by Kile Smith | Dec 23, 2020 | Broad Street Review, Classical music, Vocal music
[First published in Broad Street Review 21 Dec 2020 and reprinted here by permission.] About the best advice for composers I’ve heard comes from Mac Sledge, Robert Duvall’s washed-up country singer who finds redemption in 1983’s Tender Mercies. When word gets out he’s...
by Kile Smith | Oct 20, 2020 | Broad Street Review, Pop Music
[First published in the Broad Street Review 19 Oct 2020 and reprinted here by permission.] Since I set a lot of words to a lot of music, I’m interested in how others do it, others including composers of the past, of the present—and pop songwriters. The music of my...
by Kile Smith | Apr 17, 2020 | Broad Street Review
[First published in the Broad Street Review, 14 April 2020. Reprinted by permission.] When we began staying home to combat the pandemic, the Metropolitan Opera began offering free Nightly Met Opera Streams from their popular Live in HD series. It was the seven...
by Kile Smith | Feb 26, 2019 | Broad Street Review
[Published 26 Feb 2019 in the Broad Street Review and reprinted here by permission.] Scene 1 The only way I was leaving this house was feet-first. Jackie didn’t like that kind of talk, but I’d resolved that I was finished with moving: I wanted to get through life...
by Kile Smith | Dec 23, 2018 | Broad Street Review, Composition
[First published in Broad Street Review, 23 Dec 2018. Reprinted by permission.] Sports, sports numbers, and sports records consumed the attention of my youth, I’ll admit. If I’d known I’d be going into music in a few years, I would’ve applied myself more assiduously...
by Kile Smith | Oct 24, 2018 | Broad Street Review
[First published in Broad Street Review 23 Oct 2018, and reprinted here by permission.] I wasn’t prepared for the reaction—my reaction, that is. This was the second time our German men’s choir would sing the national anthem at the Phillies. I wrote about it two years...
