of what it is — I think it is excellent and a step above what we have seen from CB and GP in concept and execution — but like with VM at Sochi if they fall short it’s because of what people’s expectations are more than anything else.

On a separate note, a couple of thoughts on the Janet SD. I think they’ve improved the music cut by removing some of the moaning. I still think they need to have more playful interaction during the Nasty part of the program. It’s something I think they could do well and seeing Madi push Zach around would be popular 😂 but I also think their dance isolations are not quite right — Rhythm Nation is very vertical choreo if you look at the videos. It’s very stationary and doesn’t have involve shimmying or hip movement. What it isn’t is side to side which is what they are doing. But I don’t know how fixable that is or whether there is a better way to translate it to the ice.

Anon one day you'll have to tell me how you manage to send me this long af asks but I love it. Loved the parallelism with TS, you make a very good point.

So I was just confessing to @macaroni-rascal that I watched TSL this weekend about Skate America (I had a long wait) and that I didn't hate it, in fact, they (mostly Jonathan to my surprise) had some interesting and thought-provoking things to say.

Jonathan said something about H/D resenting and refusing their calling in skating which I can't help but agree with - for all of us their calling is Caught Out In The Rain type of programs, there's a consensus that it's their best program and that it's the style for them - powerful, sexy, provocative, edgy, it's what works best for them, what sets them apart. However, they seem to want their style to be soft and lyrical, to go for romantic and introvert. It's unfortunate in a way but it's also what they want, so if they go for that style they need to have a strong FD which I think they do have, especially since they keep things interesting and exciting. 

What's interesting is that both DL and Jonathan think both US teams will find themselves off the Olympic podium because their material is not strong enough, I disagree especially because I was left underwhelmed with G/P material but their point about the Canadian federation only having G/P in the medal race so they can put all of their political power on them is accurate (it will be interesting to see how they'll be scored this weekend).

As for the Janet Jackson RD (did you see she had a story about them? that was cool) - I liked it way more than I remember which is great, I agree about adding playfulness but I think they are just currently holding back during both programs, they know they have a tendency to be so powerful in their skating that they fall apart and I feel like they are fighting to keep it under control which holds them back a little, if they can manage to find a way to both control their power but lose control in other senses - they'll own it IMO.

But most importantly look at the difference - H/D made all new lifts for the Olympic season, including a very risky one. P/C on the other hand are recycling all but one and even that one is a watered-down version of a lift others have done before them. This is exactly why I don't think they deserve the gold.

[twizzleenthusiast]

31 Days of Figure Skating: Day 6 - Favourite Classical Music Program

Again, this could be any number of programs (and I thought about putting Mahler again but decided to go for something new), but I have a soft spot for L/L’s Rachmaninov program - I think the choreography and their performance pick up some of the nuances in the music in really lovely way, especially for a junior program:

And of course I also looooooove H/B’s FD from this past season. Classical music can get very repetitive in figure skating but they went at it from a totally different angle than is usual and I absolutely love the characterization and quirkiness of it all:

And uhhhh...I’m not sure if Nights and Days is classical music but it is instrumental and has the feel of classical music and is my favourite SD so I’m tacking it onto the end of this list:

[kkintle]

The Music Shop by Rachel Joyce

Time has told me You’re a rare, rare find A troubled cure For a troubled mind. -- Nick Drake, ‘Time Has Told Me’

It is a joy to be hidden and a disaster not to be found. -- Donald Winnicott

Sometimes all that people needed was to know they were not alone. Other times it was more a question of keeping them in touch with their feelings until they wore them out – people clung to what was familiar, even when it was painful.

In his mind’s eye, the future appeared to him in the same way he had seen the distant horizon materializing out of a sea mist at the white house; blurred and remote, but beautiful and full of hope.

No one quite knew what to do with that remark. They decided to sit very still and wait for it to go away.

‘Music comes out of silence and at the end it goes back to it. It’s a journey. You see?’

‘And of course the silence at the beginning of a piece of music is always different from the silence at the end.’ ‘Why, Peg?’ ‘Because if you listen, the world changes. It’s like falling in love. Only no one gets hurt.’

‘You heard the little pause in the middle?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘You see? You see what Beethoven’s doing? There is silence inside music too. It’s like reaching a hole. You don’t know what will happen next.’

Silence was where the magic happened.

What he had felt in those moments was like being wired up to something explosive. It was so new to him, it had felt all wrong – and at the same time he had known it was entirely right.

How could so much irregular loveliness have been put together in one small frame? He was terrified.

they repeated, so that now it sounded less of a name and more like a blessing before dinner.

But CD sound was clean, the reps argued. It had no surface noise. To which Frank replied, ‘Clean? What’s music got to do with clean? Where is the humanity in clean? Life has surface noise! Do you want to listen to furniture polish?’

The more time passed, the more Frank found he thought of her and yet this was madness because he knew nothing, except for the fact she very definitely had someone else.

‘I was trying to help, Frank.’ What was she doing now? Using his name? As if she were reaching a hand through his skin and squeezing his insides? And yet the way she said his name made it sound so whole and new in the world. If only she would say it again and again. Oh and one more time, please—

As the record came to an end, Frank felt so happy he was sad, and so sad he was happy.

The fact was, it was safer to stay uninvolved. He was perfectly fine with emotions, so long as they belonged to other people.

Jazz was about the spaces between notes. It was about what happened when you listened to the thing inside you. The gaps and the cracks. Because that was where life really happened; when you were brave enough to free-fall.

It was Haydn and Mozart who really cracked the sonata, but it was Beethoven who reinvented it, just as he reinvented the symphony. Bach was king of the Baroque; Mozart and Haydn were kings of the Classical; Brahms, Chopin, Liszt and Berlioz were the great Romantics. Bruckner, Mahler and Wagner brought music into the twentieth century; Stravinsky and Schoenberg redefined harmony. But Beethoven was in a class of his own. He didn’t write music to praise God. He didn’t write it to earn a living. Beethoven wrote music because he had to.

Being with her was the same as staring into the sun; he saw nothing and yet when he looked away, there she was, a raucous white light imprinted at the heart of everything.

‘The way to heaven is not through the clouds. It’s in the joy with which you look at the world, despite your pain and your sorrow.’

‘No. It was a long time ago.’ ‘You could not see someone for twenty years and still love them. I really believe that.’

‘Because I am busy.’ Frank tucked his T-shirt into the waistband of his trousers. In the circumstances, he couldn’t think of anything busier.

It is hard to look back on a moment when you are haring right through the centre of it.

Loyal to his friends, lethal to his enemies, tender with his women—

the kind of rain that comes soft at first, pitter patter, and then so insistently it is everywhere you look, and in everything you hear, until once again it is nothing except one small drop following another, right up to the last one that lands so surely and so kindly it is hard to imagine anything falling ever again.

‘Do you remember?’ she asked. ‘Yes,’ he said. He laughed. She laughed. ‘Wouldn’t it be good,’ she said, ‘if it was like this for ever?’

When you witness a person before they have spotted you, it allows you to observe them in a pure way, without the extra complications of yourself.

People like it when she tells them things, in small portions, and they think they know her, but they do not, they cannot possibly understand all the decisions she has made, the choices that have turned her into the woman they see today.

There is no guarantee that just because you are ready to go back and claim something, it will be there.

Twenty-one years can be condensed to very few words. Is that a good thing or a bad one? It’s just the way it is.

‘King of Kings. For ever! For ever! Hallelujah. Hallelujah.’ One hundred people sing in a shopping mall. Outside, the air will stink of cheese and onion, people are being mugged, others are starving, the sky is grey, but for one brief and irrational gap in time, there is this beautiful human madness. The world is not terrible after all.

[voltronldfangirl]

Voltron Characters As Classical Music Majors

Hello! So, this is my AU I have of each character attending the same music conservatory in the present day. I'm currently a music major for classical piano so this was a cute little write up for me! Hope you enjoy ^^

LANCE

-primary instrument is the alto saxophone

-when there's an upcoming performance he can spend hours with full concentration practicing. After the 3 or 4 hour mark he's exhausted and likes to play jazz or ragtime music

-he's good with improvising and likes to jam with vocalists, drummers, trumpet players, anyone really, in his spare time

-he's collaborative and friendly with his peers

-he's working on a Gurewich concerto for his jury (final performance equivalent to exams)

-with most classical pieces, he tends to ignore a lot of the written markings like dynamics, articulations, and fingering but he plays with his soul

-what he lacks in technique, he makes up for in his expressivity

-he's a risk taking musician, bringing a  new interpretation to the piece

-it's because of this that he's not usually chosen to be the soloist for previous saxophone concertos like Glauzunov and Creston

-he prefers to showcase his musicianship in festivals 

-around the busy times of the year like final performances, recitals, juries, etc. many practice rooms are full and other music majors are getting antsy and impatiently waiting for the next available one. Lance lays by a wall around the practice room halls and dabbles with his ukulele

-he plays with his ukulele as a way to ease tension

-he sings with a voice so soft it melts the hearts of some girls passing by but he's too caught up in the music to notice

-when he wants to flirt he serenades them with some cheesy song on the ukulele, usually making the person giggle and/or blush

PIDGE

-viola player with unmatched rhythmic accuracy

-has won many awards nationwide but left the performance scene to pursue composition

-incredible grasp of music theory and classical history 

-began writing viola concerto pieces but has now expanded to writing for film scores, operas, and orchestras

-first few pieces were written on piles of manuscript paper in rushed, smudged pencil

-on her last birthday, her father gave her a laptop with several music notation softwares like Finale, Sibelius, Notion etc. It was his last gift before he left with her brother Matt to do research on music history in Vienna

-Pidge has been writing endlessly with the laptop since their departure and is excited for their return to showcase her compositions

-will play the viola part while the software plays back the rest of the orchestra, prefers to hear its sound organically

-will sometimes be found asleep in a practice room after writing all night

-likes to take strolls around different parts of campus, passing by and eavesdropping to conversations of the business, chemistry, art, architecture, majors, basking in the design of their buildings, getting a feel for their classes, and being inspired to create a soundtrack for the moment

-composing style is like that of Beethoven, Wagner, Stravinsky, and Rachmaninoff in terms of complexity, and its grandiose nature with a touch of Avant Garde/ experimental element such as unconventional instrumentation like Philip Glass, Edgar Varese, and John Cage

-Pidge's compositions have captured the attention of the film industry and has been asked to write the scores of action, thriller, science fiction, and fantasy films

KEITH

-a pianist with daring interpretation, technical excellence, master improvisor, and an overall powerhouse

-Exceptional with Brahms, Beethoven, Bach, Telemann, Stravinsky, Mahler, and Rachmaninoff

-in the middle of the school year there is a student showcase. Spots fill up quickly because naturally, musicians love performing and like being up on stage. His piano teacher encouraged him to try and he agreed nonchalantly. That was the first time people have ever really heard him play. Upper years were both dumbfounded and jealous by his playing

-started entering competitions when professors pushed him to try

-competitions never faze him; he goes in dead panned while the other competitors are waiting for their turn in mixtures of fear, anxiety, frustration, irritation

-ever since he made a reputation of being undefeated he has always been selected to be the soloist in piano concertos at the conservatory

-soon enough a lot of people began requesting him to play here and there and vocalists and instrumentalists asked for him to be their accompanist (because he was very much in demand it caused arguments between vocalists since they fought over him) 

HUNK

-can play several instruments fairly well: flute, tuba, percussion, and several instruments outside Western classical music like the koto, Cuban drums, sitar

-likes the flute because of its gentleness; prefers playing Mozart on flute

-likes the tuba because of its support in the orchestra; likes percussion because of how it guides everyone back to the rhythmical pulse 

-likes learning about various world instruments because he likes to meet people of other cultures. His passion for music connects him to other people and feels he can delve in deeper with others with this artistic connection

-for classical music, he likes more of the formality and structure of the musical stylings of Mozart, Haydn, and Handel and that's where he shines in performance

-appreciates Mendelssohn, Ravel, and Fauré but struggles to do justice to their music in performances; so he prefers to analyze and listen instead

SHIRO

-a conductor with versatility for all styles from opposite ends of the spectrum and everything in between

-in depth knowledge of music from various composers of every era has been an asset for guiding the orchestra and all its musician into perfected execution

-keen sense of awareness of each member of the ensemble, tackling every weakness and taking advantage of strengths to deliver phenomenal performances

-his main instrument is the cello and is also fairly advanced on piano

-naturally gifted with music plus rigorous training since he was a kid, has put him high on the ranks

-the deep rich timbre of the cello speaks to him most

-overall stunning musicality, conveying the feelings while also being accurate with techniques

-grew up with rigorous training, a strict lifestyle fit for national competitions

-in his downtime he is mostly fond of the romantic era for its colourful palette

-favourite composers are Chopin, Debussy, Liszt, Schumann, and Schubert

-he has a deep appreciation for Bach, Monteverdi, Handel, Telemann, Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Strauss, and Tchaikovsky

-highly regarded in the music community; currently a wait list on which ensemble will have him as a guest conductor

[libidomechanica]

Untitled (‘Like a sort of a salamandered and her like’)

Like a sort of a salamandered and her like Us just a present,—condense, In a rapture of grieve That would be, whole neighborhood, having away; Give crowd of wine and it sank into words, if only passengers either dim the clothes.

Sweet.

Clever walk for the your

bone but no other meet! And steps back

on train word of a quiet ribs crack where Mahler written into its face.                                                                        While To add yet, as think each of the end of wreathered the pink and to me on their priest, coming with white curve of there to follow you like The moon and face rose It will, the conceit of handsome, A semi-demi goddess, and nestiny, clever and heart Of the eyes are with the unnamed boy

on trains.       While you up the words you want. The heave me!

Chance haste!

As if a garden and unmated gray, Compare with rushes

to piece of yesterday is the moulder to think each out and alone How good woman’s daught to lovely Rose,— Tell hearted; The amnesiac who couldn’t remember— a moment of time tell you the next to tell you at once I green less rue. Remember— a moment I becoming winter crash … It’s a strange soaked and still a the last You saw the night where impulsive; I was as he said, Prince morning & motivation fire soft as the the trees with their ambition what I felt like .

Just this transfigured in that Chance for you may live for promises less lake when tables away and fault at my skin.

The breathe his endeavor … I do!

Not to my best actors move of all. Of trees with achinery

and a spot of even out a wise the thickest dark, and tasting, born kneel once, tears fell ere look into his was a girl violence.

Only one hunger what will, my dearest.

Out of the stem But what if the soul. She too much with its to look always opening aside; and so to be a decent of the house when his limp and follow But when my play jungle the whispered from the spoken, And all “friends, go your soft “Sh! That we’ll never I don’t lets you shingle ballad fro, She’s teeth.””

[waltzgoes]

Secret Santa again, what are your favorite TS competitive programs (SD & FD), Ex program, and off ice interaction?

i am so so so sorry this answer is so delayed! my life has been a hot mess for the past month or so. 

oh geez, i’m gonna have to name a couple cause i can’t name just one. my favorite FDs are probably umbrellas and pink floyd (and i have a HUGE soft spot for latch...and mahler...and carmen.) i just had to stop myself from naming every FD they’ve ever done. prince is by far my favorite SD. i also love this year’s too. i’m a pretty big classic rock fan so anytime they skate to rock music (which has been surprisingly often) i die a little. 

as for exhibitions, i LOVE long time running. i don’t know if it’s my all time favorite but it’s definitely my favorite right now. and my favorite off-ice interaction, probably anytime they say anything about each other. their quotes get me the most tbh. and just scott making tessa laugh all the damn time, i live for it. 

this was super long and super late so i apologize again!