By rojo117 on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 08:22 am:

hey alan...what kind of music are you interested in? What did you grow up on? What's been your favorite bands? Music is one of the most important things in my life as I find it should be in everyone's and it'd be interesting to hear what you like? Fill us in...

By adf on Monday, December 08, 2003 - 07:20 pm:

rojo; Classical and heavy metal. Havergal Brian (the 20th century's greatest little-known composer). Charles Tournemeire. Mahler, Widor, Eduard Tubin, Rachmaninoff, many, many more. Aerosmith. ZZ Top. Alice Cooper, Tina Turner, AC/DC, Rammstein. Billie Holiday.

By sneville on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 05:34 am:

being a musician,I find most music has value. the change of tempo,key changes and depth of classical to the simplistic flow,the hook of bluegrass. I have played guitar for about 30yrs and found that I still have only a "working knowlage" of it. I just wonder if that is the way a writer feels about writing... And if the music of writing IE the changes in tempo,keys and depth and the writing of music,the simplistic flow,the hook and so on tie in on a much deeper level than we think. To tell a story, be it in form of a tale,song or painting.The feeling I get when I'm done,the butterflies,cold chills or awe when I feel I've done it right. Geezee I do ramble a bit huh?..LOL

By blaze588 on Tuesday, December 09, 2003 - 10:42 am:

when there is nothing on the radio, i will turn to NPR (charleston,sc), they have a good selection of classical music. they play many different artist ,which most i have never heard of. they say the name and try to write it down or remember but foget. one of my all-time favorite movie is "Amadeus". love that movie, most movies i can find faults, not so in "Amadeus". alot of times after a night of drinking i come home and pop it in and fall asleept to it.

By adf on Wednesday, December 10, 2003 - 07:47 am:

sneville; True. After 35 years of writing, while comfortable at it, I still feel I'm only just scratching around the edges of what it, and I, can do with words. blaze; If you haven't already, you should buy or rent the DVD director's cut of AMADEUS. You'll enjoy the heck out of it. A bit of a bolero, a bit of a fugue, a building crescendo with variations, and what do we have? AC/DC's WHO MADE WHO?...the video of which is SF, by the way. Magnard, Pingoud, Tanayev, Tvett...so many wonderful, yet unplayed, composers.

By pat on Sunday, December 28, 2003 - 06:43 pm:

to alan.in regards to your musical tastes,have you had the pleasure of seeing or hearing the works of the "Trans Siberian Orchestra"?if not,try and check them out,you mat be pleasantly surprised.also,just finished Flinxs Folly,and am eagerly awaiting your next work.thank you.

By blaze588 on Monday, December 29, 2003 - 03:11 pm:

mr.foster, i got just the "AMADEUS - DVD directors cut" for christmas. i do enjoy it very much.

By sneville on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 04:40 am:

I think if I was going to write and play the soundtrack for a movie of Commonwealth origin, I would shoot for mix of Pat Methany and Carpenter/Post(Escape From New York et all) possibly Tangrine Dreamish. with a light Trance feel.I think it would be a real learning experince blending all that with live strings..ah,to dream....

By KeeperOfTheGood on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 04:34 pm:

Hey oh. I would like to further suggest some sound ideas for a Commonwealth composition. The following is my supposition, drawn on Alan’s descriptions of the Thranx over the scope of the Commonwealth novels. The Thranx are a sub-terrestrial species. They live eat and die underground. Well, historically they did. They are also a fairly striated culture that has a general difficulty thinking outside the box as it were. Hence the notion that a sanitation engineer could never be a politician etc. I would have to believe that their musical history would also reflect both their environment and their history, even when taken above ground. Consider first that the Thranx vocalize with clicks and whistles. Second consider that they are communicating by clicking and whistling in the dark. Hand gestures would be superfluous to this type of dispersed communication. Having at times spelunked, echo would be a component to vocalized communication over distance. Hence it can be understood how and why the evolvement of complex hand gesticulations for face-to-face communication occurred. Consider also that multiple Thranx at multiple points singing even in concert would generate very complex echo harmonics. When they as a species eventually ventured to the open ground, they would have lost that aural complexity, and further necessitated a greater degree of hand gesticulations. Low Thranx, High Thranx? High Thranx’s evolvement from above ground exploration can be further explained in that initially the military and leadership would have been the central figures to this environment. Only later, after the surface had become secured and tamed would the worker class Thranx have ventured above ground. Seems logical to me anyway. So if I was to score for a commonwealth picture, I would use pipers (Pastoral and Uilleann), oboists, and flutists for the Thranx component, I would also have them recorded underground in a cave network to generate that complex of echoes. Here I would have to be a bit of a purist. Natural echo has so much more character that computer generated. As to who that is human that could do this? Tangerine Dream Is not a band I have listened to in a long time. Though yes, musicians in that line could better understand the nature of music as song and communication and art and poetry all at once. As to how and what to score for the human component, well there is a mouth full. How would you in a seven-minute piece summarize the scope of the human experience? I would have to lean back to 2001 A Space Odyssey in that that was a full score soundtrack. Instead of the 15 song soundtrack from various pop idol stars who will see the end of their careers before the movie is released on DVD, maybe invite Kitaro, Yo Yo Ma, Loreena McKennitt, Philip Glass, Mike Oldfield, etc. to dinner and an all-night-long open jam session and see what happens? As a final note. These are downloads, rather than streaming. For an good sample of Pastoral Pipes check out (and yes it’s a geocities site. Can’t be helped, it may be down for bandwidth use, be patient, it is worth it): http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Cyprus/1832/major.rm For Uilleann pipes see: Http://www.larkcamp.com/MP3/Fiona/SelkieLarkRook.mp3 For a nice sample MP3 of oboe: http://www.cygnetstudios.com/Groups/MP3s/IlEstBelEtBon.MP3 These are only listed to give an idea of the sounds of these instruments. I’ve put these here, as they are not common. That isn’t to say I don’t enjoy these as pieces of music. For those that enjoy Mozart, he wrote a fair bit for flute and oboe. Worth looking into. My favourites are his chamber music flute pieces.

By sneville on Sunday, January 18, 2004 - 05:22 pm:

very good idea,Cave with woodwinds.also contemplate the clicking of feet claws in such an enviroment as in the dance...I like it.

By adf on Tuesday, January 20, 2004 - 02:46 am:

Keeper; I'm always amazed when readers put so much thought into the expansion of perpiphral ideas. Imaging thranx music,much less a thranx orchestra, is almost too much fun. Pan pipes, too, with their haunting overtones. And what would the thranx make of mareacas? Musical instruments, or an attempt at communication. As I'm writing this from Caracas, it's hard not to think of them. And envision thranx with stringed instruments, able to pluck or bow or do both simultaneously, since they have four usable hands, each with four fingers.

By KeeperOfTheGood on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 08:06 am:

Hey oh Alan! Thank you! I hope your travels find you well. And I would think we all would wish that you are not honored by SPACELIGHT for a great many years hence, and certainly that you are the one to do the noshing. Love of snakes notwithstanding, a cavernous view of their interior should be left to the professionals: veterinarians and bad guides. I like the idea of a Thranx with a pan flute. As to the maracas: sudden image – Thranx in black velvet (ovipositors instead of tails), sombrero at feet and a red red rose mid-stem in mandibles; half-stem no leaf; to the base of the flower; to the look of delight and a reach for another red red rose. LOL. Of course this would be done to an all Thranx mariachi band, with each Thranx playing two instruments. Okay, I do know that Venezuelan music is different than Mexican, however, the foundations of Spanish influence are heard in both. For whatever reason, mariachi reminds me more of Romany music. Similar instruments in both styles of music is the most likely reason, not to mention Flamenco et al for dance influence, and the most influential of all the Hollywoodization of various world cultures. This does lead to the question of a space-going nomadic Thranx hive doesn’t it? Living not only outside the sphere of the homeworld, but also out of all accepted or expected norms of the Thranx as a species. I wonder if they would adhere to a more aggressive, warrior like standard than the scientific-agrarian Thranx that helped foment the commonwealth. I have often wondered how and why such as the Thranx have developed such a physically verbose language. Thus the explanation I proposed which is one that to me made the best sense. It is my supposition that the Thranx would need the physical component to compensate for the absence of echo. This is opposed to the Aann, who in open-plain desert would need a very physical language to hunt prey (including each other). Kinda hard for FRVvTt and Ttrid to hunt down Rriv AA in open desert, without the added burden for FRVvTt saying ‘yo, Ttrid, you ready over there?’ cause you just know that Rriv AA packs a Howitzer! It may be a good idea for a one or two chapter pro- or epi- log on the history of the Thranx (pre-space going). Pro- or epi- logs would, I imagine, be a good way of getting around publishers as well. Easily enough said that it merely provides depth and background to the story. To tell another truth here, I am still trying to envision how a Thranx would surf? It is one of the anomalous descriptions of the Commonwealth and its denizens that you have written about, see Orphan Star. Anomalies I can accept easily enough, I have seen enough of life to know it does not always follow the rules. However, this one bears thinking about. I would have to imagine a type of slim-line aero-foam body suit that re-directs the breathing spicules to above the head, or incorporates an oxygen system similar to scuba divers, or possibly an air bladder system that auto-inflates whenever it is out of the water then channels the air to the spicules. The aero-foam would be needed to provide neutral boyancy, and really the Thranx could bring surfing to a whole new science. Not to mention Thranx deep-sea diving if that buoyancy were adjustable. Of course an absolute prerequisite for either activity would have to be insanity. What life is like without the Last Resort? Could also be an interesting place for Flinx to take a recalcitrent Thranx? Okay, maybe I have too much time on my hands.

By KeeperOfTheGood on Sunday, January 25, 2004 - 08:13 am:

Hey oh Sneville Well, never thought of that. In fact it had completely slipped my mind that the Thranx used hand snaps as part of communication, envisioning castanet’s here. This is done mostly to emphasize a point, or in place of regular punctuation, or in moments of duress, if I remember correctly. By dance, do you mean as Ballet or Tap or Celtic influenced dance such as Riverdance? When I read your post my own first thought was Tap dancing to the Taiko Drummers. Though to be fair, the Thranx doing the Tapping would have to really work it to compete with the drums. LOL. Okay, let me share this with you, I think it a bit funny as it reflects the smallness of our world, and I have left the preceding paragraph intact rather than doing a re-write. I had to Google to see if I had spelt Taiko correctly. Turns out that I hadn’t, so I corrected the spelling as you see it here in its romanji form. I then read the Taiko sites blurb on the history of these drums. Funny thing of it all is, paraphrasing here, that Daihachi Oguchi revitalized these drums as instruments by using them in the 1950’s and 60’s in jazz performances. Jazz is of course the music of Tap. Actually, Tap in a cavern would probably be very powerful. Especially with drums, and a waterfall for drone. Counter point the dance and drums with some woodwinds and a piano and we may start a trend. In terms of instruments, I would also suggest incorporating a didgeridoo as well. A rather underrated instrument in my humble opinion. Could easily be used in a piece about or depicting the Thranx mating flight, expressing the sound of their wings in flight, the stirring rush of wind past their chitin. It would be a piece for didgeridoo, piccolo, flute, hi-hat, and snare. Ah, can you hear it now? Oh oh oh, Alan. Sudden thought. Do the Thranx actually fly in their mating flights, or is it more a ceremonial dance similar to the dance bees do to impart nectar navigation information to the hive?

By sneville on Tuesday, January 27, 2004 - 10:19 pm:

Ok a didgeridoo is a cool sound.The drone will fit in nice with the rest,and I've been playing around with it already.Might I suggest a bullroarer for wing sound reinforcement. Only thing that I wonder is if the droning in a cave might be ear spliting....LOL

By KeeperOfTheGood on Sunday, February 01, 2004 - 10:20 am:

Hey oh Okay, I give. Thranx tapping in a cavern I will concede to be a mite too far. I guess we will just have to leave it with some ballet for four arms and a very long waist. LOL. I think that our ideas of what a bullroarer is are different though. I had the impression that it was one of those hand-cranked sirens fire trucks used back when they were considering trading in the horses for that new contraption of H. Ford. Looking it up on the net it is nothing like that. Were you thinking of the siren as well? As to what I have found out, a bullroarer is a flat board you whirl around your head, the soft toning made is generally called the Voices of God (with variation depending on culture). Now I don’t know about you, but when it comes to swinging things in enclosed places my mom always said… LMAO. Okay, gotta stop this laughing; any harder and I be splittin chitin. So Sneville, do you play professionally or only as a hobby? Another thought on Commonwealth music: would you do the movie music in English, Thranx, Terranglo, instrumental, or a combination of? I think Rico should try posting an online translation (Thranxlation?) of a popular song that we may all know to see it in Thranx. Then we will need to have someone perform and record it. Finish this by having the performed song posted for all our listening pleasure. Thranx may or may not translate well to song, but I think it would be good to try.

By sneville on Monday, February 02, 2004 - 05:29 am:

I was thinking of the string board thingy, however I was thinking more of how I would get the sound. The bug band wouldn't need a Bullroarer as I figgure they have wings to do it. I do the music as a hobby. I do ok in the studio but suffer from stage fright. Also I play most of the music myself, guitar, bass, keyboards and use the computer for drums and samples. I like live drums but setting up a kit in the den makes it a bit hard to get around, and with a 10yr old and a 13yr old they can't leave them alone.HEHEH. I have a friend that is a master at guitar so he does the lead stuff for me. And I would love to hear a Thranx song also.

By sneville on Wednesday, March 03, 2004 - 02:28 am:

Also,With the advances in computer music its hard not to use the editing and arrangement tools. A thought came to me of just how many horns a bug could play at one time.Tower Of Power eat your heart out.and the idea of a D'uar(not sure of the spelling there sorry.)in the multihand(claws) of a Thranx.

By Daz on Wednesday, December 31, 2008 - 08:26 am:

Just a thought... with so many clicks and whistling sounds available to them, how would a Thranx choir or acappella ensemble sound?

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