Yapese traditional dances are performed during village/municipal cultural activities or events. They are performed by men and women and are sometimes performed during a chief’s ceremonial events. These performances break down into bamboo dance, standing dance, and sitting dance.

Serenicumu literally means “bumping songs,” a genre of popular music that is widespread throughout Fiji today and is performed in villages as well as at local resorts and hotels. These songs are covers of or are influenced by styles from Europe and America as well as from other Pacific islands or the Caribbean (particularly reggae). They are often performed at informal yaqona drinking sessions and are also associated with informal dance types broadly termed tauratale or danisi (taken from the English word ”dance”).\n\nThe exact origin of the genre is obscure. Serenicumu is said to be associated with the first legally allowed sales of beer to Indigenous Fijians in the 1920s in Suva, and it is suggested that this genre originated from parties where men bumped their drinking glasses together. Another source further adds that this music was originally called sere ni cumu saqa (saqa meaning “barrel” or “tankard”) and that it referred to the practice of Fijian men sitting in a circle at a table and resting their heads against their tankards of beer. Many serenicumu songs still performed today date from World War II―an intense period of creativity for this genre―when soldiers from the US, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Australia interacted extensively with Fijians.\n\nCurrently, musicians distinguish two main styles of serenicumu: trio and sere bass (also called sere makawa or “old songs,” even though they may be fifteen or more years old). Sere bass performance features a large group of bass vocalists (bass/besi) in addition to three solo voice parts: tatabani/tatabana, domo tolu/vakababa, and laga/lagalaga in descending order in terms of their vocal range. Only the three solo parts are heard in trio. The types and roles of the instruments, their tuning, and their playing techniques have also changed over time. The technique of vadivadi (plucking), which characterized sere bass guitar performance in the past, has been replaced by various “scrumming” (strumming) for the rhythm guitar and a range of left- and right-handed techniques for the lead guitarist. The only chords used in sere bass were dua(tonic), rua (subdominant), and tolu (dominant), whereas trio also featured warning (seventh), minus (minor), and flat (supertonic) chords.\n\nAnyone can participate in sere bass performance, which makes it ideal for use at large social gatherings. Trio performers are expected to perform to a high standard and are usually heard at small social functions such as yaqona drinking sessions.\nThe tempo tends to be slower and the overall pitch lower in sere bass when compared to trio. Sere bass, being closer stylistically to meke, tends to be preferred by older people (those in their mid-40s and above) and provides them with a means to connect with and celebrate their cultural roots. Trio, which tends to be popular with those in their 20s and 30s, exhibits a greater degree of Westernization than sere bass, but it is still regarded as being part of the serenicumu oral tradition that has been passed down through the generations and that continues to change as new songs are continually added to the repertoire and old ones fall into disuse.

CD6_WOMEN’S VOICES FROM THE MOUNTAINS\n\nThe women performing here are not professional musicians. These songs are part of the everyday life of women. Women’s songs are often work songs sung while grinding, threshing, and pounding, as a way to while away the tedium of long laborious tasks and provide a rhythm as well as companionship. Women play a key role in rituals, singing narratives and ballads as well as life cycle songs for events such as birth, marriage, and death. Wedding songs form a large part of the repertoire of women in India. This important part of the intangible cultural heritage of India is disappearing with urbanization and migration to cities, and with mechanization that takes away the need for grinding and pounding. Moreover, recorded music and television are taking the place of song. Thus, the recording and documentation of these traditions become more important. Namely, recordings of the voices of the woman in the home and in the fields, who carry out the rituals for their families and the gods who protect them, hold immense value. This is a compilation of women’s songs from the foothills of the Himalayas, Kangra in Himachal Pradesh (the “land of the snows”), and from high up in the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand (the “northern land”). Though not connected, there are similarities in the themes between the ghasyari songs and khuder of Garhwal and the pakaharu of Kangra. Women sing about their hardships, such as their daily struggles with marriage, absent husbands, and about the friendship among women. These songs do not have any instrumental accompaniment. The songs are from the research conducted by two wo men researchers: Kirin Narayan and Ragini Deshpande. The songs from Kangra are those recorded and collected by Kirin Narayan, who has worked in Kangra, studying women’s songs and stories for many years. The selection presented here is from 1990 to 1991. Ragini Deshpande recorded and collected women’s songs in Chamoli, Garhwal, from 1981 to 1989. As Sangita Devi says quoted by Kiri Narayan, “Everyone can sing, but only when you know pain can you understand the song.”

CD1_BHAJANS OF NEPALI FOLK CULTURE\n\nA bhajan is a spiritual chant in traditional Nepalese culture that is performed mainly in temples. The lyrics typically recount the good deeds of various gods and goddesses. It is believed that the performance of a bhajan brings about peace and prosperity and an improved quality of life for all living beings. Bhajans of Nepali Folk Culture This CD includes examples from four distinct categories of bhajan, namely Devi Bhajan, Dafa Bhajan, Khainjadi Bhajan, and Usha Charitra Bhajan.

The northern mountainous regions are the residential land of the Kinh people and twenty-eight out of fifty-four ethnic minorities in Vietnam. This land has diverse forms of folk culture in general and folk music in particular. The CD, Folk Music of Some Ethnic Minorities in the Northern Mountainous Regions of Vietnam introduces some repertoires of folk music that were recorded in 1959 (tracks 1, 2, 5, and 7), in 1964 (tracks 10 and 15) and in 1970 (tracks 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 16) and performed by folk artists from minority ethnic groups, such as Thái, Tày, Nùng, Cao lan, Phù lá, Hmông, of the northern mountainous regions. Although the sound quality of the recordings isn’t that good, the materials will be valuable to history and art researchers and those who love folk music. The recordings allow listeners to compare folk art of a time that was almost isolated with the outside world with folk art of our time—the time of Internet.

This selection introduces Yapese traditions and customs with a focus on traditional dances and attire. It also describes how traditional Yapese dances help transmit knowledge and moral lessons through the lyrics and words used in the dances. Different types of Yapese traditional attire are explained by gender and occasion.

CD4 QUAN HỌ BẮC NINH IN THE NORTH VIETNAM\nQuan họ,a special alternate singing between men and women, was once only available in Kinh Bắc region in northern Vietnam. Traditional Quan họ was previously the folk art of forty-nine villages in Kinh Bắc, which is presently Bắc Ninh and Bắc Giang provinces.Quan họ singing has been associated with twining occasions in the past. Quan họ is often sung between two groups, called bọn Quan họ, who are living in two different villages and wanting to strike up friendship with each other. During annual festivals or their free time, the Quan họ people sing to satisfy their demand for exchanging art. They sing throughout the day and night. The twining relationship between the Quan họ performers as artistic and intimate friends has continued from forefathers to descendants; thus, they are never allowed to marry each other. Quan họ is one of the few musical forms that has alternate singing between men and women and lyrical love-exchange lyrics but has no the function of love-exchange in daily life as other love-exchange folksongs.\n\nNevertheless, Quan họ is sung not only by twinning Quan họ people but also by others from other places. People can sing Quan họ at many locations; for example, they can perform it at houses at night on normal days, at temples on festivals, on hills, in the forest, along the street, at ponds, or on boat.In Quan họ singing, the male group is called liền anh, and the female group is called liền chị. Traditional Quan họ is pair singing without accompaniment. One of the pair is in charge of singing, leading the tune while the other sings as a secondary part. These two people have to be selected and trained to be in perfect harmony at the same timbre. In addition to pair singing, there is group singing, which is performed on congratulatoory and worshipping occasions. The male group sings in response to the female one. Four typical singing techniques of Quan họ are resonant, ringing, restrained, and staccato.

CD2_HISTORICAL RECORDINGS FROM THE 1930S OF ARNOLD BAKE VOL. II: EVERYDAY SONGS\n\nThe recordings by Dutch ethnomusicologist Arnold Adrian Bake in India in the 1930s and later are one of the earliest examples of what may be called “ethnographic” recordings. Arnold Bake and his wife Corrie spent a long time in Bengal but travelled all over India, recording the music, sounds, and other forms of intangible culture of the people. These recordings cover an immense range of music and recitations that are part of people’s everyday lives, such as work songs, devotional pieces, and ritualistic performances, and include a high number of women’s songs and cultural expressions. Bake’s first field trip was in 1925 and his last was in 1955. During that time, he travelled not only to India but also to Nepal and Sri Lanka. Collections of Bake’s recordings are held in archives in the United Kingdom, Germany, and the United States. Recordings from 1925 to 1929 were on cylinders, and those from 1938 to 1939 were recorded on a machine called Tefifon. The collection that has been digitized for this project consists of the recordings made in 1938 and 1939. \n\nThe Tefi recordings were transferred to spools and deposited in ARCE in 1982. During those two years, Bake travelled from Sindh, the Gujarat coast, to Kerala, and thus the recordings are from Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala. There are also recordings made in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Thus, the selections presented on these albums are largely from the Southwest Coast of India. These recordings were chosen because they carry great historical value yet were not easily accessible until now. NB: The titles given by Arnold Bake have been retained. However, in the notes, places and names have been changed to reflect current designations – e.g. Canarese was changed to Kannada. Place names have also been modified to follow current spelling conventions.\n\nEveryday Songs - The everyday lives of people are what make up the core of intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This selection includes rituals, work songs, devotional and religious songs, as well as common songs that express joys and sorrows. In addition to songs, some tracks include cries and noises, reflecting the wide variety of sounds that Bake recorded.

CD8_FOLK SONGS OF THE INDIGENOUS CASTES\n\nThe indigenous castes of Nepal have a variety of cultural events to mark different life happenings, from birth to death, which are all accompanied by music. These events depend on topography, and may vary even within a caste. Generally, people express their emotions through music in occasions such as Dashain , MagheSakranti , Purnima , or seasonal events, such as rice transplanting, rice harvesting, or millet plucking. In such festivals, each of the indigenous castes exhibits its way of life and culture through traditional attires, instruments, songs, and dances.

CD9_MUSIC OF TRADITIONAL THEATRE IN VIETNAM\n\nThe traditional theatre is an indispensable element in describing the appearance of traditional Vietnamese music. The forms of traditional Vietnamese theatre are mainly practiced by the Kinh ethnic group and some ethnic minorities such as Khơ me and Nùng. Two special forms of traditional theatre with long histories are Tuồng (classical drama) and Chèo (traditional operetta) of the Kinh group. These art forms gather many elements, including literature, painting, music, dance, and drama.Tuồng was born in northern Vietnam and performed in the court, and then followed mandarins to central and southern Vietnam with a new name Hát bội or Hát bộ. Tuồng was perfected and reached its peak in the Central Vietnam from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century in the Nguyễn dynasty. Tuồng was performed not only in the court but also in common communities and was loved by common people. At the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, Tuồng still played an important role in the spiritual life of Vietnamese people, especially to the people in central and southern Vietnam. Tuồng was one of a few traditional Vietnamese artistic types, loved by the court and common people.\n\nIn its flourishing period, the artists of Tuồng were categorized into two ranks, including Tuồng thầy artists (professinal artists who are knowlegeable and have exemplary performance style) and Tuồng rong artists (semiprofessional artists who lack of knowledge and have seasonal performances, mainly giving impromptu performances in tuồng cường. The system of Tuồng is clearly categorized according to the content such as Tuồng pho (Tuồng with many acts and performed on many nights), Tuồng đồ (Tuồng with content closer to daily life and based on folk stories), and Tuồng tân thời (Tuồng with the stories from new novels). Special Tuồng plays called Tuồng ngự were selected by the Minstry of Rites to be performed for for the king’s enjoyment.

Vakalutuivoce is a traditional duet chant performed by men, usually from the fisherfolk clan in the maritime islands and coastal communities of the larger islands. The chants usually tell of the successful fishing expeditions of the fisherfolk clans. \nContents may vary but usually hinge upon fishing and the coastal environment. For communities located in the islands of the larger islands, these chants are called Vakavunigasau. \nThe Vakavunigasau is a functional chant associated with tugging logs. It is constantly chanted at the construction of a house and aims to help break the monotony, boredom, and heaviness of labor. It also inculcates a sense of solidarity and unity among workers and keeps the work proceeding at a methodical and companionable rate. The singing style of Vakalutuivoce is parallel to that of Vakavunigasau. For example, a melody is added as an accompaniment to another melody.

CD6 CA TRÙ SINGING\nCa trù singing has other names such as hát ả đào, hát cửa đình, hát nhà tơ, hát nhà trò, or hát cô đầu. According to Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (The Complete Book on the History of Đại Việt), Ca trù appeared in the Lý dynasty (1010-1025) under the name Ả đào singing. Many Ả đào singing contests were held in the village communal houses. In that time, village notables often played the praised drum while enjoying the performers singing and threw reward cards to the singers who performed well. That card was call “trù”. Gradually, the way of rewarding the singers with cards became known as Ca trù. This name is found in the poem namely “Nghĩ hộ tám giáp làm giải thưởng cho cô đào hát” (“On Behalf of People from Eight Hamlets to Write the Rewarding Rule for Awarded Singers”) of Lê Đức Mao in 1500. Ca trù is a popular genre of traditional singing and dancing of the Kinh people in the northern and the central Vietnam. The key members of a Ca trù band include one đàn đáy (three-stringed lute instrumentalist) (the đàn đáy is the only musical instrument for accompanying Ca trù), one singer who both sings and plays the phách clappers, and one praise drummer (known as quan viên cầm chầu) player.\n\nCa trù can be performed in a wide variety of places. Ca trù was born to serve as worship singing. From serving as worship at the village communal houses and ancestor worship, Ca trù has changed into singing for entertainment at private houses, restaurants, or cabarets. In addition to these main performance environments, Ca trù was performed at the royal palace and the palaces of mandarins. At present, Ca trù is sung as traditional music. In each performance environment, Ca trù has some changes in terms of the repertoire, musical nature, or performance styles. The CD Ca trù singing (Hát Ca trù) introduces some songs that which were performed for worship and for entertainment. They were recorded in 1970 (tracks 5, 6, and 7), in 1982 (tracks 1 and 4), and in 1997 (tracks 2 and 3) and performed by the three most famous Ca trù folk artists.