Ethnic/indigenous music

[Archon]

I wanna find out more about the music of different regions, where we could discover some traditional/folk music and explore each others' cultures.

What music is indigenous to the place where you were born (or live in)? What music defines your nation or peoples from your territory? What are some of the more prominent instruments?

Important notice: If you're Dutch, please don't send Rank 1 - Airwave haha.

I'll post some of Serbia's in the next post, though there's a lot of styles so I'll try to separate them.

 

[Archon]

Here's some Serbian music that has Orthodox Christian influences. As early as 12th century, music has been given a lot of importance, especially at the court-level. Given how important the religion was to the people of that time (and especially to people in power), church music was most prominent, and was sang at a lot of ceremonies (death, christening, coronation, wedding etc) to kings and others attending, in churches. Serbs' identity is strongly tied to religion - and it has been, for most of our history - so it's not a surprise that this sort of music survived for so long.

This one has beautiful vocals, and even though it's not exactly church music, it draws its influences from it. It has that trademark style, with that bass vocal drones, and the deep, spacey, reverberated vocals of the singer(s). I've heard a lot of these songs - some of which were even better - but I've been able to find this one only.

This one has some Byzantine influences. It's literally church music and is sung at some ceremonies today.

Next up, I will try and find some proper folk music, which was sung by common folk at the time, maybe even before, all the way through to 18th century.

 

[dmgtz96]

Important notice: If you're Dutch, please don't send Rank 1 - Airwave haha.

LOL tfw Airwave is "indigenous music"

Anyways, Latin America is great for this, as are Africa and Asia (but I am most familiar with LatAm). One track I heard recently is El Baile del Kkoyanura, from Pascuala Ilabaca (Chilean/Spanish artist) and Fauna. Some background on this track from the artists themselves:

This song is dedicated to so many people who leave their hometown, their family to look for a job. This poetry wants to remind you that you can leave a geographical territory, but your origin, your myth, will be with you wherever you are. In the video, the “Kkoyaruna” (“miner” in Quechua language), is accompanied by a carnival on the way to the mine, the masked dancers and musicians, we remind you that through the Carnival rite you can clean up the degradation of work and connect with your root. The recording has dear invited friends; Freddy Torrealba (charango), Alex Johnson (quena) and Francisca Vilches (trombone). The video was recorded next to the comparsa ̈La Gritona ̈ at the Olmué Aerodrome, under the old mine called Cerro la Campana.

tl;dr: even if you move away from your hometown for work, you retain and embrace your cultural roots.

Natalia Lafourcade (Mexican artist) is one of the few with enough talent to add to Latin American folk music. The US National Public Radio dedicated an entire article to her and her contributions to Latin American culture. She released her album Un Canto por Mexico about three months ago, which is full of covers of traditional Mexican songs and traditional-style versions of her own work. Here's a link to the Youtube playlist.

From Europe, one of my favorites is this traditional Celtic song uploaded by an Irish public service broadcaster:

 

[Archon]

I like both of your tracks. The first one really has some meaning to it, I like it. The 2nd one is also nice.

Latin America is great for this

Actually, yeah! The first thing that pops into my head when I think of ethnic music, is LatAm. There were some musicians from Uruguay/Peru on the streets here (or so they would have us believe), performing live and selling CDs. Similar to the instrumental of the first track you posted, just a bit more relaxing.

Something like this:


One of my favourites is the interpretation of the oldest known melody (though not completely preserved), which dates back to 1400 BC.


Also, the other one is the interpretation of The Epic of Gilgamesh, using an ancient Sumerian instrument, using the same language - but as no one knows how the language would have sounded, the artist took a guess.


The oldest complete musical work is this one, which dates back to Ancient Greece.

 

[dmgtz96]

One of my favourites is the interpretation of the oldest known melody (though not completely preserved), which dates back to 1400 BC.

Also, the other one is the interpretation of The Epic of Gilgamesh, using an ancient Sumerian instrument, using the same language - but as no one knows how the language would have sounded, the artist took a guess.

Wow, I had never ever thought about what music sounded like in ancient civilizations (apart from what we're shown in movies). This is quality content.
The comments section from the Hurrian Hymn is great. To be honest I kinda got Taucher - Atlantis vibes from the chords in that song.

 

[Archon]

This is a bit of a fusion, but it does remind me very much of our fast music you dance to at weddings, although the musicians usually use accordions. Very very good.

 

[Jetflag]

I wanna find out more about the music of different regions, where we could discover some traditional/folk music and explore each others' cultures.

What music is indigenous to the place where you were born (or live in)? What music defines your nation or peoples from your territory? What are some of the more prominent instruments?

don't forget. You've asked for this.

 

[Archon]

Mongolia:

 

[Archon]

And something Serbian:

 

[Katadunkass]

Danish at its best

 

[LostLegend]

I'll spare you all posting any Beatles songs in here, so I'll defer to the Irish half of my family instead:

 

[Archon]

Gonna abstain from including a song this time. Just want to say how glad I am this kind of music still exists and has some popularity. I honestly wish the ethnic influences were present more in electronic music as well - not all, but some. People like Banco de Gaia are truly GOATs for doing that. Globalization, as useful as it was for music, is as equally as destructive.

 

[Archon]

Don't know where I'd put this. The artist is Irish, he lives in Greece, but the instruments are far more Eastern. All in all, a phenomenal piece.

 

[Archon]

Holy balls of Aram, this is shiver-inducing.

 

[Progrez]

 

[SleepyBuddah]

2 examples from my hometown

 

[Archon]

Traditional song from Southeast Serbia in a slightly modern arrangement. Just lovely. Piano is the only instrument probably that's not present in traditional music here, but the rest are used commonly in that region. It has some Byzantine/Greek/Turkish influences, like all music does down there.