#it's about the literary merit babyyyhy

[queenlucythevaliant]

21 & 25 from the songs ask game!

Hey! There's one more 😁

21: Songs that make me think of my favorite books

So I did this a while ago with Taylor Swift songs, but I actually listen to a lot of Lana del Rey almost exclusively because so many of her songs remind me of books/writers, particularly early 20th century. So here's a bunch of Lana del Rey songs.

"Cinnamon Girl" makes me think of just. All the literary girls. "If you hold me without hurting me, you'll be the first who ever did" is a good line, and a pretty common character beat for sad women in literature (my beloveds)

"National Anthem" for roughly 2/3 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's work

"The Other Woman" is like Cinnamon Girl in that it applies to a number of my faves.

I already shared this one, but "How to disappear" for The Portrait of a Lady

"God Knows I Tried" for The House of Mirth

"Money Power Glory" for Becky Sharpe (my beloved)

"This Is What Make Us Girls" for Eve Babitz's work

"Happiness is a butterfly" is a Scarlett O'Hara song (MY BELOVED!)

"Change" for The Bostonians

"13 Beaches" for The Age of Innocence

Oh goodness there are so many more. I listen to Lana del Rey for the weird literary connections and the California settings and I could probably crank out a thousand words on any one of these.

25: Songs that I kill for a chance to perform ("Choral Bucket List" playlist)

Bob Chilcott's Shakespeare sequence: "Ophelia," "Caliban," and "Miranda"

Shape note singing! I'd love to try performing in that tradition in basically any context

Verdi's Requiem. It's so extra and bombastic and exactly what you'd expect from him

Hymn of the Cherubim!!!!!!!

I'd love to sing in the chorus for basically any oratorio. It's been on my bucket list since 7th grade. I've dipped my toe in (HS choir did selections from The Messiah every year; featured in a production of Elijah but only for "Lift Thine Eyes"), but I desperately want to sing one in its entirety. Obviously The Messiah is the favorite, but Bach's Christmas Oratorio, Israel in Egypt, Elijah, and Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex would all absolutely rule.

Bonus! Number one on my list of soli that are totally in my wheelhouse but that I haven't had the chance to perform: gotta be "Jerusalem," gang (though obviously I do not sound like Katherine Jenkins)