Saturday, September 12, 2009


Tristates, New York


Triskaidekaphobia (from Greek tris meaning "3," kai meaning "and," and deka meaning "10") is fear of the number 13
Scene I: Entrance of the Thirteen Enchanted Princesses The Firebird (complete original version)by Igor Stravinsky, Philharmonia Orchestra Robert Craft, Conductor
Three Peppers Smile Up At The Sun (1939)DECCA 2751A
Ancient Persians believed the twelve constellations in the Zodiac controlled the months of the year, and each ruled the earth for a thousand years at the end of which the sky and earth collapsed in chaos. Therefore, the thirteenth is identified with chaos and the reason Persians leave their houses to avoid bad luck on the thirteenth day of the Persian Calendar, a tradition called Sizdah Bedar.
Mika Takehara Thirteen Drums, Op. 66 by Maki Ishii Bis

In 1881, an influential group of New Yorkers led by U.S. Civil War veteran Captain William Fowler came together to put an end to this and other superstitions. They formed a dinner cabaret club, which they called the Thirteen Club. At the first meeting, on Friday 13 January 1881 at 8:13 p.m., 13 people sat down to dine in room 13 of the venue. The guests walked under a ladder to enter the room and were seated among piles of spilled salt. All of the guests survived. Thirteen Clubs sprang up all over North America for the next 40 years. Their activities were regularly reported in leading newspapers, and their numbers included five future U.S. presidents, from Chester A. Arthur to Theodore Roosevelt. Thirteen Clubs had various imitators, but they all gradually faded from interest as people became less superstitious.
Hazel Scott (piano) Three Little Words (1942) DECCA 18341B
On Friday, 13 October 1307, the Knights Templar were ordered arrested by Philip IV of France. The theory has been suggested, in the book Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry by John J. Robinson, that the Templars went underground among masons in England and later developed into Freemasons. Because most of the founding fathers of the United States of America were Freemasons, it is possible the memory of the terror of that day is preserved in the Friday the 13th.
Les Paul Moritat (theme From Three Penny Opera) (1956) Capitol 3329
Kay Kyser & His Orchestra Three Little Fishies (v4) (1939)COLUMBIA 36119
Andrews Sisters Three Little Sisters (1942) DECCA 18319
Glenn Gould, piano Nos. 6,13,12 Two and three part inventions by J.S. Bach (Inventions and Sinfonias) Columbia [1964]
Frank Sinatra Three Coins In The Fountain (1954)Capitol 2816
Doris Day, with orchestra ; Percy Faith, conductor Berlin -- Ten Cents a Dance from Love Me or Leave Me : from the sound track of the MGM picture. Columbia
Philharmonia Orchestra, London; Anatole Fistoulari, conductor Stenka Razin [Symphonic poem, op.13] by Glazunov, Aleksandr Konstantinovich, 1865-1936.Capitol, [1958]Stepan (Sten'ka) Timofeyevich Razin (Russian: Степан (Стенька) Тимофеевич Разин, Russian pronunciation: [sʲtʲɪpˈɑn (sʲtʲˈenʲkə) tʲɪmɐˈfʲeɪvʲɪt͡ɕ ˈrɑzʲɪn]; 1630 – June 16 [O.S. June 6] 1671) was a Cossack leader who led a major uprising against the nobility and Tsar's bureaucracy in South Russia.
He is first noted by history in 1661, as part of a diplomatic mission from the Don Cossacks to the Kalmyks. That same year Razin went on a long-distance pilgrimage to the great Solovetsky Monastery on the White Sea for the benefit of his soul. After that, all trace of him is lost for six years, when he reappears as the leader of a robber community established at Panshinskoye, among the marshes between the rivers Tishina and Ilovlya, from whence he levied blackmail on all vessels passing up and down the Volga.
A long war with Poland in 1654-1667 and Sweden in 1656-1658 put heavy demands upon the people of Russia. Taxes increased as did conscription. Many peasants hoping to escape these burdens fled south and joined bands of Razin's marauding Cossacks. They were also joined by many other disaffected with the Russian government, including people of the lower classes as well as representatives of non-Russian ethnic groups, such as Kalmyks, that were being oppressed.