Materials
folk performance
ICH Materials 531
Videos
(12)-
Worshiping Goddesses: Bringing Heaven and Humans
Worshiping the Mother Goddesses of the three realms-heaven, water, and mountains (or forests)-has been a cultural activity since the sixteenth century, significantly influencing the lives of Vietnamese people. In worshiping Mother Goddess Lieu Hanh (the "Mother of the World") and other spirits of legendary heroes, followers practice spirit possession rituals and traditional festivals.\n\nThese cultural expressions combine traditional costumes, music, and dance to help maintain the community's cultural heritage. Through interviews with spirit mediums, this video shows how belief in the Mother Goddesses have united and healed the community.
Viet Nam 2019 -
Mongolian traditional folk long song
Urtiin Duu is a traditional form of musical expression of the nomadic Mongols. As the slow pace, wide-ranging melody and poetic, philosophical text of the songs express values instilled by the vast, peaceful natural landscape where the nomads live, the Urtiin Duu can be considered as a manifestation of the nomadic spirit, while its composition and performance are directly associated with cycles of the nomadic lifestyles. It serves as a variety of cultural functions, in occasions for social gathering, entertainment and artistic production, community rituals such as weddings, new ger warming feasts, birth of a child, the completion of felt-making, the production of the first airag (fermented mare’s milk). Mongolian long songs are classified in three major styles: Aizam urtiin duu (rhythmic long song), Jiriin urtiin duu (typical long song) and Besreg urtiin duu (short long song). Urtiin Duu-Traditional Folk Long Song was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2008.
Mongolia -
Xuan Pha Mask Dance: Infusing the Hues of Tradition
Xuan Pha Village has retained its tradition of ancient and mystic folk performances to the present day. The origin of the village festival is a legend in which the king of Vietnam repressed a rebellion with the help of the local god of Xuan Pha Village. \n\nDuring the festival period, people from neighboring countries would comes to present various offerings as a tribute to the king, and villagers welcomed them with mast dances. This video demonstrates the efforts of the people of Xuan Pha Village to maintain and transmit this traditional performance to the next generation.
Viet Nam 2019 -
Bakhshi (narrator) art
Bakhshi - is an epic creator. The Bakhshi art is one of the specific genres of folk performing art. Bakhshi is a master and improvisator of words and stories, a skillful musician (skillfully plays on certain musical instrument) and singer (possesses the skills of traditional singing), who can accompany his performance with mimicry and plastique. He should be familiar with the life of his nation, with its culture and history. Moreover, he should have a rich vocabulary and masterly use popular language, be able to play with words, use their diverse forms. And all these features are connected with the art of bakhshi (bakhshichilik), which has centuries-long history. The repertoire of Uzbek storytellers and narrators includes heroic, historical and romantic dostons, which incorporated ancient cultural traditions, memory of the nation, its spiritual world and historical destiny, its civic, moral and aesthetic ideals. In dostons it is possible to find the ideas of patriotism and humanism, commitment and love, friendship and brotherhood. At the same time, freedom of fantasy, which is observed among bakhshis, makes possible artistic realization of folk ideals. It should be noted that doston is not about verbal performance only. It is also the work of art which is prosaic, poetic and musical. Indeed, bakhshi does not read doston but sings it. The singing is accompanied by playing on dombra or by instrumental ensemble. The whole artistic composition, all figurative means and expressions of doston are aimed at improving the perception of listeners.
Uzbekistan -
Katta Ashula
Katta ashula is a vocal direction, a song genre typical for the Ferghana Valley, in which peculiar style and manner of singing is observed. It is performed by two or more singers in turns and without accompaniment of musical instruments. Katta Ashula is characterized by laconism (in means of expression), expressiveness (in music language), dynamism (in melodic development) and bright emotionality. Its figurative structure (or style) is closely connected to the traditional (classical) poetry of lyrical and philosophical nature. And ghazals of Navoi, Lutfi, Mashrab, Khazini, Muqimi, Furqat, Zavqi, Miskin serve as main poetic texts in this genre. Though, since the XX century the poems of contemporary Uzbek poets (such as Sobir Abdulla, Charkhi, Chusti, Akmal Polat, Khabibi, and others) as well as examples of folk poetry have been widely used. In terms of subject matter katta ashula songs can be divided into love-lyrical, didactic, religious and contemporary ones. The origins of katta ashula genre should be looked for in ancient folk-ritual chants, songs of "praise" (such as marsiya, navkha, ayolgu), agriculture- and labor-related songs with their original combination of recitative-declamatory beginning and chanting; and in distiches of ghazals (ghazalkhonlik), written in aruz prosody. Performance with high-pitched voice, existence of culmination parts, clarity of words for and their impact to the listeners – all these are features of this type of song. Katta ashula has several genres, such as “Yovvoi maqom” (“Yovvoi Ushshoq”, “Yovvoi Chorgoh”),"Yovvoyi asula" ("Yovvoyi Tanovar", "Yovvoyi Munojat"), "Yakkahonlik" ("Ohkim, gulzorim qani topmadim").\nNotably, the emergence and development of Katta ashula genre is closely linked with existence of corresponding performance schools, which stand out with their style of interpretation, manner of singing and bearers. From among katta ashula performance schools it is possible to mention Qoqand, Margilan, Andijan, Namangan and Tashkent performance schools.
Uzbekistan -
National Dombra Day 2018 celebrating in Almaty: young artists from Kulyash Baiseitova's College
The team of young dombra artists from Kulyash Baiseitova's Musical College took part in the festive events for the first National Dombra Day celebration in Almaty.\nFirst celebration of the National Dombra Day had been widely spread in the country. A lot of individual artists and dombra professional and folk orchestra conducted the concert performance at Arbat avenue, popular public place in Almaty.\nThe Dombra is a musical two-stringed instrument, which occupies a special place in Kazakhs’ hearts. The National Dombyra Day has been included in the list of national holidays since 2018 by the decree of the President of Kazakhstan. This was done in in order to further consolidate society around the idea of preserving and reviving national culture and identity. The holiday is celebrated annually on the first Sunday of July.\nKazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev established National Dombra Day on June 12th, 2018. It immediately became a favorite holiday for people and was widely celebrated nationwide with music competitions and festivals.
Kazakhstan 2018-07-01 -
National Dombra Day: first celebrating in Almaty
The team of students and young dombra artists from various musical colleges and art communities took part in the festive events for the first National Dombra Day celebration in Almaty. The performance was leaded by the famous artists and musicians.\nFirst celebration of the National Dombra Day had been widely spread in the country. A lot of individual artists and dombra professional and folk orchestra conducted the concert performance at Arbat avenue, popular public place in Almaty.\nThe Dombra is a musical two-stringed instrument, which occupies a special place in Kazakhs’ hearts. The National Dombyra Day has been included in the list of national holidays since 2018 by the decree of the President of Kazakhstan. This was done in in order to further consolidate society around the idea of preserving and reviving national culture and identity. The holiday is celebrated annually on the first Sunday of July.\nKazakhstan’s First President Nursultan Nazarbayev established National Dombra Day on June 12th, 2018. It immediately became a favorite holiday for people and was widely celebrated nationwide with music competitions and festivals.\nDombra belongs to the main symbols of the Kazakh musical heritage and culture. This tool invariably unites people of different professions, religions and nationalities in Kazakhstan. You can meet dombra today in almost every home.\nNone of events in the life of the people could happen without this national musical instrument. Respect for dombra is passed down from generation to generation. So it was in the days of nomads and remains to this day. Interest in dombra, as well as its popularity, is not fading away. Today, an increasing number of young people masterfully own this instrument.
Kazakhstan 2018-07-01 -
Naqshkhoni—The Folk Song Genre
Naqshkhoni, a genre of folk music, has an old history and is performed only during weddings and festivals. Currently this musical genre has survived only in northern Tajikistan. The main characteristic of naqshkhoni is that it is sung a cappella by a group of old and respectful people. Special attention and interest has been shown in reviving this genre over the past few years, especially by young people. The film is dedicated to the performance of this folk expression.
Tajikistan 2017 -
Viet Nam, Xuan Pha Masked Performance
Xuan Pha Dance listed in the National ICH List in 2016\nThe Xuan Pha performance is a Vietnamese folk tradition held every lunar February in Xuan Pha village. It serves as a blessing to the people and expresses gratitude to the guardian deity who watches over farming activities. Legend has it that Dinh Bo Linh achieved peace with the help of the deity Xuan Pha when chieftains were trying to divide the country. This became the origin of the village festival. The performance includes five different dance segments, each simulating the dances of five nations, paying tribute to the King of Dai Viet (modern-day Viet Nam). Most of the props used in the performance are made from materials obtained from nature, and the performers sing of a peaceful, happy, and idyllic life.
Viet Nam 2023-04-23 -
Cultural Space of Boysun, Uzbekistan
Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, 2008\nCultural space of Boysun was proclaimed a Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2001 and inscribed onto the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.This film contains information about the Boysun district’s nature and the cultural processes related to craftsmanship, folk performance, traditional medicine, and others.Strong aspiration to preserve traditional lifestyles of the local people was observed during filming process in 2016 and 2017. An example of this is the increasing number of followers of the folk-ethnographic ensemble called Boysun.
Uzbekistan 2017 -
Uzbekistan Cultural Space of Boysun (Highlight)
Cultural space of Boysun was proclaimed a Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2001 and inscribed onto the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.\nThe current film contains information about the Boysun district’s nature and the cultural processes related to craftsmanship, folk performance, traditional medicine, and others.\nStrong aspiration to preserve traditional lifestyles of the local people was observed during filming process during 2016 and 2017. An example of this is the increasing number of followers of the folk-ethnographic ensemble called Boysun.
Uzbekistan 2017 -
Xuan Pha Folk Performance(KOR)
Located in the east of Lam Kinh historical site, the site of the Le dynasty in Vietnamese history, Xuan Pha village, Xuan Truong commune, Tho Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province also retains ancient and mysterious folk performances until today. In this celebration, the neighboring countries came to bring offerings to pay tribute to the King of Vietnam. They performed congratulatory mask dances at the traditional village festival. The film demonstrates the efforts of the generations to maintain and transmit the performance to young people. They practice as their cultural expression that continues for generations.
Viet Nam 2019