History of Music in Sound/1

 

HISTORY OF MUSIC IN SOUND

VOL. I. Ancient and Oriental Music

RCA Victor, Oxford University Press, 1961, RCA Victor LM-6057

  This is the first volume of an amazing series of ten about history of music. The general editor was Gerald Abraham and the editor of this volume was Egon Wellesz a major British musicologist born in Vienna in 1885. He fled Austria at the time of the Anschluss in 1938 and became  an influent teacher at Cambridge and the Royal College of Music of London. He worked on ancient and early European music; he was also a composer and he died in 1974.

(From Discogs : The History of Music in Sound (HMS), produced by His Master’s Voice (HMV), was an attempt to create a recorded historical anthology in the 1950s. Originating in a BBC radio series, HMS was issued by HMV in 10 volumes between 1953 and 1959. Nineteen hours of music were published on 78rpm shellac discs (10 volumes, 229 sides of 78s) with explanatory booklets containing substantial music examples and texts. The HMS was intended to accompany the New Oxford History of Music (NOHM), published 1954-1990. The recordings were meant for use by students as well as by the interested public. Late 50's and early 60's selected parts the recordings were reissued on vinyl by HMV in the UK and RCA Victor in the US. Some recordings on the vinyl editions were replaced by new ones due to criticism about the quality of the performances and recordings of the originals.)

All the other albums of this series deal with European music so this one is the only one which focuses on Eastern traditions (from Japanese art music to Arab-Muslim world) but also  provides brief examples of Malagasy, Polynesian and Jewish items. Europe is present with only two tracks about ancient Greek music by Arda Mandikian who was a Greek soprano; the approach to ancient Greek music was a western one of course back then.

Some tracks (or bands) are very interesting others are less so but I discovered some good artists like Chinese opera singer  Hsiao Tsung-i on side 1 track 8 or  the Moroccan singer Muhammad el Shuwaikah. 

Each track is well introduced by a text, a translation of the songs and sheet music sometimes. There are pictures in the middle of the booklet included in the scans. 

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Musique ''Samrê'' des Cardamomes

 

CAMBODGE

Musique ''Samrê'' des Cardamomes recueillie par Jacques Brunet

CAMBODIA

Samrê music from the Cardamom Mountains collected by J. Brunet 

Production ''la boite à musique''- Disques Alvarès, 1973,  LD 112

 I already posted several albums by J. Brunet for the Ocora label but this one is perhaps one of his earliest recordings made between 1964 and 1967 during several projects set up by the Research Centre at the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. 
This album echoes the one posted on 5 April 2026 by AMP about the same people : the Pör (name given by Cambodian) or Samray as they call themselves. 
The text written by Brunet as usual is very informative but in French only. He could see by himself that the  living conditions of these communities were changing rapidly.These mountain forest were quite difficult to cross on the back of an elephant shorltly before Brunet was there but he says that he had great difficulties finding musicians who knew how to build a mouth organ and play it. The khim (local name for the kaen; phloy in Khmer) is nevertheless ubiquitous on this album with one solo (track A1) and backing one or two singers on the other tracks. 
Three groups are presented here : the Pör of the west, those of the east and at the foot of the mountains those living near rice fields in contact with the Khmer people. 
The presence of the khim gives an impression of monotony and austerity but Brunet insists on the fact that we have to let ourselves be enchanted by this music. 
Track A2 is a song to the spirit of the forest before going to pick cardamom seeds.
Track A3 is the dance of the peacocks and wild cattle
Track A4 is a song alternating male and female singers and sung during weddings.
Track B1 is a funeral song.
Track B2 is a dance called  dance of the banteng bulls’ horns.
Track B3 was recorded during a Sampeah Kru ceremony  (greetings to the spirits of the ancient kings) with two  dancers acting as wild bulls. 
Track B4 is a lullaby 

Brunet concludes by saying : ''Almost all of these recordings were made during ceremonies and under generally difficult conditions, which explains the poor technical quality of some of them.  The musicians usually play and dance at the same time, which causes problems with the balance of the percussion. Furthermore, it is almost impossible to avoid outside noise, especially when the forest is nearby. These recordings, however, remain important documents for the history of world music. It is believed that it was from these regions that the phloy was introduced into China in ancient times and subsequently brought to Europe, eventually evolving into our organs. These are by no means merely ‘interesting’ musical performances but, as we have attempted to show above, in fact represent a highly sophisticated art form and musical works of great artistic value.
In this sense, these recordings should prove a source of discovery for the Western listener.''

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MУKAM PAK

 

ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ УЙГУРСКИХ МУКАМОВ 

MУKAM PAK 

TWELVE UYGHUR MUKAMS : RAK 

Melodiya, 1978, S30-10751-752 

 Another  album from this series with the Uyghur ensemble of mukam players of the Uzbek radio and television.
According to the traditional order of modes  Rak (راك مۇقامى, Рак; 拉克, Lākè)  is the first of the twelve muqams. 
As usual the programme starts with a vocal introduction by Sultan Mamedov with the sato playing of Sultanmurat. Razamov. Then the mixed choir and the orchestra follow with a series of dastan in three parts and conclude with three mashrap.
Text in Uyghur

 

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