Bankura: Jhumur Gaan\nJhumur is the lifestyle music and dance of Purulia and Bankura. This folk music form dates back to being older than the Vaishnav Padabali. Jhumur songs and dances are an integral part of local community Parabs (festivals) and rituals like Badna, Tusu, Karam Puja and special occasions like marriage, harvests etc. Jhumur songs are songs of everyday life and widely accepted among all cross sections of the society.

Bankura: Jhumur Gaan\nJhumur is the lifestyle music and dance of Purulia and Bankura. This folk music form dates back to being older than the Vaishnav Padabali. Jhumur songs and dances are an integral part of local community Parabs (festivals) and rituals like Badna, Tusu, Karam Puja and special occasions like marriage, harvests etc. Jhumur songs are songs of everyday life and widely accepted among all cross sections of the society.

B’roh is a plucked cordophonic instrument made of six parts: the resonator, body, frets, strings, tuning pegs, and gauge. The resonator is made of a dry gourd that is cut on its two ends. The big end usually has the diameter of over ten centimeters, and the other has a diameter of five centimeters. Its body is made of a bamboo section with the length of one meter and a diameter of about eifht centimeters. Small wooden pieces are fixed to one end of the body as the gauge and to the other end as tuning pegs. The body has four or fie frets. B’roh includes two strings, which are tuned to the fifth interval. One of them is used to play drone part, and the other is used to play melodic part. The b’roh is for only the male. The instrumentalist puts this instrument in front of him and plays it while sitting. He wears a bamboo nail on his right forefinger to pluck strings while his left fingers press the frets. At the same time, the instrumentalist covers or opens the big end of the resonator with his stomach to enrich sounds. The ambitus of the b’roh is wide, about two octaves at mediant register.

“O Bele” is a work song, of the Kabita genre in the Tulu speaking areas of Karnataka. The singing of “O Bele” is led by one woman, who sings each line of the song and is accompanied by the rest of the chorus. This process continues with different lines, depending on the amount of work to be done in the paddy fields. Kabitas vary thematically, but most are not complete narratives; rather, they are built around small incidents and are loosely structured. “O Bele” tells the story of a landlord who sends his worker to procure labor. He exchanges women for liquor and finds his wife expecting twins, who were suspected to be fathered by the landlord.

The t’rưng is a popular instrument of ethnic minorities living in the Central Highlands. It is made of hornless bamboo sections of various lengths (between five and sixteen sections). One end includes the node, and the other end is slantingly cut. The slantingly cut end of each section is not only for decorating but also for adjusting the pitch to the principle, of which the big sections give a bass sound and the small sections give a high sound. The sections are linked to each other with rattan or parachute cord at a set distance so that the bamboo sections do not touch each other. These bamboo sections are hung upside down on a triangular frame. In performance, the instrumentalist stands and knocks the instrument by using two short sticks or plays upward or downward. The ambitus of the t’rưng is quite wide, up to three octaves, depending the number of bamboo sections. Its sound is joyful and clear.

This song includes two melodies Nam xuân (twenty phrases) and Nam ai (twenty-eight phrases). Nam xuân, Nam ai are two out of three Nam pieces belonging to the twenty principle pieces. The piece takes on melancholic and deliberate characteristics. This musical piece is played by the bầu (monochord), the kìm (moon-shaped lute), and the violin. The bầu, a plucked string instrument made of wood, has a long rectangular resonator. A small arm made of bamboo or plastic is put through a gourd cover and attached to the resonator. At the end of the resonator, a metal or wooden peg is attached. The instrument has a metal string and has no frets. When playing the monochord, the musician creates overtones by lightly pressing the nodal points along the metal string. The violin is a western instrument that has some modifications to its strings when being used in Tài tử orchestra. For information about the kìm, please refer to the description for track 2.

Karma is a festival celebrated by the tribal communities of Central India from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to Jharkhand. An important aspect of the festival is dancing through the night after a Karma tree is planted. Men and women dance together. This is a Karma dance of the Gond community. In this track, five women are dancing with a group of three men, accompanied by musicians. The instruments are the mandar (drum), timki (small kettle drum), and manjira (brass cymbals). The dance consists of men and women dancing in rows facing one another, going three steps backwards and forwards.

Thổng is performed in dây bằng, triple time, and at a moderate tempo. Triple time means that three out of four beats are played with two sticks by the right hand at the same time on the cảnh (small cymbal) and the phách (clappers). The left hand is used to roll on the clappers or play the drum. Thổng is used to sing six-eight-seven-seven metre (6-8-7-7).

Ala flute is an aerophonic instrument, free-vibrated reed branch. Ala flute is made of a hornless bamboo section with two open ends, fifty centimeters in length and two centimeters in diameter. A small hole is pierced at one end to attach a rectangular box with reed. Three pressing holes in a straight line but slanted an angle of 90˚ toward the box with reed are pierced at the other end. Ala flute is played in daily activities and usually played as solo or to accompany love-exchange singing. In performance, the players hold the full reed part in his/her mouth. Different from the aerophonic instruments, players inhale to play ala flute. When inhaling, the thumb of the right hand is used to open and cover one end of the sections, the fingers of the left hand are used to press the three pressing holes as playing common flutes. The ambitus of the ala flute is an octave.

According to statistics data of 2009, Phù lá ethnic minority had over ten thousand people, mostly living in Lào Cai. Phù lá ethnic minority lives in different small hamlets, each of which usually has between ten and fifteen roofs. The Phù lá lives in a region with many other ethnic minorities, such as Hmông, Dao, and Tày. The village elders or chiefs and family heads have a significant role in managing most affairs in the hamlets. The Phù Lá still preserves their traditional culture with the important annual rituals, such as the Lunar New Year (Tết Nguyên Đán), Holly Forest Worship Ceremony (Cúng thần rừng), the July Festival (Tết tháng bảy), the new rice festival at the beginning of October (tết cơm mới đầu tháng 10), Naming ceremony for baby (đặt tên con), funerals (tang ma), etc. Forms of folk music in the lives of Phù Lá people has not been much collected so far. The musical piece “A happy tune” is a solo for a string instrument meant to entertain Phù lá people. This is one of the few Phù lá recordings. It was recorded by the Vietnamese Institute for Musicology in 1959.

The town of Pap in the Namangan Region has a local ensemble with over thirty members, including musicians. They used to be paid small monthly salaries during the Soviet era for putting on performances but now have to make a living from other work and perform only when necessary. The song is about love between a man and a woman

Ninnata hattu makkalu In this small but charming lullaby in Kannada, a mother sings to her child, “I wish I had ten children like you. You should sleep now. Sleep. Jo aayii.”