A group of explorers go in search of a fabled book, hidden in an ancient library. They travel in a rickety old boat to a mythical town, deep in the caves of a mountain, where the library is rumoured to lie.

A quick post to ease back into the stream: an interjection between Sherlock stuff. Here’s to Dom Coyote (and don’t you love that play on Don Quixote already….) with his new single, The Rowing Boat. I watched him perform this live last night at the Perseverance in London, and is it ever gorgeous. One of those songs that hark from an age of narrative singing with its vivid, poetic imagery and lush harmonies - courtesy of the lovely Emily Barker - layered with guitars and double bass, a rollicking, spirit-stirring beat - exactly as if one was ‘set adrift in a rowing boat’. Observe the lyrics:

We walked through the town of the ancients 
Hewn from rock, this arcane place, 
The streets lay dead, but were all ablaze, 
In the corners, almost out of site, 
We knew that the shadows were watching

All set adrift in a rowing boat, 
Move through the words like a wisp of smoke 
Books set ablaze by the devil himself, 
I’m a rowing and a running for the last of the sun 

I’d say his music - for me - is a little hit and miss (it can come off a little hokey sometimes), but The Rowing Boat and Apples of the Sun (not the EP) are not to be missed. The former is currently available free for download off his bandcamp page. Clipped Wings was another lovely one performed last night, but that’s not available - maybe when his album’s released later this month.

real life got in the way for a few months. but i’m gearing up to get back into regular non-academic writing, so stay tuned for more music. i will attempt, as much as is possible, to relate all of this - even tangentially - to Sherlock. /challengeaccepted

i’m curious as to whether people would like to hear nice music that’s not necessarily in any way related to Sherlock, though, because there’s lots of that out there, so do drop me a line in the ask box. recommendations are always welcome, too :)

have a lovely day!

Most people know this song as Sinatra’s, originally composed by Cy Coleman and given lyrics by Joseph Allan McCarthy. Frankly, I don’t like Sinatra’s version (See what i did thar) - it is sad, yes, but too cheesy and polished for my taste. Listen to the fluttering flutes, the melodramatic sweep of the strings. For some reason, his renditions (admittedly, the ‘52 recording has a sweet little skip and jump to it, and is more pleasing to the ear than the ‘59) just don’t do anything for me.

The Melancholy of Sherlock Holmes. Where’s that Suzumiya crossover?

Fiona Apple, though, imbues her cover with a deep, haunting loneliness that’s somehow rawer and more honest than Sinatra’s carefully orchestrated melancholy. Stripped down to a piano, a subtle cccrrrrrssssshhhhhh of cymbals and her voice, it is especially painful to listen to late at night, alone in one’s room. It is her version that, for me, becomes Sherlock’s bouts of deep melancholy – and this would be one of those songs in his dark moods. Neither would it feel out of place in House M.D.’s soundtra —- oh wait, it was featured in House! Awesome.

I sit and daydream, I’ve got daydreams galore
Cigarette ashes – there they go on the floor
Go away weekends, leave my keys in the door
Why try to change me now

Cy Coleman, though, plays his own composition with a certain self-deprecating wryness that I like – his more light-hearted piano-playing provides a nice counterpoint to the sad, resigned lyrics.

So let people wonder – let ‘em laugh, let ‘em frown
You know I’ll love you till the moon’s upside down
Don’t you remember I was always your clown
Why try to change me now

Mp3 Downloads:

Fiona Apple – Why Try To Change Me Now
Fiona Apple - Why Try To Change Me Now (Live with Dave Palmer)

Music for Sherlock on cocaine. Not that I have ever tried drugs or anything of that sort (though my school is notorious for that sort of thing), but this sounds like what being on a drug-induced haze would feel like: lush and sensual vocals, courtesy of Sia Furler (will be talking about her in the future) and Sophie Barker, and trippy layered sounds from electronic keyboards. You can just about hear the strums of the guitar background-ing it (not a word, but you know what I mean), which lend it a great organic sound that you don’t find in too much electronic music.  

I lie awake
I’ve gone to ground
I’m watching porn in my hotel dressing gown
Now I dream of you but I still believe
There’s only enough for one in this lonely hotel suite

I used to listen to this song a great deal when I was maybe 14 or 15, and late at night when angsting about things. There is something about an absolutely silent room with just the breath of air-conditioning and Sia’s voice unfurling around you, and being convinced that no one will ever want you. Not that that still doesn’t happen, but thankfully there’s a much more mature and rational spin to that…

And it feels so bad
I’m thinking back to the last day we had
Old moon fades into the new
Soon I know I’ll be back with you
I’m nearly with you
I’m nearly with you

But now when I hear this, I think, too, of that lonely period in Watson’s life when he believed Holmes was dead, and I can’t un-read the lyrics (which I take from Holmes’ point of view). Even without the slashgoggles (and goodness knows there’s no way most of us can take them off anymore), it still spells out everything in their relationship – how utterly lonely and lost they are/were without each other. It all seems to be here: from that “last day we had” – the day Holmes ‘died’ to the implied loneliness of those years spent traveling and staying away from 221B Baker Street.

When I’m weak I draw strength from you
And when you’re lost I know how to change your mood
And when I’m down you breathe life over me
Even though we’re miles apart we are each other’s destiny

Mp3 Downloads:

Zero 7 – Destiny
Zero 7 – Destiny (Acoustic)

This is a cop out in several ways, since I have a particular love for Bach and because House plays this in Season 2 (and we all know House is based on Holmes). And also because it’s the weekend and I have work to do…

Anyway, it is, unfortunately, terribly easy for amateurs and non-amateurs alike to butcher Bach (god knows I’ve done it so many times), and in so many ways – a harsh-sounding, overly bright piano, a heavy touch (like this – those piano keys are being stampeded over, imho), too many trills, not enough trills, etc. One could say that’s all a matter of personal taste, but compare the previous video to Rimma Bobritskaya’s elegant, almost courtly playing and you’ll see. I quote a YouTube commenter: “This type of music could benefit greatly by being allowed to be more flexible, pliant, rhythmically casual, and not forced into an ongoing movement. …Take away the bar lines and let it breathe.”

I like Glenn Gould’s bubbly version a lot, even though he “wanks all over it” (see comment) by completely ignoring its original tempo; Emil Gilel, on the other hand, plays it ‘as it was meant to be played’, i.e. slow, stately and quite serious, “delighting in order and calm” (Johann Matteson).

ahem. don’t mind Hugh Laurie…

Hugh Laurie’s rendition, from S2.13 ‘Skin Deep’, is moderately paced, somewhere between Gilel and Gould, and the trills and embellishments vary (as they do from player to player). It’s more contemplative and features – I think – more extensive use of the pedal and notes melting into each other, giving you more time to savour the melody as it passes. It stops abruptly for the scene to continue, alas. I wish Laurie had recorded it in full…

Have a lovely week, everyone!

Downloads:
Glenn Gould – Bach: French Suite No. 5 in G Major – I. Allemande
Hugh Laurie – Bach: French Suite No. 5 in G Major – I. Allemande

A modern day Sherlock would obviously have this on his iPod – it’s one of the great songs of the 20^th century. So would John Watson, I imagine – though I’d leave it to the consulting detective to hunt down the more obscure covers…

So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell,
blue skies from pain
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
And did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?

The original needs no extensive explanation – the slightly rough, scratchy vocals are so very perfect for the lyrics, and I always feel like crying a little whenever I hear that song, especially during the instrumental parts (and I love how the beginning was processed to sound as though it was playing on a transistor radio…) And now I’m imagining a fanvid featuring Sherlock and John – oh, you know, that intensely sad and lonely wish you were here, being lost without his blogger an’ all. (Also, I didn’t know this before Wikipedia, but Stephane! Grappelli! Plays the violin at the end of Pink Floyd’s original. One of my favourite jazz violinists, ever – he’ll appear here at some point…)

this is a mildly irrelevant picture of Sherlock to illustrate this post.

There are loads and loads of covers of this song, but I like (and so might Sherlock, though i cannot say the same about this video) Rasputina’s cover – it’s a version I sometimes favour over the original in certain moods. It’s a tad more stately and elegantly melancholy, the cello acting as the bassline, accompanied by some mellow low-toned strings. The strings get beautiful solos during the instrumental bit, and the vocal harmonies are gorgeous.

How I wish, how I wish you were here
We’re just two lost souls
Swimming in a fish bowl
Year after year
Running over the same old ground
What have we found?
The same old fears
Wish you were here

Aslan also did a live cover which I’m really loving. It has significantly more energy and verve than the original, but maybe that’s just the energy of the crowd and performing live. Can’t say I’m very fond of Alpha Blondy’s reggae version, but one man’s poison…

A little extra something:

While watching covers of Wish You Were Here on YouTube (just so you know, the Sparklehorse cover is too damn slow), I stumbled across Kate Voegele’s Wish You Were Here – same name, completely different song.

It ain’t hard to see
Who you are underneath
I’m still in love with who I wish you were
And I wish you were here

Not particularly relevant to Sherlockesque, but I’d like to share it nonetheless because it’s rather pleasant in that I’m-a-singer-songwriter-with-an-acoustic-guitar-singing-a-melancholy-song-about-love way. A very O.C. soundtrack-sound —-  oh wait, it’s from One Tree Hill. Figures. (Would this be an ‘Indie Cindy’ song?)

Mp3 Downloads:

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
Rasputina – Wish You Were Here
Aslan – Wish You Were Here (Live)
Alpha Blondy – Wish You Were Here
Kate Voegele – Wish You Were Here (Acoustic)

thatdoctorwhogirl asked: I found this through a recommendation by another Sherlock blog, and I'm so glad they nudged me over here. I've been into music for about thirteen years now, so to find somewhere on Tumblr dedicated to music relating to one of my more recent favourite TV programmes is pretty fantastic! So yeah. Hi. :)

Hello to you too! I’m glad you like this :) nice to meet you, and maybe if you like you should recommend some music? It’s always interesting to hear what people are listening to!

First came across this piece while reading Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore (which everyone, and I mean everyone, should read). Beethoven (not the dog) was one of the in-betweens of the Classical and Romantic era, and that’s quite evident in this piece: you have the lightness and clarity of the Classical period, evident in the structure, the lilting phrases and the call-and-response/counterpoint melodies between the instruments, but at the same time it’s got that Romantic emotion and depth, a definite personality that I find a lot of Classical music lacks. Much of the latter seems so frivolous, too much lightness and la-di-dah – all those regular phrases and chords, 17^th-century symmetry and poppy melodies! (Not Mozart and a few others. But Pachelbel, I’m lookin’ at ya.)

I feel like this is more of a Brett!Holmes piece than BBC!Sherlock – if you’ve seen/heard Brett on the violin (well not actually playing, but doing a pretty damn good job of pretending), all romantic and soulful, you’ll know what I mean. The first movement, especially – fluid melodies and all that. Him listening to this, waving his long fingers in the air in time to the music, a dreamy look on his face, and all that. For a technical description of this piece, look no further than the Kennedy Center’s writeup.

Here’s the description from Kafka on the Shore, the one that gets mentioned in the comments section for almost every rendition of this piece on YouTube:

“Hey,” he called out to the owner. “What was that music called again? I forget.”

“Beethoven’s Archduke Trio.”

“March Duke?”

“Arch. Archduke. Beethoven dedicated it to the Austrian archduke Rudolph. It’s not the official name, more like the piece’s nickname. Rudolph was the son of Emperor Leopold the Second. He was a very skilled musician, who studied piano and music theory with Beethoven starting when he was sixteen. He looked up to Beethoven. Archduke Rudolph didn’t make a name for himself as either a pianist or a composer, but sort of stood in the shadows lending a helping hand to Beethoven, who didn’t know much about getting ahead in the world. If it hadn’t been for him, Beethoven would have had a much tougher time.”

“Those kind of people are necessary in life, huh?”

“Absolutely.”

“The world would be a real mess if everybody was a genius. Somebody’s got to keep watch, take care of business.”

“Exactly. A world full of geniuses would have significant problems.”

“I really like that piece.”

“It’s beautiful. You never get tired of listening to it. I’d say it’s the most refined of all Beethoven’s piano trios. He wrote it when he was forty, and never wrote another. He must have decided he’d reached the pinnacle in the genre.”

don’t mind Jeremy… we just needed him lusting after Watson his face here.

Daniel Barenboim, Pinchas Zukerman and Jacqueline Du Pré’s version is decent - measured and stately; Jacques Thibauld is absolutely golden on the violin here. My favourite rendition of this piece is by the Gryphon Trio, which I last heard while flying British Airways. But I can’t find it online – so I hope you enjoy this version by Jos van Immerseel, Vera Beths, & Anner Bylsma. A pianoforte instead of a piano is used here, which works surprisingly well.

pictures in this post via darkasnightsweetassin, and the .gif in turn via Sulu

Mp3 Downloads:

I. Allegro Moderato
II. Scherzo - Allegro
III. Andante Cantabile
IV. Allegro Moderato