I was pleased (and more than a little relieved) to find that there is an interest in Gorean music. A number of people e-mailed Me and said that they enjoyed last month’s selection very much. One even went through the trouble to come to Austnet and speak to Me personally. A slave wrote, providing some very useful information regarding instruments. In last month’s article I stated that I could find no reference to brass instruments at all. The girl gave Me the complete book and page references of a passage describing a procession of people and their use of trumpets. One of My upcoming pieces will have a trumpet included as a result of that contact. Thank you all for the kind words and helpful suggestions.

I have stated that I want to avoid contention with this question, but I do want to share with you how I resolved the "if an instrument is not specifically listed in the books, could it exist on Gor or not" issue. I’ve resolved it to My own satisfaction, at least. I decided that within certain constraints, the answer must be "yes". Here is what I mean; if I were to ask any of you, "List for Me all of the musical instruments on Earth", many would list 20 to 80 instruments. I could probably list between 100 and 150. We would all be very, very short. There are literally thousands of thousands of thousands. Country to country, age to age, genre to genre, the list would go on and on for pasangs.

If I then handed you a book, or even a series of books, You would find, described in minute detail, heroes and villains, their adventures, personalities, weaponry and wardrobes. As complete as that would be, zillions of details about the world around them would necessarily still be omitted. At most, the Gor novels list a couple of dozen instruments. I am convinced that there are surely more. I did say that there must be constraints on instruments that could justifiably be chosen for a Gorean composition. As much as I wish it otherwise, I can’t convince You or Myself that an electric guitar played through a fuzz box on a 100 watt Amplifier sounds like anything you would actually hear on Gor.

In the coming months, I would like to discuss what those constraints are and solicit your opinions. Also, most of the music I’ve written so far is dedicated to one city or another. That is because there are cities that I’m familiar with. I do have some "feel" for those Peoples and their culture. I’d like to explore with the Citizens of some of the other cities exactly how they see their culture evolving and try to get some idea of the flavor of the music that might produce.

This month’s selection, I’ve named simply "bahni". The beauty and the passion of the girl that wears My collar inspired it.

I truly do wish you all well,

Strummer

A Musician in the Caste of Entertainers

Koroban@mailcity.com

bahni.mid (midi 5.71kb)

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