© All India Radio 2008, www.allindiaradio.org.in
Disk 3
3-1 Sakar Khan (India): Train Song number 1 2:20
(Sakar Khan; P: Amarrass Records India)
Sakar Khan, Ghewar Khan, kamaicha
The kamaicha (also kamaycha or kamancha) is one of the oldest musical instruments in Rajasthan; its history is said to
date back to the 8
th
century. It is carved from one piece of wood and catches the eye with its thick belly that is
covered with goatskin. It usually has three or four melody strings made from gut and 12-14 metal sympathetic strings.
Highly decorated Sakar Khan (9 August 1938 – 10 August 2013) is considered to be the best kamaicha musician ever. He
had toured around the world and performed with Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Ravi Shankar or George Harrison. Sakar Khan
belonged to the Manganiyar, one of the two tribes in Rajasthan (the other being the Langa) that have converted from
Hinduismus to Islam and who devote their lives almost exclusively to music. Sakar Khan: “Our songs are not dead yet,
but I see that at some point they may be. The kamaicha should stay alive and we should be able to teach it to our
children. We hope that we can do this.”
recorded by Ankur Malhotra in Hamira in May 2012
von At Home (Amarrass Records AMAR005)
© Amarrass Records 2013; www.amarrass.com
licensed from Amarrass Records
3-2 Habil Aliyev (Azerbaijan): Dilkeş 10:19
(M: trad.; A: Habil Aliyev)
Habil Mustafa oglu Aliyev’s was born in the village of Uchqovaq in the Agdash region of Azerbaijan on 28 May, 1927.
He developed an early interest in music and performed the first time in public aged eleven. He became a professional
musician, playing at weddings and in classical contexts, accompanying singers and dance ensembles. As time passed,
Habil Aliyev became the most important figure of Azeri kamancha music, hailed by musicians and politicians – in fact
so at one with his instrument that he was named Habil Kaman (kaman=bow). Poems have been written, paintings
created, carpets woven, and a monument established, all in honour of a living legend of Azerbaijani (classical) music.
http://habilaliyev.az
from Möcüz si (S buhi Records)
3-3 Zerendorsh (Mongolia): Dshonon Char 6:55
(trad.)
At the time of this recording, the teacher, musicians and writer Zerendorsh was also vice-president of the Mongolian
Morin Khuur Association. Here he sings the legend of the origin of the morin khuur (cf p 28) where the shepherd
Chöchöö Namdhil (= Kuku Namjil) loses his wonder horse Dshonon Char and builds the very first morin khuur out of
sorrow: ‘When playing he imitated all the gaits of his deceased horse.’
recorded 1993 by Tiago de Oliveira Pinto
abridged version from Folk Music from Mongolia/Karakorum (International Institute for Traditional Music, Berlin, und Hamburgisches
Museum für Völkerkunde)
© International Institute for Traditional Music, Berlin 1993
with kind permission of Tiago de Oliveira Pinto
3-4 Khimtsa Khintba (Abkhazia): Zhan Achba 2:04
(trad.)
Khimtsa Khintba, apkhiartsa, vocals | Rozhden Ashvanba, Rita Zhiba, vocals
The apkhiartsa is a two-stringed bowed instrument preponderant in Abkhazia. According to the storytellers, it was
created out of despair born of centuries of incessant war. Its melodies relieved the burden of suffering. The name of
the instrument means literally ‘that which pushes you forward’―in earlier times, when the armies advanced, a soldier
would march ahead, playing the apkhiartsa to urge on his comrades. If he was injured, another would immediately
take his place. Considered also as a means of relieving pain, it would be used by musicians to accompany sacred songs
and holy rites at the bedside of the sick and dying. In fact, according to Abkhazian tradition, sickness reveals the
presence of God and thusly, songs would have the double quality of warding off evil and appeasing God so that he
might accord his blessing for a cure. In wider usage the apkhiartsa is connected to many rites of pagan origin: rain
incantations or thanksgiving to Djichanu, god of the hunt. And of course heroic recitations form an important part of
the apkhiartsa’s repertoire.
Zhan Achba tells the true story of a blind singer who was prosecuted for his satirical songs. He died in 1916.
recorded in Zvandripsh, Gudauta district, Abkhazia, in August 1991 by Vjacheslav Shchurov
from The Golden Fleece (Pan 2009)
© Paradox
licensed from Pan Records
3-5 Derya Türkan (Turkey): Rast Peşrev 5:14
(M: trad.; A: Derya Türkan/Uğur Işık/Renaud Garcia Fons)
Derya Türkan, kemenche | Uğur Işık, cello | Renaud Garcia Fons, double bass
Derya Türkan is the most outstanding (young) master of classical Turkish kemence music. Born in Istanbul in 1973, he
grew up in a musical family. A graduate from the Turkish Music Conservatory, he joined the Istanbul National Turkish
Music Ensemble for seven years before becoming acquainted with TRT, the Turkish Radio Television. Since then he
plays contemporary improvisational music as well as the Ottoman classical repertoire.
www.deryaturkan.net
recorded at Studio Mavi, Istanbul, from 5-7 May, 2006 by Eliot Bates
from
Minstrel’s Era (Kalan CD 385)
© Kalan 2006
licensed from Derya Türkan, www.deryaturkan.net
3-6 Alik (Vietnam): Vièle à résonateur buccal 1 4:09
(M: trad.)
The koni is a fiddle without resonator of the small ethnic group of the Jörai who live in the triangle Vietnam / Laos /
Cambodia. A metal string is attached to a bamboo tube, 50-70 cm long and app. 2-3 cm in diameter; formerly
pineapple fibres rubbed with beeswax were used. Six large spikes of a kapok tree are pressed into the neck as frets. A
2-4 mm thin bamboo stick of varied length is used as a bow. A thread in the length of the neck is fixed at the lower
end of the string which is held by the player between two toes. At the upper end of the neck is a small round plate of
horn, plastic or aluminium which the musician puts in his mouth. By change of the mouth cavity he also changes the
tension of the string and thusly the pitch; in addition he utters phonemes which he lays over the melody that he plays
with the bow. The result are not only strangely psychedelic but for the Jörai also extremely amourous sounds: For
them the koni is the ideal instrument to accompany all variations of courting and love play.
recorded in Pleiku Roh in Gia Lai province in April 1997/March1998 by Patrick Kersalé
from Musiques et chants des Jörai (VDE-Gallo PEO CD-1051)
© VDE-Gallo 2001; www.vdegallo.ch
licensed from VDE-Gallo
3-7 Muhammad Faqir (Pakistan): Sur rano 7:47
(M: trad.; A: Mohamed Faqir)
Mohammed Faqir, surando| Khamisu, danbura | Ibrahim, benjo | Ramzan, gholak
‘Muhammad Faqir, undoubtedly the most outstanding surando player of Sindh, looks as if he had arisen directly from
the tale of the bard Bijlu (cf p 42). After driving for hours over bumpy desert roads, we finally reach his village late at
night. Electricity has long since been turned off; in the dark, Eeso Malah turns out not to be a village but a small
hamlet consisting of only a few huts whose walls and floors are made of clay. A few wooden posts prop up the
tarpaulins spread out as protection from the sun. The family’s greatest worry is what will happen to them in the
approaching rainy season. Their hospitality is overwhelming; in the middle of the night, they manage to get a
generator to provide electricity for light, make dinner for us, and put up our beds under the starry sky. The next
morning we listen to Muhammad Faqir’s playing …’ (from Peter Pannke: Saints and Singers)
recorded by Peter Pannke in Eeso Malaah on 14 June, 1998
© Peter Pannke 1998
licensed from Peter Pannke
previously unreleased
3-8 Xu Muzhen (Taiwan): Old Mountain Song 3:59
(M: trad.; T+A: Xu Muzhen; P: Muzhen Publishing Co.)
Xu Muzhen plays here the coconut fiddle yehu. It is for instance to be found in the Eight Tone music of the Hakka in
the Meinong area of Taiwan. In mainland China, it is used in Guangdong and Fujian province for traditional operas and
traditional folk music.
Xu Muzhen (* 1944) suffered from measles as a child and became blind; he also lost his hearing of one ear. He learned
traditional instruments like fiddle, drums he heard in the temple, flute or the shawm suorna by himself; by heart he
also learned hundreds of melodies and texts. At 14 he became the musical director of a wandering theatre and
continued working as a sprofessional musician (except for a six-month stint as a fortune teller).
Hakkas have a speciality, the so-called Mountain Song: a singing style with a quick succession of low and high notes.
Xu Muzhen is regarded as the uncrowned king of this style.
When you’re seventeen or eighteen, you are on the peak
And your beauty is just after Guanyin (i.e. the Goddess of Mercy)
At the thirty something one is still young at age
Work hard when there are things to work on
Obey the words from the old and wise
Listen to the comments and critics given
Mountain songs are not for achieving scholarly honour
Sing some numbers whenever there is time for leisure
Abridged version from Rising Again From The East (O.P. Spring Rain Publisher 001); 2003
licensed from Xu Muzhen
3-9 Yaşar Turna (Turkey): Cilvelik kız nanay da 2:49
(trad.)
Turkish Vikipedi calls Yaşar Turna simply a ‘Laz kemençeci’; the Laz are an ethnic group from South Caucasus that has
settled in Turkey at the south-eastern Black Sea coast. They are Sunnit Muslims with their own language that is
related to Georgian. In their dance music the fiddle is the leading instrument; Yaşar Turna plays here a dance tune on
the karadeniz kemençe: ‘The seductive girl is not here.’
recorded by Wolf Dietrich on 9 June 1976 in Yaşar Turna’s house in Arhavi
© Wolf Dietrich 1976, 2013
with kind permission of Wolf Dietrich
previously unreleased
3-10 Abdulla Majnun & Wu Man (China): Chebiyat 3:52
(M: trad.; A: Wu Man/Abdulla Majnun)
Abdulla Majnun, diltar | Wu Man, pipa