Panning over Music Monday

It's many years since we visited San Antonio, Texas, but two things remain in my memory from that visit: standing inside The Alamo and touching its walls; and the sound of Andean Fusion in a shopping mall which lay at the end of the famous San Antonio River Walk. Both experiences brought on an attack of the goosebumps!

Andean Fusion is a Peruvian Pan-Flute Band, their sound, echoing through the airy, spacious mall was captivating. I bought one of their CDs - it is playing as I type.

There's something about the sound of pan pipes...something no other instrument has - for me anyway. Maybe it emanates from very deeply buried human memory. Pan pipes: their history spans the continents of Earth. They appeared in various different cultures, perhaps not at exactly the same time in man-made time, but probably around the same stage of development of each culture. In the Americas, China, Europe, Africa evidence of this, one of man's earliest musical instruments has been found, stretching back for at least 6000 years. The instruments were constructed from reeds, bamboo cane, wood, clay, bone.....whatever was to hand in a particular location.

In the West, the name 'pan pipes' honours Greek mythological god Pan. The story goes that Pan, god of pastoral folk and their flocks, fell in love with a beautiful nymph, Syrinx. Syrinx didn't find Pan, with his cloven hooves and shaggy countenance in the least fanciable. She fled, with Pan in pursuit. When they reached a river bank with nowhere for Syrinx to escape, she became desperate. She called to the river god for aid and in response was turned into a reed. Pan, reaching out to embrace the nymph found only a bunch of reeds in his grasp. His sighs produced a strange melodic sound to echo through the reeds. To demonstrate his undying love Pan broke off some reeds and made them into a flute-like instrument, played sad melodies to his lost love, who he imagined to be embodied in the instrument he always carried.

From Pan's Pipes, an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson from his book Virginibus Puerisque (translation "For Boys and Girls")
Last paragraph:

There are moments when the mind refuses to be satisfied with evolution, and demands a ruddier presentation of the sum of man's experience. Sometimes the mood is brought about by laughter at the humorous side of life, as when, abstracting ourselves from earth, we imagine people plodding on foot, or seated in ships and speedy trains, with the planet all the while whirling in the opposite direction, so that, for all their hurry, they travel back-foremost through the universe of space. Sometimes it comes by the spirit of delight, and sometimes by the spirit of terror. At least, there will always be hours when we refuse to be put off by the feint of explanation, nicknamed science; and demand instead some palpitating image of our estate, that shall represent the troubled and uncertain element in which we dwell, and satisfy reason by the means of art. Science writes of the world as if with the cold finger of a starfish; it is all true; but what is it when compared to the reality of which it discourses? Where hearts beat high in April, and death strikes, and hills totter in the earthquake, and there is a glamour over all the objects of sight, and a thrill in all noises for the ear, and Romance herself has made her dwelling among men? So we come back to the old myth, and hear the goat-footed piper making the music which is itself the charm and terror of things; and when a glen invites our visiting footsteps, fancy that Pan leads us thither with a gracious tremolo; or when our hearts quail at the thunder of the cataract, tell ourselves that he has stamped his hoof in the nigh thicket.

So...

There are several amateur videos featuring Andean Fusion in San Antonio at YouTube, but quality of sound is not good, and doesn't offer the same impression we had, hearing the music echoing around the mall. I'll post one such video, as well as one played by an acknowledged master of the pan pipes.

Fateful February Events

Yesterday, on the drive back from San Antonio through deepest Texas, a local station on the car radio reminded us that it was the 50th anniversary of "the day the music died", February 3rd 1959, when Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens all perished in a plane crash. The station was playing music from the hit parades of that long-ago time for the whole day. Nostalgia reigned, until we were out of range.

When we arrived home yesterday evening I looked up planetary positions for 3 February 1959 in the ephemeris. Mars lay at 26 Taurus on that fateful day, conjunct Fixed Star Algol, thought of by ancient astrologers as the most malefic star in the sky; planet Mars was also thought of as a malefic, so here was double trouble. In addition, two other planets with somewhat challenging reputations were in trine, pooling their problematical potential: Saturn at 3 Capricorn, Pluto at 3 Virgo. A fairly worrying sky then!

As I listened to the car radio yesterday I read through some tourist literature we'd picked up in San Antonio and noticed that February 3rd 1836 was the date Colonel William Travis arrived there to lead the defence of the old mission-cum- fortress known as The Alamo, and block progress of Mexican forces sent to reclaim San Antonio and put Texas back under Mexican rule. By 6 March Travis, David Crockett, Jim Bowie and around 150 men died defending The Alamo after a seige of 13 days by the Mexican army, led by Dictator/General Santa Anna.

The seige of the Alamo is covered in a post from March 2007. We'd planned to visit San Antonio then, but postponed our trip. (See The Alamo Garnished With Astrology.) Interestingly Fixed Star Algol is also mentioned there; the star was very close to the Moon's North Node at the time of the Battle of the Alamo, which raged from Tuesday February 23 to Sunday March 6, 1836.

From our 6th floor bedroom window we could see The Alamo, right opposite....I hadn't booked "a room with Alamo view", as these cost quite a bit more, but we got one anyway. A little help from transiting Jupiter, which lay a degree from my natal Sun. A late birthday present from the sky!

Jazz, Astrology, A Trip & Eclipse Update.

On Saturday evening we saw Chris Brubeck and his group "Triple Play" perform at our local theater. What a treat! I went along with slight trepidation, not knowing whether my meager appreciation of jazz would be enough to prevent boredom and earache setting in. I needn't have worried. Unlike his famous Dad, Dave Brubeck, Chris and his companions, Joel Brown and Peter "Madcat" Ruth don't concentrate solely on jazz, they offer an eclectic mix of folk, blues, funk and classical, along with some jazz proper.

Astrologically, all I can tell, and from the mouth of Chris himself, is that he and Joel Brown (center in the photograph) share a birthday (but not the same year). That birthday, according to Wikipedia, is 19 March (3 days from my husband's, who is an avid jazz fan). Chris commented, from the stage, that this could be part of the reason he and Joel get on so well. Their two natal Suns sit around the last degree of Pisces. Chris has Mercury and Jupiter in neighboring Aries. The husband's natal Sun is at first degree of Aries with two planets in Pisces. I'm wondering whether this Aries/Pisces cusp area might be a jazz and musically infested zone. I shall look into it later.

From the husband's camera.

I chuckled to myself when Chris Brubeck, told about one of the group's songs. It concerned the wife of a Mississippi riverboat captain. She studied astrology, numerology, biology....all the ologies...and was known as "Mrs. Hippie" (groan!) That, I thought to myself, is the one and only time I shall ever hear the word "astrology" uttered from this particular stage in deepest Bible-belt Oklahoma!

These are three highly talented musicians, but just as important, to me, they are three guys with appealing personalities strong enough to project across the footlights. I always feel let down when artists decline to talk to their audience. Chris (on piano in the photograph) chatted a lot, explaining sources of songs and pieces, sprinkled with with tales of his famous father. The guys looked as if they were really really enjoying themselves, as well as entertaining an enthusiastic audience. If a passing reader ever has the opportunity of attending one of their concerts, they should take it - no doubt at all, whatever their musical taste.

This is the only YouTube presentation I could find of the group, it's a pity the piano isn't featured. I recognise those shirts! The group play a piece called "New Stew Opus 2", which I recall he told us was the name his father preferred, as sounding better than the original title "Memphis Soul Stew".





More detail at these links
http://www.brubeckmusic.com/tripleplay.html
http://www.skidmore.edu/academics/music/faculty/Brown/brown.html
http://www.madcatmusic.net/tripleplay.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Brubeck


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We have a few more jazz and musical evenings on the horizon now too. We intend visitng San Antonio, Texas later this week, weather permitting. A late birthday treat for moi. We've planned such a trip on two previous occasions and had to postpone, so I'm not holding my breath. While in San Antone we'd like to see The Alamo of course, and the Jim Cullum Jazz Band who will, we hope, be playing at "The Landing" next weekend.

I'm planning to absent myself from the blog for a week, after tomorrow's post (also on a musical topic). Setting out this morning is not on the cards - freezing rain, sleet and frozen roads hereabouts. Drivers in this part of the world are not equipped for, or experienced in, driving in these conditions and should be given a very wide berth - we will not tempt fate! Weather should improve later today. Any interesting eventualities while we're away, possibly connected to the eclipse, Mercury Retrograde, Jupiter in Aquarius will be posted via laptop from wherever.

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A WEE UPDATE eclipse-wise:
As I mentioned in Sunday's post my husband's younger daughter has a birthday on the 26th, the day before mine, so the eclipse was on her natal Sun too. We sent her a card and gift late last week; my husband called on Monday morning to ensure it had arived. Haaa! She had forgotten it was her birthday because she had been moving home all week, and forgot to let us know. Hopefully the card and gift will be re-directed (Mercury Retrograde?) Now there's a bit of symbolic eclipse-driven change for ya - or is it? I'm not quite ready to eat my words yet, cherry on top or not.

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The Alamo, garnished with astrology.

There's a proposed trip to San Antonio, Texas, on the cards this week . A trip that's been postponed twice already, from New Year's Eve, then from my birthday in late January. Perhaps it'll be 'third time lucky'. Jupiter has just reached natal Venus in my chart, and HeWhoKnows will celebrate a birthday later in the week - a couple of good omens! The Alamo and the Jim Cullum Jazz Band on Riverwalk are two highlights we hope to include.

Having read several accounts of the Battle of the Alamo and its background history, I'm beginning to realise that there's a lot more to it than could be gathered from that old film starring John Wayne! Movies almost always gloss over some historical aspects, and skip over others which might detract from a well-loved legend. It's hardly possible, anyway, in the 21st century to appreciate 19th century values, especially for a non-Texan and even more so for a 'furriner' like me ! But the courage those people showed is undeniable.

In a nutshell"The Battle of the Alamo commenced in February 1836, and lasted 13 days. The fact that the Texan defenders - who numbered just over 200 - withheld the Mexican Army troops of about 1,500 showcases just how dedicated to the defenders were to the concept of a free and republic Texas. While today the Alamo serves as a symbol of pride for many Texans, it is also a reminder to many around the world of the heroes that perished in the pursuit of freedom."


Looking at a chart of the sky for the fateful date of the fall of the Alamo, 6 March 1836, time 9am (it's said that the battle was over around then), I note that Neptune at 4 Aquarius was in exact square to Saturn (4 Scorpio). The Moon (27 Libra) and Saturn were both in degrees which form part of Via Combusta - thought in traditional astrology to be very unfortunate, especially for the Moon. North node of the Moon(23.32 Taurus) was within 2 degrees of fixed star Algol, also thought by ancient astrologers to be malefic. The sky was distinctly unfriendly!

I noted from many and various reports that the Alamo ruins are said to be haunted. Investigation or cameras within the site itself are not allowed, as it is a burial ground, of course, as well as an historical monument. I'm looking forward to the experience, whether or not there are ghostly apparitions to greet us.