Harpes Celtiques

 

HARPES CELTIQUES 1000 ANS D'HISTOIRE 

Conservatoire régional de musique, chants, danses et sports
traditionnels de Bretagne
racines pour demain  

CELTIC HARPS 1000 YEARS OF HISTORY  

Brittany regional music, songs, dances and traditional sports conservatory
roots for tomorrow

Conservatoire régional, 1987, CR 8701

This album features two Breton harp players : Mariannig Larc'hantec and Myrdhin. Myrdhin plays on tracks B1,  B2 and B3 on a metal string harp while Larc'hantec plays a nylon string harp on all other tracks.
The album is a kind of audio version of an exhibition presented by the Regional Conservatory about the history of the harp. France Vernillat, harpist and scholar, wrote the text in French to give a summary of that history starting in ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt and ending with mention of Alan Stivell.
M. Larc'hantec had a classical and traditional type of formation. She won the first prize in Killarney in 1974 at the International Panceltic Competition.  She was a celtic harp teacher at the Regional Conservatory at the time of the recording. I find her approach to traditional music a bit too stiff especially on track A8 (gavottes des montagnes). She plays some medieval and Renaissance stuff as well as Irish harp music from O'Carolan, a menuet, a traditional tune from the Hebrides and a sicilienne. She composed the last tune on side B ''Excalibur''.
Tracks A1 and A7 were harmonised by Denise Mégevand who was Alan Stivell's harp teacher when he was a kid.
Myrdhin (real name Rémi Chauvet) is more creative in a way. There are some percussion instruments on his tracks and in the absence of any other information I suppose he also plays them. He tried to go back in a way to the ancient bardic world  when  imagination was valued and music forged links between man and the universe. 

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AL-SAMAH

 

AL-SAMAH/ ARĀKA ṬARŪBAN

This is a copy of a commercial tape I got from a friend who lived in Sana'a for a while. Numerous tapes and their copies were widely in circulation in Yemen the problem being that if the music can be copied the tapes covers were not; so apart from the name of the singer and sometimes the title of the tape nothing is available about the content. Of course it doesn't matter too much for Yemeni people who understand the lyrics and know the singers but for us it's a loss.
Ali Al-Simah (Samah) was a famous singer and lute player in the Sana'a tradition who was active between the sixties and the eighties (my guess) but it's difficult to find information about him.
There is only one darbuka player with him but it's enough to create a wonderful music based on vigourous ud playing.
Thanks to Leonidas plenty of information about Al-Samah in the comments below.

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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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Giora Feidman

 

מוזיקת ​​נשמה  / גיורא פיידמ

GIORA FEIDMAN / "JEWISH SOUL MUSIC''

Hed-Arzi, 1972, BAN 14297

My father (who went  abroad    for his work sometimes) brought back this exceptional album when I was still a kid in the early seventies.
G. Feidman was born in Argentina in 1936 in a musical family originating from Bessarabia. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather were musicians playing mostly for weddings. He went to Israel when he was twenty and stayed there as a professional musician with the Israel Philarmonic Orchestra. He became a renowned clarinet player and his discography is huge.
Here he plays with Ami Frenkel on electric bass and Yossi Levi on guitar, a perfect combination that highlights Feidman's powerful playing. Most of the tunes are traditional including superb melodies like Yah Ribon or Shalom Aleichem. I think it's difficult not to enjoy his music, the dynamics and mastering on the instrument above all his work on the reed. 

 

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Y. Marcus & C. Gibbons

 

YOURA MARCUS & CRISTI GIBBONS

sans titre ...  (untitled ...)

Arfolk, 1979,  SB 373

Youra Marcus was one of the pioneers in the French revival movement at the end of the sixties.  He played the five-string banjo and bluegrass and old-time music. He was a member of the first (probably) French band that specialized in American music with Gabriel Yacoub and Phil Fromont in 1969. The band was called the New Ragged Company. Then he met other important artists during the seventies like Bill Deraime, Patrick Desaunay, John Wright ... He played  in duet with the American banjo player Derroll Adams between 1978 and 1986. He passed away in 2020.
This album was recorded in 1977 and released two years later. Here he's with the female-singer, hurdy-gurdy and autoharp player Cristi Gibbons. There is no information about her on the album but I read on the web that she was at the time P. Molard's wife. I suppose she was American. The other musicians are Christian Gourhan on fiddle, J. Padovani on drums, Lolotte on piano, Dan ar Bras on guitar, P. Beaupoil on bass, Patrick Molard on flute, whistle and Scottish bagpipe, Dominique Molard on bodhran. Youra also sings and plays guitar and autoharp.
The repertoire is mainly American of course with some compositions by Marcus and Gibbons like ''Sans Titre".
On track B1 they play a ''Norvégienne'' which is a Norwegian reinlender similar to the scottish.
There is a mistake on the cover for track A5 where P. and D. Molard play as well. This track called Termaji was P. Molard' and Cristi's composition and refers to the way people in Brittany used to call the magic lantern at the beginning of the XXth century. Termaji was the name of the trio Marcus set up with Molard and Gibbons in Brittany.
There is an interesting arrangement on track B2 where Gibbons sings with Molard's pipe before he plays the tune as a pibroch to the end.
The lyrics in English are on the back cover. 

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Youcef Esseghir

 

FOLKLORE TUNISIEN

ORCHESTRE YOUCEF ESSEGHIR/MEZOUED  YOUCEF ELKAROUI

RBAÏBIYA VOLUME 2

Les Artistes Arabes Associés,  1976, 72612

One of the main characteristics of Tunisian folk music is the use of the bagpipe called mezoued. This bagpipe is also used in parts of Algeria near the Tunisian and Lybian borders. Youcef Elkaroui is very good on it. He plays throughout each song to support the singers along with a strong set or drummers.
Mezoued is a genre in itself.
I've never found the first volume but a compilation is available on Bandcamp (https://lesartistesarabesassocies.bandcamp.com/album/chanson-populaire-tunisienne) where three tracks of  the present album are part of that compilation.
This was an album I borrowed from my local library so it cracks at the beginning of each side but the sound of the music is clear. 

 

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The Distinctive Two

 

THE DISTINCTIVE TWO

Prof. V.G. Jog and Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia

Violin & Flute Jugalbandi

Ragas : Jog . Hansadhwani
Holi Mishra Kafi

Tabla Pandit Mahapurush Mishra 

HMV, 1978, ECSD 2808

This is one of the numerous albums edited by His Master's Voice India  with great names of Hindustani classical music. As said in the presentation text the idea of playing along with another solo partner is not new to Hindustani music. Dhrupad gave many examples of this combination. But mixing instruments like the violin and the bansuri is more recent in the long history of Indian art music.
V.G. Jog and Hariprasad Chaurasia are two amazing exponents of classical music. I find Jog a bit stiff though at times while Chaurasia is just perfect as usual.
Each piece is shortly introduced to with basic information about each raag.
Note that the rhythmic cycle called ''tritaal'' is also  known as  ''teentaal''

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''l'Afghanistan"

 

''L'AFGHANISTAN"

MUSIQUE DE LA ZONE INTERDITE DU NOURISTAN 

 MUSIC FROM THE NOURISTAN FORBIDDEN ZONE

Barclay, 1968, 920 086

Afghanistan as Nepal or India drew a multitude of travellers and adventurers in search of a powerful experience. This was possible in the sixties and seventies before the Russian invasion. And a number of them made recordings in the field throughout the country for Afghanistan was so rich in traditional and popular music that any kind of recordings could do for a good album. Yves Sommavilla was one of them and is presented as a ''keen traveller'' along with François Denis who spent time together in Afghanistan in 1968.
Now, what is really interesting in this album is the music and songs they managed to record in what is called now Nuristan formerly known as Kafiristan the land of the heathens in the north-east. This region was islamised at the end of the nineteenth century only by the emir Abdur Rahman Khan who conquered the area and changed its name.  It was probably difficult to go there even in the sixties and this looks like a ''tour de force'' but they don't explain why Nuristan was forbidden. Although the inhabitants are officially Muslims they nevertheless (at that time anyway) managed to keep some of their ancient beliefs.
There are six tracks : three about Nuristan and three from different parts of the country (Kandahar, Kabul, Chaga-Saray). The most amazing tracks are instrumental music on the flute ''tula'' backed by framed drums. The tula player is excellent and the sound recording is good. Sommevilla says that they recorded this music at night at the Waigel pass (4800 m above sea level). It was then outside  at night in a remote place but the festivities were stopped by the local imam. The Nuristani like the related Kalash had still the custom of singing songs to ancestors when one month after a death the body was replaced by a wooden effigy (track A3).
The others tracks are less exotic with surnay and dohol music, hashish-smoking house music with a singer, a harmonium, two tabla and dambura. The last track was recorded in a hotel in Kabul where  ghijak and zerbaghali players performed for tourists.
Text in French. 

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Tunisie

  

TUNISIE  23 

Musique du Monde, ?, 21-500-42-2

This album  looks like it was a kind of catalogue or special product for the French public or tourists. All the photos being from the Tunisian National Tourist Office I believe the music was also recorded for this Office. All the musicians are anonymous. The French text speaks about the fact that tourists are usually cut  off from the real culture of Tunisia since they all spend their holiday time in special resorts with faked or half-faked displays of music and dance specially made for them so that in the end the tourist goes back to France with a distorted picture of Tunisia and its culture.
So the music provided here is purely instrumental which is a bit strange when we know that singing is quite dominant. But as the text says the goal of this album is not to give details that only ethnomusicologists would enjoy. There is a presentation of the instruments recored here : gasba, zokra, kamun, mezoued, ney and darbuka. Some names of the instruments are badly spelled like ''sitar'' for ''cithare'' or ''nail'' for ney !

This disc bears number 23 in that collection  but  this is the only I have so I don't know about the other references in that collection.
It was distributed by ''Compagnie Française BASF''.
But thanks to Leonidas here is the complete list of all the albums issued in this collection :

https://www.discogs.com/label/263651-Collection-Musique-Du-Monde?page=1

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Rabah Driassa

 

DRIASSA A L'OLYMPIA

في الأولمبيا 

 Les Artistes Arabes Associés, 1975, 72600

 R. Driassa (1934-2021) was a very famous singer and composer in Algeria. He was also a painter. He sang between 1953 and 1990. In 1953 he had the possibility to sing one of his own songs for a radio broadcast in Algiers. Then he began his career at the time of Algeria's independence. He sang diffenrent types of songs from patriotic ones to Bedouin and Sahraoui. Some of his compositions were national hits like ''El Goumri''.
Here he was in Paris at the Olympia a place which saw plenty of  French stars but also foreigners like Driassa who sang for the important Algerian community in the Paris area at a time where some of the Algerian working for Renault or other big industrial plants lived in shanty towns in the suburbs of Paris. Obviously the public was exclusively Arabic speaking only since all Driassa's talking was in Arabic. It was the first time that immigrant people had the opportunity to listen to one of them in that venue.
All the songs were new ones all composed by him except for one. He was backed by a typical orchestra with five violins, a luth, a ney flute and the rhythmic section. But the sound was also enhanced by the use of a quarter-tone  accordion; there is also a bouzouk, a double bass and a small choir.
Frequently singers like to link two songs together; here Driassa links songs on tracks Al and A2, A3 and A4, B1 and B2.

Text in French.

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Juan Vicente Torrealba

 

CONCIERTO EN LA LLANURA (Música Tipica Venezolana)

LOS TORREALBEROS - Al Arpa : Juan Vicente Torrealba

VOL. 1

CONCERT IN THE PLAIN (Tipical Venezuelan Music)

On Harp : Juan Vicente Torrealba

Discos Banco Largo,  ?, QBL - 1204

J.V. Torrealba (full name + Perez) (1917-2019) was considered as the father or one of them of the classical Venezuelan harp music. This volume is the first of a series of three on this label. My father brought it back from Caracas in the early seventies.
The formation is the traditional one with harp, cuatro and maracas; here a double bass is added to double the basses of the harp. Torrealba's playing is quite polished and a bit withheld compared to traditional players in the plains where the strings of the harp are really beaten in a wilder style. But his music is nice nevertheless with a lot of his compositions (eights tracks out of eleven).
Side A has a majority of pasajes with two joropos while side B has what is called caprichos all composed by him.
Eight tracks are part of a compilation published by Gilmar in 1990 but three of the present  tracks were not reissued : B2, B4 and B5. So I hope  fans of Venezuelan harp music will be happy with this post. 

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Chants à danser de Haute-Bretagne

 

BOURDIN MARCHAND DAUTEL

CHANTS A DANSER DE HAUTE-BRETAGNE

DANCE SONGS FROM UPPER BRITTANY

Dastum, ?, ? 

 These three singers are well known in Brittany especially Erik Marchand who was part of the famous band Gwerz. Gilbert Bourdin passed away in 2022 at the age of 75. He was also a poet and writer but he was a psychologist by trade. Christian Dautel and G. Bourdin have known each other for a long time since they were neighbours in Rennes for their studies. Bourdin was from the area of Pluherlin (near Rochefort-en-Terre) department of Morbihan which is divided between a Breton speaking part in the west and a French speaking part in the east. Along the French language a dialect called Gallo is also spoken; a romance dialect, it is like Breton  less and less used daily.
The repertoire is from Pluherlin with four different types of dances : the ''ridée'' (6 or 8 beats), the ''rond'' (the circle) which is the Gallo equivalent of the Breton ''an dro'' musically but danced a bit differently, the ''pilé-menu'' (to mash finely) a very simple dance that was used to flatten the ground made of earth in a new house/farm and the ''hanter-dro'' (half an dro); all these dances were danced in a circle traditionnally.
These singers have the right kind of voice powerful enough to lead the dancers for hours.
There is no date on the cover but I found 1982 somewhere on the net while somebody tells me it could be 1986.
Note that they figure on a LP ''Chants à répondre de Haute-Bretagne'' with a different programme. 

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Flûtes Orientales Sacrées

 

FLÛTES ORIENTALES SACREES
DES DERVICHES TOURNEURS
enregistré en Turquie

SACRED ORIENTAL FLUTES OF 
THE WHIRLING DERVISHES
recorded in Turkey

Vogue, 1970, CLVLX 542

I suppose that each of you was struck/fascinated by  some records in his/her youth. This album is one of them. I think I was twelve years old when I got this record as a present.

Recorded in Turkey by Jean-Claude Chabrier with the help of Turkish musicologist Rusen Ferid Kam these recordings were like listening to something from another era. At the time sufi music or rituals were not at the forefront of world music. The text by Chabrier is in French and gives some basic information about Turkish sufism which was useful nevertheless back then. In 1979 he published some fascinating (again) albums in a series called ''Arabesques'' (see my posts) with plenty of information about maqams analysing what the musicians played on discs. Here we don't know about modes and other specificities.

One of the interest of this album is the presence of two great masters : one of the greatest neyzenler Hayri Tümer and vocalist Münir Nurettin Selçuk. Tümer plays four pieces one tekbir and three improvisations. Selçuk sings on his own on track A4 the ''na't'' in Persian and leads the ceremony on track B1 with the neys, the percussion and choir. There is also a short "ezzan'' (Turkish prononciation of the Arabic ''adhan'') and a pesrev led by H. Tümer. According to some connoisseurs Tümer is quite forgotten nowadays. He was recorded solo by Chabrier in the series I mentionned above. I shall post it.

My copy being not in the best shape due to frequent listening,  I used the sound of another source found on archive.org. The original sound recording is not great with some distorsion in ensemble playing but all solos are just gripping. 

 

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