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‘Year of The Camel’ Saudi Initiative Celebrates Arabian Peninsula’s Cultural Heritage

‘Year of The Camel’ Saudi Initiative Celebrates Arabian Peninsula’s Cultural Heritage
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‘Year of The Camel’ Saudi Initiative Celebrates Arabian Peninsula’s Cultural Heritage

‘Year of The Camel’ Saudi Initiative Celebrates Arabian Peninsula’s Cultural Heritage

Saudi Arabia is celebrating 2024 as the “Year of The Camel” to honor the special cultural role of the camel, known as the “ship of the desert.”

The year-long initiative will showcase the camel’s importance through various cultural, literary, recreational, and sports events organized by the Ministry of Culture and its partners.

The camel has been a key part of life in the Arabian Peninsula for centuries, influencing its culture, society, and economy. Despite modern advancements, the camel continues to symbolize the region’s traditions and values.

The ministry has kicked off the “Year of The Camel” with a series of events across the Kingdom. This initiative celebrates the camel’s long-standing role in Saudi life and explores its cultural and historical significance.

At the ministry’s pavilion in City Walk, part of Jeddah Season, visitors can enjoy a unique exhibit with seven sections. The display highlights the camel's cultural importance, traditional practices, historical legacy, and economic value, while promoting international cultural exchange.

Visitors at the “Year of the Camel” exhibition at the Madinah Book Fair. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Fahad Shaheen, a guide at the ministry’s pavilion in City Walk, Jeddah, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the exhibit is attracting more visitors daily from diverse backgrounds.

People are eager to experience camel sounds, view rock carvings, and learn about camel names and decorations.

In Madinah, the “Year of The Camel” pavilion at the Book Fair, which opened on Tuesday, offers a 3D display of camel features, names, and historical significance. It invites visitors to explore the importance of camels in Arabian culture and showcases different camel breeds and their unique traits.

Visitors are seen at the “Year of the Camel” exhibition at the Madinah Book Fair. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia is actively working to develop its camel industry by raising awareness of camels' role in providing food and livelihood.

Efforts include increasing production, fighting diseases with regular vaccinations, and improving marketing of camel products to raise breeders’ income. The country is also partnering with international organizations to update regulations and systems related to camel activities.

A parade by the Saudi Camel Club during the Kingdom’s 93rd National Day. (SPA)

Moreover, Saudi Arabia has joined the United Nations FAO in launching the “International Year of the Camelids - 2024.”

This initiative underscores the Kingdom’s focus on camels for food security and economic growth. To highlight the camel’s role in culture and society, Saudi Arabia introduced the “Camel Studies Grant,” covering six key areas related to camels.

The Kingdom takes pride in its rich and diverse cultural history, which is a key part of its national identity. Saudi Arabia blends tradition with modernity, offering a unique cultural experience and a deep historical legacy to the world.

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Culture

Has a Waltz Written by Composer Frederic Chopin Been Discovered in an NYC Museum?

A previously unknown musical manuscript, possibly by Frederic Chopin, rests in a display case after it was discovered at The Morgan Library & Museum, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP)
A previously unknown musical manuscript, possibly by Frederic Chopin, rests in a display case after it was discovered at The Morgan Library & Museum, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP)
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Has a Waltz Written by Composer Frederic Chopin Been Discovered in an NYC Museum?

A previously unknown musical manuscript, possibly by Frederic Chopin, rests in a display case after it was discovered at The Morgan Library & Museum, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP)
A previously unknown musical manuscript, possibly by Frederic Chopin, rests in a display case after it was discovered at The Morgan Library & Museum, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in New York. (AP)

The brooding waltz was carefully composed on a sheet of music roughly the size of an index card. The brief, moody number also bore an intriguing name, written at the top in cursive: “Chopin.”

A previously unknown work of music penned by the European master Frederic Chopin appears to have been found at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

The untitled and unsigned piece is on display this month at the opulently appointed institution, which had once been the private library of financier J. P. Morgan.

Robinson McClellan, the museum curator who uncovered the manuscript, said it's the first new work associated with the Romantic era composer to be discovered in nearly a century.

But McClellan concedes that it may never be known whether it is an original Chopin work or merely one written in his hand.

The piece, set in the key of A minor, stands out for its “very stormy, brooding opening section” before transitioning to a melancholy melody more characteristic of Chopin, McClellan explained.

“This is his style. This is his essence,” he said during a recent visit to the museum. “It really feels like him.”

McClellan said he came across the work in May as he was going through a collection from the late Arthur Satz, a former president of the New York School of Interior Design. Satz had acquired it from A. Sherrill Whiton Jr., an avid autograph collector who had been director of the school.

McClellan then worked with experts to verify its authenticity.

The paper was found to be consistent with what Chopin favored for manuscripts, and the ink matched a kind typical in the early 19th century when Chopin lived, according to the museum. But a handwriting analysis determined the name “Chopin” written at the top of the sheet was penned by someone else.

Born in Poland, Chopin was considered a musical genius from an early age. He lived in Warsaw and Vienna before settling in Paris, where he died in 1849 at the age of 39, likely of tuberculosis.

He’s buried among a pantheon of artists at the city’s famed Père Lachaise Cemetery, but his heart, pickled in a jar of alcohol, is housed in a church in Warsaw, in keeping with his deathbed wish for the organ to return to his homeland.

Artur Szklener, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, the Polish capital city where the composer grew up, agreed that the document is consistent with the kinds of ink and paper Chopin used during his early years in Paris.

Musically, the piece evokes the “brilliant style” that made Chopin a luminary in his time, but it also has features unusual for his compositions, Szklener said.

“First of all, it is not a complete work, but rather a certain musical gesture, a theme laced with rather simple piano tricks alluding to a virtuoso style,” Szklener explained in a lengthy statement released after the document was revealed last month.

He and other experts conjecture the piece could have been a work in progress. It may have also been a copy of another's work, or even co-written with someone else, perhaps a student for a musical exercise.

Jeffrey Kallberg, a University of Pennsylvania music professor and Chopin expert who helped authenticate the document, called the piece a “little gem” that Chopin likely intended as a gift for a friend or wealthy acquaintance.

“Many of the pieces that he gave as gifts were short – kind of like ‘appetizers’ to a full-blown work,” Kallberg said in an email. “And we don’t know for sure whether he intended the piece to see the light of day because he often wrote out the same waltz more than once as a gift.”

David Ludwig, dean of music at The Juilliard School, a performing arts conservatory in Manhattan, agreed the piece has many of the hallmarks of the composer’s style.

“It has the Chopin character of something very lyrical and it has a little bit of darkness as well,” said Ludwig, who was not involved in authenticating the document.

But Ludwig noted that, if it's authentic, the tightly composed score would be one of Chopin’s shortest known pieces. The waltz clocks in at under a minute long when played on piano, as many of Chopin’s works were intended.

“In terms of the authenticity of it, in a way it doesn’t matter because it sparks our imaginations,” Ludwig said. “A discovery like this highlights the fact that classical music is very much a living art form.”

The Chopin reveal comes after the Leipzig Municipal Libraries in Germany announced in September that it had uncovered a previously unknown piece likely composed by a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in its collections.