McDoc and I recently installed a couple CD towers in our living room… it was way past time to get the CD’s out of the cardboard boxes! (VirgoDad was kind enough to anchor them to the wall for us while visiting from California!)
We decided to put all our CD’s together — formerly McDoc’s and formerly mine, from all genres — the only organizing principle would be alphabetization. When I lived alone, I had classical CD’s separated from non-classical. But hey, we’re living in the post-modern era (some would even argue post-postmodern, but I wouldn’t recommend getting into that unless you have a bad case of insomnia! 😉 ), and boundaries are made to be crossed!
As I was arranging the CD’s on the shelves, I noticed some funny juxtapositions courtesy of the alphabet. They fell into a few categories:
Fantasy Dinner Party — artists you might like to seat next to each other so you could eavesdrop on their conversation!
- The Beatles and Beethoven — roll over!
- Would Luciano Berio advise Hector Berlioz to tone down his orchestration a little?
- Somehow I don’t see Pierre Boulez and Brahms getting along too well!
- Grace Jones and Rickie Lee Jones could probably swap some crazy stories from the 70’s!
Groovy Synchronicity!
- Fiona Apple and Louis Armstrong — you can call me crazy, but at odd moments her vocal mannerisms remind me of his. Listen to this sample from her song, Extraordinary Machine, and you might see what I mean.
- Benjamin Britten and fellow Brit Kate Bush.
- Morten Lauridsen and Orlando di Lasso — get your choral on!
- Hungarians György Ligeti and Franz Liszt — both known for devilishly difficult piano études!
- Arnold Schönberg and Franz Schubert — All-You-Can-Eat German lieder!
Oddball Combos
- William Byrd and Johnny Cash both lived and thrived through multiple changes in musical fashion!
- Peter Gabriel and Giovanni Gabrieli can both be good for listening to late at night, when you want to be transported!
Just Wrong!
- Madonna and Mahler — sorry about that, Gustav!
- Alanis Morissette is a bit too close to Mozart for my comfort!
- Tchaikovsky and TLC — I like ’em both, but they’re really not for the same time and place!
Hmm, next I think I should get some of those suction cup darts and throw them at the CD tower to see what other crazy combinations I can find! 🙂
Oh, and speaking of juxtapositions, one of the pieces from The 30 Days Project fits perfectly with this topic — it’s my take on what happens when you mix Gershwin and Chopin: It Ain’t Necessarily Night. 🙂
Our music has been organized for a long time. What I really need is a good, sturdy, storage case like you have. Where did you get those towers?
We got them at the Holy City of Furniture, a.k.a. IKEA! 😉