The Whole Music Experience

peaceful photo by Patricia Herlevi With the holidays upon us and the year winding down, most people deal with stress overload. Add to that dealing with holiday crowds in shopping malls, traffic on the highways, and calamities that occur around the planet which I think has to do with all this stress rippling out. So unwind and relax to music. I'm going to get you started with suggestions from diverse music genres: Classical I suggest staying away from the wild Romantic Era composers with the exception of Tchaikovsky and listen to his ballets and sacred music (Rachmaninoff also has sacred recordings). For the most part, stick with chamber music such as string quartets, slower Mozart, Debussy , Ravel , Satie, Grie g , Sibelius, Aaron Copeland, and solo harp or cello recordings. Classical holiday music will either bring peace or strife depending on the person so use discernment and listen in to your feelings. Also try Renaissance polyphony such as Anonymous 4 or Stile Ant...

the ruins of Machu Pichu In a world saturated with western pop music or westernized pop music in the East, we have forgotten how to connect to the natural world via music.  We have also lost our listening and appreciation skills for sound vibrations in the same way that people who consume junk food lose their ability to taste real food. Couple that scenario with the fact that we are losing languages and musical traditions in the same way that animals are becoming extinct on the planet.  Our collective heritages and lineages are encoded in these musical traditions, not to mention our personal identities.  When this happens we stumble over our own roots, that is if we have enough roots to keep us grounded and centered in the natural world or our natural place on the planet. With this in mind, I have visited YouTube (yes, the irony of using technology to connect us back to nature) to bring you these indigenous music treasures.  Once you explore these videos, you...

Blackfoot Confederacy Elders’ Vision Canyon Records Indigenous music falls under “purposeful music” so listening to the CD out of context (in my home), doesn't work for me.   For instance, I enjoy attending pow-wows, watching the dancers in their regalia dancing to the beat of pow-wow drums and passionate vocals, but listening to the music without the dancing and visuals doesn't work for me.   In addition, I'm a high-strung person who needs to relax so I prefer the Native American flute and softer recordings that closely fit my lifestyle.  (Note, I don't listen to rock music for the same reason). Having said all of that, I do support pow-wows.   I encourage the pride that Native Americans have for their traditions, culture, languages, and communities.   I admit as a non-Native I don’t get the nuances of tribal drumming and singing.  I wish that I did.   However, I feel moved by the beautiful sentiments to Native Ame...

Dream Time The Didgeridoo of the Australian Aborigines Arc Music (2010) Want to get your root and sacral chakras open?   Listen to didgeridoo, a percussive-wind instrument made from eucalyptus trees hollowed out by termites.   More than likely, if you listen to global indigenous, new age, or world music, you have come across didgeridoos.   The players mastered circular breathing as they blow into the tubular instrument, often decorated with Australian Aborigines symbols (Dream Time).   Face it, this is an instrument with indigenous mysticism attached to it, but it is an almost rare occasion that you hear Aborigines music played on the didgeridoo in context and by performed by Aborigines musicians.   Dream Time opens a window to music of the Australian bush.   And listeners also get exposed to traditional vocals, percussion, and dance rhythms. So what does this music sound like?   The stickman-vocalist pounds out quick rhythms on ...

Narasirato Pan Pipers Solomon Islands Cry of the Ancestors Arc Music If you follow traditional/folkloric music of the world, you have most likely come across panpipe players from the Andes and from Eastern European countries such as Hungary.   I have heard those pipes, but pan pipers from the Solomon Islands have only recently caught my attention on the CD Cry of the Ancestors .   Narasirato represent the Are’are people of Malaita Island and these musicians who sing, play panpipes, and traditional percussion perform music that oddly sounds like a deep forest circus rolling into town or resembles the panpipes of Andes musicians. When vocals appear, (such as on the track Prophetic Word ), they are delivered in raspy voices that soar to the heights of Native American pow-wow vocals.   Call & response voices compete with the jagged panpipes and drums that sound like a heartbeat slapping against one’s chest. Side Step with the Toes (an odd tit...

Oka! (Listen) Film Soundtrack Oka Productions I first became acquainted with the music of the Central African pygmies (Congo, Cameroon), when I discovered the music of the Afro-Celtic band Baka Beyond.  I felt fascinated with the pygmies’ music because these indigenous people learned to make music from the natural environment of the deep forest.  From exotic bird calls, to complex poly rhythms, and vocals not easily described, the pygmies celebrate life via music.  Not only that, even with strange and exotic sounds, the pygmies’ music is accessible. The feature film Oka! (listen) , brings us hybrid music that combines a movie soundtrack with a field recording sensibility.  And in fact, the movie revolves around ethnomusicalogist Louis Sarno, a leading expert of the pygmies music.  He ignored a life-threatening illness, according to the press notes, and stayed on with the pygmies for three decades, recording their music.  In a life imitates ...