kitāb suwar al-kawākib كتاب صور الكواكب (The Book of Fixed Stars. vol1)

by Freda Wallace

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1.	Fum al-Ḥūt فم الحوت (Mouth of the Whale) 06:03	buy track
2.	Saʿad udh-Dhābiḥ سّعد الذّابح (The lucky Star of the Slaughterer) 06:10	buy track
3.	Al-Qurḥah القرحة (The Blaze on a Horse's Brow) 07:46	buy track
4.	Al-Lasʿah اللسعة (The Sting) 05:41	buy track
5.	Rijl ul-Qanṭūris رجل القنطورس (The Foot of the Centaur) 06:38	buy track

about

The Book of Fixed Stars.
Five Scores for Piano and Sewing Machine.

The Book of Fixed Stars (Arabic: كتاب صور الكواكب kitāb suwar al-kawākib, literally The Book of the Shapes of Stars) is an astronomical text written by Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (Azophi) around 964.

It always intrigued me when I was young and first got into astronomy that the stars in the standard almanacs had such unusual and sometimes difficult to pronounce names. I knew the Greek myths of the constellations but knew less of the origins of stellar cartography .

I know the bright stars like old friends and welcome them by name as they rise and fall through the evening skies marking the seasons with their own unique glows and character.

These Arabic star names were adopted by Claudius Ptolemy and first catalogued in his great book, The Almagest which became a major work to which all future western astronomers would refer to. Eventually translated into modern English it remains intact but the with original Arabic language removed.

My choice to use this as the starting point for this suite of piano pieces seemed instinctively perfect to me. The way the stars are mapped on a page with their respective drawings recalled to me the notes on a stave. The mathematical systems that revealed their distances and the algorithm of music that wants to create order where there is only the unknowable void. Each piano key stroke a point of light against the rumble of the sewing machine, the cosmic background noise. The signature of the beginning of the universe still ringing out and heard in radio waves when you happen on the right frequency. Randomness and precision. Science and faith. Darkness and the light.

This suite of five pieces for piano and sewing Machine is in homage and tribute to Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi. Without whom we would not have such beautiful names for the bright stars we observe with our searching, longing eyes.

The mathematical systems of Algebra are what got people to the moon. It’s literally rocket science. The universal metronome of progress begins with The Book of Fixed Stars.

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released May 10, 2021

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Freda Wallace Manchester, UK

Manchester Based Producer of wonky electro and noises

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