Kalendar Princes and the 7th Element

Sources #

Rimsky-Korsakov - Scheherazade, Op. 35: II. The Legend of the Kalendar Prince #

While doing research for this post I found out that the title doesn’t refer to a specific Kalendar prince. There actually were three Kalendars, refering to the story of The Story of the Three Calendars, Sons of Kings, and the Five Ladies of Bagdad.

Each prince is missing their right eye and are strangers, having only met on arrival to the city as wanderers. It is by chance they visited the house of Zobeida, where they each pled for their lives by telling their personal stories.

• The first lost his eye to a begrudging minister when his father’s kingdom fell to insurrection.
• The second lost his eye in the cross-fire between the battle of a princess and a genie.
• The third lost his eye after following in the footsteps of ten others in disobeying a direct request.

Among these tales is the common theme of downfall from curiosity and a motif of the number forty.

Vitas - 7th Element #

Evidently, the song that Vitas actually came to give is a snippet from a Polish rock song KAZIK NA ŻYWO - Dziewczyny, about being beat up in front of an apartment building (source).

Comparison #

The link between snippets is unclear but the similarities are noticeable. Despite having different time signatures, it’s not hard to hear the similar rhythmic pattern and descending pitches.