Words and music by Dennis Livingston

PLAY THE ORIGINAL DEMO RECORDING     

Michael Kreutz
Demo singer: Michael Kreutz
Demo pianist: Doug Hammer

  READ THE LYRICS

  PERFORMANCE TIPS:

Length of song: 5:25

Song style/genre: Midtempo ballad

Key(s): B flat major to C major

Note range (Low/High): B natural below middle C to D an octave above middle C

About the song: The genesis of this deeply evocative ballad begins with preparing for a trip to Istanbul by reading Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul, a memoir of growing up in that ancient city redolent with the passing of empires and nostalgia for a glorious history long gone what Pamuk calls in Turkish, "huzum". While Istanbul is also a modern, cosmopolitan city, I drew on the mist-drenched sense of this aspect of the place as the background for a story of the end of an affair, itself now just another shard of history. Poetic license department: the lyrics state that the Hippodrome of Constantine is "gone without a trace" not quite, but almost so.

Gender point of view: Irrelevant.

Press: "BACA's first annual Songwriters Showcase features, among other composers, songs by Dennis Livingston including the bittersweet, highly visual, almost filmic "A Misty Day In Istanbul" gorgeously sung by Brian De Lorenzo."— Beverly Creasey's review at Theater Mirror 5/25/08 (www.theatermirror.com/bevtonya.htm)

 

  CONTACT DENNIS  to request sheet music and/or a CD or MP3 for this song. The message should include your name, address, phone (optional), e-mail and your website, if any.

 



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