Music Monday – Page 2

The Last Rose of Summer and The Harp-Lute

Below are two videos that highlight an instrument that was just being developed and becoming quite the “hot new” thing during the early 1800s. It is called a harp-lute.

This first video is of a lady singing “The Last Rose of Summer” while playing the harp-lute. I thought the video was such a good one to inspire the imagination of what music in the drawing room might have looked and sounded like.

And the second video is an informational video telling a bit about the history of the instrument and showing how it is played.

The story I have chosen to pair with today’s musical selection is Protecting Miss Darcy. The excerpt below is from a conversation Alfred Langley has with his aunt (Lorcan Langley’s mother, hero of Cherishing Kitty) about the prettiest flower in the garden. 🙂

That’s right, Alfred, you just keep telling yourself that Georgiana is only your friend. No one is believing that besides you and Georgiana. 😉

Find Protecting Miss Darcy, Cherishing Kitty, and the full Marrying Elizabeth series here.

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Oboe Concerto in C major – 3. Rondo: Allegretto (Joseph Haydn)

I thought today, we would take a look at another instrument that might have been in Georgiana’s music room (the oboe) and some music from a composer who not only wrote music for oboes, but also for piano. I’m sure Georgiana might have had some sheets of his music in her music folder.

The first video (above) introduces you to the oboe that was in use in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The second video (below) is a short piece that was composed by Haydn for the oboe. Can you imagine the delight and enjoyment that Georgiana and her brother would have gotten from going to a concert and listening to something like this?

This excerpt is from a book (Cherishing Kitty) that stars Kitty Bennet, but her dearest friend in this series is Georgiana. Therefore, Georgiana plays a role in Kitty’s journey to happily ever after.

Here they are talking about Georgiana’s upcoming season. Georgiana’s story (Protecting Miss Darcy) follows Kitty’s story and leads up to her season.

Georgiana does begin her study of character with Mr. Alfred Langley… and spoiler alert… she also ends it with him. The path from here to there, however, is not a pain-free one. 🙂

Find Cherishing Kitty, Protecting Miss Darcy, and the full Marrying Elizabeth series here.

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Fortepiano: Moonlight Sonata (Beethoven)

I thoroughly enjoyed last week’s video about recorders and Van Eyck, so this week, we’re going to do something similar. 🙂 I have two videos for you today. The first one is an informational video about the fortepiano, and then the second one is a musical selection that Miss Darcy might have played on her fortepiano.

And the music in the video is actually being played on the fortepiano, which means the piece of music sounds as it would have when Beethoven first composed it. Surely, I can’t be the only one who finds that cool, can I be? 🙂

I’ve paired the above musical videos with an excerpt from a book where Georgiana plays a key role in bringing her brother and Elizabeth together. This excerpt is from a scene where Georgiana and Darcy are about to have a disagreement.

Two Days Before Christmas is the first book in my Darcy Family Holidays series. Darcy has returned home from Netherfield sooner than expected, and he’s in quite the state. Georgiana thinks she knows what his trouble is and determines that she is going to give him the best Christmas present — an unbroken heart.

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Intro to Van Eyck (Sarah Jeffrey)

We are starting a new month of Mondays and a new theme for these posts. This month I will be sharing music that could have been played by Georgiana, and I’ll be pairing every song selection with a quote from some book in which Georgiana has either been the heroine or has been more than just a walk on.

Today, the video is different than any I have shared before. While this video contains music, it is really a music lesson. I thought it might be fun to learn about a composer from well before Georgiana’s time period. If you choose to listen to the video, you can do as I did pretend you are Georgiana sitting under the tutelage of a music master that Darcy has hired for her. 😉 (We know she played the piano, but she might have played more instruments than that. I can see a recorder showing up in some story of mine in the future. 🙂 )

The following excerpt is from Enticing Miss Darcy in which Georgiana is nervously entering her first season.

While most of the books in my Dash of Darcy and Companions collection of Pride and Prejudice inspired stories have one companion story, Unravelling Mr. Darcy has two companions. Enticing Miss Darcy is the second companion story. (Becoming Entangled is the first companion story.)

Georgiana is the heroine in this story, and Jack Ralston (a character I created) is the hero who has found himself relegated to the position of good friend. However, with a little help from various friends and relations, Jack might be able to move out of the friend zone, and Georgiana just might learn to trust her heart.

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Winter Wonderland (Laura Osnes and Aaron Tveit)

One Royal Holiday was a cute movie. While I do enjoy Hallmark movies, I’m not a big lover of their standard royalty trope ones, but this one veered off the standard path enough to make it interesting to me. I suppose that holds true for all their movies for me, I tend to like the non-standard formula ones better than the “more of the same” movies. However, we’re not talking about all Hallmark movies today. We’re just talking about this one in passing since it is the music video choice for today.

Now, why would I pick a Christmas song in April? No, it is not because snow has fallen in some places last week. Nor is it because we are one day less than eight months away from Christmas. 😀 It is because I have a book on sale (it’s on for 99cents) and wanted to feature it today in this post.

And I picked this particular video because it is Hallmark, and the story I have a few lines from today is written in Hallmark-Christmas-movie style. It has a sweet romance, a hero and heroine who slowly come to love each other, Christmas activities such as family traditions and shopping, and a couple of sisters who meddle in their sibling’s love lives.

Have you read it yet? If not, now’s a great time to pick up a copy.

Christmas in Gracechurch Street is part of the multi-author $0.99 clean romance promotion below. Please click the image below to see the stories that are on offer (including Christmas in Gracechurch Street). Maybe you’ll find some early Christmas treats in the process. (And, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone if you indulge in them months before Christmas. 😉 )

Have a lovely Monday! See you on Wednesday for some visual story inspiration.