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You heard us right! Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Cover Songs “There’s the whole world at your feet.” Mary Poppins (1964) Mary Poppins is a film released in 1964. Julie Andrews plays the character of Mary Poppins , a beautiful nanny that transforms misbehaving kids into well-behaving kids with the use of fun and a little bit of magic. This movie is one of the most whimsical films that Disney has done (in my opinion). It contrasts dreary England with the imaginative magic of a whole new world. That contrast makes the whimsy that Mary Poppins brings forth to the children and the audience for that matter, all the more sensational. Adding to the whimsy is a typically cheery soundtrack. The soundtrack includes classics such as Sister Suffragette , The Life I Lead , The Perfect Nanny , A Spoonful of Sugar , A Jolly Holiday , Chim Chim Cheree ,  supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Stay Awake , I love to Laugh , Tuppence a Bag , Fidelity Fiduciary Bank , A Man has Dreams , and Let’s go Fly a Kite . These are all amazing songs sung throughout the film to highlight emotionally charged scenes.  The highlighted song for this article from the gorgeous 1964 film is, of course, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious . Check the highlighted Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Cover Songs below! Cover by  Harry Connick, Jr. Parodied Cover by The New Fangled Four Cover by Ryan Cassell  and Bella Cassell Metal Cover by Andy Rehfeldt  and Sara Hatchett Cover by Deredia Cover by Miche Fambro With so many amazing songs within the film, it’s hard to choose a single one to showcase the different covers available on the internet. But here are our honourable mentions. Mary Poppins A Cappella Medley by Backtrack Chim Chim Cher-ee by Amanda Castro Band

Youssef Qassab’s journey in music is as inspiring as it is dynamic, showcasing his unwavering passion and growing success. His love for music sparked with Guns N’ Roses’ iconic “Sweet Child of Mine” and has since propelled him across borders and into the hearts of listeners worldwide. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, and later relocating to Syria, Youssef found his voice and honed his craft, ultimately stepping onto a global stage. From his memorable performance of Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” on The Voice Arabia in 2012 to his move to the USA to pursue his music career, Youssef has consistently pushed boundaries. His covers and original songs, such as “Still Call It Home,” resonate with emotion and artistic depth, making him a standout talent in the music world. Learning about Youssef Qassab It all started with Gun N’ Roses’ guitar riff of “Sweet Child of Mine”. From that moment Youssef was hooked on music. That love only grew.  Y oussef was born in Baghdad, Iraq, later moving to Syria later on. It was in Syria that he learned what it means to be a musician and learned what music means to him. Youssef Qassab is a gorgeous voice that was on “The Voice Arabia”. In 2012, he stood in front of the judges to sing “Use Somebody” originally by Kings of Leon. This gave him great exposure on Arabic Media Networks. and on the internet. On YouTube, his audition for The Voice reached almost 2.5 million views. Qassab writes on his youtube channel that, “When I Was On The Voice T.V Show … I Was Just Starting Out As A Singer … It Was A Good Experience And It Has Driven Me To Be A Better Singer, And Hopefully I Got Since I Was A Newbie.” Since his audition, he’s moved to the USA to further his music career. And that he did. Both his original music and his covers grew in popularity. As do many cover artists throughout the music industry, Youssef has original music. “ Still Call It Home ” is a sweet alternative rock song in tribute to Syria. Youssef describes it as, “A Song For A Place That’s Suffering At The Moment.” His covers gained popularity online reaching  Almost 5 Million Views On Youtube In More Than 90 Countries Around The World. Though that’s not all, musicians have shared the covers of their songs. The band, 30 Seconds to Mars, shared Youssef’s cover of their song, “From Yesterday”.  His popularity kept increasing. One of his most recent covers is “ Stricken ” originally by Disturbed. Yossef puts his own spin on the cover keeping close to the vocals and style of Disturbed.  His style is self-described as Hard Rock, Arena Rock, and Heavy Metal, which he brings to each and every cover – changing the original song to something a lot heavier. In the case of “Stricken”, it remains the same heavy metal style as the original.  Youssef Qassab Covers Here are some of his covers. And be warned, they are fantastic. The rest of his covers can be found on his YouTube channel . Final Thoughts Youssef Qassab’s musical evolution demonstrates his versatility and passion, which continue to captivate audiences worldwide. From his early days in Syria to his rising fame on The Voice Arabia and his impactful covers and original work, Youssef remains a force to be reckoned with. His ability to breathe new life into iconic songs while staying true to his rock and heavy metal roots reflects his authenticity and talent. With nearly 5 million YouTube views and recognition from bands like 30 Seconds to Mars, Youssef’s journey is far from over. Explore his incredible repertoire, and let his music inspire you—his voice truly is one you don’t want to miss. Let me know what you think in the comments!!

Love is the basis of Philip Serino and his music. A love for music, a love for his audience, and a love for his family all combine into his sound. Introducing Philip Serino With family at the foundation of music, he was a part of a musical community from a very young age. Growing up in a family of worship leaders, he was always surrounded by music and music lovers. Music was always something larger than life. Family didn’t stop at the inspirational start, in his present music career, he regularly collaborates with his family members including his brothers Andrew Serino , Matt Serino, and Thomas Serino, and his cousin DJ . The Serino brothers have a strong connection with music, separately and together. “Burning House” Live Cover by The Serino Brothers and Nathan Hale Creating, producing and even touring with his brothers is exciting for them (not to mention their audiences). The collaboration allows them to bring their sound forward to one harmony. One example is the Serino brother’s cover of “Burning House,” originally by Cam. This is a fantastic and moving cover full of passion. Each musician brings the piece to a deeper level of emotion. “We made it happen. It wasn’t even spectacular; it was just, “Let’s make music.” It didn’t even get a lot of views, but it was like, “Wow! We just came and made something happen”, Serino explains how publishing the cover felt. Cover Music Cover music for all of them, Serino especially, is a way to take a song somewhere that you and your audience wouldn’t expect. The different perspective from a cover of the same song is entertaining and doesn’t get boring. “I did this one version of “Annie’s Song” by John Denver, and it sounds completely different from the original. I think it’s a really good practice for musicians to be able to cover the song, not to try to imitate the actual original but making their own version,” Serino said, “the artist, they are storytellers, even though John Denver — I don’t know if he actually wrote this song — but he sang that song his way and another artist can sing it with a different perspective, and it’s just fascinating.” Philip Serino’s Career in Music Serino’s music, both past and present, shows great diversity. As nostalgic as it is, his love for music was sparked by his passion for video games. Video games were a way for him to connect with others as he moved around quite a bit as a kid. “I loved my Gameboy. It gave me so much serenity. But it wasn’t so much the game itself that kept my mind at peace. It was the music,” Serino reminisces. His life in music continued from childhood to adulthood, starting with the alto saxophone, then drums, bass guitar, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and voice, and ending with the piano. It’s hard to put his finger on a single genre when his sound can be described as Pop, A Cappella, Soundtrack, and Electronic. A music career is a lot of hard work, exceptionally so diverse. Serino’s resume as a musician is extensive and incredible throughout the USA. He graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in Music Composition. At the time, only one freshman was chosen for the top choir. In 2007, that was Serino. During his senior year, he was the featured composer for the school’s Student Soloist Concert and world premiered. His orchestral piece, “Ruach Ha Kodesh” (Hebrew for “Holy Spirit), was broadcast around the world. America’s Got Talent He was featured on America’s Got Talent 2007 with the men’s A cappella group, PLUtonic. They performed Serino’s musical arrangements. Philip Serino’s Continuing Education Four years later, in 2011, PLUtonic took first place at the ICCA Quarterfinals, where Serino won the “Outstanding Soloist” award. At the ICCA Semifinals in Berkeley, PLUtonic won third place. Again, he won the “Outstanding Arrangement”. With such an impressive background, He’s a musician who aims to do everything: composing, lyric writing, production, guitar, piano-octave singer/bass II and alto saxophone player. His versatility doesn’t stop there. He can and has performed in congregations, choirs, orchestras, bands, and many more. There are many projects and dreams for his future. What’s Next for Philip Serino? As a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), he’s a musician with a business in mind. The ASCAP assists artists in ensuring they are being adequately paid for their intellectual property. His work has been published in Pavane Publishing and Santa Barbara Music Publishing . His main business is simply music and sharing that music with the world. “I want to establish my business to help composers, producers, and artists. I want to start that project and keep with it, where we create demos from scratch and send them off. We’re just a music laboratory, like a beat factory”, he explains. Other ideas include a music café, film and television composition, trailer and advertisement composition, video game music rearrangements, going on tour, and so much more. “I have a lot of ideas. I want to help people creatively share their stories. TV and film are a passion of mine; that’s why I went to school for music composition. That’s the big dream,” Serino describes. Having such plans makes life hard. For many musicians, it is balancing life, love and work. Is difficult. With so many projects on the go and in the planning stages, it’s not easy to balance all of them. It starts with being patient with yourself and knowing what you want from your life, not just in one particular spot. Focusing all your energy on one aspect of life impacts the other areas. Concluding Thoughts: Philip Serino “If that’s something that you love when it comes to music, or whatever your passion is you don’t want to squander it. You don’t want to make it something that is not enjoyable for you; I had to let go of my past, of my obsession with music. If it’s creating a problem in your relationship, and it’s creating a problem, then it is a problem”. Love is the basis of Serino’s actions. His passion for music is vital even if it’s not currently full-time. It’s a passion for him as much as it is love. “You need to look at yourself, your life, and be thankful for everything you have, and realize that this is for me, that what I have with music is all bonus.”

It’s one thing to have a passion for music, it’s another to want to protect it. Dennis James is an organist and historic preservationist. His passion for music leads him to preserve music from long ago eras. He focuses specifically on the genre of silent films. Something that not many people know is that silent films weren’t completely silent. They were often accompanied by musical scores. These scores are what Dennis James aims to preserve. This is an interview with Dennis James and Dylanna Fisher of Switching Styles. How did you start in music? I began my musical career at the age of seven by studying the “stomach-piano” (accordion). Because it was the local instrument of choice for budding musicians in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957.  However, it was one day during Science Class in seventh grade. I had an epiphany that caused me to change instruments.  I had the realization that none of my classmates wanted to hear my renditions of Lady of Spain complete with bellows shake. We had an electronic organ at home. Previously, I had embarrassed my older brother Rodger with competitive technique display in a bout of sibling rivalry when I was 9 and he was 12. I guess it was a no-brainer for me to make the shift finally when I turned 12. I played my first pipe organ a few weeks later on a visit to my accordion teacher’s church where he served as the organist and I think it was at that visit the seed was planted. Who inspired you within your music career? The very first was the brash, showy, ragtime/honky-tonk TV pianist Joanne Castle. She played regularly on the 1950’s popular Lawrence Welk television show . This was a particular parental “family entertainment” favourite at the time. In fact, I pestered my parents a lot about getting a piano. With an organ having already been acquired for my brother, the suggestion was made that I consider imitating another TV show musician, Myron Floren, who was the accordionist on the Lawrence Welk show. That bore fruit when, at age 6. I spotted an accordion in a pawn shop window near a favourite family restaurant in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. My parents bought it. They surprised me by giving it to me as a present on my 7th birthday. This led to my starting lessons immediately thereafter. How did your family impact your musical career? They were all very supportive. To the point that my Dad went so far as to build French door into the walls at the entrances to the room where the practice organ was located. It was difficult for the rest of the family to do anything, like watch TV, when I practiced. I’ll always remember starting a session and hearing those doors slide shut. They walled me in while everyone else went on about their business at home. How do you think your life would have been different if you continued with the accordion? I doubt if I would have stayed with music at all. I would have likely pursued my lifelong interest in oil painting or another similar interest. When did your interest in the silent film soundtracks begin? Gaylord Carter , the major touring film player at the time, flew in from Los Angeles to perform at the Tower Theatre’s Wurlitzer organ in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (near to downtown Philadelphia).  The film was Douglas Fairbanks in the 1920 swashbuckling adventure drama “The Mark of Zorro” and Gaylord played his own quite thrilling score made up of a combination of published theatre organ generics used in the scorings in the 1920s plus his own inimitable improvisation cascades. It was a sold-out house. I remember eagerly turning to my dad at the end. Then, I was thoroughly impressed by the cheers and standing ovation from the sellout crowd. I said to him those fateful words “I can do that!”  I went home that very night after the post-performance reception. I pulled out some music paper. Then I wrote out his entire score from memory.  To honor Gaylord Carter, I create my own score inspired by his work. I preserve about 20% of his efforts in my historical revival work. How old were you for your first organ plus orchestra screening at Indiana University? My recollection is it was done in the spring of 1970 so I would have been 19 Can you describe your first experience in silent film performance with live music? My first attempt to play my own prepared music to a silent film that starred a cross-eyed actor Larry Semon to be shown as an act within a high school variety show in 1967. I ended up stringing together a series of 1920’s popular songs as my score. It was in the summer of 1969. A couple of years later, I saw and heard the first live music silent film show. It had accompaniment by a professional theatre pipe organ player.  It was during my first break after having begun freshman year studies at Indiana University. How would you describe Gaylord Carter and his music? Gaylord was not the “top” musician of his day. However, he is the silent film player that lived the longest – well into the revival era that enabled my career. He taught me such show business necessities as how to speak to an audience of 2,000-plus without a microphone. Since inevitably somewhere the microphone wouldn’t work; something has since happened to me several times!  He was a cliche player. He focused on cluing essential basic emotional reactions to the film in the audience. And he was not very much concerned with the niceties of thematic applications. So, he paid little attention to motives developments and the rest that go into true music composition. What impact does music have in film? Thinking in particular of the silent films, I think it was best outlined LA Times article from October 2014 tat I keep on file: “Mocked, ignored, the victim of a massive cultural disinformation campaign that insisted these movies were too simple to take seriously, silent film has managed to outwit history. Not only is there a phoenix-like rebirth of interest in the medium, but the films themselves and the artifacts surrounding them are constantly coming to light in rich and unexpected ways. To be seen to their best advantage, however, silent films should be experienced, as they were in the medium’s glory days, with live musical accompaniment. To understand what makes silent film so special, the central place of music can’t be avoided. The live music enhances what we see, bringing us inside the film. As the late film authority William Everson explained several years ago, ‘The score minimized flaws. It added punctuation and feeling. It stretched the emotionalism and guided the audience into the right frame of mind.’ It’s a major crime, absolutely deadly, to show these films without the proper accompaniment.’ To enter this world is to understand why Mary Pickford, one of its biggest stars, famously said that “it would have been more logical if silent pictures had grown out of the talking instead of the other way around.” (Quote from “Silent films and their soaring music are rediscovered” by Kenneth Turan, from the LA Times) What appeal does a silent film with live music have to the audience? In my over 50 years of experience doing this, there is always a marvelling new fascination among the younger viewing generations. They are captivated by the live music component of what is now a nearly forgotten part of the original practice of exhibiting film. I recreate those days from nearly 100 years ago with my specialty approach. This involves performing stylistically authentic and period-appropriate live musical accompaniments at the film screenings. This original matching music to the period images facilitated the audience’s emotional responses in a manner already quite highly developed in the industry. There is a similar continuity to the present day with modern performances of other historically fully developed, music-enhanced theatrical music forms: opera, operetta, Broadway shows, ballet, vaudeville and so many others. My passion stems, I guess, by that I like the concept that it would have been more logical, thinking of film as an art form progression, for the silent film to have evolved from the sound film.  To experience in live real-time experience movies the way they were meant to be. As performed in a large communal setting with the film image exactly as seen now 80 to 100 years ago, and heard with historically accurate original musical accompaniment performed with a thorough and fully realized respect for the past and with full confidence of serving the presentation desires of the filmmakers themselves. If one loves movies as do most moviegoers today, seeing and hearing, them as they were originally intended to be experienced simply should not be missed. Do you think that the appeal of silent films will change over the years? Of course. Those shifts in appeal are what enables the survival and periodic revivals for most all of the successful presentation art forms down through the years. I am certain that what people see and hear at the Metropolitan Opera today when a Mozart Opera is presented is quite far from the original 18th c. original conceptions and productions, if only from the changes in the instruments used and the stylistic nuances of the players. You’ve performed the soundtrack for Jekyll and Hyde , and Nosferatu , among others. Which of them stands out as a favourite? Well, my favourite career silent film scoring memory, dates back to 1993. I was living in Berkeley, California and renowned film preservationist and cultural philanthropist David W. Packard engaged me to play to the “The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg” silent film as my debut performance at his humanities foundation’s Wurlitzer pipe organ-equipped restored Stanford Theatre in somewhat nearby Palo Alto down on the Peninsula. I had already performed to the popular silent film version of the Heidelberg story under the auspices of film collector Paul Killiam at a film festival in the Midwest a few years previous. I found the score in my storage files. Preparations went along just fine. That is, until the day before the Palo Alto performance. David phoned and asked for any final setup details, arrival time and such, and during the conversation, he happened to mention that he was really looking forward to seeing Norma Shearer in the film. I flippingly replied that Norma Shearer wasn’t in the film. It was Dorothy Gish. A bit heatedly David said, “No, it is Norma Shearer with Ramon Navarro”. I said that I really didn’t want to argue about it. However, this 1916 film stars Dorothy Gish and Wallace Reid. There was this long pause. then we both realized that there must have been two silent film versions of the same story. David said he was screening the MGM 1928 one directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Well, that version was a film I had not yet seen nor known about hitherto. David gently asked what we could do and I asked to think about it a moment. Then I asked if he already had the print and was told the print was already in the booth. I told him to call in the projectionist and get him a room in a nearby hotel preparing for what I envisioned would be an all-nighter project. Then I asked him to set up a standard 6’ folding table in the theatre, bring in a photocopy machine, two cans of rubber cement, a ream of photocopy paper plus a paper cutter and a 1 1/2″ three-ring notebook. I said I’d be there in 45 minutes to begin. On my way, I stopped in at the Stanford University music library to get ahold of the Sigmund Romberg operetta’s vocal score. That’s what we did. And it indeed took a straight-through 23 hours and 15 minutes work session without any breaks to create an entirely new, precisely synchronized, all-Romberg plus period generics source music compilation score following the historical period practices of the scoring professionals as practiced in the silent film industry. This was predominantly assembled out of the operetta material just as I’d done with the earlier film starring Dorothy Gish titled, “In Old Heidelberg.” That film, however, was entirely different in every way from the Lubitsch 1928 version based on the same material. All of that prior scoring work was entirely unusable. David sat up with me all night in the little theatre office upstairs watching me work and observing closely, step by step, everything that I did.  We would screen a scene of the film, and then I’d think about it a bit, scan through the entire Romberg operetta score for possibilities considering plot sequence, character assignments, scene atmospherics, emotional cues and implications, all while weighing the music styles and key orientations. I would find something that fit and place it in my mind. I played it through with my memory of the images while conducting myself along to ensure synchronization. Then, I pasted it up to assemble into the notebook. After that, I called the projectionist in again to run the next scene. We did that progressively, scene by scene, through the whole night and right on through into the next day. Finishing up the score assembly just 12 minutes before the start of my debut performance left no time to permit my actually playing any of it in advance. so the niceties of organ registration and key manipulations had to be done ‘on the fly.’ I’m happy to report that that score turned out so perfectly that I still perform it exactly as I assembled it that hectic all night session in 1993! How do you choose the songs or soundtracks to perform? The way I work primarily is through performance of either the original published scores that were distributed along with the film prints or scores I assemble faithfully following the compilation scoring guides sent along with the films to assemble scores from original period-published music intended for cueing purposes. There is this remarkable flow that happens where I’m looking at the screen and reading my carefully prepared and rehearsed music that causes the music to come out as a continuously synchronous emotion sequence matching the visuals like a perfectly fit glove on a hand. The visual cues go into my eyes. My brain processes the combination of audience reactions underway. It also considers the performance needs of the instrument at hand. Additionally, it calculates precision timings for the music tempos related to the unfolding scene contents and outcomes. This occurs in a fully synchronous spontaneity. I’m not even conscious of what the added expressive choices are in the real-time of performance having now been continually doing this for over fifty years. The basis of it all is informed by the time I spent many years ago working with veteran professional silent film scorers such as Lee Erwin, Gaylord Carter and Dr. C. A. J. Parmentier, all of whom were still active in the 1960s and 70’s when I was coming to the profession. Learning a lot of the basics of period stylistic revival and essential professional procedures really informed my nascent developing technique. As in the case of  Broken Blossoms (1919), you’ve been called a musical detective. How did that start? My interest in finding and preserving historical film scores grew out of my discovery that there were actual original scores prepared for silent film accompanists to use back in the original exhibitions period.  This discovery came about by my seeing the first page of the conductor’s part to Louis F. Gottschalk’s published full orchestra score to D. W. Griffith’s 1919 film  Broken Blossoms . This was used for illustration in the seminal motion picture theatre architectural history book,  The Best Remaining Seats , published in the 1960s. I chased down the author, Ben M. Hall who was based in New York City and then working as Time magazine’s film critic. He led me to an archive contact that held both the complete musical score with full orchestral parts, and a bit more hunting led me to a completely preserved theatrical print of the film.  I decided to present my first organ plus orchestra screening at Indiana University with a performance that filled the 3,800 seat I.U. Auditorium accomplished with me at the organ together with a fellow student conducting the local Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. Can you tell me more about the film,  Broken Blossoms ( 1919)? Here’s some information I have on file: “Broken Blossoms”, which stars Lillian Gish as a poor girl from London’s seedy Limehouse district who’s brutally abused her father and later falls in love with a Chinese man, is often regarded and dismissed as filmmaker D. W. Griffith’s apology for his celebration of the Klu Klux Klan in The Birth of a Nation. Because Broken Blossoms is so earnest a portraiture of an impossible love between the races, it’s tempting to accept Griffith’s claims that he didn’t mean any harm with The Birth of a Nation. Griffith, of course, was too smart to allow a film like Broken Blossoms to be taken as a simple blanket apology. Through the film’s poetic intertitles, Griffith tackles the complicated love between Lucy Burrows (Gish) and Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess). He also addresses the critics who accused him of racism with “the whip of unkind words and deeds.” The love story at the center of Broken Blossoms is deliberately overstuffed, but unmistakably coloured with infinite shades of biting irony and social critique. Griffith painstakingly evokes China as a serene Buddhist paradise, but Cheng’s philosophy of life is really no different than that of any good Christian. (Cheng tells a group of skylarking sailors: “What thou dost not want others to do to thee, do thou not to others.”) Cheng arrives in the godless streets of London and is soon seen as just another “chink storekeeper.” He’s handed a book about the perils of hell from a group of missionaries leaving for China on their way to convert so-called heathens, though they’re clearly oblivious to the horrors that reside within their own “scarlet house of sin.” The film’s feminist appeal lies in Griffith’s photojournalistic evocation of the Limehouse district as a deathtrap for women. Lucy is advised against marriage by a woman who washes clothes for a roomful of sweaty children. Just as Griffith felt he was falsely accused of racism, the film’s heroine constantly suffers the scorn of her vicious father. Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp) is a monster, but Griffith understands the man’s frustrated desire to lash out against something in the face of economic and masculine defeat. So horrible is Lucy’s torture at the hands of her father that she has to literally sculpt a smile from her perpetually downtrodden expression using the tips of her fingers. Beaten to a pulp by Battling, Lucy seeks refuge inside Cheng’s shop. She faints on the rug like a broken flower and awakens as his White Blossom. “Her beauty so long hidden shines out like a poem,” declares one the film’s intertitles, and Griffith recognizes the simple yet incredible power of an unforced smile. Cheng feeds this beauty with the rays he steals from the lyric moon. Because cinematic convention forbade physical contact between his actors, Griffith had to settle for grand poetic gestures and dramatic artifice to evoke the rapturous, nurturing love between Lucy and Cheng. For Griffith, Broken Blossoms was intended in part as a supreme act of reconciliation. But the film works less self-consciously as an ode to misdirected contempt, selfless love, and various modes of worship. Just as the film’s extended boxing sequence is an act of brutal masculine reverence, Griffith recognizes Cheng’s love for Lucy as an act of holy worship. Because social convention forbids their love, Lucy and Cheng persevere in death. And Griffith lovingly and hauntingly evokes this transcendence via a shot of a man worshipping in a Buddhist temple and ships dancing in the distant horizon. (This information comes from a film essay  “Broken Blossoms” By Ed Gonzalez) When did you start performing for a live audience? Let’s see. I think that began around 1966. We bought a little Kinsman-brand “rock style,” very heavy, two manual Italian spinet organ device. This was before the single row of keys so-called “Keyboard” rock band instrument devices. We used it to drag around for my forays into pop music garage bands. These bands were quite popular for dance-playing in my South Jersey high school years. My first successful band was called ‘Vicious Omelette’ with the yolk half of the name came from the coats inherited from an earlier band called ‘The Yellow Jackets.’ I say success because the other one was an ONLY-covers band. One night, I found that at a dance when I’d got really fed up with playing that same organ solo from “Light My Fire” over and over again. I made up my own and played it on the spot. The lead singer who was in charge of the band stopped the song and ordered me to play the solo just like it was on the record or quit — so I quit. I met him again 25 years later at my high school reunion. he apologized, mentioning he thought I was the only really musically talented one, this after he was told that next night I was flying to LA to be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno performing in the backup band with Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Anyway, I wanted to call our new group ‘Vociferous Omelette,’ but the drummer couldn’t fit in all the letters when trying to paint it onto the bass drum, so we did a random page opening and finger point into a dictionary to find the shorter word Vicious. And that also gave us a great logo opportunity to have drawn a quite menacing angry omelette to go with the lettering. Our audition for Atlantic Records (one of our members had an uncle who worked there) went nowhere, but we did do a lot of gigs and met a lot of girls. How old were you when you started ‘Vicious Omelette’? That was a high school band, formed by my recollection in junior year, so I would have been 16 Can you describe ‘Vicious Omelette’ a bit more? Just a typical “Garage Band” of the day; lead guitar (who also sang), rhythm guitar, bass guitar, organ and drums. Funny memory is that the lead singer was rail-thin. He had a pretty girlfriend who had red hair chewed gum all of the time. When I went to my 25th high school reunion, a middle-aged couple came up to speak to me. I did not recognize him until noticing his wife had red hair and was chewing gum! Sure enough, they’d gotten married after high school. We chatted a bit remembering when I’d gotten thrown out of the band in the middle of one of our high school dance performances. We were doing a cover of “Light My Fire” and I’d gotten tired of playing the famous lengthy organ solo within that classic arrangement and had decided to make up something of my own. Our lead singer stopped the piece, yelled at me and fired me on the spot! At that 25th reunion, he said he always thought that I was the talented one and would be the one to go on into music as a profession! And, the very next day after that encounter I flew to Los Angeles (from New Jersey), and appeared with Linda Ronstadt playing my glass armonica on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show. So I guess he was correct! Why do you think the audition for Atlantic Records went nowhere? Oh, we were terrible — a typical high school band really playing just to meet girls. What is one of your funniest stories about performing? Well, not in performing, but in studying with my first “serious” teacher, Leonard MacLain in Philadelphia. There was this one lesson when he told me the story of Louis Vierne, the famous 19th c. French cathedral organist, who was felled by a fatal heart attack while playing the organ during a service. He’d collapsed down onto the keys and so the organ roared out a cacophony of organ pipes playing simultaneously at full volume. So, they had to send someone up the little access stair path to the organ loft to pull the body off the console. And Leonard said to me, “Now, THAT’S the way we organists all want to go!” Well, he’d told me that story. The very next week I walked in the downtown Philadelphia studio entry door for my lesson. There was Leonard slumped over the keys of the Hammond electric organ! I knew he had been having heart problems. By then always taught with a little wheeled and mask-equipped portable oxygen tank by his side. So, his head was down on the keys. I ran over to him and shook him. He sat up and drowsily said, “Oh, uhm, sorry . . . I fell asleep.” Such drama! Do you have a favourite concert that you’ve performed at? I guess that would be the story of my very first “big” solo concert. My teacher did finally have a really big heart attack that slammed him into the hospital. This was just before the Fourth of July in 1967. He was scheduled to play a major solo concert for a national convention of pipe organ enthusiasts in Detroit. So, Leonard decided to send me out in his place. Now, I hadn’t seen a theatre organ except for a brief encounter with one in a residence installation when I was nine and hadn’t really played one yet at all. So Leonard had me brought into his hospital room, and we sat together with a little hand slide viewer, and he showed by photographs what were the controls on a full-scale top of the line custom four-manual Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. He would say “now this thing does this, and when you set this then you better do that.” and so forth. The last thing he said was, “and when you arrive, put this pedal here on the far right side all the way down — the crescendo pedal that puts on all the stops without they’re actually being set — and then you put down all the way the shoe next to it — that one opens all of the chamber shutters”. And then he said to play a full double-hand chord on next to the bottom row of keys (the Great manual), “That’s the very first thing you do.” The point here was to let this little 16-year kid know what he was getting into. I did exactly that and nearly flipped back off the organ bench to the floor in fright. Such a sound, such power! You talk to any adolescent boy organist and you’ll find out it’s all about the power, and Leonard knew exactly what was going to happen — he was preparing me, and he did a really good job. I’m in Detroit and I’m supposed to play a two-hour recital, and I could only play for 40 minutes because that was everything I knew how to play at the time. The presenters quickly scrounged about and asked visiting professional New York-based organist Lee Erwin to fill in for the second half. And it all went very well — so that began my career as a performing professional organist. What appeal do performances such as yours have compared to the originals? The appeal for my work, I think, comes from the recognition of historical-cultural authenticity. I am a historical preservationist and my work is actually in continuity (as opposed to historical revival) for I perpetuate the professional scoring methods for silent films just as they were first conceived and performed by the originators of the art in the 1890s through 1930s. Most major productions had complete, written-out and orchestrated published scores played by instrumental ensembles ranging up to 60 and more players. The film studios made and released enough films so that the local cinemas could change their programming two or three times a week. And because there was no way to fully compose, disseminate, rehearse, and synchronize these large scale performances of that much music, what wound up happening is that, for many performances, each theatre’s staff keyboard musicians built up giant individualized libraries of music— pre-existing classical music, current popular tunes, one-steps, two-steps and foxtrots, hymns, marches, folk tunes, the entire gamut of music suitable to be repurposed towards film scoring. Beginning with Max Winkler who introduced the careful synchronizing techniques within compilation scorings, the main music publishers hired talented genre composers to compose specific mood-music cue fundamental resource material. The organists and pianists would have stacks of music organized by prevailing key and emotional content. When there was a chase scene, for instance, they would usually modulate into d minor and construct a sequence of published so-called allegros, hurries and agitatos as chase music. When there was a love scene, they’d go through their collection of romances and plaintives to play. It was this carefully tailored assembly kind of music scoring technique that was heard both from the solo keyboard players in the theatres and on an expanded scale, existing right along with through-composed newly composed scorings for fully rehearsed instrumental ensembles. Why is historic preservation important to you? I’ll rephrase that one — for those to whom it doesn’t matter, why ISN’T historic preservation important. For me, it is the center of my activity and basis for all of my endeavours. What are your opinions of the industry in the music industry? Well, I think the late Hunter S. Thompson said it best: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” How do online platforms like YouTube or YouTube impact the music industry? Well, in my particular specialty corner of the music universe, the impact has undermined my pursuing a professional career by giving equal access and referential instant comparative status permitting the unfortunate display of untutored, unprepared, minimally talented amateur and enthusiast activities. Do you think that the internet could improve in that aspect? If the general culture attention goes through a major shift, then, yes, likely the Internet could improve. The information needed in support of historic preservation efforts, though, is already there and readily available, and I don’t think the Internet itself has any bias one way or another in such usage. What are some of your fondest memories throughout your music career? It was 1969, and I was back in Indiana at college for my sophomore year and one night I was sitting around joking with my college roommate. A new Schantz-built concert pipe organ had just been installed in the school’s 3,800 seat I. U. Auditorium. There was a lot of talk about it in the department, and I was really eager to play it, so I came up with the idea to suggest showing this old silent horror film my dad had told me about, “Phantom of the Opera,” that he’d seen when it first came out in 1925. I figured I would do the Gaylord Carter bit I had seen in that Philadelphia “The Mark of Zorro” screening. Then I would get to play that new organ along with it. At that point, I was still in contact with New York based silent film organist Lee Erwin who had been summoned to share my 1967 Detroit debut performance. I’d played everything I knew as the first half of that program. Lee filled in to play the balance of the assigned program. Lee flew out from New York two weeks before this Halloween “Phantom of the Opera” event I’d connected to teach me his approach towards how to score silent movies. He loaned me some of his own written scores to study that he brought out with him from New York, and stayed at his own expense in a local motel and met me each day after regular classes. At the time I didn’t think it was all that unusual what with so much happening and me having gotten to the point of thinking musical friends just did things like that. It’s so odd now to think about these various important people. They are in this field of obscure endeavour. And showed up in my life right when I needed them. I would go to classes and come by after to meet with Lee. We’d talk about what I’d learned at school about that day. Then we’d have dinner, and he would teach me about film music. This was happening during a major peak of the Vietnam War protest era. There were all sorts of news coverage of some of the events at Indiana University at that time: the campus taken over and shut down by the students, ROTC building burnt down, and other more serious war protest events. I decided there was a real need and opportunity for some sort of comic relief. I provided it with my silent film scoring debut. Then, I went down to the student craft shop in the basement of the Memorial Union building. Then, I printed up 400 tickets by hand. I stamped them out on the craft press. Then I developed a rather clever campaign that included posting the phrase “The Phantom is Coming!” all over campus; little posters hung on the trees, chalked on vacant blackboards in classrooms throughout the day, pasted on stickers under the toilet seat covers in all of the dorms. It went on and on. And then on Halloween Day a front-page article in the school newspaper explaining the event. We’d sold only some forty tickets in advance and were prepared for an abject failure. However, to my great surprise, over 4,000 people turned up, and we had to resell those 400 tickets over and over again at the door. Wearing a cape and mask borrowed from the theatre department. I went on that night and began to play that newly composed score I had prepared with Lee. The energy of the occasion was so great, and I was so inspired. I almost immediately abandoned my carefully prepared composition to improvise something ever so much more appropriate to that event on the spot. Quite the thrilling way to begin what has turned out to be a full-length career. What are some of your upcoming events? 2019-2020 MUSICA CURIOSA & SILENT FILM CONCERTS October 31, Winspear Centre, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada 8th annual Halloween program presented by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Conrad Veidt in Hands of Orlac with the Duo Filmharmonia performing the debut of an all-Chopin scoring featuring Piano, Organ and Theremin November 2, Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Cinematheque presents: Lillian Gish in True Heart Susie November 3, Historical Society Museum, Athens, Ohio 3rd annual Halloween silent film program: Lon Chaney in Hunchback of Notre Dame with solo classical organ scoring November 8, Glimmerglass Film Festival, Cooperstown, New York Silent Film Concerts debut: Last of the Mohicans  directed by Clarence Brown with solo piano scoring EUROPEAN TOUR November 12, Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria 13th Annual Silent Film Concerts series: Lon Chaney in Hunchback of Notre Dame with solo classical organ scoring November 13, Tanzmeistersaal in the Mozart Wohnhaus, Salzburg, Austria Glass Armonica program for “Week of the Museum” Mozarteum presentation series November 22, Venango Museum, Oil City, Pennsylvania Holiday Concert plus silent film Big Business starring Laurel & Hardy December 5,7,8, Jones Hall, Houston, Texas Glass Armonica performance in new symphony composed by Jimmy López Bellido December 20, Polk Theatre, Lakeland, Florida Silent Film Series: Rudolph Valentino in The Sheik Could you tell me a bit more about the upcoming event at the Winspear? This year’s Halloween night film at the Winspear is the 1924 Austrian silent horror/psychological mystery film Hands of Orlac . A new score is being performed by my film scoring duo: “Duo Filmharmonia” – Piano plus Organ. There are two performers, me playing Organ plus Theremin. I tour this with worldwide with Valencia, Spain-based concert pianist Dr. Michael Tsalka. We recently debuted at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. We presented another silent film project, Janice Meredith, scored with all Colonial American music. Also, we had a sellout presentation of another, our Silent Halmet film project (with all Sons of J.S, Bach music scoring) presented in the 2300 seat Elbphilharmonie new concert hall in Hamburg, Germany. Hands of Orlac deliciously twisted thriller that blends Grand Guignol ecstasies with German Expressionism. Based on a novel by Maurice Renard, it charts the mental disintegration of a concert pianist named Orlac (Conrad Veidt). His hands are amputated after a train crash, then replaced with the hands of an executed murderer. When Orlac’s father is murdered by the dead man’s hands, Orlac begins a steady descent toward madness. Made in Vienna, the hotbed of psychoanalysis, this 1924 Austrian bubbles over with sexual innuendo and Freudian imagery. Duo Filmharmonia bridges the worlds of film appreciation, musicology and historical preservation to revive works of art; timeless experiential recreations that transcend transitory fashionable alternatives emerging in silent film exhibitions today. Duo Filmharmonia’s loyalty to the original silent-period filmmakers’ visions may at first seem as anachronistic. He has become the emergent typical 21st-century experience of the historical film: a presentation visual art form begun in 1895 accompanied by musicians in live performance. Rather than overpower the delicate preserved images with the now-prevailing flamboyant, grossly popularized performer display foisted scoring impositions and mocking conversions for trendy ‘hip’ presentations, Duo Filmharmonia carefully provides authentic period-revival soundtracks. These truly support exquisitely restored silent films being presented in the manner the filmmakers themselves originally intended. The original audiences actually experienced. Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years? Touring the world just as I have been doing for the past 50 years.

It’s one thing to have a passion for music, it’s another to want to protect it. Dennis James is an organist and historic preservationist. His passion for music has brought him to preserve the music of long ago eras, specifically in the genre of silent films. Something that not many people know is that silent films weren’t completely silent. They were often accompanied by musical scores. These scores are what Dennis James aims to preserve. This is an interview with Dennis James and Dylanna Fisher of Switching Styles. How did you start in music? I began my musical career at the age of seven by studying the “stomach-piano” (accordion) because it was the local instrument of choice for budding musicians in Cleveland, Ohio in 1957.  However, it was one day during Science Class in seventh grade that I had an epiphany that caused me to change instruments.  I had the realization that none of my classmates wanted to hear my renditions of Lady of Spain complete with bellows shake. We had an electronic organ at home. I had previously embarrassed my older brother Rodger with competitive technique display in a bout of sibling rivalry when I was 9 and he was 12, so I guess it was a no-brainer for me to make the shift finally when I turned 12. I played my first pipe organ a few weeks later on a visit to my accordion teacher’s church where he served as the organist and I think it was at that visit the seed was planted. Who inspired you within your music career? Well, the very first was the brash, showy, ragtime/honky-tonk TV pianist Joanne Castle who played regularly on the 1950’s popular Lawrence Welk television show ; a particular parental “family entertainment” favourite at the time.  In fact, I pestered my parents a lot about getting a piano, but with an organ having already been acquired for my brother, the suggestion was made that I consider imitating another TV show musician, Myron Floren, who was the accordionist on the Lawrence Welk show. That bore fruit when, at age 6, I spotted an accordion in a pawn shop window near a favourite family restaurant in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. My parents bought it, surprised me with giving it to me as a present on my 7th birthday which led to my starting lessons immediately thereafter. How did your family impact your musical career? They were all very supportive, to the point that my Dad went so far as to build French door into the walls at the entrances to the room where the practice organ was located. Since it was difficult for the rest of the family to do anything (like watch TV) when I practiced, I’ll always remember when I would start a session I would hear those doors slide shut walling me in while everyone else went on about their business at home. How do you think your life would have been different if you continued with the accordion? I doubt if I would have stayed with music at all, likely pursuing my lifelong interest in oil painting or some other such. When did your interest in the silent film soundtracks begin? Gaylord Carter , the major touring film player at the time, flew in from Los Angeles to perform at the Tower Theatre’s Wurlitzer organ in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania (near to downtown Philadelphia).  The film was Douglas Fairbanks in the 1920 swashbuckling adventure drama “The Mark of Zorro” and Gaylord played his own quite thrilling score made up of a combination of published theatre organ generics used in the scorings in the 1920s plus his own inimitable improvisation cascades. It was a sold-out house and remember eagerly turning to my dad at the end, being thoroughly impressed by the cheers and standing ovation from the sellout crowd, and saying to him those fateful words “I can do that!”  I went home that very night after the post-performance reception and pulled out some music paper and wrote out his entire score from memory.  And to this day as a sort of tribute to Gaylord Carter, I build my own score around Gaylord’s work, preserving about 20% of his efforts encased in my own historical revival work. How old were you for your first organ plus orchestra screening at Indiana University? My recollection is it was done in the spring of 1970 so I would have been 19 Can you describe your first experience in silent film performance with live music? My first attempt to play my own prepared music to a silent film that starred a cross-eyed actor Larry Semon to be shown as an act within a high school variety show in 1967. I ended up stringing together a series of 1920’s popular songs as my score. It was a couple of years later, though, in the summer of 1969 that I saw and heard the first live music silent film show with accompaniment by a professional theatre pipe organ player.  It was during my first break after having begun freshman year studies at Indiana University. How would you describe Gaylord Carter and his music? Gaylord was not the “top” musician of his day. However, he is the silent film player that lived the longest – well into the revival era that enabled my career. He taught me such show business necessities as how to speak to an audience of 2,000-plus without a microphone. Since inevitably somewhere the microphone wouldn’t work; something has since happened to me several times!  He was a cliche player all wrapped up in cluing essential basic emotional reactions to the film in the audience and not very much concerned with the niceties of thematic applications, motives developments and the rest that go into true music composition. What impact does music have in film? Thinking in particular of the silent films, I think it was best outlined LA Times article from October 2014 tat I keep on file: “Mocked, ignored, the victim of a massive cultural disinformation campaign that insisted these movies were too primitive to take seriously, silent film has managed to outwit history. Not only is there a phoenix-like rebirth of interest in the medium, but the films themselves and the artifacts surrounding them are constantly coming to light in rich and unexpected ways. To be seen to their best advantage, however, silent films should be experienced, as they were in the medium’s glory days, with live musical accompaniment. To understand what makes silent film so special, the central place of music can’t be avoided. The live music enhances what we see, bringing us inside the film. As the late film authority William Everson explained several years ago, ‘The score minimized flaws, added punctuation and feeling, stretched the emotionalism and guided the audience into the right frame of mind. It’s a major crime, absolutely deadly, to show these films without the proper accompaniment.’ To enter this world is to understand why Mary Pickford, one of its biggest stars, famously said that “it would have been more logical if silent pictures had grown out of the talking instead of the other way around.” (Quote from “Silent films and their soaring music are rediscovered” by Kenneth Turan, from the LA Times) What appeal does a silent film with live music have to the audience? There seems, in my now 50 plus years experience doing this, there is always a marvelling new fascination possible among the younger viewing generations towards the live music component of what is now a nearly forgotten part of the original practice of exhibiting film; recreating those nearly 100 years ago days in my specialty approach of performing stylistically authentic and period-appropriate live musical accompaniments at the film screenings.  This original matching music to the period images facilitated the audience’s emotional responses in a manner already quite highly developed in the industry. There is a similar continuity to the present day with modern performances of other historically fully developed, music-enhanced theatrical music forms: opera, operetta, Broadway shows, ballet, vaudeville and so many others. My passion stems, I guess, by that I like the concept that it would have been more logical, thinking of film as an art form progression, for the silent film to have evolved from the sound film.  To experience in live real-time experience movies the way they were meant to be. As performed in a large communal setting with the film image exactly as seen now 80 to 100 years ago, and heard with historically accurate original musical accompaniment performed with a thorough and fully realized respect for the past and with full confidence of serving the presentation desires of the filmmakers themselves. If one loves movies as do most moviegoers today, seeing and hearing, them as they were originally intended to be experienced simply should not be missed. Do you think that the appeal of silent films will change over the years? Of course, those shifts in appeal are what enables the survival and periodic revivals for most all of the successful presentation art forms down through the years. I am certain that what people see and hear at the Metropolitan Opera today when a Mozart Opera is presented is quite far from the original 18th c. original conceptions and productions, if only from the changes in the instruments used and the stylistic nuances of the players. You’ve performed the soundtrack for Jekyll and Hyde , and Nosferatu , among others. Which of them stands out as a favourite? Well, my favourite career silent film scoring memory, dates back to 1993. I was living in Berkeley, California and renowned film preservationist and cultural philanthropist David W. Packard engaged me to play to the “The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg” silent film as my debut performance at his humanities foundation’s Wurlitzer pipe organ-equipped restored Stanford Theatre in somewhat nearby Palo Alto down on the Peninsula. I had already performed to the popular silent film version of the Heidelberg story under the auspices of film collector Paul Killiam at a film festival in the Midwest a few years previous, so I found the score in my storage files and preparations went along just fine. That is, until the day before the Palo Alto performance. David phoned and asked for any final setup details, arrival time and such, and during the conversation, he happened to mention that he was really looking forward to seeing Norma Shearer in the film. I flippingly replied that Norma Shearer wasn’t in the film. It was Dorothy Gish. A bit heatedly David said, “No, it is Norma Shearer with Ramon Navarro”. I said that I really didn’t want to argue about it. however, this 1916 film stars Dorothy Gish and Wallace Reid. There was this long pause and then we both realized that there must have been two silent film versions of the same story, and David said he was screening the MGM 1928 one directed by Ernst Lubitsch. Well, that version was a film I had not yet seen nor known about hitherto. So, David gently asked what we could do and I asked to think about it a moment. Then I asked if he already had the print and was told the print was already in the booth. So, I told him to call in the projectionist and get him a room in a nearby hotel preparing for what I envisioned would be an all-nighter project. Then I asked him to set up a standard 6’ folding table in the theatre, bring in a photocopy machine, two cans of rubber cement, a ream of photocopy paper plus a paper cutter and a 1 1/2″ three-ring notebook. I said I’d be there in 45 minutes to begin and I stopped in at the Stanford University music library on the way to get ahold of the Sigmund Romberg operetta’s vocal score. So, that’s what we did – and it indeed took a straight-through 23 hours and 15 minutes work session without any breaks to create an entirely new, precisely synchronized, all-Romberg plus period generics source music compilation score following the historical period practices of the scoring professionals as practiced in the silent film industry. This was predominantly assembled out of the operetta material just as I’d done with the earlier film starring Dorothy Gish titled, “In Old Heidelberg.” That film, however, was entirely different in every way from the Lubitsch 1928 version based on the same material, so all of that prior scoring work was entirely unusable. David sat up with me all night in the little theatre office upstairs watching me work and observing closely, step by step, everything that I did.  We would screen a scene of the film, and then I’d think about it a bit, scan through the entire Romberg operetta score for possibilities considering plot sequence, character assignments, scene atmospherics, emotional cues and implications, all while weighing the music styles and key orientations. When finding something that fit, I would place it my mind and play it through together with my memory of the images while conducting myself along to make sure that it synchronized, and then pasted it up to assemble into the notebook to then call the projectionist in again to run the next scene. We did that progressively, scene by scene, through the whole night and right on through into the next day. Finishing up the score assembly just 12 minutes before the start of my debut performance left no time to permit my actually playing any of it in advance. so the niceties of organ registration and key manipulations had to be done ‘on the fly.’ I’m happy to report that that score turned out so perfectly that I still perform it exactly as I assembled it that hectic all night session in 1993! How do you choose the songs or soundtracks to perform? The way I work primarily is through performance of either the original published scores that were distributed along with the film prints or scores I assemble faithfully following the compilation scoring guides sent along with the films to assemble scores from original period-published music intended for cueing purposes. There is this remarkable flow that happens where I’m looking at the screen and reading my carefully prepared and rehearsed music that causes the music to come out as a continuously synchronous emotion sequence matching the visuals like a perfectly fit glove on a hand. The visual cues go into my eyes and my brain processes the combination of audience reactions underway, the performance needs of the instrument at hand and the calculations for precision timings for the music tempos related to the unfolding scene contents and outcomes the scoring in a fully synchronous spontaneity. I’m not even conscious of what the added expressive choices are in the real-time of performance having now been continually doing this for over fifty years. The basis of it all is informed by the time I spent many years ago working with veteran professional silent film scorers such as Lee Erwin, Gaylord Carter and Dr. C. A. J. Parmentier, all of whom were still active in the 1960s and 70’s when I was coming to the profession. Learning a lot of the basics of period stylistic revival and essential professional procedures really informed my nascent developing technique. As in the case of  Broken Blossoms (1919), you’ve been called a musical detective. How did that start? My interest in finding and preserving historical film scores grew out of my discovery that there were actual original scores prepared for silent film accompanists to use back in the original exhibitions period.  This discovery came about by my seeing the first page of the conductor’s part to Louis F. Gottschalk’s published full orchestra score to D. W. Griffith’s 1919 film  Broken Blossoms . This was used for illustration in the seminal motion picture theatre architectural history book,  The Best Remaining Seats , published in the 1960s. I chased down the author, Ben M. Hall who was based in New York City and then working as Time magazine’s film critic. He led me to an archive contact that held both the complete musical score with full orchestral parts, and a bit more hunting led me to a completely preserved theatrical print of the film.  So, I decided to present my first organ plus orchestra screening at Indiana University with a performance that filled the 3,800 seat I.U. Auditorium accomplished with me at the organ together with a fellow student conducting the local Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. Can you tell me more about the film,  Broken Blossoms ( 1919)? Here’s some information I have on file: “Broken Blossoms”, which stars Lillian Gish as a poor girl from London’s seedy Limehouse district who’s brutally abused her father and later falls in love with a Chinese man, is often regarded and dismissed as filmmaker D. W. Griffith’s apology for his celebration of the Klu Klux Klan in The Birth of a Nation. Because Broken Blossoms is so earnest a portraiture of an impossible love between the races, it’s tempting to accept Griffith’s claims that he didn’t mean any harm with The Birth of a Nation. Griffith, of course, was too smart to allow a film like Broken Blossoms to be taken as a simple blanket apology. Via the film’s poetic intertitles, Griffith not only addresses the complicated love between Lucy Burrows (Gish) and Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess), but the critics who accused him of racism with “the whip of unkind words and deeds.” The love story at the center of Broken Blossoms is deliberately overstuffed, but unmistakably coloured with infinite shades of biting irony and social critique. Griffith painstakingly evokes China as a serene Buddhist paradise, but Cheng’s philosophy of life is really no different than that of any good Christian. (Cheng tells a group of skylarking sailors: “What thou dost not want others to do to thee, do thou not to others.”) Cheng arrives in the godless streets of London and is soon seen as just another “chink storekeeper.” He’s handed a book about the perils of hell from a group of missionaries leaving for China on their way to convert so-called heathens, though they’re clearly oblivious to the horrors that reside within their own “scarlet house of sin.” The film’s feminist appeal lies in Griffith’s photojournalistic evocation of the Limehouse district as a deathtrap for women. Lucy is advised against marriage by a woman who washes clothes for a roomful of sweaty children and later bumps into a couple of prostitutes outside. Just as Griffith felt he was falsely accused of racism, the film’s heroine constantly suffers the scorn of her vicious father. Battling Burrows (Donald Crisp) is a monster, but Griffith understands the man’s frustrated desire to lash out against something in the face of economic and masculine defeat. So horrible is Lucy’s torture at the hands of her father that she has to literally sculpt a smile from her perpetually downtrodden expression using the tips of her fingers. Beaten to a pulp by Battling, Lucy seeks refuge inside Cheng’s shop. She faints on the rug like a broken flower and awakens as his White Blossom. “Her beauty so long hidden shines out like a poem,” declares one the film’s intertitles, and Griffith recognizes the simple yet incredible power of an unforced smile. Cheng feeds this beauty with the rays he steals from the lyric moon. Because cinematic convention forbade physical contact between his actors, Griffith had to settle for grand poetic gestures and dramatic artifice to evoke the rapturous, nurturing love between Lucy and Cheng. For Griffith, Broken Blossoms was intended in part as a supreme act of reconciliation, but the film works less self-consciously as an ode to misdirected contempt, selfless love, and various modes of worship. Just as the film’s extended boxing sequence is an act of brutal masculine reverence, Griffith recognizes Cheng’s love for Lucy as an act of holy worship. Because social convention forbids their love, Lucy and Cheng persevere in death. And Griffith lovingly and hauntingly evokes this transcendence via a shot of a man worshipping in a Buddhist temple and ships dancing in the distant horizon. This information comes from a film essay  “Broken Blossoms” By Ed Gonzalez When did you start performing for a live audience? Let’s see, I think that began in around 1966 or so when we bought a little Kinsman-brand “rock style,” very heavy, two manual Italian spinet organ device (this is before the single row of keys so-called “Keyboard” rock band instrument devices) that we used to drag around for my forays into pop music garage bands quite popular for dance-playing in my South Jersey high school years. My first successful band was called ‘Vicious Omelette’ with the yolk half of the name came from the coats inherited from an earlier band called ‘The Yellow Jackets.’ I say success because the other one was an ONLY-covers band. I found that out one night at a dance when I’d got really fed up with playing that same organ solo from “Light My Fire” over and over again, so I made up my own and played it on the spot. The lead singer who was in charge of the band stopped the song and ordered me to play the solo just like it was on the record or quit — so I quit. I met him again 25 years later at my high school reunion, and he apologized, mentioning he thought I was the only really musically talented one, this after he was told that next night I was flying to LA to be on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno performing in the backup band with Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Anyway, I wanted to call our new group ‘Vociferous Omelette,’ but the drummer couldn’t fit in all the letters when trying to paint it onto the bass drum, so we did a random page opening and finger point into a dictionary to find the shorter word Vicious. And that also gave us a great logo opportunity to have drawn a quite menacing angry omelette to go with the lettering. Our audition for Atlantic Records (one of our members had an uncle who worked there) went nowhere, but we did do a lot of gigs and met a lot of girls. How old were you when you started ‘Vicious Omelette’? That was a high school band, formed by my recollection in junior year, so I would have been 16. Can you describe ‘Vicious Omelette’ a bit more? Just a typical “Garage Band” of the day; lead guitar (who also sang), rhythm guitar, bass guitar, organ and drums. Funny memory is that the lead singer was rail-thin, and he had a pretty girlfriend who had red hair chewed gum all of the time. When I went to my 25th high school reunion this middle-aged couple came up to speak to me — the guy was a balding and kind of chunky guy whom I did not recognize until noticing his wife had red hair and was chewing gum! Sure enough, they’d gotten married after high school. We chatted a bit remembering when I’d gotten thrown out of the band in the middle of one of our high school dance performances. We were doing a cover of “Light My Fire” and I’d gotten tired of playing the famous lengthy organ solo within that classic arrangement and had decided to make up something of my own. Our lead singer stopped the piece, yelled at me and fired me on the spot! At that 25th reunion, he said he always thought that I was the talented one and would be the one to go on into music as a profession! And, the very next day after that encounter I flew to Los Angeles (from New Jersey), and appeared with Linda Ronstadt playing my glass armonica on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show. So I guess he was correct! Why do you think the audition for Atlantic Records went nowhere? Oh, we were terrible — a typical high school band really playing just to meet girls. What is one of your funniest stories about performing? Well, not in performing, but in studying with my first “serious” teacher, Leonard MacLain in Philadelphia. There was this one lesson when he told me the story of Louis Vierne, the famous 19th c. French cathedral organist, who was felled by a fatal heart attack while playing the organ during a service. He’d collapsed down onto the keys and so the organ roared out a cacophony of organ pipes playing simultaneously at full volume. So, they had to send someone up the little access stair path to the organ loft to pull the body off the console. And Leonard said to me, “Now, THAT’S the way we organists all want to go!” Well, he’d told me that story, and the very next week I walked in the downtown Philadelphia studio entry door for my lesson, and there was Leonard slumped over the keys of the Hammond electric organ! I knew he had been having heart problems and by then always taught with a little wheeled and mask-equipped portable oxygen tank by his side. So, his head was down on the keys and I ran over to him and shook him. He sat up and drowsily said, “Oh, uhm, sorry . . . I fell asleep.” Such drama! Do you have a favourite concert that you’ve performed at? I guess that would be the story of my very first “big” solo concert. My teacher did finally have a really big heart attack that slammed him into the hospital. This was just before the Fourth of July in 1967. He was scheduled to play a major solo concert for a national convention of pipe organ enthusiasts in Detroit. So, Leonard decided to send me out in his place. Now, I hadn’t seen a theatre organ except for a brief encounter with one in a residence installation when I was nine and hadn’t really played one yet at all. So Leonard had me brought into his hospital room, and we sat together with a little hand slide viewer, and he showed by photographs what were the controls on a full-scale top of the line custom four-manual Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. He would say “now this thing does this, and when you set this then you better do that” and so forth. The last thing he said was, “and when you arrive, put this pedal here on the far right side all the way down — the crescendo pedal that puts on all the stops without they’re actually being set — and then you put down all the way the shoe next to it — that one opens all of the chamber shutters”. And then he said to play a full double-hand chord on the next to the bottom row of keys (the Great manual), “That’s the very first thing you do.” The point here was to let this little 16-year kid know what he was getting into. I did exactly that and nearly flipped back off the organ bench to the floor in fright. Such a sound, such power! You talk to any adolescent boy organist and you’ll find out it’s all about the power, and Leonard knew exactly what was going to happen — he was preparing me, and he did a really good job. So, I’m in Detroit and I’m supposed to play a two-hour recital, and I could only play for 40 minutes because that was everything I knew how to play at the time. The presenters quickly scrounged about and asked visiting professional New York-based organist Lee Erwin to fill in for the second half. And it all went very well — so that began my career as a performing professional organist. What appeal do performances such as yours have compared to the originals? The appeal for my work, I think, comes from the recognition of historical-cultural authenticity. I am a historical-preservationist and my work is actually in continuity (as opposed to historical-revival) for I perpetuate the professional scoring methods for silent films just as they were first conceived and performed by the originators of the art in the 1890s through 1930s. Most major-productions had a complete, written-out and orchestrated published scores played by instrumental ensembles ranging up to 60 and more players. The film studios made and released enough films so that the local cinemas could change their programming two or three times a week. And because there was no way to fully compose, disseminate, rehearse, and synchronize these large scale performances of that much music, what wound up happening is that, for many performances, each theater’s staff keyboard musicians built up giant individualized libraries of music— pre-existing classical music, current popular tunes, one-steps, two-steps and foxtrots, hymns, marches, folk tunes, the entire gamut of music suitable to be repurposed towards film scoring. Beginning with Max Winkler who introduced the careful synchronizing techniques within compilation scorings, the main music publishers hired talented genre composers to compose specific mood-music cue fundamental resource material. The organists and pianists would have stacks of music organized by prevailing key and emotional content. So, when there was a chase scene, for instance, they would usually modulate into d minor and construct a sequence of published so-called allegros, hurries and agitatos as chase music. When there was a love scene, they’d go through their collection of romances and plaintives to play. So, it was this carefully tailored assembly kind of music scoring technique that was heard both from the solo keyboard players in the theatres, and on an expanded scale, existing right along with through-composed newly composed scorings for fully rehearsed instrumental ensembles. Why is historic preservation important to you? I’ll rephrase that one — for those to whom it doesn’t matter, why ISN’T historic preservation important. For me, it is the center of my activity and basis for all of my endeavours. What are your opinions of the industry in the music industry? Well, I think the late Hunter S. Thompson said it best: “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.” How do online platforms like YouTube or YouTube impact the music industry? Well, in my particular specialty corner of the music universe, the impact has undermined my pursuing a professional career by giving equal access and referential instant comparative status permitting the unfortunate display of untutored, unprepared, minimally talented amateur and enthusiast activities. Do you think that the internet could improve in that aspect? If the general culture attention goes through a major shift, then, yes, likely the Internet could improve. The information needed in support of historic preservation efforts, though, is already there and readily available, and I don’t think the Internet itself has any bias one way or another in such usage. What are some of your fondest memories throughout your music career? So, it was 1969, and I was back in Indiana at college for my sophomore year and one night I was sitting around joking with my college roommate. A new Schantz-built concert pipe organ had just been installed in the school’s 3,800 seat I. U. Auditorium. There was a lot of talk about it in the department, and I was really eager to play it, so I came up with the idea to suggest showing this old silent horror film my dad had told me about, “Phantom of the Opera,” that he’d seen when it first came out in 1925. I figured I would do the Gaylord Carter bit I had seen in that Philadelphia “The Mark of Zorro” screening, and then I would get to play that new organ along with it. At that point, I was still in contact with New York based silent film organist Lee Erwin who had been summoned to share my 1967 Detroit debut performance. I’d played everything I knew as the first half of that program and Lee filled in to play the balance of the assigned program. So, Lee flew out from New York two weeks before this Halloween “Phantom of the Opera” event I’d connected to teach me his approach towards how to score silent movies. He loaned me some of his own written scores to study that he brought out with him from New York, and stayed at his own expense in a local motel and met me each day after regular classes. At the time I didn’t think it was all that unusual what with so much happening and me having gotten to the point of thinking musical friends just did things like that. It’s so odd now to think that these various important people in this field of obscure endeavour showed up in my life right when I needed them. I would go to classes and come by after to meet with Lee, and we’d talk about what I’d learned at school about that day. Then we’d have dinner, and he would teach me about film music. This was happening during a major peak of Vietnam War protest era. There was all sorts of news coverage of some of the events at Indiana University at that time: the campus taken over and shut down by the students, ROTC building burnt down, and other more serious war protest events. So, I decided there was a real need and opportunity for some sort of comic relief. I provided it with my silent film scoring debut. I went down to the student craft shop in the basement of the Memorial Union building and printed up 400 tickets by hand, stamping them out on the craft press. Then I developed a rather clever campaign that included posting the phrase “The Phantom is Coming!” all over campus; little posters hung on the trees, chalked on vacant blackboards in classrooms through the day, pasted on stickers under the toilet seat covers in all of the dorms. It went on and on. And then on Halloween Day a front page article in the school newspaper explaining the event. We’d sold only some forty tickets in advance and were prepared for an abject failure. However, to my great surprise, over 4,000 people turned up, and we had to resell those 400 tickets over and over again at the door. Wearing a cape and mask borrowed from the theater department I went on that night and began to play that newly composed score I had prepared with Lee. The energy of the occasion was so great, and I was so inspired, I almost immediately abandoned my carefully prepared composition to improvise something ever so much more appropriate to that event on the spot. Quite the thrilling way to begin what has turned out to be a full-length career. Where do you see yourself in the next 10 years? Touring the world just as I have been doing for the past 50 years.

Switching Styles is excited to introduce the amazing musical work of FreddeGredde. Started by Fredrik Larsson, FreddeGredde is a stage name for his musical work. FreddeGredde is a Swedish musician known for his medleys of nostalgic cartoons, television themes, video games and so much more. Introducing FreddeGredde For this Swedish musician, it seemed to start at a young age. He had influences from family members, including his father. His father always encouraged Fredrik to develop his talents. With a childhood surrounded by music, it was just natural to dabble in it. Growing up, he never took music lessons though his brother ended up taking music lessons. Regardless of the lack of lessons, his love for music didn’t falter because of that. It worked out for the best that he never took lessons. He wanted his music done his way and not dictated by another person. “I don’t like being told what to do and what is the right or wrong way. When I learn things, I want to experiment and do it at my own pace. I might not play in the traditional ‘proper’ way, but I do believe it opens for more creativity and originality if you figure things out on your own.” Starting on YouTube, Fredrick simply posted a couple of videos that just happened to gain a lot of popularity. Fur Elis was his first video on YouTube, back when YouTube was relatively new itself. He noticed a gap for guitar covers of Fur Elis. There weren’t renditions of the entire song, just sections. Over the years it’s slowly gained nearly 3 million views. Being on the internet as a musician has opened a lot of doors for him, as it has for many other musicians. The dream of making it big is no longer only in the hands of labels. All someone needs now is a microphone and a computer to create any kind of music they want at a professional level. Creation, distribution, promotion, performing, are all accessible and free. The internet provided a huge contrast to the music industry where producers and labels have quite a bit of control including the profits. They were the only option musicians had due to the limited access to technology. In the 50’s all the way up to the 90’s label companies were the only ones with the ability to make albums and promote the musicians. Fredrick doesn’t agree with the traditional model of musicians making it big saying there are a lot of horror stories from musicians. This kind of profit-driven model seems to be an aspect of all industries. Using the internet allows musicians to have complete control over their music, in every single aspect allowing for more musicians to follow their passions. FreddeGredde Music Career  On his YouTube channel, he has quite the range of medleys. The process of making a medley, once it’s decided upon, is a lot of improvising. It starts with testing random notes, and cords to find something that sounds good. The melody comes frost and then the lyrics come at the very end. For Fredrik, the melody itself is the most important part of the music whereas the lyrics are not as vital, “I like to hear creative and experimental details, something that shows that the composer tried something new. But of course, it also needs an emotional component, like a chord change or melody that attempts to move you. Otherwise, it’s kind of pointless.” There are also original songs uploaded to FreddeGredde’s YouTube. These allow him to compose something entirely new whereas covers and medleys are taking songs that are already there and putting them into a different context. These original songs fill up three of his albums including  Thirteen Eight (August 2011), Brighter Skies  (July 2014), and Eyes On the Edge (May 2017). Of these, his Brighter Skies album is his favourite as it was an album full of music that he personally enjoyed without worrying about how it would be perceived. tracks 1, 2 and 7 are his favourite within the album as “There’s a lot of things going on in them, new themes introduced and subtly returning in different ways like the songs are their own adventures,” he explains. As a project, FreddeGredde has been successful over the years. With 248,784 subscribers, 6 albums (3 original, 2 medleys, and 1 cover), and over 30 published videos, his music has spread across the world.  Starting on YouTube in 2008, he has created over 30 songs. A sample of FreddeGredde Music Here are just a few highlights from his amazing collection of medleys. Let me know what you think of FreddeGredde in the comments below!!

Let’s dive deep into the music passion in this Rhaeide Q&A between Alvaro and Dylanna Fisher of Switching Styles. Known offline as Alvaro Arizcun, Rhaeide creates piano arrangements of pop culture themes. These include games, TV series, movies, band covers, and original compositions. Examples include The Goonies , Beauty and the Beast ,  The Christmas Piano Medley , Les Miserables ,  Hearthstone , and League of Legends . The genre of epic piano arrangements encompasses Rhaeide’s style, and embraces the variety of the piano. Cover genres typically change one particular aspect of the original song. Rhaeide does his best to keep the music intact, merely written for the piano. Rhaeide Q&A How did you get started in music? Well, I was 5 years old. So I definitely started at a very young age. A family friend was -and is still running- a small music school in Barcelona, so I started receiving piano and theory classes there at that time. My first piano teacher was apparently very methodical and demanding, so I didn’t like her. I eventually found another teacher. She was much more flexible. She let me learn some other music aside from classical. What was your first experience with music? As well do you mind if I know the name of the music school? When you say music, you mean in general? As a listener, or musician? For both. I remember music was always playing loud at home when I was a kid. My mom used to have plenty of old cassettes and vinyls full of a multitude of different styles that let her sing and dance along. Also, my step-father was and still is the trombonist in ‘La Vella Dixieland’, a classic old-school jazz band from Barcelona, so I guess travelling to many of their gigs around the region shaped me somehow too, although up to this point I’ve never had the drive to learn to play jazz music. As a musician, I would say my creativity started developing at the age of 14. At that age, I bought my very first Yamaha keyboard for €300, and I found myself spending endless hours with its 256 voices and its 6-track song recorder trying to create my own stuff. I’m still very fond of those creations because I had creativity that came from nowhere, in the sense, it was different from everything I managed to listen up to that point. 4 years later I found my passion as a listener, which is Progressive Rock, and I could see that what I was creating years before was in fact kind of close to that genre! The name of the school is ‘La Antártida’ How did your family influence your music career? Basically by letting me do whatever I wanted at every point. They never pushed me into playing or practising except for this one time when I was around 10 years old and I found myself not wanting to go to classes anymore and determined to quit. They found a way to convince me through the pressure of having bought the upright piano that we had just so I could practice and learn properly. Also, I was always told of how good I was for my age, so I had the extra pressure to live up to the expectations. What are their thoughts of you as a musician presently? They have always been supportive here in Barcelona, although they’re not that expressive about it. My dad, on the other hand, has always embraced it with endless devotion, pushing me into making more videos, reacting to them passionately, promoting me and being my number one fan. I definitely got my creative side from him. I should add just after that: All that from the distance since he has always lived far away. That’s so very sweet of him! What’s the distance between the two of you? 600 km, the distance between Madrid and Barcelona. What is the story behind the name you chose as your musician’s name? It happened in a time when I was an avid fantasy reader, I liked to develop adventure stories in my head when I went to sleep. One of those stories, that lasted for several months, had Rhaeide as one of the main characters, a kind but powerful conjurer that helped in the quest of saving a child that was bound to a powerful prophecy. Anyways, for the story development I took inspiration from Tolkien and Dragonlance, for the looks and personality, Baldur’s Gate 2, and finally for the name, ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’. I really liked the names of some of the Targaryen members, like Rhaegar or Rhaenys, so I chose my own to be similar. It just came to my mind. That’s so cool. What’s the proper pronunciation of the name? At first, I only cared about the Spanish pronunciation. But many years later, several English speakers started to ask me about it and I found I didn’t have any idea of how to pronounce it in English. If it ever reached the point of having to be pronounced somewhere, I would say something similar to “Raid” or “Raidy”, but for me, the Spanish pronunciation is the one I’m familiar with. Any other just sounds “weird”. Out of my own curiosity, did you ever publish those stories? As for the stories, I thought of writing them at the time of the development, but unfortunately, I never did it. How would you describe your sound? I never thought of describing my sound, I don’t even know if I have one! Since I’m specialized in arrangements, I would say it’s flexible and faithful in that regard. And when it comes to my composing, which I hugely explored in my early stages but since then I’ve hardly made a noticeable progression, I would describe it ever-changing, but mainly uplifting, since the way I do create is by following my emotions, and I can only play and find inspiration if I’m in an uplifting mood. That’s pretty fair, it’s a fluid kind of music. Who inspired your music? As an arranger, I first need to listen to the song and then the ideas of how I could arrange every part start flowing in my head. The result often meets the expectations, so I keep trusting my intuition. I like the challenge and overcoming the difficulties that often appear in the way. But the actual inspiration comes from imagining people liking it and wanting to learn it. That’s why I tend to arrange pieces that don’t have many covers or at least approach them in a way that people find unique. As a musician and more specifically as a composer, I would say all the music that I’ve listened to through my life is suitable of inspiring me without even acknowledging it. But beyond the music, I would say what inspires me the most is the artist itself and its drive to create, to grow and to leave a legacy of any kind. Why do you do piano arrangements specifically? I’ve attempted some orchestral and instrumental arrangements in the past, but I’ve never felt enough motivation to get into music production, and since I don’t play any other instruments I’ve ultimately stuck to piano. I eventually learned that there’s a huge deal of people wanting to play their favourite pieces on piano, and it happened that every time I examined official sheet music books of any kind I found them to be very basic and boring. So tried myself and I found that I was capable of doing it. Do you have an arrangement that sticks out as a favourite? That’s a tough question because I have favourites for different reasons, so I’ll mention a few. My favorite arrangement to listen to myself is the Dead Silence theme because I believe I was able to transfer the soul of the movie into my recording and I really feel the chills every time. The arrangement I’m most proud of is The Avengers theme; I still remember the amount of blood I sweated to solve the puzzle with that one. On the other hand, I consider the Baldur’s Gate 2 theme to be the most beautiful I’ve played for the memories it personally brings. Also, because it was my first ‘viral’ video and because I was able to perform it in a wonderful Steinway & Sons piano. Finally, the one that has brought more satisfaction in terms of public response is undoubtedly the Beauty and the Beast Prologue, it’s the fan-favourite. Some other special mentions: The Goonies theme for its difficulty and energy, the Christmas Piano Medley because it always brings my mood up, Les Miserables for being the most emotional one, and of course, the Horror Medley Part 1 since it’s the one that put me on the map of Horror music on YouTube. What’s the process for creating an arrangement? Is it different for each one? No, it’s almost always the same and it’s pretty simple. Basically, I try to respect the original version as much as possible, and since most of the orchestral soundtracks offer more than a single piano can perform, the challenge lies in finding ways to fit the most of it in an adequate manner. For that, I never change the bass nor the main melody, and for the rest, I tend to fill the right hand with chords or secondary lines, and the left hand with rhythmical pulses and occasionally chords support or parts even part of a melody when is inevitable. How do you choose what songs to create piano arrangements for? The basic rule for me in order to decide if I want to play a piece or not is that I like it. So the ones that come to mind first are the ones that are personal favourites of mine. I also listen to suggestions that come from subscribers or friends, but in that case, they have to meet the basic rule. Another way is accepting a commissioned arrangement that comes from people who want either the sheet music to play it themselves or to watch myself play it in a video. Why did you start posting videos to the internet on platforms such as YouTube? I don’t remember what or who exactly triggered it for the first time, but I started only 3 years after YouTube’s release, it was the novelty, so I guess I wanted to see how would it be to share my recordings with people from around the world like other artists were doing at the moment in a very fast-growing platform that YouTube was. What are your thoughts on YouTube? I’ve always liked YouTube as a platform, so as a regular consumer since its inception I’ve never grown bored of it. It’s true there are things that I don’t like or haven’t liked in the past, but I’m a person that always chooses to focus on the positive aspects of things when the negative aren’t in my hands to solve, so in the case of YouTube I’ve enjoyed it a lot, both as a consumer and artist. How does it compare to other music platforms? I can’t really say because I’ve never tried any other music platform. For example, I didn’t know until very recently that in Spotify I have a bigger number of listeners than many of the artists I listen to on a regular basis! When it comes to listening to music I’ve become old-fashioned as I still my phone as an MP3 device or just a music player on the PC. I also follow a lot of different artists on YouTube, because I like to see with my own eyes other people’s creativity, not only listen to it. That’s a good way to do it. I still have all my music on my phone! In general, how does the internet impact the music industry? It has changed it completely. Now you don’t need a label to be listened to or promoted because you can do everything yourself and be fine. It has broadened the possibilities for everybody and because of that, the overall industry has grown significantly. How has the internet impacted your music career? It has made it possible, as simple as that. I don’t know if I would have developed it if it wasn’t for the Internet and especially YouTube. Now for an overall question, what is one of the largest obstacles you’ve had to face in your music career? Well, 6 years ago I started developing a wrist injury, and since then my music life has become much harder. I’ve gone through a good number of doctors, physiotherapies, healers, a surgery, all of it without significant results, and so far I have no other choice to accept it and overcome it through mental strength. I still have faith in finding someone that finds a way for my wrist to heal. That’s really rough, I’m sorry to hear that. How do you overcome it? So far I haven’t been able to overcome it successfully and that’s why I have barely been active for the last 2 years. But right now I’m on a personal quest to get back on track. I feel I can play through the pain and I have the motivation, although I know that’s not enough, I also need the constancy. So will see how I perform in the next months. What advice would you give to cover artists just starting out? Invest in decent equipment, it’s very important to offer decent quality, both audio and video. Focus on covering songs that you’re in love with and be a perfectionist, seek for the best take possible. Learn a bit of video editing, it will make your videos much more pleasant to watch. Be patient if you don’t get recognition right away, it often takes time, which you also need to get better. Do you have any concerns with copyright? Well, copyright is a serious matter for artists like me that mainly do covers. I cannot monetize my covers unless the Content ID System detects them as songs with copyright, and only then they may allow you to share a small amount of the profits, which is basically nothing. I have also had issues developing my sheet music, which forced me to stop that activity and are issues I’m still trying to solve. It is sometimes a difficult matter to understand because every country approaches it differently and there is a big mess when it comes to not making mistakes if you want to avoid getting into trouble with the law of who knows which country. What solutions have you found to work through those concerns? I haven’t found any that fully satisfies me yet. I tried purchasing licenses individually, but it’s a pain in the neck. Years ago, I tried to join Musescore but I didn’t meet the requirements somehow, I should try again and see if they have made it easier for artists like me to join. Also, I have had a few offers from several independent sites, but so far I am not fully confident in making that move. What would make it easier for cover artists like yourself? I think right now we have more opportunities than ever to develop and grow successfully, so there’s no excuse not to try and find your way. But to say something, it would certainly help to have a better copyright system on YouTube, because right now it barely does the job, and many people are still abusing it to make a profit from other content creator’s work. What do you see for the future of your musical career? I don’t really like to foresee the distant future, and I don’t have a specific goal that I want to achieve. Instead, I prefer to focus on the present, which includes recording the pieces I have been preparing and work on preparing the next ones to come. I will see if in time I have other motivations or opportunities, for which I’m always open to considering. Could it be composing? Or joining a band? Or performing around the world? Time will tell. That’s a good way to put it. Do you have specific projects that you’re working on? I have a bunch of pieces that I’m planning on recording soon, and also some ideas for the upcoming Halloween. Aside from that, I want to make tutorials of some of the most requested songs on my channel, and lastly, I have a couple of collaborations in the spotlight that can be fun and challenging to assemble. My last question is, is there anything that I didn’t ask about that you want to share? Well, since this will be the last answer, I would like to thank everybody that is supporting me right now, especially my girlfriend and my closest family and friends, it means a lot. I also want to thank my followers and fans. Some of them have been there for years already, waiting patiently for me to come back and deliver more content. I can’t wait to start making progress again, because this is my passion and I’m in debt with myself. Last but not least, thanks to you, Dylanna, for the interview; it was fun and even therapeutic!

A Night with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra: From Clyne to Dvořák The Atmosphere Before the Performance As I walk into the Winspear, I’m jittery excited for the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra performance. Before the main event begins, the Winspear Centre’s vast hall is alive with the fragmented sound of musicians practicing their parts. Disjointed notes float through the air, creating a sense of anticipation as the audience trickles in. At precisely 8 p.m., a hush falls over the crowd, signaling the start of the evening’s performance. Applause erupts as Michael Stern, the esteemed conductor, strides confidently onto the stage. The hall, illuminated by the eager faces of the audience and the glimmering instruments of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, is ready for the night’s journey through music. Tonight’s program features the works of Anna Clyne, Tchaikovsky, and Dvořák, brought to life by a talented roster of 56 musicians. Each piece promises to take the audience on a unique emotional journey, from the ambiguous and evocative tones of Clyne to the timeless melodies of Dvořák. Setting the Stage with Anna Clyne The performance opens with This Midnight Hour, an orchestral composition by Anna Clyne. Premiering in 2015 at the Théâtre Espace Coluche in Plaisir, this piece stands out for its haunting beauty and narrative ambiguity. Before diving into the music, Stern offers a brief introduction. While he typically prefers to let the music speak for itself, he acknowledges the unique impact of Clyne’s work, describing it as evocative yet open to interpretation. Inspired by poems from Juan Ramón Jiménez and Charles Baudelaire, This Midnight Hour creates a vivid yet abstract soundscape. “The poems have nothing to do with one another,” Stern notes, yet they converge to inspire a composition that is deeply visual. Clyne deliberately refrains from imposing her narrative, encouraging listeners to craft their own personal stories as the music unfolds. This approach adds a deeply personal dimension to the experience, making each performance unique to its audience. A Journey Through Sound Stern explains the deliberate programming choice: pairing Anna Clyne with Dvořák creates a fascinating interplay. “We listen to Dvořák differently because of Anna Clyne. And we listen to Anna Clyne differently because of Dvořák,” he remarks, hinting at the layered emotional impact of the evening’s selections. As the orchestra begins, the lower strings immediately command attention with a forceful, pulsating rhythm. The quickened tempo mirrors the sensation of a racing heartbeat, drawing the audience into an emotional whirlwind. Moments of high-intensity panic are tempered by interludes of calm, only to accelerate once more into chaos. Throughout the piece, the music ebbs and flows, creating a dynamic interplay of tension and release. The percussion adds an almost primal intensity, with moments that make the listener’s hair stand on end. Images of pursuit, fleeting peace, and sudden panic seem to leap from the music. This thematic unpredictability keeps the audience captivated, their hearts responding instinctively to the shifts in tone and tempo. A Surprising Finale Before the performance begins, Stern shares an intriguing comment with the audience: “If at the end, you choose to giggle, you can.” This cryptic warning sets the stage for a finale that surprises and delights. The concluding movement of This Midnight Hour sharply contrasts with the rest of the composition. After an extended feverish section, the music takes an unexpected turn, eliciting laughter from the audience. The juxtaposition of dramatic tension and comedic release is both clever and disarming, leaving a lasting impression. Bridging the Old and New Anna Clyne’s This Midnight Hour is a testament to the power of contemporary composition. By juxtaposing it with the more familiar works of Tchaikovsky and Dvořák, Michael Stern and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra create an evening that feels both timeless and innovative. The performance underscores how modern works can deepen our appreciation of classical repertoire and vice versa. As the audience departs the Winspear Centre, the echoes of the evening linger—a reminder of music’s ability to transcend time, challenge perceptions, and inspire individual interpretation.

“ Orchestras are vital to America’s musical landscape and civic life. America is brimming with extraordinary musicians, live concerts, and orchestras as unique as the communities they serve. Orchestral music-making is flourishing in our country, encouraging creativity and bringing people together to share live music experiences. “Orchestras fuel local economies, attract new business development, educate young people, and—through music- unite individuals and cultures in times of public celebration and healing unite individuals and cultures in times of public celebration and healing ,” explains explains The League of American Orchestras . In contrast to modern music, which is predominantly lyrical, orchestral music is a seemingly hidden genre. But that isn’t the case. Statistics and data from the League of American Orchestras show the prominence of orchestras. Orchestral Statistics and Information “At last count, an estimated 105,000 musicians performed in some 1,600 orchestras across the United States. Orchestras offered over 28,000 performances – of which about 28% were free of charge – and reached 24.9 million people,” reads the March 2019 report,  Orchestras at a Glance. This also rings true north of the border. Orchestras Canada  has found this in their reports. They’ve seen the following from a Presentation to Orchestras Canada from the Canada Council for the Arts. 2,675 performances were presented publicly 2,340 were programmed and presented locally 303 were presented nationally 32 were presented internationally Total attendance: more than 1.87 million There’s something simplistic and yet so complex about instrumental music. An orchestra has several diverse instruments, such as woodwind, brass, percussion, and string. Each of them adds its sound to the overall melody of the song. “The Lord did not people the earth with a vibrant orchestra of personalities only to value the piccolos of the world. Every instrument is precious and adds to the complex beauty of the symphony.” ~Joseph B. Wirthlin Mr. Wirthlin has a point. There’s so much music that one single person can offer. Each person offers a diverse sound. Together, they combine into a beautiful orchestra. Orchestral Covers Songs There’s something elegant about orchestral music; even the word orchestral is elegant. Below are some orchestral covers to spice up your date night. These will add a pop of fun and a bit of elegance. “Smells like Teen Spirit” covered by Symphonic Pop Covers Metamorphestra’s orchestral cover of “Chop Suey,” Originally by System of a Down Albert Chang, Lily, Tiffany Chang, Josh Kim, Niall Ferguson’s Orchestral Cover of “Legends Never Die” Originally by and from League of Legends “Fortnite” by The Marcus Hedges Trend Orchestra Orchestral Cover of “Afterlife” By Avenged Sevenfold, arranged by Sašo Vindiš and performed by a school orchestra conducted by Blaž Šoba. Marc v/d Meulen’s Viola and Cinematic Orchestral Cover of “Awake and Alive” initially by Skillet  “Spider Dance” Undertale Orchestral Cover by Sully Orchestration

Are you ready for the FreddeGredde Q&A with Switching Styles? Swedish musician Fredrik Larsson created a musical project titled FreddeGredde to showcase his skills while reflecting his love of pop culture. With Medleys on pop culture aspects such as The Big Bang Theory,  Super Mario Bros. , and  Disney , combined with countless original songs, this project is sure to be a success. FreddeGredde Q&A with Dylanna Fisher This is an interview brought to you by Switching Styles. Adding context to the questions, Switching Styles also has a profile on FreddeGredde. Feel free to read both to learn more about this fantastic musician. How did you get started in music? How I got started in music… Does that mean how I started playing instruments, or how I got into the business? I’ll do both. Maybe dad influenced me more than I’ve given him credit for. He’s completely tone-deaf, but he always encouraged me to develop my talents. There are home-video clips from when I was 2-3 years old, plonking on some kind of toy piano, and we had a real piano in the house pretty early on, even though I didn’t take any classes. My brother did for a while, though. Still, lots of music and instruments around me growing up, and then it’s natural to also dabble in it. If you mean how I got into the business, I just posted a couple of videos on YouTube long ago, and they happened to get popular. I’ve never really been more involved with the business than that. Do you think that not having music lessons made a difference? For me personally, no, I don’t think music lessons made a difference. Or maybe in the sense that it would have killed my interest in music. I don’t like being told what to do and what is the right or wrong way. When I learn things, I want to experiment and do it at my own pace. I might not play in the traditional “proper” way, but I do believe it opens up for more creativity and originality if you figure things out on your own. Of course, the internet will give you any further information you need. Would you want to go more into the business aspect of it? Absolutely not, or I would have already. I dislike how greedy the music industry is, and how every success is squeezed as much as they possibly can by labels and publishers that don’t really have anything to do with the actual music. We can all compose, produce and release music independently these days. No need for businessmen to get a large share of the profits. Why do you think that the music industry is like that? There are many horror stories of happy bands getting “signed”, only to not get studio time or PR because the label decided they were not going to be a commercial success after all. And their contracts state they’re bound for a number of years, and their careers die completely. Also, labels usually give an artist around 8% of the profit. It should be at least 50%. But artists are powerless, or they think they are, so the labels have the last say. Another example is how, as soon as there’s a big hit, all the other labels and publishers start looking for similar artists, similar songs, similar styles, and flood the market with their own copies. This is certainly not about musical integrity or passion for music; it’s about making money. And of course, when I had a few popular videos, I was flooded by ”offers” and people ass-kissing and so on. You think it’s because they wanted to be nice? No, they wanted to profit from me, of course. That’s just capitalism for you. All industries are “greedy,” and we can’t expect anything else as long as money rules the world. But, it would have been nice if art could have somehow transcended that, if we could have had some integrity instead of always striving towards fortune. How does the internet affect labels and promotion companies? They made a lot less money at first, because of pirating and much tougher competition, but now EVERYONE can reach a bigger audience.  But they might have recovered now, as they’ve slowly learnt to use the strengths of the internet, rather than fight against it. What do you think the music industry will look like in the future? I really don’t know when and if there will be any big changes. We’ve already had a pretty big revolution now, where independent artists and bands can find an audience and make money. That’s the big step that was needed. Why is it so much easier now to compose, produce and release music as an individual? Technology. It made sense in the ’50s, the ’70s, all the way up until the ’90s to dream about getting signed by a label because they were the only ones who had the ability to make albums and promote them. That’s also why fewer bands and artists became “superstars” back then. But now, all you need is a microphone and a laptop, and you can create professional-sounding music. And there are hundreds of online companies that can press CDs for you, who can distribute your music to Spotify and iTunes, and who can promote the music for you. And you can promote yourself through YouTube and reach millions of people all over the world, for free. How do you use the internet for your music career? Everything is on the internet. YouTube, digital sales, communication, etc. How does that affect your career? I wouldn’t have any career whatsoever. I’ve never been interested in performing in front of a crowd; I just like the creative aspect of music. So, the internet is a necessity for me. When you first started making videosdido you think that you would be where you are today? I didn’t think much about the future, so I guess the answer is no. What were your thoughts on posting your first video on YouTube? It was Fur Elise on guitar when YouTube was still a relatively new thing. There were a couple of guitar renditions of the song, but none that played the whole thing. And I thought that sucked, so I really just wanted to fill the gap. “There should be a full version of Fur Elise on guitar on YouTube. It does have around 3 million views now, but it wasn’t a big deal back then. It has just slowly gotten more views over the past 10 years. How do you decide what you cover, or create medleys of? It’s been different for different videos and medleys. For video game medleys, it’s mostly music I actually like, and I want to do my own thing with them. For many of my videos, it was to make the audience happy, choosing popular songs depending on the theme. As an example, “The Cartoon Medley” would be a bunch of songs that people feel nostalgic for, myself included. So, it only made sense to create it. Can you describe your process for creating music? If you mean composing, I sit down with an instrument and just improvise, testing random notes and chords. Then I keep the ideas I like, put them together, and that’s really the gist of it. Lyrics are not important to me, so they come at the very end when the melodies and structures are finished. What’s the most important part of music for you? I’ve kind of already explained it. I like to hear creative and experimental details, something that shows that the composer tried something new. But of course, it also needs an emotional component, like a chord change or melody that attempts to move you. Otherwise, it’s kind of pointless. You do have original songs uploaded. Does the process differ between those and covers or medleys? Yes, of course, it’s completely different. Original songs are what I described earlier. It’s about composing something new. Making covers and medleys is just taking already existing songs, learning them and putting them into a new context. It’s much simpler. How would you feel if someone covered one of your original songs? It has happened a few times, and it’s always flattering that someone has put in the effort of figuring out how to play my own songs. It’s basically the highest form of flattery. Of all your work, both originals and covers, do you have a favourite piece of music? Probably my Brighter Skies album. With that album, I didn’t care at all about how it would be perceived; I just made music I’d personally enjoy, and I’m still very happy about it. Especially tracks 1, 2 and 7. What about tracks 1, 2, and 7 make them your favourite? There are a lot of things going on in them, new themes introduced and subtly returning in different ways, like the songs are their own adventures. And with those tracks especially, I think all the themes have the emotional touch I was aiming for. I never really like going back and listening to old songs I’ve made, but these are some of the few exceptions. What advice would you give to musicians just starting out? To be patient. Most people stop playing quickly because they think they “don’t have talent” or “it’s not their thing”, but no one is good right from the start. There’s a saying that you need ten thousand hours of practice in order to become amazing at something. So, don’t give up, keep trying, and you’ll get there with time.  If you could send out a message to all of your fans, what would you say? Stay in school, don’t start smoking, and be nice to all humans and living creatures.

Disney brings magic to every home, and Switching Styles is bringing magic to you with Snow White Cover Songs. “Someday my prince will come. Someday we’ll meet again, and away to his castle, we’ll go To be happy forever, I know Someday, when spring is here,we’lll find our love anew And the birds will sing And wedding bells will ring.” -“Someday My Prince Will Come”, Adriana Caselotti Disney’s Snow White Soundtrack Here are more Disney covers as promised in the Disney Medley article. It started with Cinderella , the princess in the pumpkin. Now it’s all about Snow White, the pale, poised princess.  Snow White is one of the original Disney Princesse, with the film being released in 1938. It came out before the other princesses. Frank Churchill  and  Larry Morey .  Paul J. Smith  and  Leigh Harline  composed the music score for Snow White.  Adriana Caselotti , the voice and spirit of Snow White, gave us the soft voice of a porcelain princess. The soundtrack includes soft dreamy songs, including “One Song”, “Someday My Prince Will Come”, “I’m Wishing”, “With a Smile and a Song”, “Whistle While You Work”, “Heigh-Ho”, “Bluddle-uddle-um-dum (Dwarfs’ Washing and Yodel Song)”, and “The Silly Song”. “Someday my Prince will come” is the song that stands out as the song of this Princess. Maybe that’s just me, but it’s a darn popular song to cover. Here’s the original with Adriana’s iconic vocals. Snow White Cover Songs Without any further waiting, here are some fantastic covers fit for a princess. Assalova provides us with a beautiful cover featuring soft, gorgeous vocals. Jacky Leun  serenades us with a saxophone cover of “Someday My Prince Will Come” complete with some Jazzy flairs. Bethanie Garci, along with her gorgeous vocals and two cute kids in the vehicle, provides a really sweet cover of “Someday My Prince Will Come”. Swing’it Dixieband  and Ami Oprenova cover “Someday My Prince Will Come” with a smooth, jazzy flavour and sweet vocals. Casey Jones Costello  and  Yunjin Audrey Kim  combine their beautiful vocals with Yunjin’s majestic piano skills in this deep and powerful duet.  This orchestral cover, performed by the talented Moonlight Serenade and Ghetto Swingers, gives us a beautiful rendition of “Someday My Prince Will Come”. Which Disney cover was your favourite Snow White Cover song? Let me know in the comments!!!

What happens when you take Black Sabbath and Ronald McDonald and then combine them within a parody band? You get Mac Sabbath. Mac Sabbath is a band that parodies Black Sabbath songs with a theme of fast food. The band includes Ronald Osbourne (vocals), Slayer MacCheeze (guitar), Grimalice (bass), and the Catburglar (drums) in full costumes themed after the McDonald land characters. Together they create drive-thru metal. Mac Sabbath performs at the Starlite room for the Grill Of It All, their first Canadian tour The concert, played at the Starlite Room, was part of their Grill Of It All tour. The band played last Thursday night with openers Frank and Deans and Electric Audrey 2 . It was a flavorful concert of epic proportions. This is a concert that started with someone yelling out “Cheeseburgers!” At one point in the show, an audience member shouted “show us your nuggets!” right before Ronald Osbourne actually pulled out prop nuggets during one of the songs. That wasn’t the only thematically appropriate prop. There were props of nearly every fast food aspect you can imagine; an extra-large drink mic stand, condiment bottles, red and yellow confetti, busts of Ronald McDonald with lasers in their eyes, and even an inflatable burger bouncing throughout the crowd. Mike Odd, their manager, explains that they are time travellers that have come “from the 1970s to save us from the current state of music and food and bring us back to a time where music and food were more organic”. For a lot of metal fans, Black Sabbath is one of the purer forms of metal. Odd explains that Black Sabbath is the creator of “all counter-culture weirdo music.” Mac Sabbath provides a kind of nostalgia for Ozzy fans for a simpler time. Mac Sabbath Sounds Some of their songs include parodies such as  “Chicken Is For The Slaves” (Children Of The Grave), “Frying Pan” (“Iron Man”), and “More Ribs” (“War Pigs”). Even though they’re in the world of fast food they aren’t endorsing it instead, they’re exposing the negativities of Fast Food. Mac Sabbath, although a heavy metal band, is kid-friendly. There isn’t any vulgar or offensive language in the lyrics making it appropriate for a wide demographic. Odd explains, “as far as the message goes, people expect it to be this gnarly heavy metal thing that’s going to be all adult-themed and stuff. But he keeps it all kid-friendly because he wants the kids to get the message too. He wants parents to be able to expose their kids to it because they should learn it at an early age”. Odd describes that although the show has a message, it isn’t preachy, “It’s super fun and this amazing clown that’s flipping burgers and really funny. And he’s this amazing wordsmith of jokes, these drive-thru metal jokes that he does. It’s just this amazing comedy heavy metal science fiction giant arena-sized show crammed into a stage.” What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!!