About This Project

Keep smiling, Gioachino.  What you don't know can't hurt you.

Date: 16 July, 2011.
Time: Roughly 8 PM.
Place: My living room.

After a hectic, hectic few weeks, all I'd wanted was to watch some television and turn my mind off for a while. I had turned the TV on to some station or another - I had no preference - and to be honest, I wasn't even paying attention to the screen when suddenly, I heard the familiar strains of Rossini's "Largo al factotum" from The Barber of Seville wafting over my ears.

On a commercial for Jersey Shore.

Now, I like to fashion myself as something of an anti-snob, particularly where classical music is concerned. However, I will be damned if "Largo al factotum" becomes "That music I heard on the Jersey Shore commercial," having barely avoided the "That song Robin Williams sings in Mrs. Doubtfire" mantle.

I'd love to see this guy tackle a baritone aria.

My philosophy is simple: I only believe that the pieces featured in films, television, and advertisements deserve to have their original, given names known. This blog, updated on a weekly basis (hopefully!), will aim to do just that. Along the way, biographical information of each composer will be given, as well as explanations for the dozens of terms known only to the geekiest of music geeks (after all, who knows what may happen if more people knew the minute differences between a symphony and a symphonic poem?). Every so often, there will be posts focusing on a single film that incorporates many classical pieces into it (some unlikely films that are chock-full of classical music are Daddy Day Care and Runaway Bride, to name but a few). And above all, these topics will be discussed with a healthy dose of humor; I figure there is enough tutting and head-shaking about the state of classical music in the world today, so we might as well celebrate one of the few venues where classical pieces are regularly played and heard.

Even if it is a Jersey Shore commercial.