Freshly Ground (Part II)

In a recent post I wrote about afro-fusion. I think one reason I like this sort of music (or any fusion, basically) is because it involves mixing bits and pieces of different cultures and worldviews - hybrid music

Similar thing: while listening to Alex Ross (music critic at the New Yorker) talk at google headquarters, I heard him play an excerpt composed by Osvaldo Golijov. The piece was called "Tancas serradas a muru" from a longer work named "Ayre". At the gut level, I liked it because it wasn't like the classical music I was used to - had Dawn Upshaw witch-cackling - makes me feel a little nuts listening to it.

At a different level, I liked it because Golijov was trying to borrow from the sounds of Moorish Spain: The idea of a Spain under Islamic rule (relatively broadminded rule - Moorish Cordoba had 70 libraries in the city, around the same as the number of branches of the public library in NY today - and the Islam of the time involved "Itihad"- critical thinking) fascinates me. The idea that an Argentine Jewish composer (who also relies on his own ethnic heritage) would rely on this sort of source, I think, rocks.