Re: misirlou

[Joel Bresler <jbresler...>]

http://www.dickdale.com/miserlou.html

Enjoy.

(Keep the kids away from the intro  dialog from the film "Pulp Fiction...)

Joel

At 11:40 PM 1/6/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Not much of substance at that site, sorry to say.  And I notice that Seymour
>Rexsite's Yiddish version didn't make the cut for the list of 
>recordings.  I can
>add a few tidbits about this if you're interested.  What follows will be my
>usual pottage of slipshod scholarship, hearsay, and bizarre speculation, 
>so feel
>free to take it right to the bank (and throw it in).
>
>Dick Dale first took the tune surfin'.  Dale (born Richard Mansour, of 
>Lebanese
>heritage) said in an interview that he first played it because someone had 
>dared
>him to play a tune one one string.  Hence the furious tremolo.  Of course, the
>tempo and the surf-beat make it impossible to actually do the dance to 
>this most
>popular and enduring version, unless you also dance it "oyf eyn fus."
>
>This seems to be the tune nobody wanted.  "Misirlou" seems to be the Greek
>approximation of the Turkish "Misirli" (sorry, "i's" should be undotted, 
>to give
>a "schwa" sound, but I lack that ability), which means "Egyptian."  Or perhaps
>the name is simply meant to evoke the exotic, in the same way that Klezmers
>might call a tune "Oriental Melodies" or "Araber Tants."  If this is the case,
>and an import duty is imposed whenever it crosses a frontier, Misirlou is one
>expensive little ditty.
>
>Part of the exotic sound comes from the mode, a variant of the familiar 
>Freygish
>we  know and love (and pay our bills with) called "Hijaz-kar." This 
>consists of
>two identical tetrachords joined at the hip. Each of these centers around that
>reaching augmented second interval between the second and third degrees,
>although the upper one is accidental-prone.  The resultant sound carries 
>"Twice
>the Love, Twice the Heartache."  It's pretty slinky and sexy, too.
>
>Wholesale battled ideologically over how to harmonize the tune.  Our
>traditionalists wanted to stick to the usual suspects of D major and C 
>minor in
>the first section, and certainly the precedent is there in Greek 
>music.  Another
>tune in the same mode, "O Bokhoris,"  uses the I and VIIm chords exclusively.
>However, because it is an exotic number, I held out for the modern Greek
>practice of using the II chord (in this case, Eb major) in place of the VIIm.
>This works nicely to foreshadow the descending progression of the second
>section, which begins with an extremely deliberate stalking and pouncing upon
>the IVm (G minor), followed by a terrifying and inexorable descent through III
>(F major) and II (Eb major) to II7 (Eb7: yes, I do play that C#, and Sherry
>hasn't killed me yet!), and a final surrender and relaxation to the I.
>Throughout all this horrific predation, the melody struggles and leaps ever
>higher, reaching its poignant climax on the C#, where the sting is delivered,
>and the resolution is then inevitable. Tell me why the concepts of "peace" and
>"harmony" are always mentioned in the same breath?  In another world, perhaps,
>but let's not go there.
>
>As far as steps go, the Misirlou seems to me more an elaboration of the
>Tsamiko.  That Zorba Syrtaki thing is a Hassapiko by-product.
>
>In any event, we play this at weddings, and almost always, a group of 
>women gets
>up to dance.  It always astounds me how many people know this dance.  And 
>almost
>entirely women.  In fact, if a man joins the line, the whole thing inevitably
>becomes a tsimmes in short order (sorry for a horribly mixed metaphor, I 
>realize
>that tsimmes takes a while to cook).  Like most "International Folk Dance"
>steps, the grace and charm of it lies in synchronization of the steps, and it
>only takes one bad apple to spoil whole thing.  Okay I'll stop with the 
>food.  I
>myself have learned the Misirlou several times, but that's not to say that I
>know it.
>
>Owen
>
>Helen Winkler wrote:
>
> > I noticed a few days ago there was a thread about Misirlou
> >
> > I came across a funny site, The Space Age Pop Music site that lists all
> > sorts of discography and history about this and other music which the 
> auhtor
> > calls "Exotica"
> >
> > http://home.earthlink.net/~spaceagepop/nearsong.htm
> >
> > There is also a section on the site "The Art of Liner Note Prose" that
> > quotes all sorts of liner notes from old vinyl LP's, which some might find
> > amusing.
> > My favourite is:
> >
> > --from Lose Weight Through Self-Hypnosis
> > Warning: Check with physician before using. Do not play in automobile or
> > similar type vehicles. Use in quiet surroundings.
> >
> > I'm still trying to find out how this Greek-American dance became an 
> Israeli
> > folk dance (apparently taught to the music Tzena Tzena when first 
> introduced
> > by visiting Israeli dance teachers).
> >
> > Helen
> >
> > ______________________________________________________
> > Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> >
>
>--
>Owen Davidson
>Amherst  Mass
>The Wholesale Klezmer Band
>
>The Angel that presided o'er my birth
>Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth
>Go Love without the help of any King on Earth
>
>Wm. Blake
>
>



Joel Bresler
250 E. Emerson Rd.
Lexington, MA 02420 USA

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