ATDTDA (2): Drave (39/940)

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Maybe Lew has entered some sort of Balkans-of-the-mind, with intricate twists and turns, eventually culminating in his job with WCI following Archduke Ferdinand.  "He had just sort of wandered into it, by way of a sin he was supposed once to have committed. (p. 37)  Just as Europe was plummeting into WWI for reasons that were murky at best.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: robinlandseadel at comcast.net

>
>     "So it's one of the old church modes."
>
>     "Lydian. In the old folk songs and dances of the Balkan 
>villages, as it happens, although the other mediaevel modes 
>are well represented, there is this strange and drastic absence 
>of Lydian material---in our own project, to date, we've found 
>none at all. Bit of a mystery for us. As if it were still forbidden, 
>perhaps even feared. The interval which our awkwardly 
>unflatted B makes with F was known to the ancients as the 
>'devil in the music.' And whenever we play it for anyone out
>there, even whistle it, it seems they either run away screaming 
>or assault us physically. What could it be they're hearing, that's 
>so unacceptable?"
>
>     "Your plan," Cyprian guessed, "is to go out there and find the 
>answer to that.
>
>     "Also to look into some rumors recently of a neo-Pythagorean 
>cult who regard the Lydian with particular horror. Not suprisingly, 
>they tend to favor the so-called Phrygian mode, quite common 
>through the region." He addressed the keyboard again. "E to E on 
>the white keys. Notice the difference. It happens to coincide with a 
>lyre tuning that some attribute to Pythagoras, and may be traceable 
>all the way back to Orpheus himself, who was a native of Thrace, 
>after all, and was eventually worshipped as a god."AtD 940
>
>     "Not for the first time, he experienced a kind of waking swoon, 
>which not so much propelled as allowed him entry into an urban 
>setting, like the world he had left but differing in particulars which 
>were not slow to reveal themselves." AtD, 38
> 
>". . . .In a small courtyard within a courtyard, he came upon a group 
>of men and women, engaged in 
>
>
>
>
>
>          a slow ritual movement, 
>
>          a country dance, almost---though Lew, 
>
>          pausing to watch,
>
>          was not sure what country. 
>
>
>
>
>
>Soon they were gazing back. as if in some way they knew him, and 
>all about his troubles. When their business was done, they invited 
>him over to a table under an awning, where all at once, over root 
>beer and Saratoga chips, Lew found himself confessing "everything", 
>which in fact wasn't much---"What I need is some way to atone for 
>whatever it is I've done. I can't keep on with this life. . . ."
>
>     "We can teach you," said one of them, who seemed to be in 
>charge, introducing himself only as Drave. AtD 39
>
>http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Drave
>
>Welcome to Bulgaria!
>http://bulgaria.overseas-homes-direct.com/visitor-information.html
>
>When Bulgarians nod their heads up and down, they mean NO. 
>When they move their heads from side to side, they mean YES.
>
>Making a toast when drinking liquor is de rigeur. When toasting, 
>raise your glass and lightly clink it with all the others present, 
>while looking the people with you in the eye (to not look them 
>in the eye is rude) and saying, (naz 
>
>
>                                              drave