Balinese Theatre and Dance Music

 

 

 BALINESE THEATRE AND DANCE MUSIC

UNESCO COLLECTION MUSICAL SOURCES

 

Philips, 1973,  6586 013 

 

 

The prestigious collection ''Musical Sources'' has been partially reissued on compact discs but as it is the case for other labels some of the original albums have escaped  reissue to some extent. Why I don't know but this album allows us to discover some less-known types of music thanks to Jacques Brunet the tireless researcher  in the field of music from the south-east of Asia. He recorded several types of orchestras in 1970 starting with track A1 on an archaic form of Balinese theatre called ''gambuh''. Gambuh is in fact a flute (four flutes here) which plays the major role along other instruments and a narrator and two singers. 
Track A2 presents the gender wayang a sacred puppet theatre whose repertoire is that of the Mahabharata.
Track B1 is about ''arja'' a kind of total performance with some comedy, tragedy, comic interludes and lyrical episodes. Arja is very popular and can last several nights with first-rate performers as it is the case here. 
Track B2 is called ''Jangar'' which is a set of dances created in the 1930s based on trance and exorcism dances. Two groups of singers (male and female) sing together with the orchestra. The public can join in the dance.
Track B3 ''Joged Bumbung'' is a relatively recent dance of seduction where a female dancer faces one male spectator and tries to get him dancing. The orchestra includes four bamboo xylophones. 

 

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Кyrgyz küülörünün antoloyasy 6

 

   Кыргыз Күүлөрүнүн Антологиясы

Биринчи бөлүм

ANTHOLOGY OF KYRGYZ MELODIES (PART ONE)

Melodiya, 1974, M30.35589-90

This is the sixth album of this series (out of seven). As previously mentionned I didn't copy the cover nor the information provided with the set of LPs. I can't be more precise about the three sections presented here (but the first one would be about ''lyrical pieces''). The titles and performers list comes from discogs. Also as already mentionned the introduction tracks in Kyrgyz have not been copied (here K1, K8 and L1).

	Лирикалык күүлөр K1 Кириш  Read By – З. Мамбеталиева К2 Гүлойрон Dombra [Komuz] – Асанаалы Кыштообаев К3 Алыска кеткен кыз Dombra [Komuz] – Болуш Мадазимов К4 Кошок Dombra [Komuz] – Болуш Мадазимов К5 Көч Dombra [Komuz] – Асанбек Жаналиев К6 Дарты өттү Dombra [Komuz] – Болуш Мадазимов К7 Апей жигит Dombra [Komuz] – Шекербек Шеркулов Куш аваз күүлөр К8 Кириш сөз Read By – Т. Абдракунов К9 Шактагы булбул Dombra [Komuz] – Курманаалы Калботоев К10 Сары барпы Dombra [Komuz] – Эркесары Бекбазаров К11 Каркыралар кайтканда Dombra [Komuz] – Асанбек Жаналиев К12 Боз торгой Dombra [Komuz] – Асанбек Жаналиев Айрым күүлөр L1 Кириш сөз  Read By – З. Мамбеталиева L2 Сурнай күү Dombra [Komuz] – Чалакыз Иманкулов L3 Ырчы күү Dombra [Komuz] – Асылбэк Эшмамбетов L4 Кыял күү Dombra [Komuz] – Абдракман Кыдырбаев L5 Терс күү Dombra [Komuz] – Жээналы Короочиев L6 Үркүн күү Dombra [Komuz] – Усуп Орозов L7 Букар күү Dombra [Komuz] – Самсаалы Алыкеев L8 Сабыр күү Dombra [Komuz] – Бөжөй Шадыканов L9 Терме күү Dombra [Komuz] – Курманаалы Калботоев
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Palais Royal de Yogyakarta

 

JAVA / PALAIS ROYAL DE YOGYAKARTA
MUSIQUE DE CONCERT 

JAVA / ROYAL PALACE OF YOGYAKARTA
CONCERT MUSIC 

Ocora, 1982, 558 598

Another  album that is not in the present catalogue of Ocora. Recordings were made by Jacques Brunet (see earlier posts about him) in 1972 and 1973 at the keraton or royal palace located in Yogkarta which became one of the most important artistic centres on the island of Java. As usual the presentation text is detailed enough about the gamelan and the music performed here. 
Note that I copied Gending Wasitasih (A2 and B1) together.
Text in French and English.

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BUCOVINE

 rencontre avec la / meet Romania

ROUMANIE

BUCOVINE

 TRESORS FOLKLORIQUES 

Electrecord, ?, ST-EPE 0963

''Meet Romania'' is a series made for export  so that foreign audiences can discover what Romanian popular music sounds like. Hence the text in English and French.
But as I said in previous posts this is ''national'' music developed by urban and professionnal musicians working for the state. This tendency increased during the communist period. 

Of course the basic material comes from the rich rural traditions for which Romania is rightly renowned but finally most of these ensembles and orchestras sound similar whatever the relevant region. A lot of the tunes and songs are in fact modern creations supposedly respecting the characteristics of such and such area.

Here Bucovina is a very particular area part of Moldavia divided since 1945 between Ukraine and Romania. Bucovina was part of the Austrian empire for a long time and its population was very mixed with ruthenian, polish, romanian, hungarian, hutsul and jewish people. Now the population is probably very homogeneous on the Romanian side. 
The period during world war II was terrible with two deportations organized by Staline in 1941 when 60 000 Romanians were expelled from Bucovina followed between 1944 and 1955 by an even more massive deportation of 253 000 Romanians. There were groups of resistance fighters against Soviet Union until 1958. Only four villages still have a Romanian speaking inhabitants in Northern Bucovina. 

As I said also before, the musical appeal of this kind of recording lies in the soloists. Silvestru Lungoci appears on six tracks because he plays several wind instruments. Others play cobza, trumpet, clarinet and fiddle. Three tracks are songs by a female singers band and a the vocalist Sofia Vicoveanca. The ensemble is named Ciprian Porumbescu who was  born in 1853 of Polish descent;  a composer and activist against the Habsburgs he died at the age of 29 of tuberculosis. 
The orchestra is led by George Sîrbu who was according to the presentation text very active in researching folklore from different areas of Bucovina.

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