3C 064-18265
A1. Music For The Buma Dance (Musique Pour Accompagner La Danse Buma)
A2. Hut Song - Chanson De Hutte
A3. Orycterope & Pangolin (Sung - Fable - Fable Chantee)
A4. Song For Gathering Mushrooms (Chanson Pour La Cueillette Des Champignons)
A5. Song To Atract Game (Chanson Pour Attirer Le Gibier)
A6. Music For The Nganga Dance (Musique Pour Accompagner La Danse Nganga)
B1. Lullaby - Berceuse
B2. The Water Drum - Le Tambour D'eau
B3. The Humming Of The Bees - Le Bourdonnement Des Abeilles
B4. Music For The Buma Dance Musique Pour Accompagner La Danse Buma
Recordings & text by Simha Arom and Patrick Renaud, 1975
Featured here are several superb field recordings by ethnomusicologist Simha Arom, whose documentation of pygmy polyphony continue to be pivotal points of reference for contemporary composers. György Ligeti, whose fascination with 'the other' as a source of musical inspiration stated:
Having never before heard anything quite like it, I listened to it repeatedly & was then, as I still am, deeply impressed by this marvelous polyphonic, polyrhythmic music with its astonishing complexity. For composition, [Arom’s research] opens the door leading to a new way of thinking about polyphony, one which is completely different from the European metric structures, but equally rich, or maybe, even richer than the European tradition.' source
Highly inventive and constantly changing, the vocal polyphony and the polyrhythmic sounds of hands and drums are prodigious achievements which astonish contemporary composers. The art of the Pygmies is fascinating for its ingenuity on all occasions, even when children play in the river and clap their hands rhythmically on the surface of the water.
a superlative snapshot of everyday life in the baka pygmy realm circa 1975. at this stage in my development, i've heard enough pygmy musique to be able to discern what i consider the really remarkable recordings & this one's a bona fide head swirler, friend. i figure if more folks played 'water-drums', fings might start looking up for our species. remerciements à zwan et l'idiot. 320 polyphonic portals to pygmy paradise
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