Got so excited reading @gabrielkahane.bsky.social on arranging that I'm writing again at @rearrangedpodcast.bsky.social: it's about Kahane's new song, Glenn Miller, and how the appearance and disappearance of instrumental passages stoke the fire of a song's meaning. open.substack.com/pub/rearrang...

My pals at Osiris Media just wrote to send me to Apple's top music podcast charts. The GenXer in me says "charts schmarts," but this kind of stuff can help me produce more episodes of @rearrangedpodcast.bsky.social. Thanks, listeners! Please leave a review at the main show page if you can :)

If you listened to @rearrangedpodcast.bsky.social, I hope you'll consider goosing The Algorithm by leaving a review at Apple Podcasts. Apparently this helps push the podcast in front of more people who might enjoy it. You'll need to do this from the main page, not an episode page. Thanks!

My band "Glad Pulses" just released its debut album, Blue and Bright. At the Rearranged Substack, I share some lessons from arranging collaboratively. Many ears are better than two!

Arranging on the fly: Eblis Álvarez and Los Pirañas. open.substack.com/pub/rearrang...

The fifth and final episode of Rearranged is live! If it's words you're hankerin' for, enjoy this reflection on Philip Glass Ensemble's four-hour performance of Music in Twelve Parts at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville. rearranged.substack.com/p/pausing-mu...

Heading home from Big Ears Festival. I was here for much more than arranging, but the arranging I liked most was guitarist Joel Harrison's Free Country project: country, folk, and Appalachian music arranged to be *played like* jazz, even if it doesn't always *sound* like it.

The final Rearranged episode: a tour through some favorite arrangements as I discover *why* they became so close to me and how the art of removing sound is as important to arranging as the art of adding it. Plus an answer to the big question: What is a song? llanahan.wixsite.com/rearranged/e...

It's not just sampling that lands musical artists in court. Muddled and unmusical jurisprudence has made musical tools vulnerable to litigation: not just melody, harmony, and rhythm, either. It's making musical artists timid, as Kembrew McLeod and Charles Cronin explain in Episode 4 of Rearranged.

What is a "song," and can we really own one? rearranged.substack.com/p/ours-ours-...

In Ep. 4 of @rearrangedpodcast.bsky.social, @kembrew.bsky.social and I discuss why originality in popular music is misunderstood. The Turtles sued De La Soul over a sample, calling it "theft." But the recycled chord progression in "Happy Together" doesn't exactly establish The Turtles as original.

What does Ed Sheeran have to do with Robin Thicke and The Turtles and an 1832 issue of the German music journal Allgemaine Musikalische Zeitung? Tune into Episode 4 of the @osirispod.bsky.social podcast @rearrangedpodcast.bsky.social and find out!

Episode 4 bats cleanup for a reason. Starting in 1832 Germany and ending in a federal courtroom in 2023, I rescue the reputation of arrangers from those who'd dismiss them as "mere mechanics." Along the way, I get insulted in German and land a good punch on AI. llanahan.wixsite.com/rearranged/e...

In Ep. 3, Baltimore actor/singer Brandon Shaw McKnight dramatizes the writing of America's first million-selling American pop tune. Songsmith Charles K. Harris had seen a couple break off their engagement at a ball. When the "Wheelmen's Club" said they needed a song for an upcoming production...

Episode 3 of Rearranged makes the case for the originality possible in derivative music by connecting two centuries of music: from Liszt's piano arrangements of Beethoven symphonies to Public Enemy's orchestral use of sampling. Producer/writer John Morrison puts it all in perspective.

Here is an arranging challenge delightfully met: samba with Russian synthesizers. I bet High Llamas fans will like this.

In Rearranged Ep. 3, historian Susan Schmidt Horning chronicles the glory days of the studio arrangers before the British Invasion swept them aside. Here she chronicles the rise to fame of arranger Alan Lorber, who got his break writing arrangements for a singer's performance at the Apollo Theater.

Episode 3 of Rearranged is out! How revolutions in recording technology remade the sound of the popular song. www.osirispod.com/podcasts/rea...

Do you turn away from life to listen to music and turn back when you're done? Here are some thoughts on finding a place to dwell where music and life are one and the same. rearranged.substack.com/p/mosaic-music

Episode 2 of Rearranged is live! A classical music scholar and a pianist look under the hood of Franz Liszt’s solo piano transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies to discover the vast originality possible in derivative music. llanahan.wixsite.com/rearranged/e...

Finding music during the emergence of the pandemic: rearranged.substack.com/p/choosing-m....

Just wrote about the worst musical arranging tic of the 21st century. Take a gander and subscribe to the Rearranged podcast...which premieres tomorrow on @osirispod.bsky.social! rearranged.substack.com/p/ukeleles-a...

As we await the premiere of Episode 1, head over to Substack to read about how Rearranged got started. It involves Van Dyke Parks, Lee Konitz, and my favorite piece of recorded music. rearranged.substack.com/p/chasing-a-...

You can subscribe to the Rearranged podcast and Substack here! rearrangedpodcast.com