Origins: calender prince. strange new realm

Subject: Origins: calender prince. strange new realm
From: leeneia
Date: 02 Dec 06 - 10:39 AM

1. I have been having a good time playing themes from "Scheherazade" on my dulcimer (tuned in DAG). The themes from Scheherazade are linked to stories, and one of them is "the fantastic narrative of the calender (not calendar) prince."

Can anyone tell me a little bit about the calender prince?

2. I did a Google search, and up came a promising site:

http://www.last.fm/music/Nicolay+Rimsky+-+Korsakov/_/The+Story+of+the+Calender+Prince

However, I visited its first page and do not understand the site at all. It says "532 plays scrobbled on Last.fm"   

Hmmm!

I wish it would simply have a paragraph of text to tell me about the calender prince, but no. There's some sort of sound device that they wish me to listen to. Thanks, but no thanks. I have learned the hard way that listening to other peoples' sound stuff can interfere with my ability to use MIDI.

Nonetheless, I would like to understand more what that site is about. For example, what does it mean to scrobble?

Subject: RE: Origins: calender prince. strange new realm
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Dec 06 - 05:06 PM

It's just an embedded plugin; I don't think you need to consider it a threat. It will work in some browsers and not others. I can't see it affecting midi settings.

So far as I know, the verb "to scrobble" was coined by John Masefield; see his children's book The Box of Delights: Or, When the Wolves Were Running (1935) for usage. It basically meant "to scoop up, abduct, kidnap"; evidently it has acquired some newer meanings via the web.  http://www.urbandictionary.com/  gives: "When Last.fm automatically sends the name of each song played by audio player, they call this 'scrobbling.' [example] 'The application will scrobble your playlist.'

Subject: RE: Origins: calender prince. strange new realm
From: leeneia
Date: 02 Dec 06 - 05:22 PM

Thanks, Malcolm.

I also see:

"Can replace most verbs to indicate that an action has been performed, and that it has been logged or recorded by a 'scrobbler', which is a system that records whatever you're scrobbling, although the scrobbler may not necessarily exist."

This does begin to sound like something from Alice in Wonderland.

The similarity between "scrobbling" and "scribbling" comes to mind, as well.

Subject: RE: Origins: calender prince. strange new realm
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 02 Dec 06 - 05:55 PM

At a slight tangent; if you haven't read Masefield's book (and its predecessor, The Midnight Folk) you really should. Just the thing for Christmas, I'd say.

Subject: RE: Origins: calender prince. strange new realm
From: leeneia
Date: 04 Dec 06 - 10:08 AM

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll look for Masefield's books.

If you like fairy tales, I suggest the books of the 19th C author George McDonald.

Now, can't anybody tell me anything about the calender prince?

Subject: RE: Origins: calender prince. strange new realm
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Dec 06 - 01:01 PM

"Calender" may just be a poor attempt at putting the titles of sections of the symphonic suite into English.
The story line of the second and third sub-movements is about the escapades of young Prince Kalendar and his dream-like affair with a princess.
Sorry, I don't remember the story more fully,

Subject: RE: Origins: calender prince. strange new realm
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Dec 06 - 01:37 PM

Looking at notes with another cd I have, The Kalendar Prince was a royal prince seeking adventure who disguised himself as a member of a tribe of wandering dervishes called Kalendars. A clarinet solo 'whirls' like the dervishes of the title.
Somewhere I have a children's book based on the story, but a trip to the library would probably find it before I could unearth it.

The themes interpreted on a stringed instrument sounds interesting.