Dwarves & Gnomes

I have spent a better part of the week thinking about what clever photo I could take to capture the idea of Dwarf, as featured by Debbie at TravewithIntent’s One Word Sunday Challenge. I’m was going to resort to my archives when I ran past a pair of Gatekeepers of the Hilton Hotel on Orchard Road a few nights ago. They were lit in a pretty sinister manner and I wondered then if they might qualify (referring to statuary, as opposed to stature).

Ran past them again this morning, and since I have had no joy with a clever interpretation of the challenge, here is Qin Shu Bao (1975) by Aw Eng Kwang. Qin Shu Bao was a Tang Dynasty general, whose image adorns many a door & gateway of homes, temples & businesses in China ( (and apparently, the Hilton Singapore)) as a Door God

Last night, I spent a rousing evening with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra who played from Balakiev, Borodin & Mussorgsky. The feature of the evening was Pictures from an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. I loved this piece as a teen, but what I only learnt from the programme notes last night is that Mussorgsky wrote this for piano. The version I have often listened to is an orchestral rendition by Ravel.

In the spirit of Debbie’s challenge, Part 2 of the piece is called Gnome. I know a gnome is not a dwarf, but in terms of statuary, maybe one can accept that they are not so different.

Pictures at an Exhibition: Part 2 Gnome,  Piano version by Mussorgsky

Pictures at an Exhibition: Part 2 Gnome, Orchestrated by Ravel

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