“Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus”

Date for Entry: (Friday 14th August 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This was a composition made from the inspiration of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, the computer lost a copy of the score. I believe it was over twelve pages. There was not much planning as to what this piece was supposed to do apart from describing the fear and seriousness of the infection.

    The painting was done within a day on Thursday 13 August 2020. Six hours in total were required to do the full colouring. In this illustration, I used the flowers in the ground as the coronavirus, and when the pollen and petal blow through the air it spreads the virus.

    The girl holding the flower in her hand would represent a person carrying the virus and being unaware that they were infected. It seemed to me that the same girl ended up looking like Carla from my “Magical Creatures” novel. However, the design for the dress came from thinking of our country’s president Ms. Paula-Mae Weekes.

    Listening to the recording, my mind was suggesting that what was presented should have been a beginning or introduction for the composition but too late now since the score was lost.

 

Link(s):

• “Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus” –Full Score.
• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Deadly Pandemic: Coronavirus” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

“Fountain in the Desert” – (Raag Bhairav)

Date for Entry: (Thursday 23rd July 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    Here is another piece of Classical Indian music. I decided to use Raag Bhairavi which is another scale: the second and sixth degrees of the scale are lowered by a semitone. This is also illustrated at the beginning of the video. Again, the tonic (or ‘Sa’) was C.

    I used flute and harmonium as the major source of melody. The tambourine and tabla were given independent rhythmic patterns and were assigned as ostinati. However, the loud gong and bowl gong was replaced by a harp that was used to mimic the sound/feel of a swarmandal.

    As much as I wished, the software could not do the andolan or swing. Hence, use of more acciaccaturas was used as a substitution apart from instances where the true acciaccaturas were required.

    The drawing and painting were both done on Thursday 23 July 2020 in the afternoon at home number two. The full colouring took approximately two and a half hours long.

 

Link(s):

• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Fountain in the Desert” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali

“Elephant Circus” – (Raag Bhairavi)

Date for Entry: (Friday 29th May 2020)

Actual Date of Online Entry: (Monday 29th August 2022)

Dear Diary,

    This was my first attempt at creating a piece of Classical Indian music. The raag of choice was Bhairavi with the scale's second, third, sixth and seventh degrees lowered by a semitone. I tried to illustrate this with the notation at the very beginning of the video. The tonic (or ‘Sa’) is C.

    The two main instruments were the flute and the sitar. A tambourine was added to create a rhythmic pattern and this pattern was used as an ostinato. Since I did not know how to write for the tabla, I made an independent rhythmic pattern for the tambourine that gave the difference between the sound of the big drum and the smaller drum.

    Since Musescore does not operate under the Indian Classical style of music, there was no way to create a tanpura effect. Instead, a loud gong was used to indicate the beginning of a new cycle in teen taal. A bowl gong in between would also be heard.

    During the composition at 0:47 in the video, the use of call and response, or question and the answer was utilised. I did not want the two instruments doing the same melody. I wanted them interdependent like some sort of conversation. Most likely it felt like Trinis talking and finishing what the other person was saying.

    The dates of the drawing and the painting were not recorded. The painting was done on a night immediately after the day of the drawing. The next day after painting the elephant I saw a very gruesome and hurting story from CNN about people killing elephants in a foreign land. A mommy elephant and the young children were killed. I wished I had inserted the little baby elephant when I saw it in my mind but I did not know how to draw it.

Link(s):

• Hand Drawing & Completed Painting.
• “Elephant Circus” – YouTube Recording.

Daryl Zion M. Ali