Arapaho sun dance

 

SOCIAL SONGS OF THE ARAPAHO SUN DANCE

WIND RIVER SINGERS

Canyon Records, 1971, 6080

This album was recorded by Raymond Boley during the summer 1971 at Fort Washakie. There are eight songs without any names or information about them. The Wind River Singers were four male singers and two female singers. According to what I hear the men always start the songs but the women often end them.
The Arapaho were forcibly moved to Wyoming and Colorado but originated from Minnesota and Manitoba states;  they were closed to the Cheyenne and a bit less to the Lakotas. Some Arapaho warriors took part in the battle of Litltle Big Horn in 1876. 
Wind River is one of the reservations where Arapaho are with Fort Washakie build in 1871 and abandoned in 1909.
All the songs are part of the sun dance ritual; there are no information although there is much to say about it. Some details here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Dance and here https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/the-sun-dance-sacred-ceremony

 

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Utriculus

 

UTRICULUS

CANTI E MUSICHE PER ZAMPOGNA E CIARAMELLA

SONGS AND MUSICS FOR BAGPIPE AND SHAWM

Associazione Culturale ''Circolo della Zampogna'', Scapoli. Molise. Italia, 1991, A&A 91

Circolo della zampogna is a  non-profit Italian cultural organization (NGO) that is actively working since 1990 for the safeguarding and promoting of the tradition, both musically and as a handicraft, connected with the zampogna (the bagpipe of the Centre and Southern Italy) and with the ciaramella (or piffero), the folk oboe traditionally played with the bagpipe as it is written on their site : https://zampogna.org/wpsite/
Scapoli has been the center of international bagpiping every year in July with some pretigious pipers from all over the world.
Utriculus (the latin name  for bagpipes) is a quaterly magazine with articles in different languages.
The man who came up with the idea for this cassette was Pietro (Piero) Ricci a famous piper born in 1955 in the province of Molise. He's said to have revolutionised the zampogna. He plays here the zampogna and percussions along with Lino Miniscalco on ciaramella and Mauro Gioielli, vocals. He composed six tunes out of nine; the three other works are Beethoven's Ode to Joy, an Italian version of Silent Night on which he plays a superb accompaniment to the ciaramella and a composition by A.M. De Liguori ''Quanno nascete Ninno''. So it's not traditional music stricto sensu but ideas about how the zampogna can be played nowadays. 

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Re Niliu

                                                                  RE NILIU

NON SULI E NO' LUNA

Madau Dischi, 1984, K 016 

 Re Niliu was formed in december 1979 by Ettore Castagna, Sergio Di Giorgio, Francesco Forgione, Gino Parise, Goffredo Plastino and Emilio Rinaldo in Catanzaro, Calabria. They became one of the most famous bands in the Italian revival. They were also probably one of the first revival band south of Rome.
What was called the ''folk movement''started in northern Italy in cities among young people looking for lost roots. This was typical of highly developped areas like Milan, Rome or Bergame. I believe that this revival started much later in poorer  southern Italy but widespread among young people especially students.
The name of the band was found by F. Forgione after the legend  about King Niliu who suffers from a curse : he can't stay in the sun or he will melt like wax.
This is their first tape/lp. Here is a copy of a tape but the cover and back cover are those of the dics version.
The band is still in activity but has recorded four records only plus one which was never released. The band is of course different now
Calabria is at the tip of the Italian boot and has a rich and somewhat eventful history; the Greek  cities and colonies were quite developped before Rome conquered them; then Normands, Muslims, Albanians settled there at different periods. Griko is a dialect which is still in use among the Greek communities which are the offspring of Greek refugees after the Ottoman conquest in Greece.
One trace of this Greek presence is the lira calabrese related to the ''lira bizantina'' a stringed instrument played with a bow and held between the legs or on top of the knee. The lira was almost extinct when the revival discovered it and saved it.
Re Niliu uses the lira a lot along with the zampogna, the double-flute, guitar etc... 

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Кыргыз Күүлөрүнүн Антологиясы 4

 

Кыргыз Күүлөрүнүн Антологиясы

Биринчи бөлүм

ANTHOLOGY OF KYRGYZ MELODIES (PART ONE)

Melodiya, 1974, M30-35585-86

 This is the fourth album of this series. All tracks are dombra/komuz solo music. On side A there is one female player M. Kozubekova. As with the previous albums I did not keep the introduction tracks in Kyrgyz; so tracks G1 and H1 are missing.

		Залкар күүлөр
G1		Кириш сөз = Вступительное слово = Introduction Read By – Т. Абдракунов
G2		Кара өзгөй (I вариант) Dombra [Komuz – Шекербек Шеркулов
G3		Кара өзгөй (II вармант) Dombra [Komuz] – Мейликан Козубекова
G4		Такмаза (I вариант) Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
G5		Такмаза (II вармант) Dombra [Komuz] – Муса Молдоканов
G6		Насыйкат Dombra [Komuz] – Жөлөгөн Чымырбаев
G7		Оң насыйкат Dombra [Komuz] – Курманаалы Калботоев
G8		Эл насыйкаты Dombra [Komuz] – Эркесары Бекбасаров
		Эл-жер Жөнүндөгү күүлөр
H1		Кириш сөз = Вступительное слово = Introduction Read By – З. Мамбеталиева
H2		Керме тоо Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H3		Кер өзөн Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H4		Кызарт Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H5		Кең күңгөй Dombra [Komuz] – Ыбрай Туманов
H6		Кең күңгөйүм Dombra [Komuz] – Асанаалы Кыштообаев
H7		Уч коо Dombra [Komuz] – Кара Молдо Орозов
H8		Жай коңур Dombra [Komuz] – Асанаалы Кыштообаев
H9		Кыргыз калкым Dombra [Komuz] – Шекербек Шеркулов

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Traditional Folk Music & ballads of the Maltese Islands

 

TRADITIONAL FOLK MUSIC & BALLADS OF THE MALTESE ISLANDS

Anthony d'Amato, ?; ADC 7008

Malta is an archipelago made of three islands : Malta the biggest one, Gozo (Ghawdex) and between these two the smallest one Comino (Kemmuna). The language is semitic with a lot of other influences mainly Italian. Lying south of Sicily, Maltese traditional music sounds partly  like Southern Italian music with a repertoire of ballads sung in Maltese with guitar accompaniment. On this tape the guitar is also a solo instrument. But this tape is quite disappointing because of the total lack of information; no names and even the number of tracks is wrong : there are twelve of them listed but there are sixteen tracks really. But  maybe I made  mistakes in digitizing. 
Most of them are ballads sung by men with guitar in the local style which is quite distinctive. The other tracks are guitar music sounding more modern. There are other types of music in Malta especially bagpipe (zaqq)  music. The violin was in use too.
The sound recording is not always good and the whole lot looks like a compilation.
Anthony d'Amato seemed to have been the only local label. 

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Nuit précieuse au sérail

 

NUIT PRECIEUSE AU SERAIL

enregistrement réalisé à Topkapi (Istanbul) par Jean-Claude CHABRIER

PRECIOUS NIGHT AT THE SERAGLIO

recording made at Topkapi (Istanbul) by Jean-Claude Chabrier

Arion, 1970, 30 U 097 

This is another album that Arion didn't think suitable for reissue which is surprising when you know it. This recording was made by one of the best French connoisseurs at the time. I already gave some details about him in previous posts.
He wrote the full text (in French only) with a  brief introduction to oriental music in general followed by a presentation of the Turkish-Ottoman art music. He wrote as a conclusion :
''The Orient in not dead. Betrayed and ridiculed by a conceited and jealous West it still has the age-old wisdom and strength of its villagers and nomads to defend itself.../... The “Sick Man” is doing well; he will bury us''.
Unfortunately, what was maybe true in 1970 is not anymore in 2024. Turkey and the Near-East are  experiencing serious problems. But music can help us to feel closer to these cultures. 
This album is  a great way for us  to familiarize ourselves with this superb classical Ottoman music played on instruments like the kanun, the yayla-tanbur or the ney. All the pieces are taksim(s) on specific makam(s) lasting less than six minutes each. All are solos and demand to be listened to carefully; it is a real trip in time and space.
The ney is played by Hayri Tümer a neyzen Chabrier liked particularly (see earlier posts).

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