Q&A: Did Tori write the music for the other instruments on Night Of Hunters?

Question: Other than loving it, I have no knowledge of music. I’ve been listening to a lot of the Night of Hunters original inspiration pieces, and I’ve noticed how much feeling the non-piano instrumentals — particularly the strings, as on “Shattering Sea” — have imbued into the Tori Amos versions. Did she write the music for the other instruments, or “just” the piano and vocals (which alone is a tremendous accomplishment)? I know Shenale arranged the compositions, but I don’t know if that means he wrote the parts for the other instruments or set the tempo or…? I’m very curious! — dmc

Answer: We’ll let John Philip Shenale answer this one for you:

As an arranger and orchestrator, that is what I must do: write what the octet+ plays. The emotion, the dynamics, style — these things and more are my responsibility. And they must be notated, then played by this fantastic group of musicians. The scores that are offered through iTunes are my production scores. My map. As I have from the very beginning of my working with T, we listen, we talk. I send her a mock-up of what I think it would be, make any changes, and I finish the score and parts for the instruments. Piano and vocals were brilliantly composed and performed by T. She provides the tempo, the unity, the center, harmonic base, raison d’être. I hope that’s clear.

Very. Thanks, John!

The 120 Seconds Interview

Tori recently had tea with 120 Minutes host Matt Pinfield of all people, who filmed this short ‘n’ sweet interview (called “120 Seconds”), touching on Night of Hunters and the 20th anniversary of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”:

Cheers, Maria!

Interview, "Edge of the Moon" on Better TV

Tori recently swung by the Better TV studios for an interview with JD Roberto and to perform the first part of “Edge of the Moon.” Fortunately, both the interview and performance are now available on YouTube for your viewing pleasure. Check ‘em out:

Thanks to Maria for the links!

The CNN Interview (October 5, 2011)

Some people say, I’d give anything to be 30 again. Well, I really wouldn’t. I didn’t enjoy being 30. Making ‘Little Earthquakes’ was great, but I didn’t have a calm and I didn’t know how to laugh. I think becoming a mom is the greatest gift that ever happened to me.

Tori sat down with Abbey Goodman for this CNN interview, which treads the familiar Night of Hunters terrain but also touches on the changes she made to The Light Princess in the process of making a musical, mothering Tash as a tween, and being desirable at (almost) 50. Thanks to the many of you who sent this in, including mkgtweety and Marie. Click through to read the whole thing.

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Undented: The Home Alone Edition

We need your help. Things are going to be wonky around here for the next two weeks…

woj has wandered off to Ireland (hey, who authorized this?!), so it’s just going to be Violet and Beth holding down the Undented fort. Violet and Beth were not invited on this magically-delicious Lucky Charms trip. Violet and Beth are pissed. It’s surprisingly difficult to see a computer screen through blinding jealousy. If any of you Irish fans run into him, play “Ireland” for him. Every last one of you. Over and over. He likes that song. (No, he really does!)

As woj is the one who spends the most time scouring the nooks and crannies of the Interwebs to ferret out the [many] news items that aren’t sent in and he’s gone off skipping with the leprechauns (oh great, he’s just texted from a Dublin hotel saying he’s gonna get a Guiness, the swine!), we’re hoping you guys will lend us a hand by being extra vigilant and letting us know if you spot anything interesting anywhere.

The biggest way you can help us out is by submitting all news via the Contact form. A lot of folks send us news via Twitter and Facebook, but it’s harder for us to track there, especially if we’re not logged in. Even when we are, news gets lost in the chatter. Things scroll in, things scroll out, poof! Even if we do see a piece of news you’ve sent our way and pass it along in our stream, unless we remember it LATER and go back and hunt for it (assuming we can even find it again), it’s gone gone gone, dancing somewhere out in the ether with that cool alarm clock we had in 6th grade.

So if you come across something and send it through the form, there’s no way we can miss it.

As always, submit concert reviews via the flashback pages in the Tour section. For all other show-related stuffs (setlists, corrections, links to videos/photos, pic files that need to be sent as attachments, etc), email those directly to Violet with the show’s city in the subject line and include the name we should use to credit you.

The photo and video portions of the concert flashback pages will suffer most with woj away, which you may already have noticed. He typically handles that. Violet is going to do her best to man the post, but she’s slow as molasses at sorting and organizing and compressing and uploading, so it’s going to take longer than normal for those to be added. Re-sizing and compressing your photos in advance would be a huge help! YES, YES!!! (640px or less in height, 100kb or less in file size.) Any that she doesn’t get up, woj will take care of when he gets back.

So we hope you’ll be patient with us. It’s going to be challenging, but with your help we’ll be able to get by without going all psycho on Joe Pesci. Besides, he could probably beat us up. Okay, he definitely could.

Noël À Paris

It may be October for the rest of us, but oh la la!, it was decidedly Christmas inside Le Grand Rex in Gay Paree!

Tori surprised the crowd by playing “Jeanette, Isabella,” “Holly, Ivy and Rose,” and a cover of Joni Mitchell’s “River.” The wintery theme bookended the show with staples “Snow Cherries From France” appearing near the beginning of the set and “Winter” capping the evening off.

As always you can relive this show (and any other!) by visiting our Tour section (link in the black bar at the top of each page) and clicking on the “flashback” link. If you were at this show, you can submit reviews, photos, and videos via the contact form at the bottom of the Paris flashback page.

Merci to @MargeOLayn and @toriamos_france on Twitter for tweeting the setlist.

Listen To Tori on French Radio

Tori appeared on French radio yesterday, performing “Nautical Twilight” and chatting with “Les Affranchis” host Isabelle Giordano about women as superheroes, Lady Gaga and other topics. You can listen to the program online here. Isabelle’s intro starts around the 36-minute mark, and Tori starts playing around the 36:40 mark. The interview follows; Isabelle asks her questions in French, but Tori responds in English. Thanks to Eiffel for keeping us in the loop!

PS22 Chorus Sings "Fearlessness"

They’re just a few weeks into the school year — and just getting to know the music on Night of Hunters — but our favorite kids choir decided to tackle “Fearlessness.” Check it out:

After the performance, some of the kids talk about what they think of the song, as well as their own fears and how they conquered them.

Chorus director Gregg Breinberg reports, “Soloist Faith and her fellow chorus members show amazing depth and soul in this beautiful cover version of Tori’s song, based on the piece “Orientale” from 12 Spanish Dances by classical composer Enrique Granados. Certainly this is a challenging song for a brand new chorus to tackle (these kids are only working together for three weeks!), but somehow the new crew pulls it off (understatement alert!) with a multiple chill-inducing performance.”

History-Making Chart Action

Night of Hunters is doing well in its second week on the charts — so well, in fact, that it has made history by being the first album ever to hit the top 10 in Billboard’s classical, alternative, and rock charts at the same time. Thanks to mode for letting us know!

Your Own Personal Luxembourg

The Luxembourg show featured the NOH tour debuts of “Not The Red Baron,” “Here. In My Head,” and a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.” You can view the setlist over in the Tour section, and can submit reviews, photos, and videos at the bottom of the page if you were at the show.

Next show, Paris! If there’s even a slight chance you might be able to tweet the setlist to us live, send us an @ on Twitter in advance. We’ll check to make sure we’re following you so you can reach us via DM if you need to.

Thanks to Mario and melinda for sending the setlist in to us.