Soundtrack Saturday

This weeks selection is from Lord of the Rings. This lilting melody by Howard Shore is one of my very favorites. It's simply and delightfully imaginative.

Soundtrack Saturday

This weeks is one of my favorite swashbucklesy scores of all time, from Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, by Hans Zimmer.

Left is south, people! (Sorry. I had to say that purely for The Director.)

What's In My Head Wednesday

I can't think of a better song to have stuck in my head. I've been singing it to myself for a few days now. I absolutely love the lyrics to this song. And it's pretty catchy.

What do you think?

Soundtrack Saturday

This is one of my (many) favorite tracks from the movie How to Train Your Dragon, composed by John Powell. It's full of energy and excitement, just the type of score I love! Powell did a great job with the music, but The Director pointed out to me that the music wasn't quite lined up with what was going on in the movie, and the music resolved before the movie did... I'll have to see about that.

But it's still a brilliant score.

A Message From My Music-Teaching Mother

Keeping my Ducks in a Row                            May 31, 2011


One morning a week, I teach music to a class of 25 wiggly kindergarteners.  Many of them have summer birthdays, which means that even in May, quite a few are still five years old.  This is my true story.

“Hello, Kindergarten.  Today I have a new song to sing for you.  Here it is.”  I begin to sing: “When ducks….” Immediately, I lose one third of the class.  “Ducks!” say their little brains, “This song is about ducks!  What do we know about ducks?  They quack, they flap their wings, you can make a duck beak with your two hands in front of your mouth.”  They proceed to do so.

I continue the line of song: “….get up in the morning…”  There goes group two.  I must say, you’ve got to like group two.  Their eyes get big with surprise.  Ducks!  Getting up in the morning!  They had never thought about this before!  What would the ducks do? They immediately go into full pantomime mode.  They sleep, they wake up, they stretch their arms – wait!  They are ducks! They have wings to stretch, not arms!  What would that look like?  But wait again, the words said they get up – maybe they should stand up! They stand, stretch their wings some more, and begin to quack.

I finish the line: “….they always say ‘Good day’.”  Group three must be the ones who are already six years old.  They are good with the concept of Ducks. They have no problem imagining them getting up in the morning.  They are simply waiting for any directions to follow.  They decide that the directions are to always say “Good day”.  They turn to each other and begin to say “Good day.  Good day.  Good day.  Good day.”  As there are so few of them in this group, they quickly run out of people to say good day to, so they get up and go over to the Morning Ducks.  Here they meet a language barrier, because the Morning Ducks didn’t get that far in the song and so have no idea why the Good Day Ducks are saying good day, and the Good Day Ducks can’t figure out why the Morning Ducks just keep quacking.  Finally, the Good Day Ducks decide to go bilingual, and add some quacks in with their Good Days.  Aha, a breakthrough!  Now the Morning Ducks and the Good Day Ducks can communicate. “Quack, good day, good day, quack!”

Meanwhile, the group one Basic Ducks have finished exploring their concise understanding of “duckiness” and are now spinning and sliding around on the floor, trying to snap each other with their duck beak hands.  They have already forgotten that these hands represent a duck beak.  In fact, they have forgotten that we are doing anything about ducks, but they do know that this sure is a great game!

Snap, quack, good day!  And this all happened within the time it took me to sing, “When ducks get up in the morning, they always say good day.”

The End. (Quack!)

Soundtrack Saturday

A few weeks ago I watched the movie Nicholas Nickleby and the score captured me. It's incredible, really, and it was done by a woman; Rachel Portman, who I learned was the first woman to win an academy award for a film score, and I can see why. The melodies are simply lovely, light, and happy.

I've been trying to learn how to play this on piano. It isn't too difficult.







As I was snatching the song for this weeks Soundtrack Saturday, I came across another score from another movie also by Portman. I was surprised to hear that it sounded extremely similar to the score from Nicholas Nickleby. For one thing, they're both in the same key. Also, they just have a very, very similar feel to them. Tell me what you think.

IMPORTANT NOTICE!!!

The crochet giveaway ended last week. Winners were announced almost a week ago. But I have a problem! A big problem!

I haven't yet heard from two of my winners. Yes, I read the comment from Jedi Chick, but that doesn't do me much good now, does it? I still don't know what size and color to make. I can't make anything until I know that piece of information.

***If you are Lauren or Jedi Chick, please, please email me as soon as is humanly possible!!!!

***If I don't hear from you in a week ('cause I'm laid back like that) then I will select new winners!!!

What's In My Head Wednesday

This is such a great song. However, I find it funny that I can sing the chorus of Chris Tomlin's I Will Follow right along with the chorus of this song. And both songs have an  "I will follow" part that pretty much matches up.

Sorry... I do hope that didn't completely ruin it for you. Actually, I thought it was pretty cool.

GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!!

 I've been trying for close to half an hour to get this post to post. I removed the pictures, so hopefully it will post now.


The crochet giveaway is officially closed. Thank you (again) to all of my lovely contestants.


The winner of the 2 flower and 2 hearts hairbands is... 

Jamie!





The set of scrunchies will go to...

Future Jedi Girl!





The camera wrist strap shall be given to...

Lauren!





The water bottle/cover has been awarded to...

Emily!





And last but certainly not least...

The custom Bible cover will be given to...

Jedi Chick!




Winners, please shoot me an email (composer4christ@gmail.com) with your mailing address and color choices. Also, Jedi Chick, please give me the dimensions of your Bible so I can make a cover that (hopefully) fits.

Soundtrack Saturday

This is from the movie Finding Neverland, composed by Jan A.P Kaczmarek. It's a bit quiet, so don't be afraid to turn up the volume a bit!

Nothing like a well done piano piece.