001

001: Our exposure to World Music is like exposure to the sun.

An exploration into the treasures of world music, discussing Appalachian folk, Bulgarian choral, Balinese Gamalan, and African folk music.

( x minute read).

an essay by india southgate.

At the start of each morning, the sun gives light to a darkened world and at this cue, the morning bird sings. In my experience over the past few years of collecting vinyl at record fayres and dark corners of record stores and charity shops, there is a tangible moment of light when you split the records with your fingers and see the top sliver of your vinyl holy grail shining back at you. Record collecting is much different to other avenues of finding music. On YouTube, music is sat in your lap, or thrust at you as a surprise, but readily available in various quantities, yet miserably impermenant- (Vinyl is yours to keep). Record collecting is a habit of patience, curiousity and endurance. But it is not enough to just collect the vinyl, for what is silence without music? you must play what you have sought out. You may at first stick to what you know; a favourite genre, a familiar artist or a digitally doggeared album. But further on in this pursuit of music you will start to peruse the other containers while you search for the holy grails currently unavailable to you. For me, i explored Soul, Motown, Jazz, Folk americana, House, Obscura, 70's, 80's, Beatles, Psychodelic, unwanted on-sale 75's, and typically winced at the stalls selling single artist containers that hiked the prices into the double digits... until i fell upon the World Music bins. They are typically cheap, uncurated and (wonderfully for me) untouched, and each container varies. I have found the staple titans of Lyrichord and Nonesuch records priced between 15 - 25 pounds, occasionally a Folkways label, yet rarely what i want. I do not wish to be understood, there are many imported gems found in surplus! these bins are flooded with independant labels, but these are never usually what i want. Record collecting is opportunistic. What i search for is a sonic revolution, a Holy Grail, a disc of milk and honey in a desert of Beatles singles. Instead, what i have found is that the treasures of World Music are multiplicitous when one knows where to look and when one is curious, and when one is given the tools to understand.

The first World Music record that i picked up is unknown to me, as i had bought a selection that trip. In that selection was a Javanese Gamelan record, a medley of Bulgarian Dances, and a Dulcimer record to the best of my memory. As soon as i played the Dulcimer record i laid on my bed for it's duration, in a relaxed stupor. As i closed my eyes, i was in a forest of pine and i was being hand fed musical delight. It was effervescent and enveloping and mildly annoying when my bliss was interrupted by having to flip over to the B side... but then the bliss returned. Something had sparked in me, in this metaphysical forest; a curiousity to look beyond the disk. As a recent lover of Joni Mitchell, i had heard her musings on Blue and watched video's of her playing live in the early 70's on a lap dulcimer. i was hypnotised by the gestures needed to manoeuvre the strings in such a way to produce noise that i attempted to replicate the motion on my own guitar. To my dissapointment, i could not do it. Nor could i find lap dulcimers on eBay cheap enough relieve my intellectual want, and trust me my penniless pockets do NOT need relieving either, so i abandoned ship. Still unsatiated, i did attempt to make one myself but it is long and labourous (not that i mind, but most importantly EXPENSIVE) abandoned this. Although my own talents were tested, my troubles attested to the tradition of ingenuity the Appalachian peoples have. Through research i learned how the Appalachian peoples built their own instruments and passed them down through generations to their children and grandchildren along with oral knowlege of traditional songs, adapted from the old scottish, irish and english ballads taught to them by their forefathers. I thought that this was the best gift one could give, not only the inheritence of an instrument but the ability to play together in the band of your family. To me, the way their voices could stand alone and call into the forest, or marry and dance between the instruments astonished me. To my knowlege, the forward placement of their voice is in line with other folk techniques such as kulning and white voice singing. It has been said by others that these voices are found to be shrill, nasal, or even goat like and hard to listen to, but i disagree. They may be extreme voices, but not horrible. I think for a voice to cut through you is to be moved. To which part of the responsive spectrum you are moved to is variable, but changable. When i listened i was positively affected and remain so. I search now for a resonant voice in my collecting, like that of jean ritchie's when she sings shady grove accompanied by her dulcimer, or sheila kay adams when she sings dinah on her poarch, or peggy seeger with her banjo. I feel as if they are calling to something i am unaware of, devoting themselves to something i do not know.

To this collection joined Russian Balalaika, Japanese Koto, Brazillian Birds narrated in Portugese, Chinese Work songs, examples of Chinese Instruments, Japanese Poetry, Back Garden Birds, Hammered Dulcimer songs, and (my beloved) Le Mystere de Voix Bulgares.I had been searching for this record for an eternity after listening to it and Bulgarian Polyphony Volume 2 on repeat for a period of time i am embarassed to admit to.

paragraph

(if you have any thoughts about my essay, please let me know on my guestbook!)

References:

date started: 16th November 2024

date finished: