[Xmca-l] Re: "THE LAST INTERNATIONALE | WORKERS OF THE WORLD- UNITE! ( OFFICIAL VIDEO)"

[David Kellogg]

Too pessimistic, Ulvi! And not a little self-contradictory, because in the
end she leaves New Orleans and gives up the fight. What happens to all
those Latino workers farmworkers she's living behind in New Orleans?

You are a pianist. You will appreciate this, particularly the ending:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlivqMItDFo

It's called the "Yellow River Cantata", and it was originally written by
Xian Xinghai in a cave in 1939, over six days, as the Japanese were closing
in. The composer is using a bunch of local folk melodies and opera motifs
to describe how the Yellow River itself will defend those who defend it.

The conclusion is an example of "huanwei"--this is a technique used in
Chinese opera when the whole audience is singing along and they all think
they know exactly how it is going to end (on "East is Red", which back then
as now was a nationalistic theme). Instead, it ends with a phrase from the
Internationale...and yet somehow the two fit together perfectly, and the
audience is not wrong footed at all, but instead lifted from tune to a
higher one, and (metaphorically, anyway) from one form of anti-imperialist
consciousness to a still higher one.

(Notice that the pianist herself is not Chinese!)

David Kelllogg
Macquarie University



On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 8:42 AM, Ulvi İçil <ulvi.icil@gmail.com> wrote:

> https://youtu.be/dgaJb0lQJ84
>