Saturday, October 31, 2026

Japan II

 

JAPAN II 

A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT 

Bärenreiter Musicaphon,  ?, BM 30 L 2013

This second album from this series The Music of Japan is dedicated to court music called gagaku; Hans Eckardt who wrote the text says ''it is the oldest still existing traditional music for orchestra in the world''. 
As usual the text is quite informative about how the music works, its origins, the instruments played and the dancing.
Recordings made in 1962.
Text in English.

 

download.wav 

Tuesday, October 20, 2026

ЧӘББИЯT MУҚAMИ

 

ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ УЙГУРСКИХ МУКАМОВ 

ЧEББИЯT

TWELVE UYGHUR MUKAMS : CHEBBIYAT

Melodiya, 1978, S30-10749-750

This muqam (چەببىيات مۇقامى, Чәббият; 且比亚特, Qiěbǐyǎtè) is the second in the traditional order of muqam following rak. 
It is organized in the same way as the others posted here : an introduction piece sung by S. Razamov with tambur support followed by three dastan and four meshrep with mixed choir and orchestra. 
Text in Uyghur.


 download.wav

Sunday, October 4, 2026

Japan I

 

JAPAN I

A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT

Bärenreiter-Musicaphon, 1966 (?), BM 30L2012

 As for the series about India in this collection the six albums about Japan are annonced as being released on CD by Rounder. Once again none of these CDs are available from Rounder or anywhere else; so here is the first item, posted until further information.

This is (as the following five) an album borrowed somewhere a good while ago. This one is in quite good state.
The music recorded is called ''Sōkyoku'' meaning music for koto, the zither also called ''s
ō'' or '''sō-no-koto''. Several schools are known like Ikuta school on side A and Yamada school on side B. Shakuhachi and shamisen play along the koto on side A while two koto and shamisen are involved on side B. This music is there to accompany songs with long sequences without singing; vocals are provided by one or two of the players. 
As usual there is plenty of information in the booklet in English.


 download.wav

MУШABPӘK MУҚAMИ

  ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ УЙГУРСКИХ МУКАМОВ   MУШABPEK   TWELVE UYGHUR MUKAMS : MUSHAVREK Melodiya, 1978 (?), S30-10753-754   This muqam ( مۇشاۋىرەك مۇق...