To provide some perk to your Friday, here’s a bit of upbeat quasi-ragtime. This is the end title music for David Kiang’s dark comedy about a man afflicted with something halfway between divine inspiration and Tourette’s Syndrome. Performed by Alan Steinberger (piano) and Ludwig Girdland (violin).

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Better Off Said

This week’s music is a polished-and-remixed battle cue from the game Empire Earth 3. As the title suggests, it features mideastern instrumentation mixed with traditional symphonic sounds, all coming together in musical homage to belligerent carnage.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Clash of the Emirates

This Sunday and Monday the Chicago Sinfonietta will be performing Identity: Zhongshan Zhuang, a concerto for orchestra and guzheng (Chinese zither) which I wrote with Victor Cheng. I’m very excited to have guzheng virtuoso Su Chang return as soloist. In anticipation of the concert, this week’s music selection is an excerpt from the third movement of the piece.

If you’re in the Chicago area and would like to find out more about the concert, follow this link.

And if you want to see what a guzheng looks like, click here.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	The Return (from “Identity: Zhongshan Zhuang”)

This week’s selection is a solo piano cue which, if I did my work right, should evoke a strange desire for cobblestone streets and baguettes.

(Click on the play button to stream, or the cue title to download.)

	Autumn in Paris