LES MUSIQUES DE CELEBES / INDONESIE
MUSIQUES TORADJA ET BUGIS
MUSIC OF THE CELEBES / INDONESIA
TORAJA AND BUGIS MUSIC
Anthologie de la Musique des Peuples, 1976, AMP 7 2906
I'm glad to post here the last album issued by Bernard Dupaigne and his label. This collection is now completed on this blog because I really enjoyed all these recordings and the information with them; I have always thought that this kind of work is essential to understanding other peoples and, consequently, to the respect we owe them. Dupaigne was born in 1943 and is still alive. He was a expert on Afghanistan, worked for the Musée de l'Homme in Paris, wrote a book about the Afghan fiasco from a French perspective and was the founder of this label.
Celebes is an island east of Borneo in Indonesia but is better known by its indonesian name Sulawesi meaning ''the Iron Trident'' due to its shape. The island is home to indigenous peoples, (114 different languages are spoken there), some of whom are Muslim or Christians , but whose ancient customs were still very much alive at the time of the recordings especially funeral rites.
Sulawesi was colonized by Dutch people mainly but Portuguese and English traders were present as well. We can hear the influence of Western type of songs on tracks A8 and B8. On B3 the violin is used but the music is more local; also Islamic influences are quite present in parts of the island like on B5 where Yusuf Landong plays a local lute similar to lutes found in Borneo or the Philippines but sings in a Yemeni way to my ears. The use of circular breath is also a middle east way of playing reed-instruments like on B6 and B7.
These recordings were the work of Jeannine Koubiç and Christian Peiras during three ethnographic fieldwork between 1967 and 1975 on behalf of the Centre for Documentation and Research on South-East Asia and the Indonesian World. They wrote an interesting text which covers several aspects of this music and culture.
This second-hand album is not in perfect condition and some of the recordings have some distorsion. But it's a very interesting production ending with a lovely song by children, lute and spoons on B10.
Text in (French) and English.
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