A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

  • Music and Religion: Performance of Christian Music as a Pagan

    Now Playing: Midnight Madonna by Powerwolf Currently, I sing in a community choir. As with most community choirs, this choir rehearses and performs in a church as a way to reduce expenses, since rehearsal spaces can get quite expensive, especially for larger groups. Many of the pieces we perform are also based around Christian themes…

  • Classical Music: Universal Language or Tool of Oppression?

    Now Playing: Wonderland by Tungsten So as a classically trained musician living in Canada, I read music in the traditional European (or “Western”) fashion. Basically, I was trained to read music like all those snooty, elitist assholes who act like the big name composers from before 1920 are the best thing to ever happen to…

  • A Year of Metal

    Now Playing: Son of a Wolf by Powerwolf 2023 was a solid year for power metal. New albums from Elvenking, Twilight Force, Bloodbound, and Powerwolf (as well as a live album from Freedom Call), several EPs and singles from Sabaton, Rhapsody of Fire, and DragonForce, with album announcements set for next year from several of…

  • Artistic Worship: An Intersection of Music, Studies, and Paganism

    Now Playing: Rún by SKÁLD (Intimate Version) Paganism, especially in its modern, reconstructed form, is incredibly diverse, both in terms of the number of types of paganism and the differences between different kinds of people who practice the religion. How it’s practiced and the specific beliefs will differ from person to person. (Ask ten different…

  • Interests and Composition Style: Should They Overlap?

    Content warning: Mentions of death, mental health, suicide, and war. Now Playing: The Time of Your Life by Elvenking A question that composers who are just starting out sometimes ask, and one that is very worth considering, is the question of how to make music, specifically what music one should make. This is an interesting…

  • Chance Encounters: People We Remember

    Now Playing: Forest of Destiny by Twilight Force So one thing that I think is interesting is that sometimes, we meet someone by chance and we remember them for years to come, even though we’ll probably never meet them again. These people may not have been anyone of any particular note, they may not have…

  • Release Incoming: Autumn Leaves

    Now Playing: The wolf path by Sanctorum So, I’m a musician. “You must write music then,” one might say. First of all, how dare you assume things of me. Second of all, how dare you assume things of me and have the audacity to be correct. /lh Yes, I do write music, and it can…

  • Music Theory: Necessary or Obsolete?

    Now Playing: Hydra by Twilight Force As a longtime musician, something my new musician friends sometimes ask me is some variation of “do I need music theory to be a good musician?” This is also a question that isn’t uncommon among musicians in general. My answer, and opinion, is always something along the lines of…