Smithsonian Folkways CD SF 40002, 1989
The music on this album gives an idea of the beauty and variety of musical traditions performed today in the Soviet Union. The artists here are fine representatives of regional traditions that have developed over centuries.
The Soviet Union is a huge country. covering one sixth of the earth's land surface and stretching across eleven time zones. its population of over 275 million includes over one hundred distinct ethnic and linguistic groups. each with its own traditions and unique character. Traveling from the European Baltic republics to the Muslim villages of central Asia and on to the Arctic in northeastern Siberia, a traveler encounters many different musical traditions and ways of life. Throughout the Soviet Union music plays an important role in creating and reinforcing ethnic identity. Whether in the songs accompanying lengthy Russian wedding rituals, in Azerbaijan mugam compositions, or in Georgian harvest festivals, musical traditions are passed orally from generation to generation and embody a group's culture
The examples on this album were selected to represent the styles of the Soviet musicians who came to Washington, D.C..,in the summer of 1988, for the 22nd annual Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife. The recording were furnished by the Soviet national record company. Melodia, which is issuing a companion recording of American folk music from U.S. recordings.
Future Smithsonian Folkways releases of music from the Soviet Union will focus on specific traditions and include extensive commentary by specialists in the field.
Very little indigenous music from the former Soviet Union is known to the West. This recording, from 1988, offers a rich sampling from many of the more than 100 ethnic groups within this vast region. The record begins with passionate Lithuanian lullabies and proceeds through ancient seasonal and ceremonial village songs from southern and northern Russia and the asymmetrical dance rhythms performed by Estonian bagpipers. From the distant Mongolian frontier, the amazing art of Tuvan multiphonic "throat singing" can be heard as well as the richly harmonic male choral singing still practiced in Georgia. "...[A] compelling taste of sounds from a country with a huge amount of indigenous music..."
01. Veronika Povilioniene - Lithuanian Lullaby
02. Veronika Povilioniene - Lithuanian Lullaby
03. Estonian Bagpipe Music
04. M.K. Mal´tseva leading vocal ensemble from Podserednee - South Russian Solo Song from Belgorod Province
05. M.K. Mal´tseva leading vocal ensemble from Podserednee - South Russian Wedding Dance Song from Belgorod Province
06. Kamenka village ensemble - North Russian Wedding Greeting Song from Arkhangelsk Province
07. Evdokiia Alexandrovna Oreshkina - North Russian Wedding Lament
08. Singers from the village of Shostova Gora in Arkhangelsk province - North Russian Lyric Song
09. S.B. Manchakai - Tuvan Folk Melody
10. M.C. Daknai - Song from Khomeizhi
11. Azerbaijani Classical Mugam, Bayat-i Kurd
12. Lile song and dance ensemble of the Lintekhskii House of Culture - Georgian Song
13. Gugava Dzohkia - Georgian Song
14. Lile song and dance ensemble of the Lintekhskii House of Culture - Georgian Wedding Song
320 kbps including full scans
HERE
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