Welcome to the MUSICAL MONTH OF MAY 2025

Yup, a new music comp every Monday and Thursday, mi compadres.

We'll commence with a celebration of Walpurgisnacht.

Many of these selections feature Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain," but not all.

01 - St John's Night on a Bare Mountain (Original Version) - Mussorgsky - Ukraine NSO - 1867  (12:48)

02 - Night on Bald Mountain (Full Metal Cover) - Mussorgsky - arr John Parrish - 2016  (10:35)

03 - Walpurgis Night Allegretto - Gounod - 1859  (1:26)

04 - Night on Bald Mountain - Mussorgsky - Mint Julep Jazz Band - 2015  (4:08)

05 - Dorothy's Rescue (Extended Version) - Mussorgsky - arr Herbert Stothart - 1939  (3:10)

06 - Die erste Walpurgisnacht - Overture (edit) - Mendelssohn - 1831  (6:34)

07 - Walpurgis Night - The Coffinshakers - 2007  (3:27)

08 - Night on Bald Mountain (Piano Solo) - Mussorgsky - arr Andrew Ray - 2012  (8:11)

09 - Walpurgis - François Rabbath - 1963  (3:19)

10 - La nuit de Walpurgis - Overture - Charles-Marie Widor - 1887  (10:13)

11 - From the Bohemian Forest - Walpurgis Night - Dvořák - 1883  (3:58)

12 - A Night on Bare Mountain - Mussorgsky - arr Leibowitz - 1962  (10:36)

You should find and listen to the entirety of Mendelssohn's cantata, Die erste Walpurgisnacht.  Among other things, it's a poke at rabid so-called Christians who see the devil everywhere.

THIS LINK GOOD FOR SEVEN DAYS.

PERMANENT LINK.

See you on Monday, fellow revelers!

  

Bumper Sticker Smoking a Cigar

With all the talk about how great AI is in generating images on command, I decided to try it.  I tried to come up with something silly to challenge the magic of AI.  So I came up with, let's see, how about ... 

A BUMPER STICKER SMOKING A CIGAR

... and here are the AI results:

This is from "AIEase."  Cigar, yes.  Bumper sticker?  Nah ... I suppose the brown image is supposed to be a license plate, which is NOT a bumper sticker.  PS ... note the anti-vaping ad on the far right!  Was it prompted by my mention of a cigar and smoking???

The above is from Dezgo.  Another miss.

The above, from Artguru, seems to have two cigars.

Another license plate, from DeepAI.

All I know is, the AI at Perchance has a dirty mind and anime girls on the brain!  No bumper stickers or license plates in sight.

This amateurish illo is drawn ENTIRELY from shapes from Microsoft Publisher.  It's a line-drawing attempt at what I thought the magic of generative AI could provide.  IMO these attempts at image generation from text failed miserably.

See you on Thursday, May 1, for this year's MUSICAL MONTH OF MAY, with new music comps all month long --- starting with a special Walpurgisnacht concoction!  See ya then!