I started this blog six months ago, knowing that many blogs are begun and abandoned shortly thereafter. I gave myself a goal – one post a day, for one year. Of course this brought up all kinds of questions. Do I know 365 pieces of music? Definitely. Do I know 365 pieces that are so good they’re worth writing about? Well, I wasn’t so sure about that. But here I am, six months from my start – and halfway to my goal.

Partly, this blog is just a place for me to throw some creative energy into and keep my head fresh with new ideas. The other aim is to introduce Art Music – the music I love and have devoted my life to – to audiences who haven’t been exposed to it. So, on its half-birthday, here’s a champagne toast to Art Music, along with a few other things that typically go with opera – cross dressing, nudity, drunkenness, and bad dancing.

Spanish composer Joaquín Turina’s most famous work is Danzas Fantasticas, a suite of three dances that contain great Spanish flair. The suite was inspired by a novel, from which Turina included quotations for each movement. The third movement, Orgia (ooh, you’re making me blush!), was inspired by these particularly flowery, aromatic words:

The perfume of the flowers merged with the odor of manzanilla, and from the bottom of raised glasses, full of the incomparable wine, like an incense, rose joy.

FLEDERMAUSMANN!

(The word “Batman” doesn’t really work in German.)

There’s a famous opera by Johann Strauss II called “Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”). One of these days, I hope somebody writes “Batman: The Opera”. I’m not holding my breath, though. At least we have a fun overture from Strauss to tide us over.