mere threads
For all the hype about how cold that night was, it was in fact the warmest day we got in a week. It spat rain on me when I got there and looking at the sky, it probably didn’t spit rain on anyone else on the Esplanade, let alone anyone else in Boston, and then it rained kind of heavily on the bus and nowhere else when I left.
I brought along a second sketchbook in the expectation that I’d finish the one I'm working on since I had nine pages left. I added nothing to it. On the bright side, I did meet a fluffy boy named Bruno and a fluffy boy named Gronk.
I also left my headphones at home, which wouldn’t be so bad if someone wasn’t listening to the worst rap he could find, that is to say, it sounded a bit like a cat copulating with a theremin.
It looked like Kefka’s Light of Judgement was shining on Cambridge.
Later, some kids asked if I wanted to blow up the MIT campus with the howitzer. You can turn the crank and aim it but obviously you can’t fire it.
I don’t know what they use for the cannons in the 1812 Overture but it ain’t that.
Alexander Borodin - Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
They bookended it with two works by Russians that are loosely based on Middle Eastern music. Very loosely.
Two works that I’ve already covered repeatedly. Polovitsian Dances this time did not use a chorus.
The other two were written by people from the Middle East. It’s a thing they’ve been doing but they haven’t yet done a program built around the Middle East. Well, for some definition of Middle East. Looking at you, Polovitsians, whose territory ranged from Romania to Lake Baikal in Russia. Yeah, the language is Turkic, which implies Central Asia and Anatolia but so are Yakut, Dolgan, Fuya Kyrgyz, and Salar.
Gity Razaz - Mother
Which is actually referring to Mother Earth. There are undercurrents of chaos.
Akram Haddad - Arabic Singers Medley
Arab world pop tends to use traditional instruments alongside western instruments. Pop music as we know it doesn't really exist in Iran.
In this case, we had piano, tår, oud, ney, darbuka, bandir, and riqq, as well as a singer. Most of them were from Palestine but the oud player is of Armenian descent (maybe from Lebanon like Serj of System of a Down) and the tår player is Iranian.
The tår is an Iranian lute that you can hear in Henry Cowell’s Persian Set. There’s an Arab instrument called a tar but it’s a frame drum. The oud is an Arabian lute. The ney is a reed flute. Darbuka, riqq, and bandir are all percussion instruments.
One of the songs is Syrian by way of Egypt, one is Egyptian, one is Algerian, and two are Lebanese.
The last song was a jazzy tune that Ben said wouldn’t sound out of place on a collection of Jewish songs.
Unfortunately, the ensemble’s instrumentation was a bit drowned out by the orchestra, much like Mahler’s mandolin and guitar.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Sheherazade
As I said, I've covered this before. So I had a burning question about how much of this is actually Arabian and it sort of answered itself. And that's why this post took so long.
burning question: who would win in a crash between a Cybertruck and a Hummer?
I brought along a second sketchbook in the expectation that I’d finish the one I'm working on since I had nine pages left. I added nothing to it. On the bright side, I did meet a fluffy boy named Bruno and a fluffy boy named Gronk.
I also left my headphones at home, which wouldn’t be so bad if someone wasn’t listening to the worst rap he could find, that is to say, it sounded a bit like a cat copulating with a theremin.
It looked like Kefka’s Light of Judgement was shining on Cambridge.
Later, some kids asked if I wanted to blow up the MIT campus with the howitzer. You can turn the crank and aim it but obviously you can’t fire it.
I don’t know what they use for the cannons in the 1812 Overture but it ain’t that.
Alexander Borodin - Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor
They bookended it with two works by Russians that are loosely based on Middle Eastern music. Very loosely.
Two works that I’ve already covered repeatedly. Polovitsian Dances this time did not use a chorus.
The other two were written by people from the Middle East. It’s a thing they’ve been doing but they haven’t yet done a program built around the Middle East. Well, for some definition of Middle East. Looking at you, Polovitsians, whose territory ranged from Romania to Lake Baikal in Russia. Yeah, the language is Turkic, which implies Central Asia and Anatolia but so are Yakut, Dolgan, Fuya Kyrgyz, and Salar.
Gity Razaz - Mother
Which is actually referring to Mother Earth. There are undercurrents of chaos.
Akram Haddad - Arabic Singers Medley
Arab world pop tends to use traditional instruments alongside western instruments. Pop music as we know it doesn't really exist in Iran.
In this case, we had piano, tår, oud, ney, darbuka, bandir, and riqq, as well as a singer. Most of them were from Palestine but the oud player is of Armenian descent (maybe from Lebanon like Serj of System of a Down) and the tår player is Iranian.
The tår is an Iranian lute that you can hear in Henry Cowell’s Persian Set. There’s an Arab instrument called a tar but it’s a frame drum. The oud is an Arabian lute. The ney is a reed flute. Darbuka, riqq, and bandir are all percussion instruments.
One of the songs is Syrian by way of Egypt, one is Egyptian, one is Algerian, and two are Lebanese.
The last song was a jazzy tune that Ben said wouldn’t sound out of place on a collection of Jewish songs.
Unfortunately, the ensemble’s instrumentation was a bit drowned out by the orchestra, much like Mahler’s mandolin and guitar.
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Sheherazade
As I said, I've covered this before. So I had a burning question about how much of this is actually Arabian and it sort of answered itself. And that's why this post took so long.
burning question: who would win in a crash between a Cybertruck and a Hummer?