"Behind the Purple Stars"
[This is one post in a series about my music mixes. The series list has links to all posts in the series and also definitions of many of the terms I use. You may wish to read the introduction for more background.
Like all my series, it is not necessarily contiguou
Wikipedia tells us that a celesta is a “struck idiophone operated by a keyboard,” and that “the keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates or bars.” In other words: piano on the outside, glockenspiel on the inside.1 It has a tinny sound that’s vaguely reminiscent of a child’s music box, but much richer and more complex. This makes it ideal for imparting a magical, childlike quality to music, which you can hear in its most famous use prior to the 20th century, “The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from The Nutcracker, or when it subsitutes for the keyboard glockenspiel in The Magic Flute or the glass harmonica in The Carnival of Animals, or in pop songs such as “Rhythm of the Rain” or “Novocaine for the Soul”, and of course in soundtracks. For instance, that’s a celesta you hear in the opening bars of “Pure Imagination” from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, and it’s even more prominent in the opening of “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” from the classic Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. But surely the most recognizable celesta strains in all of musicdom are found in John Williams’ recurring theme from the Harry Potter movies: “Hedwig’s Theme.” Just the first few notes are enough to transport the listener to a world of magic and child-like wonder.2
Of course I was familiar with this recurring theme through the movies, and I also felt it was pretty perfect. Could there be other musical takes on the combination of magic and nostalgia that one gets from a re-viewing of the world through the eyes of a child? Sure, but would they ever be as good? Nah, probably not.
But, as I was perusing Jamendo one day several years bac
So now we do.
The obvious choices here are our mix starter, the aforementioned track by (probably would-be-soundtrack-composer) artist Greendjohn, my Bruno Coulais pick “Exploration,” and “Prologue” from Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone. I actually pored over all the instances of “Hedwig’s Theme,” both solo and buried in other tracks, and I think it just doesn’t get any better than this one, which is the original presentation. To me, that’s the perfect opener, and the other two follow in quick succession, and then I only had about 70 more minutes to fill. Where in the world was I going to find more candidates that would fit this theme?
Well, first off, back to Jamendo to scour the other “pseudo-soundtracks” for possibilities. That led me to zero-project, a somewhat mysterious artist: I would guess they’re in Greece, from the TLD of their website’s domain, but other than that, I can’t tell you much. But they do some great cinematic music, and there are two tracks here: “Princess of My Heart,” an almost romantic piece, and “Forest of the Unicorns,” from what could be a pretty decent fantasy gaming soundtrack, Fairytale. Also on Jamendo I discovered Epic Soul Factory,3, an orchestral group from Spain that does some pretty great cinematic music as well. Their simply-titled “Love” is probably more on the nostalgic side than the magical one, but it works well enough here, I think.
Real soundtracks work well, too. There’s a short bridge here from Jon Brion’s score for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind4, and the “Love Theme” from Until the End of the World by Graeme Revell, which is a flute-filled little bridge between the first zero-project track and the Mannheim Steamroller. “La Clé de la victoire” is also a fairly short track, this time from The City of Lost Children by Angelo Badalementi, which also gives us a longer piece, “Le prince de l’opium.”5 These two abandon the flute for some lower-register woodwinds, and the latter even layers on some harp and strings, but they still maintain the magical feel that this mix is all about. Finally, “Memory,” by the Seatbelts off the Cowboy Bebop soundtrack, was too on-the-nose not to include (and plus I’m pretty sure it has some of that sweet celesta in it).
One very early track I picked for this volume is its longest, “Minitoka,” by DJ Food, originally a loose collaboration of various electronic artists and producers but now mostly a one-man operation. Like many artists of this nature, I find a lot of the music to be repetitive and only vaguely interesting, but every once in a while you find a hidden gem. I originally heard “Minitoka” on the “Zen” music channel,6 and I was immediately struck by its alternating harp-and-bell-like glissandoes with pan flute trills. No doubt both are electronically enhance
I figured other, similar downtempo (a.k.a. “chill”) electronica might work as well, so I went searching through some of those albums too. This led me to “Zamami,” by Plaid,7 which uses some synthy subvocal undertones for the memoriam and what are probably tubular bells for the mystical. I also found “Behind the Bamboo Curtain,” by the Karminsky Experience, which really leans more out of chill and into trip-hop. I can’t remember how I discovered these guys, but they’re quite good; we saw them previously on Apparently World. This track floats in on a shimmering curtain of chimes and then adds a sitar for a more subcontinental flavor of magical.
Of course, ambient is fairly adjacent to downtempo, so I went looking there as well. Jeff Greinke is an artist I normally reserve for my Shadowfall Equinox mix, but, as I’ve mentioned, he’s an eclectic musician whose every album is a little bit different. His Winter Light is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin: mostly tunes that are brittle and a bit cold. Overall more suited to a whole different mix.8 But “Orographic” is a little different: for some reason, it makes me envision a frozen lake, where the water has receded and then refrozen so that there’s an air pocket between the two layers of ice, and the sunlight filters through the surface layer and glitters off the stray ice columns, creating a sparkling alien landscape ... or maybe it’s just me.
But probably the richest musical vein to mine, outside of cinematic, is new age. As I’ve said, there’s not a lot of new age that I really enjoy, but Anugama is right up there. “Purple Dawn” is another track that doesn’t play coy in its title: it evokes day breaking over a quiet forest glade, which is certainly its own kind of magic. David Arkenstone I’m a little less bullish on, but he does have a song every now and again that speaks to me, and “Stepping Stars” has that exact tinkling, mystical quality that I’m looking for here. (Also, note that, due to pretty much every song here being instrumental, I employed my tactic from Classical Plasma and just glued words from different titles together, so “Puple Dawn” plus “Stepping Stars” gave me most of it, and the Karminsky tune provided the preposition.) Finally from the new age genre, our closer here is from Peruvian-descended Australis.9 “Little Clockmaker” is indeed reminiscent of a timepiece, but more like the scenes you may have seen in movies or videogames where some small character is confronted by the grandeur of a clockwork mechanism that is giant to them, and they must navigate the turning gears and spinning oscillators in order to reach some goal. It’s the perfect closer for this volume.
[ Behind the Purple Stars ]
“Exploration” by Bruno Coulais, off Coraline [Soundtrack]
“3 Minutes Later” by Greendjohn, off Loophole
“Minitoka” by DJ Food, off Kaleidoscope
“Behind the Bamboo Curtain” by the Karminsky Experience Inc., off The Power of Suggestion
“Postcard” by Jon Brion, off Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [Soundtrack]
“Paradise Found” by Martin Denny, off The Exotic Sounds of Tiki Tribe [Compilation]
“Orographic” by Jeff Greinke, off Winter Light
“Princess of My Heart” by zero-project, off Autumn Prelude
“Love Theme” by Graeme Revell, off Until the End of the World [Soundtrack]
“Full Moon” by Mannheim Steamroller, off Halloween: Monster Mix
“La Clé de la victoire” by Angelo Badalamenti, off The City of Lost Children [Soundtrack]
“White Woodlands” by Nox Arcana, off Winter's Majesty
“Memory” by the Seatbelts, off Cowboy Bebop [Soundtrack]
“Love” by Epic Soul Factory, off Xpansion Edition
“Stepping Stars” by David Arkenstone, off Valley in the Clouds
“Zamami” by Plaid, off Double Figure
“Purple Dawn” by Anugama, off The Lightness of Being [Compilation]
“Le prince de l'opium” by Angelo Badalamenti, off The City of Lost Children [Soundtrack]
“Forest of the Unicorns” by zero-project, off Fairytale
“Little Clockmaker” by Australis, off The Gates of Reality
For the rest, I had to get more creative. I figured that gaming music would be a good source, but most of it turned out be way too dramatic for this mix. There were mysterious creepy tracks, and sweeping tracks that evoked a wizards’ duel, but nothing that seemed to fit this much quieter theme. The only thing I could really settle on was “White Woodlands” (which I suspect also has a bit of celesta in it) by gaming music mainstays Nox Arcana. Normally NA focuses on the darker side of fantasy, but Winter’s Majesty, while still dark in some places, has a bit more light to it. “White Woodlands” is probably the lightest track on that album, although I suspect it may be the darkest one here. But the contrast of the sparkling (probably) celsta with the deeper (probably) tubular bells works well.
Similarly Mannheim Steamroller’s Halloween: Monster Mix was an unlikely place to find a quiet, mystical tune, but “Full Moon” really fits that bill. The background crickets counterpoint the slow synth notes that seem to drop like water falling onto a quiet nighttime scene. And, last but not least (although possibly most unlikely), we have “Paradise Found” by Martin Denny, the father of exotica. While most exotica evokes (quite deliberately) the sound of the Pacific Islands (and Hawaii in particular), there are deeper jungle tracks, and the occasional quiet track such as this one. I can’t say for sure, but I strongly suspect that’s a vibraphone that’s giving the this great track its mystical, nostalgic feel.
Next time, we’ll go back to some smooth loungin’ around.
1 Some people would say “xylophone,” but the bars on a xylophone are made of wood, not metal. Yes, all your toy “xylophones” are actually glockenspiels.
2 For a pretty good breakdown of what makes this music so perfect for a story about wizards, professor of music theory Mark Richards has a fascinating discussion.
3 Although they’ve moved to Bandcamp nowadays.
4 We’ve seen that soundtrack in this series before, on Paradoxically Sized World II.
5 We’ve also seen this soundtrack before, on Darkling Embrace and Phantasma Chorale.
6 I talked about my cable/satellite provider’s “Zen” channel back on Paradoxically Sized World I. Although it’s also fair to note that a) that provider doesn’t have that channel any more, and b) I don’t have that provider any more.
7 Another artist I discovered via LittleBigPlanet. We’ve seen them, naturally enough, on Paradoxically Sized World II.
8 Which we shall (probably) come to in the fullness of time.
9 Whom you may remember from their turn on Shadowfall Equinox IV.
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