CD7_WOMEN SONGS FROM THE TEEJ FESTIVAL\n\nTeej, or Haritalika Teej, is a festival celebrated by Hindu women and girls all over Nepal in August. Women dance, sing, fast, and perform prayer rituals. The festival is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Unmarried girls keep a fast wishing to get a good husband whereas married women fast to wish for long life and prosperity for their husbands. Since this festival is celebrated by females from all ethnic groups, an array of folk songs and melodies are sung and performed throughout the festival.

Vakalutuivoce is a traditional duet chant performed by men, usually from the fisherfolk clan in the maritime islands and coastal communities of the larger islands. The chants usually tell of the successful fishing expeditions of the fisherfolk clans. \nContents may vary but usually hinge upon fishing and the coastal environment. For communities located in the islands of the larger islands, these chants are called Vakavunigasau. \nThe Vakavunigasau is a functional chant associated with tugging logs. It is constantly chanted at the construction of a house and aims to help break the monotony, boredom, and heaviness of labor. It also inculcates a sense of solidarity and unity among workers and keeps the work proceeding at a methodical and companionable rate. The singing style of Vakalutuivoce is parallel to that of Vakavunigasau. For example, a melody is added as an accompaniment to another melody.

These two dances tell us how women from Ulithi and Fais felt when the Japanese took men from their families and made them work on Yap and Palau islands. It describes how the families went through poverty and struggles. These two dances are performed by women from Mogmog Island, the chief island of Ulithi Atoll.

The genre Lý is a common performance genre across all three regions of the country, although it could be the most popular in the Southern region. Pétrus Ky, a renowned Vietnamese scholar, once mentioned the saying “Southern region has lý, Huế region has hò, Northern region has thơ.” (Nam lý Huế hò Bắc thơ) as it points out how lý is a specialty of the Southern locals. In reality, lý not only has its mainstream popularity but also achieved a high level of craft and essence in traditional culture and professional life of the Southern region.\n\nNam Bộ (Southern Vietnam) is the area resides on the south side of Vietnam, including six provinces in the East and 13 provinces in the West. On a geographically level, the land of Nam Bộ is a stable region, in contrast to its cultural environment that is constantly changing and evolving.\n\nNam Bộ is home to various ethnic communities, such as the Việt people, the Kh'mer people, the Chăm people, the Hoa people, the Châu Ro people, the S'tiêng people, the Mạ people...And so, this has created a legacy to Nam Bộ folk performances and culture on this land. However, project "Phong hoa ca vịnh" only limits to the performance traditions of the Viet people, specifically the genres of ru, hò, and lý.\n\nFrom what was described about the early 20th centuries, it is evident how Nam Bộ art performance scene has rapidly transformed. No longer the time where lovers freely conversing their hearts by the rivers, all has sank into oblivion. Even the ru melodies have stopped lingering on the mother's lips, lost within the memories of her children. Culture and its nature of constantly evolving have opened up a contemporary cultural space that can response with today's society. The cyberspace, despite being "unreal", but it's meaningful enough to create an environment that filled with the poetry of ru, the melodies of lý, the bustling groove of hò - Where they have gathered a range of humanly emotions.\n\nThe songs (Lý) is like a river that flows with affection, where it carries the messages of the elders of Nam Bộ. Lý has the capacity to exist independently, express through it's performance nature. We can get to observe lý when it comes to themes about the many faces and complexities of life. It's like a reflective mirror on all things, events, ideas, and affections that come from humans, from the birds, the trees, the flowers, the river, the ferry, the bridge, the moon,...Every visual images and invisible sentiments are inhibited within those songs and lyrics.\n\nResearch by Mr. Le Hai Dang\nTranslated by Ms. Ha Hoang Minh Trang

Uzbekistan in Central Asia is mostly grassland and desert, and much of its population is nomadic. However, there are also several oasis regions where people have settled into agricultural lifestyles. Uzbekistan used to be a strategic point in the Silk Road where the cultures of East and West met. There are several Kazakh and Tajik groups living in Uzbekistan and its borders are open to traders and nomads. Uzbeks love to sing and dance. Local folk performance groups called ensembles are a long standing tradition in Uzbekistan and lead all festivals and events. They compile and edit traditional folk songs and instrumental music to stage song and dance performances. The Boysun Festival is held annually in Boysun City, Southeastern Uzbekistan, and ensembles from all across the nation participate.\n\nTo hear the unadulterated versions of Uzbek folk songs, one has to ride a donkey into remote mountain villages. The mountains offer beautiful scenery and warm hospitality on top of humble folk songs. Boysun district in Uzbekistan is an example of such a mountainous region.\n\nA noteworthy characteristic of Uzbek folk songs is the large number of children’s songs. The children of Uzbekistan still sing as many children’s songs as we used to in the past. Another important genre of Uzbek folk music is the grand epic song sung by professional epic singers called bakhshi.

Baul Fakiri Song\nDo not look for God anywhere, look for Him in the human body. The Bauls & Fakirs are conveying the message of peace through their music, they reject division of caste, creed, religion etc. The Bauls are minstrels whose song and dance reflect the joy, love and longing for mystical union with the Divine. The Bauls believe that one can free oneself from earthly attachments through their philosophy. Murshid or Guru is the steersman who takes the devotee to God. They propound detachment from earthly bonds or ties.

Bhawaiya, a genre of North Bengal folk music, is performed primarily in the Rajbangshi dialect of Bengali. Bhawaiya folk songs reflect the experiences of rural life - occupations, joys, sorrows and harmony with nature. The songs are about relationship between men and women, spirituality, desire for affection, pain of lost love, destitution, desire for pre-marital meetings, sufferings of early widowhood and spinsterhood.

Jhumur Song\nJhumur is the lifestyle music and dance of Purulia and Bankura. This folk music form dates back to being older than the Vaishnav Padabali. Jhumur songs and dances are an integral part of local community Parabs (festivals) and rituals like Badna, Tusu, Karam Puja and special occasions like marriage, harvests etc. Jhumur songs are songs of everyday life and widely accepted among all cross sections of the society.

This selection is about the history of navigation between Satawal and Woleai atolls. It shows how difficult it is to navigate between islands and how some people went missing during expeditions. It also features the history of traditional chants composed for log pulling. These were sung when native Yapese pulled big logs to build a canoe or traditional Yapese houses.

CD3_SUFI TRADITIONS OF NORTH INDIA\n\nQawwali is a musical genre that shares general traits with the light classical music of North India and Pakistan but distinguishes itself by its religious function. The term Qawwali applies both to the musical genre and to the occasion of its performance, the devotional assembly of Islamic mysticism - or Sufism - in India and Pakistan. The practice of Qawwali extends throughout Muslim centers of the Indian subcontinent, but its roots are North Indian. Qawwali music is performed by qawwals, professional musicians who perform in groups led by one or two solo singers. Qawwals present mystical poetry in Persian, Hindi, and Urdu, alternating solo and group passages characterized by repetition and improvisation. Handclapping and drumming on the barrel-shaped dholak accompany the singers, and a small portable harmonium played by the lead singer highlights the song’s melody. Amir Khusro Dehlavi of the Chishti order of Sufis is credited with fusing the Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Indian musical traditions in the late-thirteenth century in India to create Qawwali as it is known today. The word Sama is often still used in Central Asia and Turkey to refer to forms very similar to Qawwali, while in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the formal name used for a session of Qawwali is Mehfil-e-Sama.\n\nQawwali is performed at the dargah, the shrines of Sufi saints, as well as in Sufi mehfils, which are commissioned performances. The structure and order of the songs vary in both these contexts. As will be seen, in many forms of Qawwali, an object of love, such as a god or a husband or wife, is portrayed and worshipped. Qawwali was popularized by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a Pakistani performer. And it has started to enter mainstream popular music thanks to the recent public interest in Sufi music. It is thus no longer purely devotional. There are many silsilas (orders) of Sufism and hence many forms of Qawwali. The recordings in this album are mainly of the Chishtiya silsila – the followers of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Nizamuddin Auliya, also a Sufi saint, was his follower. The texts were written by Amir Khusrau and contain many references to these saints. This Qawwali party consists of seven or eight members. The group joins as a chorus and claps to add percussion. These recordings were made at Sufi shrines in the late 1970s by Regula Qureshi, one of the most famous scholars of this genre. Since they were recorded in a crowded area on the field, the tracks have disturbances and ambient noise. However, as recordings from an actual authentic context, they carry a lot of value.

CD5_SACRED CHANTS OF NEPAL\n\nIt is believed that all spiritual chants are addressed to Hindu and Buddhist gods and goddesses. Chanting helps people to be aware that the past is gone, that the future has yet to come, and that one can only be sure of the present moment and should act accordingly. People chant to wish for goodness for all beings and to ask God to lead them from darkness to light, from mortal life to immortality, from falsehood to truth, and towards universal brother and sisterhood. One’s life should be dedicated to God's service, offering kindness to all creatures, and always to putting others' needs before one’s own aspirations, hoping to one day attain anandam.

This selection tells how native Yapese learned to use betel nuts (areca nuts) and how they learned tying patterns and techniques. It also talks about the roles and responsibilities of newly married Yapese couples and their families.\n