The Story of the Golden Faced Prince
Dotar & Vocals : Hamra Gol Afruz
Collected Researched by Fozie Majd
The Romance of Prince Goldface
This Romance has not been mentioned by the principal bakhshis of Northern Khorasan as being part of their repertoire. Bakhshi Hamra seems to be one of the rare master bakhshis with a penchant for this kind of pseudo serious-comic tale, taking into consideration that not all bakhshis are endowed with such spontaneous wit and humour, and Hamra's narration, apart from certain episodes that he considers of a serious nature, such as the episode of the darvish, is usually full of amusing allusions and humorous situations. The story begins with the typical status quo of a king who is childless and seeks divine help. The son born to him is destined to marry a princess residing in extra terrestrial domains. The tale has topical aspects, the kind of popular present-day cinematic story, with journey into space, and arriving at another planet where the girl resides with fourty thousand fairies in attendance, the prince becoming invisible with the help of a talisman, and travelling with a magic box. The prince carries his instrument everywhere and sounds his dotar on sensitive occasions.
The dialogues, the spoken sections in persian, occuring between songs and dotar solos, are often recited with a quick tempo, and the dotar solo sections incorporate various maghams, and importance is also given to short motives or full melodic phrases acting as an inner commentary. The vocal sections, sung in turkish, sometimes with kurdish ejaculations, incorporate the maghams prevalent in northern Khorasan. While the dialogue is mostly amusing and sometimes hilarious, the songs propose a complete contrast, at once serious, learned, with a noble tradition behind them.
Published [22/04/2005]
