[MELODRAMA] Ali Baba

Hello!

For some workshops at the conservatorium, I needed to write a very simple piece based on world music.
So I decided to write my third melodrama about the fairy tale Ali Baba and the forty thieves.
I did not compose a piece about the whole fairy tale, because it needed to be a short piece. The composition ends with an open end.
The number of instruments can change, so I decided to cluster the instruments as much as possible.

Here is the Dutch text with translation:

Ali Baba is mijn naam. Ik ben de rijkste man in heel Perzië.
Hoe? Dat zal ik u eens vertellen.
Op een dag reisde ik door de woestijn. Het zand brandde mijn huid en de zon verblindde me.
Ik besloot met mijn kameel even te rusten in de schaduw van een rots. Totdat ik stemmen hoorde.
[Spreek Arabische klanken]
Ze zagen eruit als rovers. Ik volgde ze na. Ze liepen naar een rots.
En ze riepen ,,Sesam open u!'' En de rots brak open.
Toen de rovers binnen waren, verstopte ik me achter de rots.
Ik wachtte tot alle veertig rovers weer buiten waren en in het donker sloop ik naar de magische rots toe.
En bij de rots aangekomen riep ik de woorden ,,Sesam open u!''
De rots ging open en ik ging naar binnen. Binnen kon ik mijn ogen niet geloven. Bergen met goud, zilver en edelstenen.
Ik ben steenrijk! Wahaha! Maar hoe krijg ik het mee naar huis?

Ali Baba is my name. I am the richest man in whole Persia.
How? I am going to tell you.
Once upon a time, I traveled through the desert. The sand burned my skin and the sun dazzled my eyes.
I decided to rest a while in the shadow of a rock. Until I heard voices.
[Speak Arabic sounds]
They looked like thieves. I followed them. They walked to a rock.
And they called ,,Open sesame.'' And the rock broke open.
When the thieves were inside, I hid myself behind a rock.
I waited until all forty thieves were outside again and I sneaked to the magical rock in the dark.
And arrived at the rock, I called the words ,,Open sesame!''
The rock opened and I entered. I could not believe my eyes inside. Mountains of gold, silver and jewels.
I am rich! Wahaha! But how am I going to bring this all home?

 

As a Persian man, I enjoyed this piece! And you covered everything in that story well! Iranian, mysterious and also has a little Arabian/Iraqi background (as Ali Baba was a man from Baghdad, although Baghdad was an Iranian city those days, but most of people there became Arabic-speaking those days). Very nice and nostalgic for me!

Nice work on oriental sounds. I love exotic scales and I often use them

You get well the feeling of the story. The cluster chord is great!

4 hours ago, Muhammadreza said:

As a Persian man, I enjoyed this piece! And you covered everything in that story well! Iranian, mysterious and also has a little Arabian/Iraqi background (as Ali Baba was a man from Baghdad, although Baghdad was an Iranian city those days, but most of people there became Arabic-speaking those days). Very nice and nostalgic for me!

 

Thank you for your opinion!

Do you consider yourself Persian as ab Iranian? I am really interested, since the 'formal' Persian empire does not exist anymore in my knowledge.

3 hours ago, Luis Hernández said:

Nice work on oriental sounds. I love exotic scales and I often use them

You get well the feeling of the story. The cluster chord is great!

 

Thanks! I love exotic scales too! Currently, I am experimenting with gamelan music, because my roots are from Indonesia and I feel a connection between this sort of music and me.

23 hours ago, Maarten Bauer said:

Do you consider yourself Persian as ab Iranian? I am really interested, since the 'formal' Persian empire does not exist anymore in my knowledge.

Yes, because the language I speak is Persian. You know Iran has lots of ethnic groups, and Persians are one of them. So, I'm from that ethnic group.