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.

CD7_MUSIC OF BASTAR AND CHHATISGARH\n\nThe indigenous tribal communities of India belong to various language families. This selection of music comes from the region of what was known as Bastar and its surroundings but is today divided into the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. \n\nThis album presents some samples of the music of the Maria, Muria, and Pardhans. These subgroups are part of the larger Gond family. Gondi and the related languages belong to the Dravidian family. It provides a glimpse into the intangible cultural heritage of the tribes of Central India. \n\nThese recordings were made between 1978 and 1982 by ethnomusicologist Roderic Knight. They provide a glimpse into the tribal communities, which are fast changing.

CD4_FOLK MELODIES OF NEPAL\n\nIt has been estimated that Nepal's repertoire of folk melodies once numbered more than sixty thousand. The country’s landscape features rivers, hills, mountains, plains, and streams, as well as an extremely rich flora and fauna, which have all inspired Nepal's folk musicians. In the past, communities were more isolated from one another due to the difficult terrain and the lack of roads and transport. Thus, every small village developed its own melodies. For example, it is said that the call of the bharedwaja bird inspired at least 128 different rhythms.

These two dances tell us how women from Ulithi and Fais felt when the Japanese took men from their families and made them work on Yap and Palau islands. It describes how the families went through poverty and struggles. These two dances are performed by women from Mogmog Island, the chief island of Ulithi Atoll.

CD4_NARRATIVE TRADITIONS – ORAL EPICS AND BALLADS VOL. I: THE TULU PADDANA\n\nOral epics, ballads, and narratives form a major part of the background of rituals, storytelling, and local mythologies – all an important part of the intangible cultural heritage of India. The vast range of oral epics in India, most often sung, also contain recitation and prose that explain the text. The meters vary greatly, and they all have different definitions and terms. For instance, the meter and singing of the Alha is called Alha Chhand. A wide variety of types of performances and expression of this genre exist. Some stories are narrated with scrolls that illustrate episodes. Sometimes, they are acted out, and sometimes sung, as in the case of the paddanas, which are performed while transplanting rice. Stuart Blackburn and Joyce Flueckiger distinguish three kinds of oral epics in India: martial, sacrificial, and romantic. Some epics tell a story with multiple episodes and characters, and some are “multi-story” oral epics. Oral epics in India are very closely tied to communities, with performers, audience, and participants all belonging to the same community. Most oral epics are associated to rituals, the performance of some being the ritual itself. Caste also plays an important role in the performance or patronage of the oral epic traditions in India. \n\nThe great epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata in some cases, enter the world of these local oral epics, where the performers are considered to be reincarnations of heroes and gods from these epics. According to Komal Kothari, an eminent folklorist of India, this phenomenon happens when the impact of the oral epic spreads beyond its initial local boundaries. Though we are not able to present full performances of all the oral epics, we believe that these recordings provide a good glimpse into the variety of meters, singing styles, and contexts that exist within these traditions. Three oral epics are presented in this volume. They are all part of larger collections, and each one is contributed by an expert on the genre who has done extensive research. The paddanas were contributed by Peter Claus, the Nanda Devi jagar by William Sax, and Alha by Karine Schomer.

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.

CD3_SUFI TRADITIONS OF NORTH INDIA\n\nQawwali is a musical genre that shares general traits with the light classical music of North India and Pakistan but distinguishes itself by its religious function. The term Qawwali applies both to the musical genre and to the occasion of its performance, the devotional assembly of Islamic mysticism - or Sufism - in India and Pakistan. The practice of Qawwali extends throughout Muslim centers of the Indian subcontinent, but its roots are North Indian. Qawwali music is performed by qawwals, professional musicians who perform in groups led by one or two solo singers. Qawwals present mystical poetry in Persian, Hindi, and Urdu, alternating solo and group passages characterized by repetition and improvisation. Handclapping and drumming on the barrel-shaped dholak accompany the singers, and a small portable harmonium played by the lead singer highlights the song’s melody. Amir Khusro Dehlavi of the Chishti order of Sufis is credited with fusing the Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Indian musical traditions in the late-thirteenth century in India to create Qawwali as it is known today. The word Sama is often still used in Central Asia and Turkey to refer to forms very similar to Qawwali, while in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, the formal name used for a session of Qawwali is Mehfil-e-Sama.\n\nQawwali is performed at the dargah, the shrines of Sufi saints, as well as in Sufi mehfils, which are commissioned performances. The structure and order of the songs vary in both these contexts. As will be seen, in many forms of Qawwali, an object of love, such as a god or a husband or wife, is portrayed and worshipped. Qawwali was popularized by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a Pakistani performer. And it has started to enter mainstream popular music thanks to the recent public interest in Sufi music. It is thus no longer purely devotional. There are many silsilas (orders) of Sufism and hence many forms of Qawwali. The recordings in this album are mainly of the Chishtiya silsila – the followers of the Sufi Saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Nizamuddin Auliya, also a Sufi saint, was his follower. The texts were written by Amir Khusrau and contain many references to these saints. This Qawwali party consists of seven or eight members. The group joins as a chorus and claps to add percussion. These recordings were made at Sufi shrines in the late 1970s by Regula Qureshi, one of the most famous scholars of this genre. Since they were recorded in a crowded area on the field, the tracks have disturbances and ambient noise. However, as recordings from an actual authentic context, they carry a lot of value.

CD5_SACRED CHANTS OF NEPAL\n\nIt is believed that all spiritual chants are addressed to Hindu and Buddhist gods and goddesses. Chanting helps people to be aware that the past is gone, that the future has yet to come, and that one can only be sure of the present moment and should act accordingly. People chant to wish for goodness for all beings and to ask God to lead them from darkness to light, from mortal life to immortality, from falsehood to truth, and towards universal brother and sisterhood. One’s life should be dedicated to God's service, offering kindness to all creatures, and always to putting others' needs before one’s own aspirations, hoping to one day attain anandam.

The Yakan inhabit the island of Basilan just off the southern tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula of western Mindanao, particularly in the municipalities of Tipo, Lamitan, Sumisip, and Tuburan, and the islands of Sacol, Malanipa, and Tumalutab east of Zamboanga. The Yakan belong to the widespread Sama group, and their culture has become too specialized to be distinguished as a distinct group.\n\nThe Yakan’s language is closely related to the Sama, but their culture is more land orientated rather than the sea based. Agriculture consists largely of upland rice, although copra is also widespread. The main religion is Islam with syncretic elements from traditional and indigenous beliefs.\n\nThe Yakan are well-known for their elaborate dress, which is similar for males and females. For instance, both wear trousers. Noteworthy articles include the kandit, a fifteen-meter-long red sash worn by men, and the pinantupan, the women’s overskirt. Textile weaving done on the backstrap loom is much sought after, especially because of the intricate and beautiful motifs. The Yakan is one of the few groups that use tapestry loom producing the sophisticatedly woven pis syabit (headscarf for men) and seputangan (head cloth for women).\n\nThe Yakan have a rich musical tradition based on the pentatonic scale. Their musical instruments are usually made of bamboo, wood, and metal. The daluppak is a digging stick with a bamboo clapper. The kopak-kopak is a bamboo clapper on a stick. The kwintangan kayu is a percussion instrument consisting of five wooden beams suspended horizontally. The ends of the beams are tapered, and these are beaten. It is associated with planting and played to enhance plant growth. The wooden tuntungan is a suspended wooden ercussion plank with jar resonators, played with a pole during the harvest season for the purpose of giving thanks. The gabbang is a bamboo xylophone with five bars. The suling is a bamboo mouth flute used by men in courting. Another used by men to express love or admiration is the kulaing. The kulintangan or kwintangan consists of five bronze gongs arranged according to size and used during celebrations. The agung is a large deep gong used in ensemble performance.\n\n

The Yakan inhabit the island of Basilan just off the southern tip of the Zamboanga Peninsula of western Mindanao, particularly in the municipalities of Tipo, Lamitan, Sumisip, and Tuburan, and the islands of Sacol, Malanipa, and Tumalutab east of Zamboanga. The Yakan belong to the widespread Sama group, and their culture has become too specialized to be distinguished as a distinct group.\n\nThe Yakan’s language is closely related to the Sama, but their culture is more land orientated rather than the sea based. Agriculture consists largely of upland rice, although copra is also widespread. The main religion is Islam with syncretic elements from traditional and indigenous beliefs.\n\nThe Yakan are well-known for their elaborate dress, which is similar for males and females. For instance, both wear trousers. Noteworthy articles include the kandit, a fifteen-meter-long red sash worn by men, and the pinantupan, the women’s overskirt. Textile weaving done on the backstrap loom is much sought after, especially because of the intricate and beautiful motifs. The Yakan is one of the few groups that use tapestry loom producing the sophisticatedly woven pis syabit (headscarf for men) and seputangan (head cloth for women).\n\nThe Yakan have a rich musical tradition based on the pentatonic scale. Their musical instruments are usually made of bamboo, wood, and metal. The daluppak is a digging stick with a bamboo clapper. The kopak-kopak is a bamboo clapper on a stick. The kwintangan kayu is a percussion instrument consisting of five wooden beams suspended horizontally. The ends of the beams are tapered, and these are beaten. It is associated with planting and played to enhance plant growth. The wooden tuntungan is a suspended wooden ercussion plank with jar resonators, played with a pole during the harvest season for the purpose of giving thanks. The gabbang is a bamboo xylophone with five bars. The suling is a bamboo mouth flute used by men in courting. Another used by men to express love or admiration is the kulaing. The kulintangan or kwintangan consists of five bronze gongs arranged according to size and used during celebrations. The agung is a large deep gong used in ensemble performance.\n\n

The southwestern provinces of Guangxi , Guizhou , and Yunnan make up a mountainous region with the greatest cultural diversity in China. The Zhuang people who live in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region enjoy singing shange in pairs or groups of five to six people. While majority of shange are about love between a man and a woman, some narrate epic tales. They can also be improvised in surprising ways to match the situation.\n\nThe Miao people, characterized by the unique hairstyles of the women, are scattered around Guangxi Province, Guizhou Province, and other parts of southwestern China. They have a unique singing technique that involves drawing out a single note as long as possible. Using this technique, they sing feige that sounds like flying birds and jiuge . The lusheng music played by men is also worth a listen.\n\nThe Kam (Dong) people live in Guizhou and are well known in China as the most vocally gifted tribe. Each village has several singing groups comprised of several dozen people, organized by gender and age. These groups sing dage , which are traditional polyphonic songs. The gulou and dage are such famous symbols of the Kam people and are used in tourism programs as well.\n\nAlthough there are many ethnic groups in Yunnan province, the Yi people are well known for their singing. Yi women sing songs with extremely high pitches to the accompaniment of yueqin played by the men. The Yi are also famous for their mass dances and singing parties during summer bonfire festival.

Uzbekistan in Central Asia is mostly grassland and desert, and much of its population is nomadic. However, there are also several oasis regions where people have settled into agricultural lifestyles. Uzbekistan used to be a strategic point in the Silk Road where the cultures of East and West met. There are several Kazakh and Tajik groups living in Uzbekistan and its borders are open to traders and nomads. Uzbeks love to sing and dance. Local folk performance groups called ensembles are a long standing tradition in Uzbekistan and lead all festivals and events. They compile and edit traditional folk songs and instrumental music to stage song and dance performances. The Boysun Festival is held annually in Boysun City, Southeastern Uzbekistan, and ensembles from all across the nation participate.\n\nTo hear the unadulterated versions of Uzbek folk songs, one has to ride a donkey into remote mountain villages. The mountains offer beautiful scenery and warm hospitality on top of humble folk songs. Boysun district in Uzbekistan is an example of such a mountainous region.\n\nA noteworthy characteristic of Uzbek folk songs is the large number of children’s songs. The children of Uzbekistan still sing as many children’s songs as we used to in the past. Another important genre of Uzbek folk music is the grand epic song sung by professional epic singers called bakhshi.