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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Musiques du Gabon

MUSIQUES DU GABON 

fang                 ndjabi
kota               obamba
              masango         pounou             
     pygmées     

Ocora, 1968, OCR 441

Here is a cassette I borrowed somewhere also published as a vinyl by Ocora. The recordings were made by the Belgian musicologist Michel Vuylstecke with the help of the Gabonese National Radio. 
Unfortunately the cassette was not issued with all the information that are on the vinyl version. This is nevertheless an opportunity to discover rarely recorded people like the Obamba or the Kota while Fang and Pygmies are well documented. There is an amazing march song by Obamba men on B1. 

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ПЯHДЖИГAX

ДВЕНАДЦАТЬ УЙГУРСКИХ МУКАМОВ 

MУKAM  ПЯHДЖИГAX

TWELVE UYGHUR MUKAMS : PENJIGAH 

Melodiya, ?, C30-14847-48 

Back  to the Uyghur Twelve Mukam system (see my post 22/08/2022). The mukam penjigah is the fifth one in the series  (پەنجىگاھ مۇقامى, Пәнҗигаһ; 潘尔尕). 

Part of the singing comes from the poem/dastan  ''Garib and Senem'' two lovers  whose fate I do not know but as it is the case in other Turkic traditions it might be a story of impossible love ending with the death of the two lovers. 

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Les Ménestriers

 LES MENESTRIERS / IL ETAIT UNE FILLETTE ...

 

once upon a time there was a little girl ...

 

Disques du Cavalier, 1972, BP 2002 

This is the second album by this band that was launched in 1969 (see my first post about them on the 31st of May 2022).
They kept the same formula for years : side A for medieval music from the 13th to the 15th century and side B for renaissance music. 
This album got an award by the French record academy. 
The title refers to a song by Clément Jannequin, the kind of song that was quite present in the high society of the time : a man meets a young girl and manages to take her virginity (an old topic though ...)

The album is not in perfect condition because I overplayed it on a cheap turntable in the seventies. Side B is a bit better.

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Ion and Iacob Lăceanu

 ION ŞI IACOB LĂCEANU 

 

Trésors folkloriques roumains

 

Electrecord, ?, ST-EPE 02022  

This album, one of many produced by the national record company Electrecord, features the Lăceanu brothers. Ion was perhaps the most famous here in France because he was part for a while of the small combo created by Gheorghe Zamfir when touring in France. 
The name of the series is in French since France was an important market for Romanian music. The original appellation is ''seria ''virtuozi al instrumentelor'' or ''instrumental virtuosos''.
The music here is no surprise : it's the ''national'' music as it has been developed since the 1930s giving   a uniform appearance to different regional music styles with the soloist and the same type of orchestra with several fiddles, a cymbalum and a double bass; so it's all up to the soloist in a way to keep or bring the regional flavour of the music. 
The brothers came from the southern region called Teleorman in Muntenia in the Wallachian plain. Ion who was nicknamed ''Omul orchestră'' (the one-man band) could play the fluier, the caval, the cimpoi, the ocarina, the fish scale and the leaf. His brother played fluier, caval and cimpoi. Ion is on side A and Iacob on side B.
The orchestra is Radu Simion's. 

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India IV

 INDIA IV - A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT

 

Bärenreiter Musicaphon, ? , BM 30 L 2001

 

This album n° 21 in the series is the fourth  album dedicated to Indian music. With this last recording we go back to South India  with singing and vina and mridangam playing. 
This time the presentation text was written by John Levy and not A. Daniélou. Levy starts this presentation by saying that he based himself on Dr Narayana Menon and Dr John Marr's musical information. Levy died in 1976 and was a major actor in the ethnomusicological field. 
Here we can enjoy the singing of Semmangudi Srinivas Aiyar and the vina playing of K.S. Narayanaswami. Each track is well introduced with a lot of details on the scales and ragas used here. 
Texts in English (French, German)

 

 

                                 

                                 

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INDIA III

 INDIA III

A MUSICAL ANTHOLOGY OF THE ORIENT  / UNESCO COLLECTION 

 Bärenreiter-Musicaphon, ?, BM 30 L 2018

 

This is the album n° 18 in this series and the third one dedicated to India. Dhrupad is the topic here with two of the greatest exponents of this musical style Moinuddin and Aminuddin Dagar. Raja Chhatrapati Singh plays the pakhawaj.
Alain Daniélou who recorded them also wrote the presentation text starting with a short introduction to dhrupad. Considered as the noblest style of Indian music it is sober and containt and well displayed here. 
They sing the raag asavari on side A a raag I didn't know until then with the alap followed by Ana sunai composed by Tansen (translated). 
Side B starts with the raag bhairavi finishing with a composition by Baiju Bhavare Jagata Janani; then a short pakhawaj solo ends that side. 
Texts in English (French, German)

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Les musiciens de la forêt

 

GABON / LES MUSICIENS DE LA FORÊT VOL. 1

THE MUSICIANS OF THE FOREST 

Ocora, 1981,  558569

 Ocora had several series including this one entitled ''living traditional music''; and in this series there were several categories here the first one entitled ''music from the oral tradition''. 

Gabon is a small country  with less than 2,5 million people in 2023 (9 inhabitants per square kilometre). But as it is often the case in Africa the population is quite diversified with mostly bantu groups like the Fang, the Punu-Echira, the Vili or the Myene; the only other non-bantu people are the Pygmies who settled there before the Bantu.
This album is the work of Catherine Oneto and Hugues Poitevin, two people who fell in love with the locals. They recorded some ritual music sung and played with the eight-string harp ngombi by Nzé Menvié (seen on the cover) a Fang farmer, sculptor and crafstman in his sixties at the time of the recordings. So this ritual music was not performed during a religious ceremony. Part of this repertoire belongs to what is called bwiti that the Fang have adopted from the Tsogo at teh beginning of the twentieth century only. But the aim of Oneto and Poitevin was to help Menvié and the villagers in agricultural and cultural terms. For that they created an association which is helped by the Gabonese government. 
This is not a an ethnomusicology record so the notes are brief.
These recordings were made in 1979 in mono but published in stereo.
Text in French only. I don't think that this volume 1 was followed by a second one. 

 


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