Hong Kong - Musical Atlas vol. 9 - Unesco Collection

Hong Kong - Musical Atlas - Unesco Collections

EMI Italiana - C 064-17968 - P. 1974

Side A

A1 Liu Pui-Yuen, p'i-p'a, Pa Wang Shih Chia - The Warrior Takes off His Armour

A2 Tsung Seung, yang-ch'in. Shu Mu Mu Yang, Shu-Muu as Shepherd

A3 Tsung Seung, yang-ch'in, Wong Kuen, hsiao. Duet: Chiang Ho Shui, Widow Mourning beside the Murmuring River

A4 Wong Kuen, ti. Ko Tzu Fei, Pigeons Flying

Side B

B1 Tong Kin-Woon, ch'in. I Ku Jên, Thinking of an Old Friend

B2 Hsiao Ming, shêng. Pu Pu Chiao, Graceful Steps of a Lovely Lady

B3 Tsui Wah-Nam, êrh-hu. Huan Lo Ts'ao Yuan, Happiness upon the Grassy Plain

B4 So Chun-Po, chêng. Kao Shan Liu Shui, High Mountain and Running Water

B5 Lui Pui-Yuen, p'i-p'a. Kao Shan Liu Shui, High Mountain and Running Water

Dolls from shadow play, piyingxi 皮影戲

Lotus painting on fan

Despite the adornments from Piyingxi 皮影戲 (shadowplay)

(the above pictures turned upside down on the cover)

there is unfortunately no music from this once so popular entertainment form.

Wong Kuen, ti, dizi 笛子

Usually my ears are very sensitive to flute and I often find it painful to listen but then again some of the best pieces I know are played on the flute. Pieces played on the Xiao, Nay, Bansuri & Shakuhachi in the lover register and slowly, usually give much satisfaction and pleasure. The piece on this record and is not my favourite but as it depicts the pigeons flying with whistles attached to their hind feathers it does give me an excellent opportunity to show you some nice pictures of the doves and the paraphernalia used. It makes a wonderful sound when they fly over in huge flocks and fading away as they fly further away from you and growing in volume as they come back overflying the roof of your house. Unfortunately this is almost impossible to enjoy any more after most of the hutongs 衚衕 (narrow alleys in Beijing) has been torn down. Nowadays the wonderful magical sound is almost completely drenched by the thick traffic and was almost dependent upon the silence of a 9 million inhabitant city that all were either on foot walking, or on bicycle. One could hear dogs barking and roosters crowing in the middle of the city and the biggest noise there was, were the bicycle bells at rush hour. You could hear the occasional lorry minutes before it showed up.

ill. How to attach thin reed whistles to the tail of pigeons.

Pigeon whistles made of reed, bamboo, and calabash

Female pigeon in full concert attire

Some of music on this record is rather nice but it was made at a time when it was really hard to get good recordings from China. I will remedy this in later posts as I have started to prepare some of my old Chinese LP's and other media recordings. It is not the first post I had intended to present good music from China, (which is increasingly hard to find for other reasons that I will dwell upon later), but it will have to suffice for now, and because it fills a place in the catalogue of the EMI Italiana Unesco Collection. It is still a mainstream traditional pleasant listen.

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Musiques Banda - République Centrafricaine

Ritual end-blown trumpets

Ritual side-blown trumpets

Musiques Banda - République Centrafricaine

Vouge - LD 765 - P.1971

Recordings made in Banda Country

by Simha Arom and Geneviève Dournon-Taurelle 1964 - 1967.

Side A

A1 - a,b,c,d,e; Fanfares de trompetes droites

A2 Chant et danse d'hommes

A3 Calebasses battues et chant

A4 Tambours-de-bois

A5 et A6 Trompes traversières appariées

A7 Xylophone sur fosse

A8 Chœur de femmes, tambours-de-bois et cloche

A9 Unknown track

Side B

B1 Chœur d'enfents

B2 Solo de femme

B3 Duo de jeunes filles

B4 Solo de femme; chanté

B5 Solo de femme; roucoulé

B6 Chœur mixte

B7 Chœur de jeunes filles, harpe et tambour, chœur

B8 a,b,c,d ; Fanfares de trompes traversières

B9 a,b,c,; Ensemble de sifflets

B10 Chœur de femmes et tambours

B11 Chœur mixte et flûtes

Dance of initiated girls

Slit-drums

Gourds and termite-traps

Whistle ensamble

Singing a lullaby

Circumcised boy

Dance of initiated men

Here is one of the records from the Collection du Musée de l'homme, issued by Disques Vogue. They published many good records and especially the series drawing from resources at the Museum of Man in Paris in the sixties and seventies there seems to be several interesting titles also on 45 rpm. but it is hard to find the catalogues nowadays.

I will try to collect some titles that I know of in separate posts to this blog. And I will try to update those now and then. So if you see some supplementary information to such a post, I would be overjoyed to get your support in this humble undertaking. Meagre as it seems I will still start by listing just a few titles at the time of some select labels. I have not seen many of the LP's they published on the web either.

The Central African Republic.

"The population of the Central African Republic belongs to approximately 85 ethnic groups. Primary ethnic groups include the Banda, Manza and the Gbaya-Manza-Ngbaka in the centre and central-eastern part of the country; the Zande and Nzakara in the east; the Gbaya in the west; the Ngbaka, Bogongo, Isongo (Mbati), Kako and Mpyemo (Mpiemo) in the forested regions of the south-east; the Gbanziri and Yakoma along the banks of the Ubangi; and the Sara Kaba, Surma and Runga in the north and north-east (fig.1).

It is difficult to express the representation of various religions within the country in terms of percentages, but as an estimate 35% of the population practise indigenous beliefs, 50% are Christian and 15% Muslim."

The above quote comes from here, where you also can find a small discography, and some more facts about the Central African Republic.

Map of the Central African Republic

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The Peuls - Musical Atlas vol.14 - Unesco Collection

The Peuls - Musical Atlas vol. 14 - Unesco Collection

EMI Italiana 3 C 064-18121 - P.1975

Side A

A1 Praise song, Flute Solo

A2 Praise Song, Stringed Lute

A3 Praise Song, Reed Pipe

A4 a) Jew's-Harp without frame *

A4 b) Jew's-Harp without frame *

A4 c) Rhythmic Song, Handclapping *

A4 d) Jew's-Harp without frame *

A5 In the Arabian style

A6 Song accompanied on the Flute and the Calabash

Side B

B1 Flagellation Song, Solo voice

B2 Song accompanied on the Flute and Calabash

B3 Solo Voice and Womens Choir

B4 Solo Voice accompanied by three young Women

B5 Pounding Millet

B6 Instrumental Music for Dancing

B7 Four Flagellation Songs

B8 Song for Dancing

* Note well, that track 4 a,b,c,d are one track on the LP, I split them for clarity as track 4c is not Jew's-Harp, as listed on the LP, but rather could be described as rhythmic song and handclapping.

This is an LP from EMI Odeon Italia in their series World Atlas. It was part of the Unesco Collection supervised by the General Editor Alain Danielou. The recordings and documentation was done by Simha Arom. They published maybe around 30 LP's in this series. I have only knowledge of the titles for most of them and I will post a few more. Maybe someone can help out with more information. I have been thinking of maintaining discographies online edited by several participators but more on that later.

The Peuls

The Peuls, (or Fulani) are spread across Senegal, Niger, North Cameroon, North Nigeria usually defined as a group by the common feature of being nomadic herdsmen and does not form an ethnic group or a race. They are also spread in Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Central African Republic, Mali, Gambia, Liberia, Ghana and Sierra Leone. And the estimated total figure of the population at the time of recording in the early 1970ies was believed to be in excess of six million people. Since they are so spread out it is hard to get a updated figure but it is believed that the population have more or less doubled today. These recordings, judging from the liner notes, seems to have been made in Niger and possibly Burkina Faso then Upper Volta and also belong to that category of records where closeness and intensity is pulling the lister into the group of musicians. I especially like the women pounding millet and the non compromising and relentless suction of air in the frameless Jew's Harp pieces. It seems also that we tend to do all too little rhythmical clapping around where I reside.

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