Cassana 🍻

The conch horn is likely the oldest labrophone or lip-reed #instrument. It's used around the world for communication, timekeeping, #Music and social and religious functions. Only medium to large shells can be played like a horn. Smaller ones can be whistles though. Being a tightly-coiled helix, the internal tube is around 3x the shell's length. The sound is resonant and powerful. Here's me playing mine. . #Ethnomusicology #WorldMusic (1/6)

Went for a nice stroll around the abbey, the ponds and vineyard, featuring geese and at least four goslings, coots with their young, ducks that did a hover and rocket routine in front of my nose over the path, a distant heron doing its statue impression, and what we think was a badger trail. Also songbirds, loads of songbirds. Afterward we went to sit in the courtyard of the abbey, where my dad and I decided to go for the abbey's own beer. Tasty stuff. All in all, a relaxing afternoon.

This is Sand, Roots & Blossom by Rihab Azar, a female oud player from Syria.
Fun fact: a Syrian female oud player was the subject of Turkish novelist Fatma Aliye Hanın's 1898 novel Udi, which is based on the true story of Bedia from Aleppo who uses her oud as a means of resistance against patriarchy and the hardships of life. After her father's death and divorcing from her unfaithful husband, her 
oud becomes her “most loyal friend.
#Music #Ethnomusicology #WorldMusic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzO1bz1x7UA

Highlight of the day:
Getting asked at random "could you perhaps play something on that instrument?" Sure! And the next thing you know their jaw is on the floor for the next three minutes. 🤯 My job is done!
FYI, the instrument was the cristal, which admittedly is all kinds of awesome.

This is probably one of my favourite Rast Peşrevs by Refik Fersan (1893-1965), maybe because it's the first one I learnt on turkish ney. A peşrev is an instrumental prelude often consisting of 4 hâne (sections) separated by a teslim, a repeated melody that ties the hâne together. The third hâne usually does the biggest modulation away from the base makam. Here it's played on kemençe, yaylı tanbûr, oud and kanun.
#Music #Ethnomusicology #WorldMusic #Microtonal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCKPR9htVOY

It's been around 30C / 86F for the last few days, and that makes me want to bring the tropical #Music vibes.
This is Manu kiki. No clue what that means, as I don't speak Nakanamanga AKA North Efate or Nguna. It's spoken by around 10,000 people. The song is a modern mix of string band and Pacific choral style, which is a synthesis of long-standing indigenous vocal traditions, colonial European church music and contemporary cultural fusion.
#Ethnomusicology #WorldMusic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PXtIsmXa8

"What is the only provocation that could bring about the use of nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons.
What is the priority target for nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons.
What is the only established defense against nuclear weapons? Nuclear weapons.
How do we prevent the use of nuclear weapons? By threatening to use nuclear weapons.
And we can’t get rid of nuclear weapons, because of nuclear weapons."
- Martin Amis, einstein's Monsters, 1987 #Quote

Just finished listening to the World roots episode "Festival on the Niger", originally broadcast on 26 Aug 2006 on BBC radio 3, and featuring live #Music by Abdoulaye Diabaté, Neba Solo and Habib Koité, alongside impressions, interviews, etc.
The presenter, Lucy Duran, was a lecturer at SOAS while I was studying #Ethnomusicology there. We've had some truly great conversations. I really should listen to more of these episodes, they're just wonderful. #WorldMusic
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b007g7kn

Based on something I just randomly realised:
How many anthems (current or previous, and/or of historic countries) or songs do you know that are based on the same melody as "god save the King?"
Me: 11, I think. And now I need to go find a suitably earwormy earworm to stick in my brain instead.
PS. No, I don’t tend to torture myself in this way regularly nor deliberately.

That moment you stop in your tracks because you're hearing something that surprises you.
Well, that was me this morning. I walked out of a building and I hear a voice I never expected to hear then and there. Someone was playing some Ma Rainey. I couldn't identify the song, but I've heard the Mother of the #Blues (1886-1939) often enough to recognise her iconic voice. Here's See-see Rider Blues from 1924. #Music #Jazz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L1hE3Qhv7E

Recently a company updated the intercom system throughout the building. Now It could simply be me, but this thing is just so bland and aesthetically unappealing. It doesn't quite fit. Is this what people call modern minimalism or something? If so, that’s not my style, at all.

When was the last time I shared Tajik #Music? Umm, maybe once a long time ago, maybe not ever.
Anyway… In the category of #GlobalPop, this is Mino feat. Qadami Qurbon with Umirayu. I really love the metric changes. Pop music in 4/4… Pfft! Let's do 11/8, but only in the verses, and do a limping rhythm for the chorus.
#Ethnomusicology #WorldMusic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1DlUXhr1hE