475 Tragic Magic.
My music quest finally produced results I can tolerate. It’s unlikely I’ll ever know the true origin of the “Oriental Riff”, as I’ve heard it called, but I heard it in an old black & white film the other night, so my findings bear out sources on Wikipedia.
I’ve also heard many songs that represent other places. One thing I noticed that a lot of places don’t have national anthems that reflect their musical heritage. In fact it seems like the ones that do are the exception. These findings are superficial at best. My guess is that as Europeans wandered around the world taking other people’s shit they left behind anthems to let people know they were there. Or maybe the leaders of some countries just felt that a national anthem needed to be a march. I’m sure you could spend a lifetime researching something like that. Unfortunately I don’t have that kind of time, but I remain interested.
4 Comments
The “Oriental Riff” (if it’s the one I think you’re thinking of) was written by Sol Bloom for a belly dancing exhibition at the 1895 Chicago World’s Fair, which also gave the world the Ferris Wheel, among many other things.
After re-reading the previous entry, I’ve decided it’s probably not the same tune. Happy hunting.
J.T. – I appreciate the input all the same.
Since we were talking about The Vapors and “Turning Japanese”, this item from the BBC is very timely:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8132726.stm
WAAAAY late, but hey… it’s better than never:
The song I believe you are aiming for, Scott, is “The Streets of Cairo, or the Poor Little Country Maid”, which IS done by Sol Bloom. But was to emulate more things like Arabia or snake-charming or whatnot. Also, it was the 1893 World Fair. BUT you solved my OWN question with the hints you left.