More Fascinating Folk Music: Sutartinės of Lithuania

Posted on Oct 20, 2009 | 0 comments
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More Fascinating Folk Music: Sutartinės of Lithuania

Well, now I have Lithuania to add to the list of countries whose folk music to be obsessed with. In a discussion with my teaching colleague Arkadi Serper about what folk music traditions might have influenced Stravinsky’s ear in his youth, I brought up the amazing vocal music of the Caucasus region, particularly Georgian table songs.  Arkadi agreed, and...

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Bartók Discussion on NPR

Posted on Sep 18, 2007 | 0 comments
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NPR has a great interview with conductor Marin Alsop and accompanying article about Bartók’s music, where she touches on folk influences and discusses The Miraculous Mandarin, Romanian Dances, Bluebeard’s Castle and more. Béla Bartók had a breakthrough moment in his early 20s, when he heard a peasant woman singing folk songs. From that point on,...

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Sväng New Harmonica Quartet

Posted on Sep 10, 2007 | 2 comments
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Just found this while trying to find out more about the bass harmonica. Meet the Sväng New Harmonica Quartet of Finland, here offering a bit of that terrific Bulgarian rhythm I blogged about previously. I have trouble turning this off once it gets going. The second half of the video is more of a Ragtime number; also terrific. As for the bass harmonica,...

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Bulgarian Rhythms

Posted on Apr 20, 2007 | 1 comment
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Roger Bourland recently linked to a video of the Bulgarian State Women’s Chorus, which reminded me of my latent obsession with Bulgarian folk music. Check it out, (and read the comments for your daily dose of surrealism). Years ago, during a very short stint as the vocal director of a folk ensemble, I had the pleasure of preparing that first song in the...

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Loituma: Things of Beauty

Posted on Jul 27, 2006 | 4 comments
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It was mentioned in my previous post that I’ve been spending a lot of time with folk music lately. Regarding that, I recently discovered something new, because someone sent me this. (There’s audio.) Don’t spend more than 20 seconds with it, because it’s just an endless loop. This little cartoon is one of those goofy things that quickly...

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