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.

CD1_BHAJANS OF NEPALI FOLK CULTURE\n\nA bhajan is a spiritual chant in traditional Nepalese culture that is performed mainly in temples. The lyrics typically recount the good deeds of various gods and goddesses. It is believed that the performance of a bhajan brings about peace and prosperity and an improved quality of life for all living beings. Bhajans of Nepali Folk Culture This CD includes examples from four distinct categories of bhajan, namely Devi Bhajan, Dafa Bhajan, Khainjadi Bhajan, and Usha Charitra Bhajan.

CD9_KARTATAK CLASSICAL INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC – NAGASWARAM PERFORMANCE BY KOTTUR RAJRATHNAM PILLAI\n\nKottur N. Rajarathnam is a master of the south Indian conical-shaped reedpipe with a double reed known as the n ā gasvaram (Sanskrit; Tamil spelling: n ā kacuram ) or n ā dasvaram . He leads an ensemble of musicians known as periya m ēḷ am (Tamil, “the big ensemble”), which for centuries has been producing auspicious music ideal for offering to the gods and for enabling a joyous ambiance at weddings and other important life-cycle events. Indeed, at weddings and the events surrounding the actual wedding ceremony, the periya mēḷam is expected to accompany women who sing traditional songs for the each stage of the wedding. The ensemble is at its best when performing at night on the streets surrounding the major temples, as the instruments are ideal for an outdoor setting. Temple musicians and a visiting ensemble often perform as part of temple activities and all-night street processions, and indoors for concerts and at weddings and other life-cycle events. \n\nPlayers carefully modulate their tone to suit the acoustics of indoor spaces. Accompanying Kottur Rajarathnam is a second nāgasvaram player, shadowing his playing and helping to maintain the continuity of the performance. He is a skilled master drummer, who plays the tavil (sometimes known as tavul ). He plays this double-skin barrel drum with a beater in the left hand and the four fingertips of the right hand covered by thimbles, producing a characteristically bright, sharply percussive range of sounds. The tavil matches the nāgasvaram in brightness of sound, volume, and penetrating tone. The t āḻ am (small hand cymbals made of bell metal) marks the rhythmic cycle being performed and a free-reed bellowspumped drone box, the curutipe ṭṭ i (Tamil, “drone box”), produces the necessary tonal reference for the nāgasvaram. Since the mid-twentieth century, the instrumentation of the periya mēḷam has undergone changes. Perhaps most significantly, the pitch of the nāgasvaram and of the tavil has been lowered. The nāgasvaram and tavil became larger to produce a deeper sound. In this recording, Kottur Rajarathnam and his ensemble play four rāgas, including four kirtanas (a devotional song genre) and three kinds of improvisation characteristic of Karṇāṭak music. Improvisation in Karṇāṭak music can be understood as unmetered melodic improvisation and as metered improvisation following the performance of the compositions. The unmetered improvisation heard here is known as ā l ā pana (Sanskrit, “conversation”) and is unmetered melodic exploration of a rāga. The two kinds of metered improvisation heard here are svara kalpana (“note imagination”) and tavil solo improvisation. Svara kalpana is played after the composition has been concluded. It consists of sequential passages of svara (“note”) playing that develop from short, relatively slow passages to longer passages at faster speeds. Though they might not all start from the same position relative to the tāḷa cycle, each of the each svara kalpana passages concludes with a return to a selected phrase of the composition. For his performance, Kottur Rajarathnam selected three songs by Tyagarāja. This comes as no surprise, as this outstanding composer left a plethora of compositions ranging from short pieces for religious congregational singing to the most sophisticated and erudite compositions. He is also well known for having produced standalone compositions in rare rāgas, such as the composition in rāga vāgadīśvarī in this album. Tyagarāja (b. Tiruvaiyyār, 1767-1847) was a saintly brāhmaṇ composer. His family was from Andhra Pradesh but settled in Tañjāvūr. His grandfather Girirāja was a poet and musician at the court of the maharāja of Tañjāvūr. Tyagarāja composed kirtanas in his mother tongue, Telugu, as well as in Sanskrit. He is revered by musicians and music-lovers as one of three great contemporary composers, whose brilliance and popularity have almost obscured the music and achievements of their predecessors. In the popular mind, Tyagarāja is the most prominent of all Karṇāṭak musicians and his annual memorial celebrations ( ā r ā dhana) attract hundreds of musicians, thousands of audience members, and even more listeners through the broadcast media. His life story was made into a film and numerous bhāgavatars continue to re-tell versions of his life replete with his compositions. His charisma and his exceptional musical repertoire was passed down with succeeding generations of singers and instrumentalists who have polished his works. His pieces have even penetrated the repertoire of dancers attracted by the music, even though his compositions were not originally intended for dance, though he did write several music dramas. Tyagarāja unequivocally rejected the offers of position as a court musician as he was completely averse to singing the praises of mere mortals—something court musicians were obliged to do. Instead he lived an austere life, composing as an expression of religious devotion ( bhakti ), especially to his beloved Rāma. The kirtana form that Tyagarāja favored had two or three sections. \n\nAll the kirtanas in this album have three sections: pallavi, anupallavi, and caraṇam. In the pallavi the semantic theme of the composition is stated, though this is not apparent when an instrumentalist performs. The anupallavi develops the raga and moves the melodic range higher up the scale to the higher octave. After the anupallavi, the pallavi is repeated as a refrain. The caraṇam usually moves into the middle range and often explores the lower octave. The pallavi refrain is repeated to conclude the performance. A common feature in many of Tyagaraja’s kirtanas is the repetition of the anupallavi melody as the second half of the usually longer caraṇam. These audio recordings are extracted from the collection of video recordings made by Yoshitaka Terada, a wellknown scholar of the Nagaswaram who has written extensively on the topic.

CD6_WOMEN’S VOICES FROM THE MOUNTAINS\n\nThe women performing here are not professional musicians. These songs are part of the everyday life of women. Women’s songs are often work songs sung while grinding, threshing, and pounding, as a way to while away the tedium of long laborious tasks and provide a rhythm as well as companionship. Women play a key role in rituals, singing narratives and ballads as well as life cycle songs for events such as birth, marriage, and death. Wedding songs form a large part of the repertoire of women in India. This important part of the intangible cultural heritage of India is disappearing with urbanization and migration to cities, and with mechanization that takes away the need for grinding and pounding. Moreover, recorded music and television are taking the place of song. Thus, the recording and documentation of these traditions become more important. Namely, recordings of the voices of the woman in the home and in the fields, who carry out the rituals for their families and the gods who protect them, hold immense value. This is a compilation of women’s songs from the foothills of the Himalayas, Kangra in Himachal Pradesh (the “land of the snows”), and from high up in the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand (the “northern land”). Though not connected, there are similarities in the themes between the ghasyari songs and khuder of Garhwal and the pakaharu of Kangra. Women sing about their hardships, such as their daily struggles with marriage, absent husbands, and about the friendship among women. These songs do not have any instrumental accompaniment. The songs are from the research conducted by two wo men researchers: Kirin Narayan and Ragini Deshpande. The songs from Kangra are those recorded and collected by Kirin Narayan, who has worked in Kangra, studying women’s songs and stories for many years. The selection presented here is from 1990 to 1991. Ragini Deshpande recorded and collected women’s songs in Chamoli, Garhwal, from 1981 to 1989. As Sangita Devi says quoted by Kiri Narayan, “Everyone can sing, but only when you know pain can you understand the song.”

CD7_MUSIC OF BASTAR AND CHHATISGARH\n\nThe indigenous tribal communities of India belong to various language families. This selection of music comes from the region of what was known as Bastar and its surroundings but is today divided into the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. \n\nThis album presents some samples of the music of the Maria, Muria, and Pardhans. These subgroups are part of the larger Gond family. Gondi and the related languages belong to the Dravidian family. It provides a glimpse into the intangible cultural heritage of the tribes of Central India. \n\nThese recordings were made between 1978 and 1982 by ethnomusicologist Roderic Knight. They provide a glimpse into the tribal communities, which are fast changing.

CD8_PERCUSSION AND PERFORMANCE – DRUMMING TRADITIONS\n\nPercussion and drumming traditions are found all over India. A wide variety of drums and other percussive instruments are played in a variety of contexts, and frequently have ritual implications. This album presents two very different traditions: the tayampaka temple drumming of Kerala, and the dhol-damau of Uttarakhand, a combination that is used in various contexts in this mountain region. Both percussion traditions are forms of ritual drumming. Tayampaka is a genre of temple musical instrument art performed throughout North and Central Kerala. It can be performed on a variety of instruments but is most well known as a centa (tow headed cylindrical stick drum) composition usually played by marars, a temple drummer singer caste. It is one of the forms of the chenda melam or chenda ensemble. Though tayampaka is mainly performed as part of temple rituals it is also played in other contexts. As a temple ritual, the drumming is considered an offering to the gods or goddesses. In all the tracks presented here, a vocal performance is featured with the drumming. The tayampaka tracks were recorded by Rolf Groesbeck and are part of his collection. The dhol-damau of Garhwal in Uttarakhand is a twodrum ensemble. Though the double-barrel drum may be played by itself, the damau is never played on its own. The dhol is played while standing. \n\nThe drummer uses the left hand to strike the left head of the drum while a stick is used in the right hand. A variety of strokes are used on both drum heads. The dhol is known for its power and sanctity in all parts of India, including the Garhwal region. The damau is a shallow kettle drum that is heard almost exclusively in partnership with the dhol at outdoor rituals and entertainment events. The damau is played with two thick sticks slightly curved at the playing end. The dhol is considered female and the damau male. The term baje is used for the various drumming patterns. The dhol-damau performances presented in this album are related to the Pandav Lila ritual theatre and dancing of Garhwal in Uttarakhand. Actors take the role of the Pandavas from the Mahabharata epic which is acted out in the open. As they act, the performers get possessed by the spirit of the characters they are playing and begin to dance. Drumming is known to bring in a state of possession. There are specific baje (rhythmic patterns) for the various characters of the Pandav Lila. The tracks presented in this album are demonstrations, where the various baje are elicited and not part of an ongoing Pandav Lila performance where these patterns would not be audible. The tracks presented here were recorded by Andrew Alter as part of his research on the Pandav Lila. The audio was extracted from video recordings that were digitized for this project.

CD2_HISTORICAL RECORDINGS FROM THE 1930S OF ARNOLD BAKE VOL. II: EVERYDAY SONGS\n\nThe recordings by Dutch ethnomusicologist Arnold Adrian Bake in India in the 1930s and later are one of the earliest examples of what may be called “ethnographic” recordings. Arnold Bake and his wife Corrie spent a long time in Bengal but travelled all over India, recording the music, sounds, and other forms of intangible culture of the people. These recordings cover an immense range of music and recitations that are part of people’s everyday lives, such as work songs, devotional pieces, and ritualistic performances, and include a high number of women’s songs and cultural expressions. Bake’s first field trip was in 1925 and his last was in 1955. During that time, he travelled not only to India but also to Nepal and Sri Lanka. Collections of Bake’s recordings are held in archives in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. Recordings from 1925 to 1929 were on cylinders, and those from 1938 to 1939 were recorded on a machine called Tefifon. The collection that has been digitized for this project consists of the recordings made in 1938 and 1939. \n\nThe Tefi recordings were transferred to spools and deposited in ARCE in 1982. During those two years, Bake travelled from Sindh, the Gujarat coast, to Kerala, and thus the recordings are from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala. There are also recordings made in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Thus, the selections presented on these albums are largely from the Southwest Coast of India. These recordings were chosen because they carry great historical value yet were not easily accessible until now. NB: The titles given by Arnold Bake have been retained. However, in the notes, places and names have been changed to reflect current designations – e.g. Canarese was changed to Kannada. Place names have also been modified to follow current spelling conventions.\n\nEveryday Songs - The everyday lives of people are what make up the core of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This selection includes rituals, work songs, devotional and religious songs, as well as common songs that express joys and sorrows. In addition to songs, some tracks include cries and noises, reflecting the wide variety of sounds that Bake recorded.

CD4_NARRATIVE TRADITIONS – ORAL EPICS AND BALLADS VOL. I: THE TULU PADDANA\n\nOral epics, ballads, and narratives form a major part of the background of rituals, storytelling, and local mythologies – all an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of India. The vast range of oral epics in India, most often sung, also contain recitation and prose that explain the text. The meters vary greatly, and they all have different definitions and terms. For instance, the meter and singing of the Alha is called Alha Chhand. A wide variety of types of performances and expression of this genre exist. Some stories are narrated with scrolls that illustrate episodes. Sometimes, they are acted out, and sometimes sung, as in the case of the paddanas, which are performed while transplanting rice. Stuart Blackburn and Joyce Flueckiger distinguish three kinds of oral epics in India: martial, sacrificial, and romantic. Some epics tell a story with multiple episodes and characters, and some are “multi-story” oral epics. Oral epics in India are very closely tied to communities, with performers, audience, and participants all belonging to the same community. Most oral epics are associated to rituals, the performance of some being the ritual itself. Caste also plays an important role in the performance or patronage of the oral epic traditions in India. \n\nThe great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata in some cases, enter the world of these local oral epics, where the performers are considered to be reincarnations of heroes and gods from these epics. According to Komal Kothari, an eminent folklorist of India, this phenomenon happens when the impact of the oral epic spreads beyond its initial local boundaries. Though we are not able to present full performances of all the oral epics, we believe that these recordings provide a good glimpse into the variety of meters, singing styles, and contexts that exist within these traditions. Three oral epics are presented in this volume. They are all part of larger collections, and each one is contributed by an expert on the genre who has done extensive research. The paddanas were contributed by Peter Claus, the Nanda Devi jagar by William Sax, and Alha by Karine Schomer.

CD5_NARRATIVE TRADITIONS – ORAL EPICS AND BALLADS VOL. II: THE JAGAR AND THE EPIC OF ALHA\n\nOral epics, ballads, and narratives form a major part of the background of rituals, storytelling, and local mythologies – all an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of India. The vast range of oral epics in India, most often sung, also contain recitation and prose that explain the text. The meters vary greatly, and they all have different definitions and terms. For instance, the meter and singing of the Alha is called Alha Chhand. A wide variety of types of performances and expression of this genre exist. Some stories are narrated with scrolls that illustrate episodes. Sometimes, they are acted out, and sometimes sung, as in the case of the paddanas, which are performed while transplanting rice. Stuart Blackburn and Joyce Flueckiger distinguish three kinds of oral epics in India: martial, sacrificial, and romantic. \n\nSome epics tell a story with multiple episodes and characters, and some are “multi-story” oral epics. Oral epics in India are very closely tied to communities, with performers, audience, and participants all belonging to the same community. Most oral epics are associated to rituals, the performance of some being the ritual itself. Caste also plays an important role in the performance or patronage of the oral epic traditions in India. The great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata in some cases, enter the world of these local oral epics, where the performers are considered to be reincarnations of heroes and gods from these epics. According to Komal Kothari, an eminent folklorist of India, this phenomenon happens when the impact of the oral epic spreads beyond its initial local boundaries. Though we are not able to present full performances of all the oral epics, we believe that these recordings provide a good glimpse into the variety of meters, singing styles, and contexts that exist within these traditions. Three oral epics are presented in this volume. They are all part of larger collections, and each one is contributed by an expert on the genre who has done extensive research. The paddanas were contributed by Peter Claus, the Nanda Devi jagar by William Sax, and Alha by Karine Schomer. This album presents extracts from two kinds of narrative traditions that are part of the intangible cultural heritage of two very different traditions and regions of India.

CD1_HISTORICAL RECORDINGS FROM THE 1930S OF ARNOLD BAKE VOL 1: LULLABIES\n\nThe recordings by Dutch ethnomusicologist Arnold Adrian Bake in India in the 1930s and later are one of the earliest examples of what may be called “ethnographic” recordings. Arnold Bake and his wife Corrie spent a long time in Bengal but travelled all over India, recording the music, sounds, and other forms of intangible culture of the people. These recordings cover an immense range of music and recitations that are part of people’s everyday lives, such as work songs, devotional pieces, and ritualistic performances, and include a high number of women’s songs and cultural expressions. Bake’s first field trip was in 1925 and his last in 1955. During that time, he travelled not only to India but also to Nepal and Sri Lanka. Collections of Bake’s recordings are held in archives in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. Recordings from 1925 to 1929 were on cylinders, and those from 1938 to 1939 were recorded on a machine called\n\nTefifon. The collection that has been digitized for this project consists of the recordings made in 1938 and 1939. The Tefi recordings were transferred to spools and deposited in ARCE in 1982. During those two years, Bake travelled from Sindh, the Gujarat coast, to Kerala, and thus the recordings are from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala. There are also recordings made in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Thus, the selections presented on these albums are largely from the Southwest Coast of India. These recordings were chosen because they carry great historical value yet were not easily accessible until now.\n\nAn Album of Lullabies and Cradle Songs - Lullabies exist in every culture, as singing or making sounds to help children fall asleep is a universal phenomenon. In India, lullabies are also part of the life cycle ceremonies associated with the birth of a child. Thus, they tend to have an added ritualistic purpose. The themes sometimes include aspects of devotional music and might invoke the blessings of gods or refer to the childhoods of deities. Rituals that celebrate the births of gods such as Krishna often make use of songs composed in lullaby form and that may be sung to babies. The concept of an album of lullabies and cradle songs recorded in a part of India in the late 1930s may seem narrow. However, the recurrence of lullabies in Bake’s recordings raises some interesting questions. Did Bake consider them life-cycle songs? Were they everyday songs that people considered traditional? Many – if not all – the lullabies have meaningless syllables, which are perhaps intended to soothe the child. For example, the syllables jo jo seem to occur in Kannada and Marathi lullabies, and perhaps in other Indian languages.

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.