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.

Oh man, there are soooooo many good Viola jokes. How many, you ask? So many, that Wikipedia has a an entry for “Viola Jokes“.

The viola is definitely the black sheep of the string family. Essentially, it’s an oversized violin – but it’s out of proportion to the violin and the cello – the body is larger than the violin, but the neck isn’t proportionally longer, and so the strings aren’t as tense as the violin or cello, giving it a sound distinct from its family members (a subtle difference, but it’s there.) Historically, violinists who couldn’t cut it on the violin were “demoted” to viola, which tended to have boring, easier parts to play.

But that was soooooo 1700. Nowadays, violists might still be the black sheep, but they can play just as well as their violin/cello counterparts, and have even managed to score a handful of pieces specifically for their instrument. Carl Maria von Weber was attracted to the dark, muted timbre of the instrument, and churned out this little two-movement Hungarian dance for the instrument.

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.