SOUNDTRACK: CENTENNIAL SECONDARY SCHOOL MUSICAL THEATRE-The Story of Harmelodia (2000).
As mentioned in yesterday’s post. The Centennial Secondary School and Choir released their version of The Story of Harmelodia. This CD (which to the best of my knowledge is no longer available for purchase anywhere) is newly available from the Rheostaticslive website. While the (very cool) cover is there, there’s no information about the musicians.
The disc is about 35 minutes long and it recreates most of the music from the original CD. For reasons which I’m sure have to do with rights, they do not include “Monkeybird” (everyone’s favorite song) and the songs about the Wingophone. Those songs were all written by Kevin Hearn. I’d be very surprised if Hearn didn’t give them the rights to the songs, so there must be something else at play.
They also do not include the narration. This of course makes the story a lot less clear–although at this point I feel like the songs are just fun and sweet, even if they story is lost.
The school’s version is quite good. The band sounds great (with a whole host of instruments). While the opening music on the first track sounds a bit high school bandish (perhaps because it so spare) as soon as the choir kicks in it really ratchets up the quality of the music. And it stays high throughout.
The choir is outstanding, and the variety of instruments (I can hear all the brass, an autoharp, synths (there’s some fun spacey keyboard sounds on “I am Drummstein”) and some electric guitars) makes for a really compelling collection of songs.
One of the biggest difference is that many of the songs have horns playing the main melodies. “Invisible Stairs” has a flute as the lead instrument. It’s very pretty and I like that it plays the “twinkle twinkle” melody as a counterpoint to the proper melody. It’s a very pretty version. I also love the way “The Music Room” came out. And the mostly instrumental “The Sky Dreamed” sounds really lovely.
I don’t know how many lead singers there are (or what their names are, although judging by the concert, I assume it is the same kids). The female lead as featured on “Home Again” is great. I like the male lead a little less. He sounds a but too stiff to me. Although I do like that on many songs he gives his own reading of the material.
The final song, “Song of the Garden,” sounds terrific. I love the way the two singers harmonize and the way they place a cool horns section (which reminds me of The Beatles) as the song trails out.
I am of course curious why the couldn’t release those missing songs. But I’m more impressed that the school (presumably with different people) performed a stage version of the show in 2004 which was played live in several places.
[READ: December 5, 2014] Sardine in Outer Space 2
Sardine is a children’s book published by First Second. It was originally published in France (and in French) and was translated by Sasha Watson. There are six Sardine books out.
This time the inner flap says “No Grownups Allowed (Unless they’re pirates or space adventurers),” and I found that I enjoyed book 2 quite a bit more than book 1. Perhaps the jokes just appealed to me a bit more–there were a number that I thought were very funny.
I enjoyed the double cross (well they pretty much all have a double cross) in The Brainwashing Machine. But I really got a kick out of The Cha-Cha Fly. When the fly bites you, you get stupid dance songs stuck in your head. Nice premise–even funnier that the flies are named Britney, Christina, Justin and Clay.
I enjoyed the premise of Bobby Bigmouth (you just have to be nice to each other to get what you want). I also thought it was very funny that Supermuscleman’s Mix and Mingle Suit was tampered with so that he wound up punching everyone instead of shaking hands (I’d like to see that used on some real politicians).
The dunderhead plot about a monster with TVs on his fingers was really weird and different, I enjoyed the creativity of it. I was surprised at the somewhat more grown up themes of By the Light of Big Ursa Bear (when Yellow Shoulder gets drunk for instance), but the shadow puppet planets were very funny.
Sardine’s cat proves to be useful in 103º Fahrenheit (I feel the cat is otherwise underutilized). And I really enjoyed the premise of Zargon and the Zargonites that there is a planet made of carpet.
So while this series is certainly not my favorite. I will continue to read all six of them. I’ll just space them out a bit so I don’t get inundated with the same premise each time.
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