A 'World Music' Thread (with fires and fighting!)

[butnut]

I can't find just a general 'world music' thread for discussion the various different musics from around the planet. So I thought I'd start one and see what happens.

I've long been a fan of Indonesian music, specifically the gamelan orchestra.  But I was quite taken aback to hear this, which is sort of like a wild gamelan music, but for voices.

Ketjak: The Ramayana Monkey Chant (click for description and link to mp3 - another great find from ubu.com) I'd really suggest listening to this first, before going to the oh-so tempting youtube links, as it gives you a good idea of the music without the other elements.

The sound of 100 or so men singing/chanting this extraordinary music is quite thrilling. I love the contrasts between the raucous chants, and the subtle slow melodies that are sung. There's also that crazy talking later on if you listen to the whole mp3, which hardly sounds human to me!



There are also some youtube links of this, which are well worth watching, if only to see them dance through the fire!

Fire Dance

A fight! There's a part of this which reminds me of a section of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.

3 guys showing the various patterns and techniques Keep watching this - the patterns get impressively complex towards the end. From about 3 minutes in, it's really quite staggering.

A recent 'Kecak', with 1001 performers! Oddly from the Bali Hotels association but worth seeing.

I've got various other types of Indonesian music, mainly Javanese gamelan, which is much more mellow than this, if anyone's interested.

So feel free to talk and post things about music from anywhere in the world really! I'm always amazed at the variety of music out there, and so would love people to talk about and post things that I know nothing about.

[Gazeuse]

England.

Here's a page of lovely Morris Dance tunes. They have a wonderful lumbering shuffle feel to them and remind me of lovely half-pissed days outside the White Horse pub in Hertford.

http://www.themorrisring.org/more/tunes_examples.html

[butnut]

Good call Gaz. Is it wrong to imagine those with added instruments (drums, fiddle etc) and some raucous singing too?

[Gazeuse]

Well there's often a fiddle and/or drum and the bells tied to the dancer's legs provide some percussion!!! After a few pints have been had a few vocals are often added and don't forget that the fool will be buggering about with his pigs bladder too!!!

Percy Grainger's Shepherds Hey is a fantastic full orchestral version of a morris tune.

The thing I love about morris music is that lumbering feel...Like there's an agogic accent at the beginning of each bar...Lovely stuff!!!