The Whole Music Experience

World   Chung Woong Korean Traditional Music Ensemble   Traditional Music from Korea Arc Music I’m pretty sure that the last time I heard traditional Korean music was while watching a historic Korean movie at a film festival.   Since I enjoyed the soundtrack to that movie, I leaped on the chance to review Chung Woong Korean Traditional Music Ensemble’s CD, Traditional Music of Korea .   The recording was produced at the Festival Mondial des Cultures de Drummondville, Quebec and released on the Arc Music label, which specializes in the world’s music traditions. The instruments first capture a music listener’s attention, from rousing drums, gongs, clappers, to a variety of zithers, oboes, flutes and a shawm.    Rousing at times and tranquil at other times, these musicians immerse us in Korean music and culture, including meditative, ritualistic and festival music.   For instance, the CD opens with the tranquil Ch’ŏngsŏng jajinh...

Exploring Music for Early Child Development  When I grew up, we took music for granted.   The town where I grew up  provided a district-wide music program for K-12.   Prior to entering elementary school, my mother exposed my siblings and me to classical, jazz, Latin American music, and Broadway show tunes.   We also learned songs from popular children’s entertainment such as Disney movies.   In fact, I don’t recall music ever absent from our home.   We listened to, performed, and explored music. Fast forward to 1997 and the publication of Don Campbell’s book The Mozart Effect which brought a shift in consciousness to how we view classical music, in particular, as it relates to emotional, physical, and mental development.   Pregnant women introduced their fetuses to Mozart’s violin concertos and mothers played Mozart recordings to jump start their toddlers’ brains. However, the years that followed the book’s publication bro...

World   Shujaat Husain Khan, Katayoun Goudarzi,   Abhiman Kaushal and Ajay Prasanna   Spring   (no label)   To say that Spring by Hindustani sitarist Shujaat Husain Khan and Iranian vocalist Katayoun Goudarzi is a “heart” album barely describes the listening experience.   Combining the ancient Sufi poet Rumi’s soulful language with the strains of Indian sitar, bansuri flute (Ajay Prasanna) and gentle tabla beats (Abhiman Kaushal), these musicians aim for spiritual Oneness and achieve it.   Certainly, I would love to have the Rumi text in front of me while listening to this double CD recording, but even closing my eyes and allowing the voices and instruments to float over and around me takes me to a meditative place.   Yâr with its lilting melody, repetitive poetry line, and delicious beats as well as, passionate Spring (titular track), stand out as favorites for me.   The first song mentioned features vir...

World/ Folkloric   Techung   Tibet (On The Road)   Arc Music     Many years ago, my first introduction to Tibetan music came when friends and I attended a Tibetan monk choir performance at the University of Washington.   Since that time I have heard Tibetan folkloric, sacred, and operatic songs.   Mostly, I’ve heard new age versions of Tibetan songs by artists such as Nawang Khechog.   Techung (his solo artist name), who now resides in San Francisco where he co-founded Chaksampa Tibetan Dance and Opera Company brings us love, folk and anthemic songs played on traditional and contemporary instruments on his CD, Tibet (On The Road) .   The opener, Lok Dro , a contemporary folk song asks Tibetans to return to the homeland.   The universal themes of the text showed up as the perfect song for the Native American documentary, A Good Day to Die , about the Native American civil rights movement.   The song B...