“Ode to the Rose”, a musical evening inspired by the Damascene Rose, led by Maestro Misak Baghboudrian in Italy

“Ode to the Rose” was the title of a musical evening inspired by the Damascene Rose, led by Maestro Misak Bagboudrian, and hosted by the Swiss Hall in the Royal Palace in the Italian city of Turin.

“Musicians from Syria and Italy participated in the evening and played the most beautiful musical compositions and traditional songs that formed the living memory of peoples.

The evening’s program was a musical journey through time, which the musicians started with the presentation of the “Nikal” song, which is the oldest Syrian musical notation known to the world, discovered on a clay tablet dating back more than 1400 BC in the city of Ugarit on the Mediterranean coast.

This musical experience came with the voice of the opera singer Mirna Kassis, then she moved on with her operatic voice to present a group of Syriac hymns, which are the oldest forms of collective singing in Syria.

The musicians, who were keen to wear the Damascene brocade, which is considered one of the ancient Syrian crafts, presented a variety of musical compositions, including “a traditional Irish song”, the medley “Fayrouz’s Songs”, the muwashshah, and the song “Give Me the Flute and Sing”.

During the evening, the audience stopped for a while in a beautiful Syrian house, telling social stories about love, the beloved, and marriage, with rituals that constitute important moments in our social life as Syrians, along with the songs that came to us from our ancestors, which depend on the oud and percussion as an essential element for their performance, so that the musicians present a group of Syrian traditional songs.

The audience, who interacted greatly with the evening, expressed their interaction by standing for two minutes in appreciation of the high performance of the musicians who also performed an Italian folk song, and then enjoyed the rumba rhythm with the song Ya Ashikat al-Ward and a song in the Armenian language.

The evening was concluded with the presentation of two songs, namely, “Oh, a flower in my imagination.. and choose for me the sweetest flower.” They were presented as a gift to the first Syrian lady, Asma al-Assad, in appreciation of her constant support for the Damascene Rose and her community.

In a statement, Maestro Baghboudrian said: These stories aim to accompany the audience to the story of the rose, to introduce them to its impact on people, which started from the deep roots to Ugarit, the first musical notation, all the way to Syriac music, passing through the later eras and the modern era.

K.Q.