LITERARY SONG VIDEOS:
Since 1985 I've made literary music videos. These strange beasts use the lyrics of a song as poetry to be interpreted in the context of TV or movie video. Listen to Frank Sinatra's I Did It My Way in your head. Now see Captain James Tiberius Kirk. That's a literary music video! I've made over 450 of them because I love the emotional power they give to ideas, and the fun of working within a tight box.

Interested? You can read more about how I got started and the equipment I've used, or read excerpts from Henry Jenkins' book, Textual Poachers. Alternatively, watch the development of a Forever Knight music video, 'Dust in the Wind.'

We've chosen to put up our music videos in two qualities - soso and pretty great. Soso videos are in mp4 format; pretty great are in mpg. At the bottom of each page of music videos for a single fandom you'll find a technical section talking about what software will play which format. Lines with gold backgrounds describe the larger mpg format videos.

MUSIC VIDEO POSTERS:

In the last twenty years, I've made close to 500 fandom music videos. When I presented them at the MIT Media Lab, the conclusion was that they were, indeed, art in and of themselves. After relentless prodding from the people at our local cable channel, I finally agreed to show them in our tiny town, and put up a half hour of them every week for about a year. To advertise them, I built small posters and the storekeepers let me tape them up in store windows. And every week I'd go back and take down the old one and put up a new one. But I always came home with less than I brought, since a number of people had taken to collecting the posters, as they did the music videos.

MUSIC OF THE 18th CENTURY:

While researching Henry Livingston as the author of Night Before Christmas, I became extremely frustrated by his fascinating music manuscript. 200 pages of songs, and I had no idea what they sounded like. My cousin, Steve Thomas, was kind enough to make the book available to me, and my next problem was to figure out how to turn those notes on the page into something other than lovely graphic arts. I can't play an instrument. The solution was David Webber's Mozart program. With Mozart, I was able to transcribe the book, and with Mary Jane Corry's help, I learned how to fix the mistakes Henry had made in his handwritten scores. FAVORITE SONGS OF HENRY'S IN MIDI Farewell to Lochaber     Read      Listen Sweet Passion of Love     Read      Listen Dans Votre Lit     Read      Listen Did you hear those little trills and quick runs of notes? Those are called 'ornaments,' and are a shorthand to a musician to embroider the note to which the ornament is attached. They confused me greatly at first, until I found a book explaining how Bach had taught them to his children. Since I couldn't try them out on an instrument, I transcribed each of them so you can find out what each symbol means. Notation in Bach

THE DUENNA:

Several of the songs I loved best in Henry's music manuscript came from a light opera of Richard Sheridan (written about 1810). I became obsessed with hearing more of them, but I couldn't find any recorded version. So I was once again forced into transcription mode. I found a bookstore in London that was selling a vintage publication and, finally, could hear the music. It was worth all the time it took to transcribe each page, note by note. I hope you love it, too. A chorus midi sound comes in while the song would be sung. FAVORITE DUENNA SONGS IN MIDI   When Sable Night   Had I a Heart   Thou Can'st Not Boast FAVORITE MUSIC VIDEOS TO THE DUENNA Alias   If a Daughter You Have Starsky&Hutch   Give Isasc the Nymph Sherlock Holmes   How Oft, Louisa Using the songs in music videos was irresistible.

THE SONGS GRANDMOTHER SANG:

"Where is its mother? Go take it to her," This a lady then softly said. "I wish that I could" was the man's sad reply, "But she's dead, in the coach ahead."                             Baggage Coach Ahead

When mother left father, she brought us to the home of her parents, and nana raised me as much as mother did. Born in the last quarter of the 19th century, the songs nana loved were the old tearjerker music hall songs. Whenever she ironed, or cooked, or worked around the house, she sang. And cried. And drove grandfather batty! But I loved to sing along with her, and I cried, too. I'm starting to find the songs I remember and transcribe them.

AQUINAS HIGH SCHOOL CLASS SONG:

Learning to transcribe scores came in very handy when I was sent a copy of our high school class song. Not only could I put the words up on our class site, I can also let you hear it!