The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

1.6 grams oud

after dental surgery and exhaustion and 1.6 grams codeine,
these came forth, the first time in a while I'd played oud,
too much practicing on viola, violin, sarangi, sindhi
sarangi, what was left but oud with its fearful complexity?

http://lounge.espdisk.com/archives/850 (best for listening)
http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/1601.mp3
http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/1602.mp3

at least the pain has gone away, neuroses and assault seem
distant memories and I remember reading about the arc from
the extremely early universe; I'm certain my playing is
deeply connected to this, a holographic enlargement as
gravity pulls the strings longer, tauter, trusting my
melodic sense and the depth of reverberation representing
the multiple pathways of particle creation and annihilation
- yes, it's all there in the music, we're one of the few
life-forms tuned to the universe, trampling everything else
to extinction, yes, yes, yes, but the tuning!

Then the cobza

http://lounge.espdisk.com/archives/852 (best for listening)
http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/cobzahigh1.mp3
http://espdisk.com/alansondheim/cobzahigh2.mp3

So after the violin, viola, sarangi, sindhi sarangi and oud,
working on the cobza, which for once stayed in tune; of all
the instruments here, it tends to go out the fastest. I
wanted to revisit it, half Gregorian, half Eastern European,
half oud, ten metal strings in pairs and triplets, 3-2-2-3.
In fourths it's capable of an amazing variety of timbres and
melodic possibilities... My old friend, the cobza...