Now that's a rant!

Cribbed from krikket, and so worthwhile it's not even funny:

Elite vs. Elitny

A nice long insightful rant about the nature of American and Russian elitism, and the paradox of why billionaires are more "real" than your average activist.

Yes, it's long. Yes, it's worth it.

It's a mode, mode, mode, mode, mode, mode world.

Warning: Jewish liturgical geekery follows.

So, this past Saturday, my sweetie and I went to the synagogue up near where we used to live (my parents were there as well, but that's not important right now). For various reasons, I got there after everyone else in the group (and right after my sweetie was called up to the Torah for the first time. Waah.), to arrive in the middle of the Torah reading. A young woman was the designated reader. She used a cantillation I'd never heard before. To put it bluntly, I was floored. It had this beautiful, happy, almost singing kind of feel to it; much more cheerful and celebratory than the Ashkenazic cantillation I'm familiar with. To be sure, part of it was her voice, which was impressive depsite the fact that she had a cold, but the mode used was just so different than what I'd heard before. Needless to say, I had to know.

After services, I asked the woman, and she remarked that it was the Aleppo-Sephardic cantillation (i.e. Syrian). I should have figured out the Sephardic part. As it turns out, the rabbi of that synagogue has been trying to get a recording from her for quite some time, and has not succeeded.

I've taken matters into my own hands. I've sent some tentacles out, and with a little bit of luck, I should have a line on some recording of Aleppo-Sephardic Torah cantillation by tomorrow. I've found one recording for sale on line (along with a bunch of other cantillations on the same CD), but judging from the samples, the person singing has as much enthusiasm as your average block of tofu. This is a non-starter.

Fortunately, I'm beginning to remember what I heard on Saturday in a sufficiently coherent form that I should be able to reverse-engineer the mode, once I get near some paper with a staff on it and a musical instrument. My relative pitch is serviceable-but-rusty, and for something like this, having actual reference notes is more useful.

Observation: I give a crap about things musical again. I blame this on having enough space in my domicile for my hobbies. Yay!