Kimonos and Ruth La Moabita


     This one is going to be a bit of a cultural crossover between Japan and Colombia. First, what led me to start this post was from discovering a video Sarah Willis posted in 2018 titled "Horns in Kimonos!" It is the horn section for the Pacific Music Festival that is held in Sapporo, Japan every year. This festival was founded by Leonard Bernstein in 1990 and gathers young musicians around the globe to spend around a month in Japan. During this festival, they hold a Kimono Day, and in the video, they are performing in Kimonos. The crossover comes from the piece they perform, which is an arrangement of "Ruth la Moabita," a Colombian song by one of the horn section members, Kevin López. By looking into the piece, I was able to find a recording of "Ruth la Moabita" online by the Cruzao Ensemble. I suggest checking both videos out. It's very interesting to compare them both and see how the arranger chooses to interpret the piece and give it to the various horn parts. I also love the addition of having one of the horns on the maracas in the horn kimono video. It helps give the feel of the original piece and helps keep the rhythm for most of the piece.




Comments

  1. Brady GApril 29, 2025 at 11:59 AM

    This is such a cool video. I feel like most of the time when we think about cultures crossing over, it’s usually about North American Cultures crossing over with other cultures, so it’s cool so see this cross between South American and Japanese culture. I also love that it’s a mix of different ages of people aging in the video.

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