{"id":551,"date":"2012-03-12T21:04:27","date_gmt":"2012-03-13T01:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westwoodvalley.com\/?p=551"},"modified":"2012-03-12T21:04:27","modified_gmt":"2012-03-13T01:04:27","slug":"my-musical-evolution-part-59-agony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wrharrison.com\/musicalevolution\/2012\/03\/12\/my-musical-evolution-part-59-agony\/","title":{"rendered":"My Musical Evolution – Part 59 Agony by \u0130lhan Mimaro\u011flu"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a late summer evening in a quiet village in southeastern Vermont.\u00a0 My aunt would often listen to WHOM broadcasting from High on Mount Washington. <\/em>It was an early NPR type station that would run Star date with Joel Block and various classical and unsual musical choices. This next one was so unusual in fact that I feel it deserves its own post. We were in the kitchen, when the strangest sounds began to emanate from the stereo speakers. I somehow had the foresight to drop a cassette into the deck and press record.\u00a0 What we were hearing was an experimental song<\/em> called Agony<\/em>.\u00a0 It sounded like space, aliens and crunching battle. As I recall not only that precise moment but the aura of that period in my life, I cannot help but imagine spaceships hovering over the forests and valleys of the green mountains at twilight. The song went on for quite a while. At the time it felt like we sat there listening to it for 5 minutes or more before <\/em>I hit record.\u00a0 As I look at the length of the piece, I must have started recording almost immediately.<\/p>\n

When they song was over, I pressed STOP<\/em> but not before the radio announcer said “That piece entitled Agony by Turkish composer…” I held on to that K-Mart brand 60 minute cassette with “Agony” stylistically written in 3 or more colors of magic marker ever since. I can’t explain my attraction to this piece. It really isn’t a song<\/em> in any sense. Maybe my love of sound effects and the unusual are responsible.<\/p>\n

Over the next two decades, I would frequent libraries or telephone NPR radio stations and ask if they new anything about a piece called “Agony” by a Turkish Compser. No such luck. Once I even played my low fidelity K-Mart copy to the local NPR guy who thought it was weird but knew nothing else about it.\u00a0 When the internet became a fixture in my home, I would routinely search for Agony and Turkish Composers. Even the world wide web had forgotten about this strange composition.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, my search ended. I was able to track down Agony and its Turkish Composer, \u0130lhan Mimaro\u011flu. <\/em>Somebody had a site and even posted a few of his compositions including the coveted Agony. <\/em>Of course I downloaded them all instantly. I was going to post a link to that site but I just went to check it out and it is gone.\u00a0 I’ll have to make a note about this towards the end of the year when i rediscovered<\/em> Agony. I wonder if anybody else in the world likes this as much as I do.<\/p>\n

\u0130lhan Mimaro\u011flu – Agony<\/em><\/p>\n

 
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