music

Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

Niall O'Donnell 12 Comments

Do Ti La Sol Fa Mi Re Do!

Beautifully done! (and yes, it is Sol, not So!)

Even if you haven’t seen The Sound of Music, you’re probably quite familiar with this little method of assigning syllables to the seven major musical notes.

It’s known as solfège, and is used to help a musician distinguish between different pitches of notes. It’s not something I’d ever given much thought about until one day, likely while I was living in Belgium, I saw The Sound of Music dubbed into French… Continue reading →

So Long, Marianne

Niall O'Donnell 5 Comments

I usually listen to music while I write, and sometimes while I’m thinking about what to write (usually I know long beforehand what I want to write, but sometimes I like to sit and let the ideas come. I think the music helps, and sometimes it gives me very specific ideas. Like this evening, for example. I was listening to the album Songs of Leonard Cohen (on vinyl, for extra hipster cred), and specifically the song “So Long, Marianne,” which of course made me think: why do we (well, Americans mainly) use so long to say goodbye? Continue reading →

Super! Smashing! Great!

Niall O'Donnell 14 Comments

Writing a post inspired by a Smashing Pumpkins song recently got me thinking about that word smashing.

Specifically, how in British English it’s used to mean great or fantastic. What’s the link between the most common meaning of the word (crushing/breaking), and this use?

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Que Sera Sera

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

… whatever will be, will be.

You might know the song. And you might know the language the title is in. Or you might think you might know…

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Revolver

Niall O'Donnell 14 Comments

That there, in the picture, is the Beatles album Revolver, and as it’s on vinyl, it’s revolving*.

Looking at that today got me thinking: is there a term for that? For a word or name that describes what the thing actually does? The album is called Revolver, and in its original format, it revolves*. A digger digs, and a dancer dances. Is there a word for this phenomenon?

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The White Album

Niall O'Donnell 25 Comments

Have you ever wondered why we call a group of songs released together by the same band or artist an album? No? Well, I guess you and I are just very different people then…

It occurred to me as strange recently while writing about mistletoe. If you recall, the plant’s Latin name is Viscus Album, with Album meaning white. How did we get from there to a music album?

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Guns N’ Roses

Niall O'Donnell 13 Comments

Mentioning Guns N’ Roses yesterday, I realised something: their use of punctuation in their name is perhaps not strictly correct!

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