Folk Songs of Nepal

This is an extraordinary recording taking the listener to one of the most isolated nations on the planet, Nepal, generally only known because of its bordering the massive Himalayan peaks like Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain.  Featured here are the folk songs of the tribal groups of the Newars and Tamangs Sherpas.  Ethnomusicologist Stefano Castelli wrote in the liners that "preference was given to social rather than musical values" in choosing the material, so the lyrics of some reflect class and economic concerns, often relating to the exploitation of town laborers or general struggles to make enough money, while some songs deal with the overall conditions of humans, and a heart-wrenching letter to a soldier from home.  Other songs are of courtship and love or relate to religious and philosophical themes and sentiments.

Of course, a listener not knowing the language won't get much out of the social aspect unless particular attention is paid to the translated lyrics and Castelli's admittedly interesting summaries.  The musical interest is in the solo and duo vocalizations that, in general, are reminiscent of singing found in other parts of the world, such as the interior of Africa, or in Papua New Guinea, where isolated tribes sing of everyday themes with very little accompaniment, save percussion or rudimentary string and wind instruments.  In this case, it is all percussion, but often utilizing everyday items like benches.

A song like "Song of Manu Tamang" has an appealing melody that sounds similar to folk tunes from the West and its striking story of is of the title figure, who was homeless after being abandoned by a German woman who promised to take him back to her country, but left him in Kathmandu, where he was a thief and sold LSD to make a meager living.  He also sang another tune with the same title rendered in Italian that was a courtship song with modern references to jeans and radios.  Another highlight is "Jhyaure Evening" and its percussion helping the singer stay on track and the succeeding "Jhyaure of Dharma" with its unusual backing vocalization.  The "Jhayangri", a three-part piece nearly 12 minutes long of shaman therapy by the titular figures who are mysterious nomadic healers, is fascinating with its drums, bells and chants, evocative of ancient practices.

Folk Songs of Nepal is another great release of world music from Lyrichord and provides a remarkable musical glimpse into a mysterious country so far removed from our own.

French Sacred Music of the 14th Century, Vol. 1

This time of year seems particularly appropriate and, with the trying circumstances of this period especially, listening to early sacred music is both relaxing and renewing.  The Early Music Series by Lyrichord Discs Inc. has a large selection of great recordings, this one dating to 1994.  Recorded at Emmanuel Church in Boston, the seventeen pieces are performed by Schola Discantus, comprised of a quintet including two countertenors (a tough range to achieve for men), a pair of tenors and a baritone, and the director and producer is Kevin Moll.

As Moll explains in his lengthy and detailed notes, the earliest pieces are likely from about 1320 and some are early in the next century and come from a collection of roughly a hundred Mass settings from the era.  Moreover, he explains that "many, perhaps most, of the Mass settings on this disc were presumably sung at one time or another in the papal choir at Avignon during the so-called 'Babylonian captivity' of the papacy (1309-1377) or under the succeeding anti-popes there during the period of the papal schism (1378-1417), when there were popes at both Rome and Avignon."  So, there is historical context of interest along with the intrinsic beauty of the polyphonic singing by the quintet, mainly performed in trios, and greatly enhanced by the setting of the 1861 Gothic Revival church, albeit Episcopal, just off the Boston Common.  This is a beautiful recording for contemplation during the Christmas season, whether or not the listener is a believer.

Chocolate: Peru's Master Percussionist

 Among the most impactful aspects of "world music" is the syncretic nature of so much of it, with influences from one or more places transmuting the music of another.  An excellent example is that of Chocolate (Choco-LAH-tay), the nickname of Julio Algendones (1934-2004), a percussionist of great skill and high renown in Peru.  The descendant of Africans brought to work in the horrific conditions in the silver and hold mines of the Andes Mountains of Peru and later on haciendas where cotton and sugar cane were grown, Chocolate devoted his musical life to maintaining the traditions of African drumming in the context of the Cincha area of the southern part of the country or in El Carmen a suburb of the capital Lima, both being areas predominantly inhabited by Afro-Peruvians.

Chocolate, the liner notes tell us, was born in a poor black farming community, where his mother picked cotton, but his talent led him to perform in the capital, where he achieved fame as "the most faithful representative of the cajon [a wood box-shaped drum] and this tradition of ritual drumming which a very people in Pery have maintained and kept alive in its purest form."  The religious elements of santeria and makumba, events like baptisms, weddings and funerals, and everyday opportunities for music and dance permeate the music, with percussionists like Chocolate "seen as a short of shaman who calls or evokes the spirits" and who "is a mediator between heaven and earth since the spirits are expressed through his rhythms."  It is this aspect, the core of rhythm in human life (the heartbeat most fundamentally) and its most basic accessibility to even the poorest of people for "a music for which all that was needed was your body and the nearest objects from which to make sounds," that comes through in the hands of a master like Julio "Chocolate" Algendones, who performed the three pieces on this album, released by Lyrichord in 1993, in 1990 under the auspices of producer J. Blue Sheppard.

Gagaku: The Imperial Court Music of Japan

This recording issued in the late Eighties by Lyrichord Discs was recorded by the Imperial Court Music Orchestra in Kyoto and represents the traditions of gagaku, or elegant/refined/correct, music accompanying dance dating back nearly 1,500 years ago with origins from China, India and Korea and which, then, is the oldest orchestral music existing on the planet.  Notably, this music was not played publicly until the mid-1950s and there are occasional new pieces composed for such events as a royal wedding, with about a hundred pieces and over fifty dances in the repertoire.

Instruments include the koto, a well-known Japanese zither, the taiko drum, which is also recognizable to many, other percussion pieces including bells, a bamboo flute called the hichiriki, and the sho, which is a group of seventeen bamboo pipes in a wind chest shaped like a cup.  While most of the eight pieces accompanied dances and the visual impact of both must be spectacular, the music is striking, being majestic, solemn, stately and otherworldly.  It has an ethereal beauty that is redolent of ancient history retaining its power in the modern world.