Skip to main content

Song for Qatar

I joined the Doha Concert Choir -- formerly known as Doha Bach Choir -- last February.  It is a volunteer group led by a violist in the Qatar Philharmonic.  Giovanni is a talented arranger and choral director, and the group is made up of serious singers!  
He was asked last week by a Qatari composer -- the only famous female Qatari composer Dana Alfardan -- to arrange and perform a song she had just written, titled The Land - Song for Qatar
Last night we met at our usual practice time and rehearsed his arrangement of the song, and next week we expect to record it at the Katara studios.    She apparently wrote the song in response to last week's volley of accusations in the Arabic-language media about Qatar straying from the Saudi-prescribed path of sectarian opposition.  The direct accusation is that Qatar is providing refuge and support for certain enemies of Saudi Arabia.    This resulted in the surprisingly vehement action by the Saudis and their closest allies.  
My point here is that we expats were blindsided by this; but apparently those who keep up with  Arabic-language politics knew about the rising tension. 
We stand tall, above it all.  The rain will fall to plant the seeds that feed us all. We stand united behind our leader with all our might.  With you we rise.  Our Nation's pride!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

String Quartet Broken String

  We attended a marvelous concert last night, at the Porto Museum of Casa do Infante , a beautifully-renovated 1325 building near the river.  At one point it served as a customs house.  The government sponsors Portuguese musicians to return from other European orchestras to perform in their homeland.  We heard and saw this group play a traditional piece – Haydn string quartet Opus 20 #2.  Then the modern Benjamin Britten's Three Divertimenti – the stunning last movement of which they performed as an encore.  They performed (and I recorded) the Shostakovich Quartet #9, during which the first-violinist broke a string (it features several strongly-plucked chords!) and had to retreat&repeat! 

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

 As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico .  There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver.   Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government.  As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time.  I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government?   And what will it take to recover from the damage?  Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever?   Only ni...

Música Tunas e Boémia

  We attended an unusual concert last night:  Música Tunas e Boémia (bands and parties) University student folk-music groups — big groups of 40 and more each!  put on a great show of singing, playing, flag-twirling, tambourine-swinging, all at the major (private) concert hall.  The most unusual thing about it was that nobody used any electronic device (except for microphone amplification)—no electric guitar or keyboard, no big drum set…every instrument and prop was hand-held.  The singing was quite good, given the effort to synchronize 40 voices.