Copying to here from another thread on music in the Eastlands...
Pirka wrote:Basically, I'd like to hear anything that concerns your conculture's music. What instruments do they use? Are lyrics preferred or is scat the prominent feature of songs with vocalizations? What is their tuning scale? What Earth style does it most sound like? Any sound recordings for our collective enjoyment? (If you're shy, please know that I for one will never laugh. Ever. Even if you sing horribly off-key and you suck at playing violin or the kantele. I am sure that many other forum members think the same as I do. Like seriously.) So basically anything to do with music, like I said.
I have done some work on music in my world (aptly enough named The World). If you follow this link
http://www.frathwiki.com/The_World on down to the section on music there are some sound files that come pretty close to what a couple different kinds of music sound like over *there*.
Instruments are quite varied, and some may be familiar while others are not so. In the Eastlands of the World, the more 'artistic' end of the musical spectrum makes use of the Orchestra as the basic unit of music making. An orchestra, of course, is a large group of instrumentalists all playing music at once. And it's usually (though not always) the case, that they're all playing the
same music at the
same time. (Wandell's now famous "Interlude for Two Opposing Orchestras" is a striking example to the contrary.) There are three basic types of orchestras in common use: the Orchestra of Sweet Music; the Orchestra of Strident Music and the Orchestra of Horn Music.
(As a matter of convention, I use names of instruments from *here* that most closely resemble the instruments I have in mind from *there* in terms of overall sound, if not exactly in appearance or construction.)
The typical art music orchestra in the Eastlands is mostly winds, and is typically heavy on sweet flutes (i.e. blockflutes, like our recorders). The second largest group are the strings, comprised of ranks of lutes. This kind of orchestra is called the
orchestra of sweet music on account of its heavy reliance on softer instruments that are capable of great dynamic flexibility.
The classical orchestra developed from the consort music played by various Daine nations in the East, and so the instrumentation derives from what they favour. Other practices are also heavily influenced by them, such as there being no keyboard instruments and no to few instruments made from metal.
Members of the group sit either on cushions upon the floor or else on low stools and are arranged comfortably in a semicircle. At the front, are three circular wood framed lithophones. One has stone bars, another wooden bars and the third has bone bars.
Behind them is the flute choir, consisting of as many as 40 instruments: eight each of great bass, bass and tenor and 16 trebles. They're arranged aesthetically with the trebles in the middle and the larger instruments around them and at the ends.
Behind the flutes are the stringed insturments. On the audience's left are two to four viols, and behind them, three zithers and one bass zither. Directly behind the flutes are the lutes: four archlutes (two on either side of the choir), eight principal lutes and eight octave lutes (arranged in front of the larger lutes and directly behind the flutes). Behind them are four hammered dulcimers and four harps. Some of the stringed instruments are strung in gut and others in bronze so there is a marked contrastof soft and loud. To give the bronze strung lutes something of a subdued tone, they can be fitted with soft dampers that take the edge off their tone.
On the left side of the orchestra are the reeds. Behind the great bass and bass flutes are eight chalumeaux: four trebles closest to the edge, then two tenors and two basses. Behind them are four treble cornameuses near the audience,then two tenors and two basses. Next to them are three racketts, two great bass and one tenor. Behind them are two treble, two bass oboes and one shawm. Sometimes the rackett players double on dulcians. These reeds and horns are not really all that loud. The shawm is the loudest instrument in the group, and for this reason, there is only one. The other reeds are fairly quiet and buzzy in nature.
On the right side of the orchestra are the horns. Immediately behind the bass and greatbass flutes are six olifants: two each of treble, tenor and bass. Behind them are three or four treble lisards and then two trumpets in the Daine style. Between them and the lutes are two or three bass horns, two bombardons and at the back a matched pair of two mammoth horns. (An olifant is a large crescent shaped horn, generally made of brass, and having a number of keys; it makes a nice warm, slightly narrow sound; the mammoth horns sound kind of like lurer or rana sringha, but are helically curved and made of brass or bronze.)
At the very back are the drums. On either side are the huge bass and tenor drums (like huge bodhrans); in the middle, three or four normal sized frame drums, iron cow bells, sistrums and a jingling crescent. Other assorted noisemakers may be called for, but these are typical.
There *are* keyboard instruments, but they don't appear in the orchestra. Apart from organs, there are exaquiers (kind of like celestas), clavichords and a kind of geigenwerk. There are no pianos and no harpsichords.
Brass horns (bugles, fanfare trumpets, post and hunting horns) exist, but are reserved for other kinds of music. No one has invented valves yet, but keys and vents are frequently seen on brass horns. Interestingly enough, no one has invented the trombone yet either.
Another kind of orchestra is called the
orchestra of strident music and is composed of loud instruments. Its music is best suited to outdoor festivals and entertainments, and its instruments are rarely used for "serious" music.
The principal instrument in this orchestra is the orchestrion, a kind of hurdy-gurdy. As many as twelve chamber sized instruments form the core of the orchestra, with two high pitched instruments and four bombardons -- deep bass instruments -- alongside. To this core, several other odd stringed and wind instruments may be added. Commonly, the strident orchestra employs two pairs of bumbasses (two basses and two baritones), two fiddles, two trumpets marine and an assortment of jingles and gongs. Bagpipes, corno saxones, and musettes have been known to mix in with the other instruments as well.
The
orchestra of horn music makes exclusive use of brass instruments. A typical group consists of four to twelve bugles and trumpets divided into the usual four voices (descant, altus, tenor, basus) to which a fundamental of kettle drums is added. A large orchestra might have as many as sixteen trumpets (3 descant, 4 altus, 3 tenor, 4 basus and 2 bombardons); eight bugles (4 descant and 4 altus); as well as a full set of twelve kettle drums.
Outdoor festivals often combine, to great effect, the strident and horn orchestras.
* * * * *
Horns
The horns, or "brass instruments" tend to have narrow bores and no appreciable bells, so are kind of subdued.
Mammoth horns: usually made of brass, but may be made from ivory. Their bore is narrower than that of the oliphant, and gives them a more penetrating, focused tone quality.
Bombardons: kind of like stoutish, widish didgeridoos, and they perform largely the same function, providing a warm and buzzy droning effect. Traditionally made from wood or unicorn horn, many are made of copper.
Basshorns: these look kind of like big bassoons with flaring lotus shaped bells in burnished copper
Oliphants: come in assorted but always paired sizes; may be made of brass, but are often made from ivory. Ivory oliphants have long been prized by the nobility, but their small size has generally diminished their role in music. By making the horns out of bronze or brass and by adding large clapper keys, a warm, buzzy, full sounding bass horn has evolved. Oliphants have a rather wide bore, as compared to the narrower bore of the mammoth horns.
Trumpets: modern trumpets, since perhaps the last decade of the 17th century, have been shortish affairs with considerable conicity and a flat, decorated plate in place of a bell. They are used for signalling in the Army and act as a member of the percussion section in the orchestra, playing a rhythmic tattoo upon the lower three or four tones of the harmonic series. The old style trumpets, found in abundance up until the Alarian Invasion and its devastating after effects, were quite long, often folded for ease of playing and were capable of diatonic melody. Though the secrets of their construction have long been lost, research conducted with a couple of surviving ancient instruments has at last yielded playable instruments capable of melodic music making.
Reeds
The cornu saxonum is a sort of shortish and stoutish brass or bronze pipe, slightly conical in shape, with a short bell turned to one side. It is played with a single reed mouthpiece (like that of a reedpipe) and has finger holes along its side with perhaps one or two keys of brass. Its sound is rather pleasant, warm and broadly reedy.
The reedpipe is a sort of longish wooden pipe of straight bore that is played with a single reed mouthpiece. It has several finger vents and as many as four or five keys of brass. Its sound is somewhat muffled and garrulous when played low. When played high, its sound is piercing and clear.
The curtal is a kind of deep sounding double reed instrument. Made from a single piece of wood, it has two long bores made parallel to each other, one, the so-called tenor bore, having the usual finger holes for the left and right hands, the other, the so-called bourdon, has keys and thumb holes that extend the range down from the seven-fingered F to low C. Curtals are made in a range of sizes from tenor down to the largest chorist bass pommer.
Another double reed instrument of deep voice is the rackett. Many bores are drilled through a small block of wood and connected by cross chambers; this allows the rackett to play very deep notes while the instrument itself is no more than a foot tall or so.
A traditional instrument of Rumnias is the caunterellaz, a double reeded instrument consisting of two wooden pipes of unequal length. The shorter is the chanter and has a number of finger holes arranged according to the scale and mode desired. The longer pipe serves as a drone and has no finger holes. It may have vent holes that can be stopped up with wax in order to alter the pitch of the drone. Drones typically have a metal bell or bulb at the end to serve as a resonating cavity. Its tone is said to be warm and buzzy like the droning of bees on a lazy summer's day.
Flutes
Most flutes are of the fipple variety, and so related closey to our recorders and whistles. They are typically made from ivory or wood.
Strings
The quntal is a Gnomic lute. It has five strings and a long neck. Two bass strings serve as a drone-like accompaniment.
The family of cutarres serve as melodic and harmonic string instruments. The instruments are made in a variety of shapes and lengths. The smallest are called cutarinai and may be two feet long or shorter. The huge arch-cutarres have bass strings that are nearly six feet in length. Cutarres typically have no fewer than eight strings but may have as many as two dozen.
Another family of string instruments is that of the orchestrion, which is much like a hurdy-gurdy: a sound box, usually rectangular in shape, has a crank at one end that turns a rosined wheel that causes a number of strings (chanterelles and drones) to vibrate while a tunable keyboard presses tangents against the chanterelles. While not used in the standard flute orchestra, there is also a tradition that groups the louder instruments together into a fine out-of-doors orchestra whose base is the orchestrion.
Keyboard
The shaqtar, or Gnomic chimes, is a kind of instrument with small metal bars struck by small hammers.
The exackier, usually referred to as the checker, is a kind of string instrument activated by a keyboard that throws wooden jacks up to strike the strings. Unlike the harpsichord, there are no quills to pluck the strings.
The harmonestricon is the largest of the keyboard instruments and answer pretty adequately to our organs, having a number of keyboards, pedals, pipes of varying tone color and depth of tone, special effects -- fancier instruments tend to favor bits of gaudy and clockwork animations, along with the usual assortment of effects one can find on any organ -- whistles, bells, roars, bellowing oliphants, caliopes, flame throwers and the like. Organ builders in the World tend to disfavour very high ranks of pipes, so you rarely find ranks much small than the 4' size. They do, however, love to build large! The biggest pipes on any harmonestricon are actually tunnels bored into the rock of the cliffs behind the House of Opera and have both proper and resultant tonalities (if you can even call them that) in the 256' range. Definitely can't be
heard by most people, but a number of them can indeed be
felt!
Sadly, an act of Parliament some years ago outlawed the use of the Grand Bombardon, with its built-in flame throwing capabilities, that unfortunately resulted in the Empress's Mishap, which occured at the opening of Wandelle's
Sack of Pylycundas. This work calls for two full orchestras to vie in a musical
joue d' geurre with the Mighty Sperlitzer harmonestricon, which at the time was outfitted with the only known indoor flame thrower in the whole of the Eastlands.
Everything was going along just fine until the flame-thrower came to take center stage in a veritable crisis of state in which her majesty's high and pointy silk hat, which was resting upon her six foot tall hair-do, got in the way of the low CC's flame. Pouf! went the hat, Pouf! went the pomaded hair and the empress herself ran screaming from the House of Opera to dunk her head in the fountain outside.
It was there where a whole cadre of courtiers, MPs and Cupboard Ministers spent a good half an hour patting her hand and reassuring her that, yes indeed, Reginald the Pomatomancer would certainly be able to construct a new hair-piece in time for the opera's second act, if only her majesty could calm herself a bit and let her men get to work stamping out the flare-ups in the upper levels of the hair-do and see to the safety of the caged song-birds that inhabited the lower quarter of the structure.
* * * * *
Wandell's
Sack of Pylycundas is an interesting work, not least of which for its undoubtedly high calibre music, but more for a curious tradition that has arisen wherein during one key scene of the opera, the audience actually
do not see the action as it unfolds...
It turns out that during the (somewhat) risqué
Dance of the High Priestess of Lo! it has become traditional for viewers to cover their faces with a veil or fan. Back in the day, the Emperor's daughter was quite young when the opera debuted and so she wore her veil down during the key scene so she wouldn't see more than a silhouette of the priestess showing off bóth her shoulders ánd her calves in such a rude fashion (oh, the scandal!) -- after all, only country folk, Daine and women in the market go about without any shirts like that! So, in deference to the Emperor's daughter, everyone in the House likewise covered their faces for the duration of the dance.
To this day, it's still considered traditional for audiences to cover during the dance. Of course, no one wears veils anymore -- but everyone carries a fan with them, so, once the Priestess arrives at center stage, FWLWLWLWLWLIPPP!, out rip hundreds of fans. (Just mind those clever lads who've made sure to bring their fancy-dan fans with the wee little decorative holes in the ribs! Gives em a nice view of the Priestess, those holes!)
Of course, given that the role of the High Priestess is always played by a young male Daine has never given anyone, least of all that Emperor of so long ago, a moment's pause as to why they need to avert their gazes so! He's a guy after all! (And much to the disappointment of those poor lads who just spent an extra two dollars on a fancy "Rumeliard fan, with decorative grill-work", just so they could catch a glimpse of the "priestess" showing off "her" shoulders!)
eldin raigmore wrote:That's an awfully minimalist answer, elemtilas.
Can't you elaborate in detail and at length?
Can't say I know a whóle lot more on the subject! The World is not an "alien" world, full of slimy monsters from the dawn of time; not so close to Sawel that folks like to enjoy a cool and refreshing crater of lead for afters; nor so far away from the local sun that the natives enjoy swimming in lakes of molten nitrogen. The physics of planet and sound are familiar places, so tonal systems tend to follow similar patterns *there* as we find *here*.
I have some notes on musical scales. Popular musical scales in use in the Eastlands are derived (at least in part) from the Gnomic music. Any scale, regardless of its origin, is based on a root tone, the tonic, and a number of intervals that comprise the steps of the scale and usually end upon the octave. Octaves may be divided up into any number of semitones that determine the exact relationship of harmonic and nonharmonic spaces in between the octaves. The musics found throughout much of the World divide the scale into 12 basic semitones along with a further number of quartertones, thus giving and extended chromatic scale. The quartertones don't generally figure prominently in the basic scales, but are rather used for embellishment of the basic semitones. There are of course other divisions of the octave, and not everyone uses the octave as the basic boundaries of the scale.
I mention the basic building blocks being root and tonic -- for example *here* in "western" music, you can listen to almost any classical symphony, especially at the end of the piece, where the composer feels entirely obliged to treat one to a fifteen minute bombardment of chordulent succulosity of the c.c.c c-G c-G c-G c--- G--- c--- G--- c. c.c.c.c c.c.c.c-G c-G c-G c--- G--- CC------ sort of thing. In many World musics, what counts as "dominant" is a somewhat fluid thing. In Gnomic Music, seconds and fourths tend to predominate. Some composers like to avoid fifths altogether, others tend to sharpen them at least.
The following are common scales used in the Gnomic music, and some have also been known to musical philosophers since ancient times.
1. Flat-3, sharp-4, flat-6, flat-7: C-D-Eb-F#-G-Ab-Bb-c
This scale is highly favoured by the Gnomes (and thus by art music composers in the Eastlands in general in recent times).
2. Flat-2, flat-6: C-Db-E-F-G-Ab-B-c
Another scale popular in the Gnomic music is the double harmonic scale. It is common to flatten the second and sharpen the seventh a little.
3. Flat-3, flat-6, flat-7: C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-c
Also known as the Aeolian scale.
4. Flat-2. flat-3, flat-6, flat-7: C-Db-Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-c
Also known as the Phrygian scale.
5. Flat-2, flat-7: C-Db-E-F-G-A-Bb-c
This one is favoured by the Etuns, whose music is starting to reach the Eastlands, and is also knows as the maqam Zanjaran (Zankulah), in the music of the Uttermost West.
If you listen especially to the first example I linked to, you can hear the predominance of seconds and fourths as they dance around one another.
* * * * *
As for what exactly is this
Gnomic Music, everyone thinks of Gnomes as those red-capped lads folks hire on to dig in the garden or do minor masonry work. And it is true they have developed a certain affinity with root vegetables, rich soils and secluded garden sheds; but their history runs rather deeper and is far more musical than many are aware. Historically, Gnomes and their music have been very little known or appreciated outside their homelands. It is not until the late 18th century that their music became well known. Miners and spelunckers working in the deeps of the Whythywindle and Arnal Mountains are said to have heard the music of the Gnomes, and it is from such accounts recorded during the 17th and 18th centuries that their musical traditions came to the attention of scholars in the Eastlands. It is said to be at once both lovely and somewhat jarring, as if two competing musics were craftily woven together and set as rivals. Certainly the music of Tsuutam served to break open the world of Gnomic music to a wider audience in the century following. Gnomic music is typically divided into three broad categories: Epic, Folkloristic and Court musics, the latter of which is best known and understood among Men. The former two require a knowlege of the local language, and non-Gnomes as a rule do not know more than a couple words of any Gnomic language.
The
Court music is the best known of all Gnomic musics among the Wise of the Eastlands. First heard by miners, it is now enjoyed by many folks of the Middle World for its etheral melodies and at times discordant harmonies. The court music consists mostly of dances and airs heard in the halls of nobles or well to do Gnomes.
The classical orchestra for playing court music consists of five to seven musicians. The principal plays upon the
shaqtar, a kind of celesta or exackier and is responsible for the melodic and harmonic parts of the music. A second often plays upon the
quntal, a kind of large lute and provides a reinforcement of the
shaqtar's melody. Sometimes, the second will switch and reinforce the bass line and harmony. The other players share playing upon racks of tuned chimes, bells, gongs, wood blocks, tongue drums, drone pipes and the like instruments. The choice of drones and bells and chimes is determined by the tonality of the piece. Gnomes everywhere avoid wind instruments. I believe it has something to do with the desire to avoid summoning destructive winds down into their delvings.
There are several characteristic dances of the court music. The
tsarqan, or "courtly dance" is perhaps the best known, especially on account of Tsuutam's efforts during the 19th century. It is a social dance and may be danced by as many as 24 couples divided into two sides. Tsarqans are often danced in a set of three contrasting movements having different metres and different series of dance steps. Court dances tend to be slow to moderate of tempo and the dancers make use as much of elegant arm and upper body movement as they do of footwork.
The almost waltzlike quality of
tsarqans in 3/4 time lends itself to fluid movement, while dances in 5/4 are accompanied by rather much foot stomping and leaping or capering.
Another dance is the
taftard, with its energetic leaping bass accompaniment. There are also the very slow
ruraqim, or "dance of the earth elementals" and the jolting
palanstaq with its lively runs and off-beat stomping rhythms.
The airs, or lyrical pieces, are known generally as
sura.
Rastam is the word used for a scale type or mode; but also indicates a musical interval. Seven such intervals make up the steps of the scale:
ras, unison;
tam, second;
qar, third;
dever, fourth;
qilmo, fifth;
balam, sixth;
peleg, seventh.
* * * * *
Music in general, leastways in the Eastlands, is homophonic. Within this basic vertical structure, there is some room for horizonal variance (embellishment, rather than polyphony) and alteration between consonance and dissonance.
Musical instruments are typically built in choirs of four voices (descant, altus, tenor and bassus); though there is a marked preference for building larger rather than smaller. Their right sounding choir is rather lower than ours -- we're used to melodic recorders that are a foot long or flutes that are two feet long or trumpets that are four feet long. Those produce music that most Eastlanders would call "high and screechy". The descant recorder *there* is approximately equivalent to our 2' tenor; their orchestral trumpets are of 8' length rather than our 4'. Not all instrument families are built in complete choirs -- trumpets tend to be made only in three sizes, bugles in one, racketts in three and olifants in two and mammoth horns in one. They do have a concept of "keys", like our "D" or "G", and there is a not so subtle interplay between music that gets written and instruments that get built. They tend to negatively influence one another: composers might like to create music in the key of Db, but instrument builders like to build instruments in choirs of D/G and F/C (e.g.), so the composers must be content to write in D rather than Db for orchestral work. But eventually some maker decides that only a little bit of work of adding a key or slider here and there will make a C instrument play in Db just as well, so now the music can be heard properly. Such change is slow. Obviously, keyboard instruments are immune to those considerations, and this is one reason why Gnomic Music has become so prominent -- the music of the orchestras is not able to be so flexible.
Although the basic music is homophonic, the various choirs of instrument types are often set at variance with one another in a piece of music. Usually you'll find flutes and strings in a constant state of shifting in and out of cooperative vs. competitive music. Underlying any melodic and harmonic work of the strings, reeds and winds lie the foundation and rhythmic work of the drones. In most orchestral works, you'll hear drums, gongs, trumpets, chimes, clappers and so forth setting up the basic rhythm of the piece. You might find it strange to see the trumpets listed among the percussion section rather than among the soloists of the melodic section, but this is typical of the style of music. These trumpets provide something of a chordal and definitely a rhythmic accompaniment on the four or five notes they're allowed (by Guild regulation) to play.
Vocal Music is also very much in evidence in the Eastlands. Solo singers generally sing a whole song alone, or else are involved in a kind of round. Mind you, by "song" it is generally meant epic poetry done to a musical setting or a folkloric ballad. Sometimes a band will play along for a while, but usually it's just the cantor and the audience with a few hours to spend inside from the dark. Such epics can take a few days to work through -- a typical epic (say 12000 to 16000 lines) would take 24 to 48 hours of continuous singing. Even the most stalwart of cantors is not up to that task! But every epic cantor has his particular way to overcome this. For example, Ramard wan Bynganfelds (a moderately renown cantor of 19th century Auntimoany) became locally famous for the following: whenever he felt like his voice was becoming tired, maybe after two or three hours of recitation, all of a sudden, the Hero and his Merry Band would find themselves being chased by some fell villains -- doesn't matter who or what, could be stone trolls or savage Daine wildings -- and they whole lot of em would invariably end up careening headlong towards "calamity! the Cliffs of Cloven Cleme!" And there wise old Ramard would wind up with his equivalent of "same time same channel next week!". The trope became so well known, people for miles around started calling it Ramard's cliff-hanging wind-up, and eventually, just a cliff-hanging or even cliff hanger.
Choral singing is also very popular across all races and countries around. This generally involves more what we think of as "songs": several verses, often of a bawdy or humorous nature, with repetitive choruses. "The Merry Wives of Ozmand their Braziers did They Burn"; "Three Jollies of Pycleas"; "Three Milkmaids Came a-Lying" and other faves come to mind immediately. You get that a lot in caravansaries, especially when the local cantor is resting up or preparing for a recital.
Daine are also well known for their singing. Daine in general are credited with having good singing voices, and they sing very frequently. While among Men it is common practice to divide the human vocal range into soprano, alto, tenor and bass, a much narrower range must be applied to the Daine. Most boys have tenor voices and most girls have alto voices. A very few would be able to sing highish baritone or lowish soprano parts. They find the very high and very low voices of Men a little disconcerting. A Daine's range is probably about two octaves to two and another fifth. Vocal music rarely calls for more than a range of about a sixteeth or so.
Daine singing is, like most other song of the Eastlands, primarily monophonic: a single melodic line that the singers partake of. Most vocal music is solo singing. A bard, balladeer or epic reciter sings either a capella or else to the accompaniment of some 'harmonious' instrument such as a lute or lyre or fiddle. Group singing, such as when working or hiking along is also typically unison. Some songs call for two choirs (e.g., boys vs. girls / low vs. high voice) and these will typically be some kind of call and response singing. So still basically unison, but the parts are basically independent and either take turns or interweave with one another. Daine do like closer spacing in their music in general, and use the microtones especially for modal shifting and ornamentation.
They find the way Men sing in four parts most disconcerting. The sense of dislocation they experience at such times seems to stem from a curious artifact of this kind of music: a most curious interplay of complex harmony of sound and the flow of thaumic energies in the locality. The interplay is ephemeral and fleeting, but the music can alter magical currents, create weird eddies, diminish the effects of nearby incantations or enhance others. For what it's worth, many Men find the four-part singing of the New Hymnody a little disconcerting as well, but for entirely different reasons! Most of the musics of Men are homophonic as well. Some natural philosophers have speculated that it was actually Joshua's Own Barbershop Quartet that caused a morphic dissonance in the vicinity of the ancient city of Jericho, thus bringing the walls down and allowing the armies to flood into the place. A similar principle was recently accomplished in Phazzanea of the Uttermost West by one Iaso Zionikos who used huge olifants playing four part musics to crack open the land in the vicinity of the Pillars of Senusret, the plan being to create a bit of a canal in order to re-flood the Midearth Sea. The sea got re-flooded all right, but the power of four part harmony agitated the earth so much that nearly everything from Sinai to Syria was levelled and the great Rift was split wide open. On a positive note, Iorsunborg, Tiferias and Nazariyya are all now ocean-front real estate!
* * * * *
Opera --- vocal music with orchestral accompaniment, all while wearing gaudy make up, wigs, pointy helmets and strutting about the stage while singing Foreign -- has become terribly popular in the East and many composers write magnificent operas based on the craziest of old stories.
Hulyus et Antunius Faxunt Praiturias is a favorite comic opera of VVil Shaxespear. Apparently, it seems that the Senators hired a well known hit man to murder
Hulyus (who was then autocrat of the Republic), but it turns out they ended up talking with his dear friend,
Anthunius, who was Hulyus's comrade in arms. They talk about it over a pint down the popina and hatch their own rather comical plan to dupe the Senators. This involves a rather convoluted song and dance number where they convince Hulyus's own twin brother to stand in for the autocrat on the floor of Parliament where Anthunius will rush in, saxo extracto, and pretend to kill the autocrat per plan, where much chicken blood will be splashed about. Meanwhile, Hulyus is cleverly disguised, in plain sight, as a reporter for the local broadsheet (and in which role he sings out the line in question --
horto io aucqere! elusent' i cuondos di duello! ia ha ha!) The Senators erupt in jubilation, Hulyus takes off his reporter's saturno whence, oclis amphivertis, the Senators recognise the real autocrat's stern features glaring at them!
Hulyus's brother leaps up, Anthunius dabs away the chicken blood and they dance a merry jig for the confused Senators. The game is up now and Hulyus let's in the "dogs of war" -- the personal guard -- who round up all the evil Senators and toss them into the harbour, all to the accompaniment of the rather jolly aria, "
Ad Mareas Vadiamo!" Arm in arm, Hulyus and Antunius enjoy a rousing sing-along down the popina with the officers and men and a reprisal of the famous "
Bebiamo! Rebebiamo!" chorus, after which everyone exeunts stage right.
Enough on music from the World for now!