I am Strummer of Ko-Ro-Ba, a Musician in the caste of Entertainers. Like many of us, I have strived for years to make Gor more "real". As I studied what the books (I’ve read just the first 13) and other investigators have said (Marcus of Ar, primarily) about my caste, I wondered what Gorean music might actually sound like. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal of material from which to get guidance. Most of what is written actually limits rather than expands. The books state that there are no bowed instruments on Gor (violins, cellos) for example. There is no written notation. I have found no references to reed or brass instruments at all. Instruments tend to be mentioned mearly in passing; the sistrum (an early Egyptian rattle used in religious ceremony) appears in a story line that includes a procession of Initiates. There is no discussion of its wider use in society, training, tempo or construction.

There is this old argument; "if it’s not in the books, did it exist at all"? I’d prefer to not get too wrapped up in that. The question really is this; is Gorean music more similar than it is dis-similar to the music here on Earth? I believe it must be fairly similar. A drum is still a drum, a sound wave is still a sound wave and the peoples of Gor do have common origins with the peoples of Earth. I expect that most of us would hear it and think "Oh, that is music of some type". The style, meter, instrumentation might be "odd" but it would be recognizable as music made by humans. After much discussion with other serious scholars of things Gorean, I believe that there exists enough material to begin exploration. The information found in John Norman's writings, viewed through the lens of early earth history could reasonably be used as a starting point. For example: the ancient Hebrews are known to have used hollow ram horns as primitive trumpets. Might bosk horns serve as well? A four thousand-year-old bone flute fragment was recently found in a European cave that had holes drilled properly positioned to be steps in a scale. South Sea Islanders understood the concept of "octave". Roman and Greek paintings show flutists with twin flutes, apparantly one played melody while the other an anchoring "drone". There are Egyptian hieroglyphics of harp strings being plucked two at a time. It is reasonable to assume that they noticed some notes sounded "right" together while not others. I don’t think Gorean musicians any less intelligent or creative than their Earthen cousins.

Recently, I began trying to write Midis to interpret Gorean music. After a number of terrible outcomes, I'm ready to let a broader audience listen. It is my hope that this will generate discussion about Gorean instruments, playing techniques, scales and musical theory. This could easily spill over into discussions of societal use, entertainment settings, caste roles, social interaction and so forth. Midi is certainly not a perfect medium (particularly for depicting music and instruments from another planet) and I continue to find it very constraining. Still, tunes can sound reasonably good and they are very small files (good for downloading from the Internet). So far all of my works are relatively short (1 to 2 ehn). I see these strictly as starting points for further development.

I propose publishing one a month for the next 6 months to see if there is any interest is such an undertaking. It would please me greatly to see this aspect of our society fleshed out a bit. Musicians, Poets, Singers and Software Geeks are all sought to contribute their talents. All are welcome to offer their thoughts and ideas.

I wish you well,

Strummer
A Musician in the caste of Entertainers

Koroban@mailcity.com

SongOfAr.mid (midi 7.75K)

For Netscape users, hold your right mouse button down and select "Save Link As". Press your left mouse button to load and play. If you need a plug-in, try MIDI plug-ins. For Internet Explorer users, hold your mouse button down and select "Download Link to Disk". Make sure you have Play Sounds (both wave and midi) "on" under Options, under Edit. For many other browsers, just click on the MIDI selection and it will download.