Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
A New Clip from MN2010 DVD
Thanks to Sargon Alkurge for creating the following promotional clip from MN2010 DVD. Please order your copy and support this important cultural project.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Hannibal's “Malek Rama Lakhouma”: The Tall Handsome Prince
The excerpts below are taken from the book “Hannibal Alkhas: Selected Works of Poetry” which was type set and published by Mr. Marcel Josephson in San Jose, CA in 2010 and is available from lulu.com website.
The poem “Malek Rama Lakhouma” (The Tall Handsome Prince) is currently being used for the creation of a musical by Mr. Edwin Elieh. Mr. Josephson continues his role as a consultant to Mr. Elieh on language matters. He has also provided a full translation of the poem which will be used by the Mesopotamian Night team during the production of the musical.
We would also like to thank Ms. Anna Alkhas for giving us the permission to use the poem in the creation of this musical.
In the context of this magnificent fairy tale, a reasonable translation for the term “Malek Rama Lakhouma”, the main character of the tale would be “The Tall Handsome Prince”. This tale is about envy, wicked-thinking, conspiracy, deception, viciousness, and finally the triumph of good over evil. It is the tale of three unfortunate sisters sitting down for weaving in their poor cabin; one wishing to become a queen to weave a tie for pants that every woman and her husband can use to wrap their pants, one wishing to become a queen to cook a noodle dish that whoever ate from it would admire the good taste of it, and the third wishing to give birth to a warrior to become a king. In our language words the tie for a pair of pants (tekta) and the noodles (rekta) rhyme so nicely that with Hannibal’s immaculate creativity give an amusing opening to this poem.
It so happens that the king was passing by and overhears the conversation of three sisters. He marries the third sister and hires the other two to do the weaving and the cooking in the palace. King was at war and had to leave right after the marriage ceremony. It comes the time that his wife gives birth to a healthy boy. She sends a message to her husband to share the good news but the message was intercepted by her two sisters and her mother-in-law. They re-wrote the message stating that the newborn was a monster. First he got disappointed and wanted to have the newborn’s life terminated but he soon changed his mind and sent a message asking newborn to be saved until king’s return. The conspirators intoxicated the messenger and changed the content of the king’s message to read “get rid of the newborn and the mother; leave them to the sea”.
The newborn and mother were put in a basket and left afloat on the sea. The basket finally beaches at an island where the boy has grown into a young man. The islanders ask him to become their prince. Upon beaching at the island, in search for food in the woods, he rescues a pigeon that was just about to be killed by an eagle. To return the favor, the pigeon would grant him any wish he asked for. Many ships originally from the land where his father ruled would pass by his island and he would ask the sailors to anchor and he would host them very generously.
Upon their sail away he would feel homesick missing his father. Each time the pigeon would convert him to an insect so that he could travel unnoticed with sailors to his father’s land to see him. Each time the sailors would report to king how greatly they were treated by the prince of the neighboring island. They would also describe the magnificent developments they would witness on the island and would notify the king that the prince has extended an invitation to the king to visit the island.
The envious two aunts and the grandmother, each time would undervalue the developments on the island by saying that they have heard of something even more miraculous in other lands. The prince as an insect would sting one of the three envious conspirators each time. The sailors of the next ship would describe the actual occurrence of what conspirators had mentioned they had heard. And each time another conspirator would get stung.
At last, the king decides to visit the prince where he comes face-to-face with his wife and the entire plot is revealed. This imaginative work has many repetitions such as many ships pass by and many sailors get treated so highly; and yet, each repetition has its own uniqueness showing progression and continuous improvement of environmental conditions influenced by man. Except in the beginning where some of the most inferior inclinations of human being are demonstrated, the rest of the poem illustrates hope, development, and advancement. At the climax of this constructive trend, it is very remarkable to see how skillfully Hannibal brings Gilgamesh on the scene within the setting of this entirely fictional work.
This work also very brilliantly reveals a son’s desire to see his father who has been away from him for a long time. In my view, the main character of this tale and Hannibal share same feelings in regards to being away from father.
About Marcel Josephson (Bet-Yousef)
Born in Abadan (Iran), Marcel grew up and completed his high-school education in Urmie (Iran). He earned his bachelors degree in mechanical engineering from Sahrif (formerly Arya-Mehr) University of Technology in Tehran (Iran) following which he attended the military service. After working for 10 years in Iran, the last eight years for NIOC (National Iranian Oil Company) in Ahwaz, Marcel immigrated to Canada. He lived in Toronto for six years, immigrated to US in 1993, and settled in San Jose, CA. Marcel earned his masters degree in engineering management from Santa Clara University. He works in Silicon Valley in high-technology sector and is a registered professional engineer in Province of Ontario (Canada) and state of California.
From young age, Marcel was involved with Assyrian community and organizations. He was an active member and served on the executive boards of Society of Assyrian College Student, Society of Assyrian College Graduates, Assyrian Association of Ahwaz. Marcel was also the chairman of the Education Committee of the Assyrian American Association of San Jose 2006-2010.
Marcel developed a passionate love for our mother language and Assyrian literature from young age. In recent years this passion has produced many publications. Marcel created multiple on-line books and other teaching material with exceptional accuracy and quality so that any fellow Assyrian anywhere in the world can conveniently print and use the material to learn or teach our beloved mother language. This material is available from Assyrian American Association of San Jose's website. He also published a booklet of two poems by our prominent artist, the late Hannibal Alkhas (1930-2010). The most significant publication that Marcel has so far had is the "Selected Works of Poetry" of Hannibal Alkhas. This book was published some eight months before the passing of Hannibal and had greatly pleased the artist.
From young age, Marcel was involved with Assyrian community and organizations. He was an active member and served on the executive boards of Society of Assyrian College Student, Society of Assyrian College Graduates, Assyrian Association of Ahwaz. Marcel was also the chairman of the Education Committee of the Assyrian American Association of San Jose 2006-2010.
Marcel developed a passionate love for our mother language and Assyrian literature from young age. In recent years this passion has produced many publications. Marcel created multiple on-line books and other teaching material with exceptional accuracy and quality so that any fellow Assyrian anywhere in the world can conveniently print and use the material to learn or teach our beloved mother language. This material is available from Assyrian American Association of San Jose's website. He also published a booklet of two poems by our prominent artist, the late Hannibal Alkhas (1930-2010). The most significant publication that Marcel has so far had is the "Selected Works of Poetry" of Hannibal Alkhas. This book was published some eight months before the passing of Hannibal and had greatly pleased the artist.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Making the Musical Malek Rama: Assyrian community cooperation to promote Assyrian art
Eden Naby
In preparation for the next Mesopotamian Night musical event, the Assyrian Aid Society of America commissioned the Assyrian musician Mr. Edwin Elieh to create a musical based on a fairy tale poem by the late Rabi Hannibal Alkhas.
This commission has been made possible by the generous support of the Assyrian Culture Fund, financed by Eden Naby (Frye). Our goal is to premiere this work at the next Mesopotamian Night event in Winter, 2012.
In the article below, Dr. Eden Naby tells us the back story behind the creation of “The Musical Malek Rama” and something about the persons involved.
In May 2010 when I heard about a group of people in Ohio who pooled their funds to commission a musical piece, it struck me that this was another way to support Assyrian culture in the absence of institutions that are able to fund contemporary Assyrian arts. Therefore I decided that one way I could honor the lives of my parents (my mother would have loved this idea) was to commission music by an Assyrian composer based on an Assyrian poem.
Since Hannibal Alkhas was still alive at the time, and I had just met with him at his home in Turlock to discuss his paintings, I thought one of his poems might be set to music and performed at Mesopotamian Night. This way I get to honor my parents, put into wider circulation an Assyrian poem, and provide an opportunity for an Assyrian composer to create art music.
I had no thought that this idea would engender a musical.
I would have been happy to have simply a song. But always innovative impresario Tony Khoshaba has taken my initial idea a few steps further.
I am looking forward to hearing this charming legend by Hannibal Alkhas take a new life in the hands of Edwin Elieh and soar to pleasure an audience.
My hope is that others among Assyrians will see commissioning as a way to foster our culture while honoring their family. The idea is simple, and I hope, infectious.
Malek Rama the Poem
Very much in the style of Hannibal Alkhas’ paintings from his modernist period, this long poem tells a story – a fairy tale – with all the elements of magical stories with which we have become familiar from the epic of Gilgamesh to the story of Cinderella and on to the Harry Potter book and film series. There are good people, evil people, the intervention of magical personages and the triumph of good. Into the story enter strong family values tainted by jealousy and lies, moral instincts that are rewarded, and natural elements that anthropomorphize to help the innocent.
In true fairy tale and epic fashion, the poet introduces formulaic repetitions, and the simplicity of the equation of good with beauty and its opposite with evil. The description of places and characters merges the pre-Christian and Christian phases of Assyrian history without however, identifying any of the characters as Assyrian except by association as with Gilgamesh. The poem is part of a collection of the works of Hannibal Alkhas produced by Marcel E. Josephson in San Jose, CA.
Project Biographies:
Hannibal Alkhas (1930-2010):
Poet: Hannibal Alkhas (1930-2010), Assyrian painter and poet, was born in Kermanshah, Iran into a learned family that produced two cultural pillars of modern Assyrians, his father, writer and publisher Addai, and his uncle Jean (John), a famed Assyrian poet of the 20th century. Addai and his bride met and married away from their original homes in Urmiah due to the genocide against Assyrians in west Azarbaijan and Ottoman Turkey between 1914 and 1918.
Rabi (master, teacher) Hannibal spent his early years in Kermanshah, Ahwaz and Tehran. In 1951, he left for the United States in pursuit of higher education. After first studying philosophy, he earned his BA and MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1959 he returned to Iran and began teaching at the Tehran School of Fine Arts. During that time he established Gilgamesh Gallery, the first modern art gallery in Iran, where aspiring young artists received recognition. In 1963, he returned to the US and taught at Monticello College and served as chairman of the art department. He returned to Iran in 1969 and settled into teaching at Tehran University for eleven years. Returning once more to the US in 1980, Hannibal spent twelve years teaching the arts at the Assyrian Civic Club of Turlock, private colleges and the UC Berkeley and UCLA.
This multi-talented Assyrian, steeped in his Assyrian and Persian cultural heritage, has been honored frequently in Iran and by the diaspora Assyrian community with exhibits and publications of his poetry. His CD, Urmie, (with Helen Vincent) pays tribute to his family’s roots in the now mostly lost Assyrian village communities of Urmiah and Salamas.
A collection of his poems appeared in 2008 under the direction of Marcel E. Josephson as Selected Works of Poetry in Assyrian Aramaic and in English translation. “MalekRama,” a fanciful legend based on Assyrian rural relationships and customs, is one of the poems included in this collection.
Alkhas’ painting, “Crucifixion,” has gained fame as modern representation of the suffering of the innocent, in which he included his own Assyrian people. His” Ziggurat” series is featured on this website.
A multi volume exposition of his artistic ideas appeared in Persian under the title بی پرده با آفتاب (Without cover in the sun) Tehran: Majal publishing, 1385-1386/2006-2007 (with a brief introduction by Jalal Al-Ahmad [1923-1969] revered Iranian intellectual figure who commented on one of Alkhas’ paintings.
Composer Edwin Elieh:
Edwin Elieh is an Assyrian musician from Urmiah, Iran. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Azad University (Tehran) and currently is studying film scoring at UCLA. His composition style ranges from Classical orchestra to instrumental Rock and Pop music. Edwin writes in different genres of music and combines them to create a unique sound. He has been teaching music and guitar for over twelve years as well as singing and performing in numerous events. His arrangement and orchestration of Walter Aziz’s songs, among other things, was instrumental in the success of the 2010 Mesopotamian Night event.
The Honorees – Mishael and Lillie Naby:
Mishael Simon Naby (1898 –1980), poet and pastor, was born in Golpashan, a rich village outside Urmiah. Mishael was the younger son of Shimun, son of Enviya of the Qirmizi clan. His mother, Sarah, had married the widower Shimun with whom she bore three children Enviya, Mishael and a daughter, Almas. While Enviya immigrated to Chicago before World War I, Mishael and Almas remained with the family. Both attended village schools run by Assyrians as part of the American missionary school system established since the 1840s. After primary school, Mishael enrolled at the Urmiah College for Boys, a boarding school, from which he was one of four Assyrian men to graduate in June 1918, a month before Assyrians fled Urmiah as the Ottoman Army spilled into the town.
Mishael became a prisoner of war as the Assyrian army retreated south. Together with two other Assyrians he escaped the prison camp near Khoy and made his way to Tabriz where he was nursed to health at the American mission. He then left for Hamadan where he was employed as a teacher in the Assyrian refugee schools. He continued teaching in Tabriz while waiting with thousands of others to return to Urmiah.
During this period he became a communist sympathizer and his early poetry reflected particularly his growing atheistic tendency. One of the traumas of his early life was the murder of his father, an old man in 1914, who was marched with other Assyrian men to the Christian cemetery and bludgeoned to death. The other was the carrying away of his young sister Almas to an Ottoman military encampment located outside Khoy.
Mishael might have remained a mathematics teacher had he not inherited several revenue producing vineyards from extended family members who had either not survived the genocide or had emigrated from Iran. At the same time, he was recruited as a student by his mentor, a former teacher at Urmiah College, Rabi Pera Amrikhas (1872-1945), to study theology even after the short-lived seminary run under missionary auspices was forced closed in 1934 by the Iranian government. Thereafter he rejected atheistic communism, and turned from teaching to ministry. He supplemented the meager salary this provided with income from the raisin producing vineyards.
In 1941 he married Lillie (Dooman) Yohannan (1906-1991), and spent winters in the city of Urmiah and summers in the village of Golpashan. He and Lillie had two children – Eden Naby (Frye) and Dante Naby.
Literary Life
Mishael always wrote his poems and essays in his first language, the modern eastern Aramaic vernacular of the Assyrians that was developed as a written language during the mid-19th century by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. By the time that Mishael entered the educational system, classical Syriac was no longer taught in the modern schools. Much influenced by American writers like Ralph Waldo Emerson whose works he read in English at school and after, nonetheless he could not write in English beyond correspondence.
In his twenties, he began to compose verse under the pen name “Yadgar” (Remembrance). Aside from occasional poems and songs, his major work consists of quatrains based on his experiences of World War I and its aftermath. He drafted and rewrote this biographical poetry which often returned to the refrain, “Ya yada kul, aha dakhiy?” (Oh Knower of all, why this?).
By the time these poems were published in 1970 at Ator Publishing in Tehran, he had already changed their tone from skeptical disillusionment with the protective power of faith in God to symbolic verses only alluding to the suffering he had endured as a Turkish prisoner of war. He found peace in “Grace” a female figure whom he associated with the Holy Spirit. The collection, titled Qdila da-šmaya (Key to heaven), consists of a series of works composed between 1920 and 1960.
During the early 1960s, he decided that his poetry should appear in English translation and engaged his children in this task over a period of two years. The verse translation was published as Psalms and Song of a Persian (New York, 1964).
His last published volume appeared in the form of a dialogue in which theological questions were asked and answered. Composed in Persian, his third language after Assyrian and Turkish, نقشه های خداوند (God’s plans) was also published at Ator Publishing in Tehran (1351[1972]) through the efforts of his wife’s cousin, Charles Sayad.
One of Mishael’s earliest works, an essay co-authored with his Turkish Muslim cousin, Beglerbegi, and published in Urmiah during the 1940s, is now rarely found.
An endowment at Harvard University commemorates his life and that of his wife.
Lillie Yohannan Naby (1906-1991), a teacher in Urmiah, was born in Degala, a village within 10 km of Urmiah. Her mother Avigil (Abigail) married Aurahim Yokhannan (of Ada) who was a widower with one daughter. He brought the daughter with him on his second trip to the United States and placed her in a Presbyterian orphanage in Tennessee.
Like her mother, grandmother, aunt and female relatives, Lillie received her education in the village school but graduated from Fiske Seminary. She fled as a young girl with her aunt, uncle and mother south to Hamadan in 1918. A previous attempt to flee north to Russia in 1915 failed due to the outbreak of cholera among the Assyrians massed at the Arax River border. At the time of her graduation from Fiske Seminary in 1925, the school was operating in Tabriz as a refugee school with a much reduced body of students. Like the three other young women in her class, Lillie too became a teacher, a profession she continued after the American schools were forced closed in Urmiah in 1934. She learned Persian in order to qualify to teach at the government high school for girls called Shahdokht.
For nearly twenty years Lillie taught English and home economics. She was an industrious and inventive woman whose home in Urmiah offered hospitality to visiting Americans among whom were many missionaries as well as academics like Carlton Coon an his family. She was also the organist at the Assyrian Presbyterian Church in Urmiah and was admired for her singing.
After moving to Philadelphia with her family in 1953, Lillie worked at odd jobs to maintain family income but did not teach again. When her husband died, she moved to, Modesto, California where she was able to renew childhood friendships with Assyrian women such as Marta Joseph, and be near her relatives. She took part in the Assyrian community and even acted in community plays. During the last two years of her life, she went to live in Massachusetts with her daughter. She is buried in Philadelphia, with her husband and other Assyrians, under a headstone that reads “Asleep, awaiting the Resurrection.”
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Update On Mesopotamian Night Project
We would like to inform our audience that The Mesopotamian Night Project is going through a re-organization. For this reason by the recommendation of the Board of Directors of the Assyrian Aid Society of America, the 2011 is being skipped but we are intensely working to produce yet another historical musical event in Winter 2012. The details will be announced soon.
The Mesopotamian Night Team
The Mesopotamian Night Team
Friday, April 15, 2011
Mesopotamian Night 2010 DVD/CD is now available for Sale
Mesopotamian Night 2010 DVD/CD Set:
DVD/CD 1: Classical Music & Opera
Ninos: Brian Thorsett, tenor, Shamiram: Liisa Dávila, soprano
DVD/CD 2: Assyrian Folkloric Musical: Walter Aziz
- Assyryt Suite No. 2 Paulus Khofri, Orchestration: Michel Bosc
- Elegy William Daniel, Transcription: Sam Madoo, Peter Blauvelt
- On Assyrian Mountains William Daniel / Peter Blauvelt, Transcription: Sam Madoo
- The Assyrian Legacy George Somi
I. The Rise of the Great Empire
II. The
Majesty of the Hanging Gardens- Ninos and Shamiram Michel Bosc, Poetry: Yosip Bet Yosip
Ninos: Brian Thorsett, tenor, Shamiram: Liisa Dávila, soprano
- Plasha d’Khoorara [War of Freedom]
- Leleh d’Sitwa Mitrana [Rainy Winter Night]
- Dashta d’Nineveh Deyan Eala [Nineveh Plains is Ours]
- Shara [Festival]
- Malikta d’Khayee [Queen of my Life]
- Libba Shmeeta [Broken Heart]
- Maptikhanta d’Pala [Fortune Teller]
- Manshee [Forget it]
- Akitu [Assyrian New Year]
- Atour Bet Khayah [Assyria shall live]
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