Travel the World With Me!

❀ Travel The World With Me!❀

Hello and welcome to my “Travel the World With Me” playlist! I’ve got a couple songs queued up for you guys–a couple of modern ones, a couple of traditional ones, and a bonus track at the end! I tried finding a wide variety of music from countries that are teeny-tiny (except Ireland and Kazakhstan) in order to explore places that have been majorly influenced by surrounding countries, yet still holds strong. 

1.) Kazakhstan - Asia

Layla-Qobyz - 2023

    Kazakhstan has a saying: “A real Kazakh is not a Kazakh -- a real Kazakh is a dombra;” this is because almost every single household has a dombra. It is the center of their musical culture, along with the Qobyz (Ko-byz). Kazakhstan was under cultural oppression due to the Soviet Union until 1991–and only within the last 10-15 years has anyone dared to branch off from their cultural music into the ethno- world (syncretic blending). Layla-Qobyz and her band has branched off and created the first electric Qobyz (almost like an oddly shaped violin that’s played like a cello), and makes ethno-rock; she blends common Kazakh instruments and themes with modern covers of songs! There are MANY emerging bands finding their own genre of music to blend with, and it’s actually reviving the traditional music scene due to so many people drawing inspiration from it. 

    I chose Kazakhstan because…I don’t know much about them! I think their throat singing sounds cool, and their decorated dombras are beautiful, but I simply don’t know much about this country at all. 

    I like Layla’s cover of a European-classical piece in the beginning that easily morphed into something new and different. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves while making music together in this new, fresh environment; it’s not boring, suffocatingly old music with traditional instruments–they’re pushing their skills to the limits and stretching musical blending to what they want it to be! 

    I chose this song specifically because I knew people would recognize the beginning, and her setup was super nice to see and notice details about–it’s not like trying to see things on a stage or see a weird music video shoot. It's very simplistic but lovely, and allows your attention to stay on the performance. 

2.) Kosovo - Europe

Ermira Babaliu - 1992

    Kosovo has been rife with wars and belonging to different groups–it’s a tiny country, so it’s easy to take over. They have an intricate–and extremely complicated–history dating back thousands of years. This doesn’t mean that they have no heritage–their culture and folklore have stuck around since ~6-5th century BC! There are many different genres within traditional Kosovar folk music, but this is a mourning song from the Dirge genre–something sung when someone very close has died, and a blend between a funeral march and hymn. Ermira Babaliu–the singer featured here–became popular in the 90s due to her lovely voice and ability to perform more “traditional” music that didn’t sound “outdated” or “old fashioned.”

    I chose Kosovo because it’s part of the Balkans, which we didn’t touch on this semester, and they are all quite small countries that somehow have a lot of variation within the same shared traditions. I chose this genre within the traditional Kosovar repertoire because death has been a commonplace thing there for centuries–constantly being conquered, resources being shipped out instead of feeding their own citizens, surrounded by multiple different mountain ranges, etc etc. take a toll on a group of people and ultimately lead to a lot of dying. I find that this practice of a single person or group of people singing over their loved one’s body reminds me of the Andes Mountain range and their similar method of mourning. 

    - Fun fact: Rita Ora was born in Kosovo, and Dua Lipa’s parents are both from Kosovo as well!

3.) Micronesia - Oceania

Micronesian Cultural Dances - 2006

The Federated States of Micronesia–or FSM/Micronesia for short– is actually made up of over 2,000 islands, but there are 4 main archipelagos (bigger clusters of islands), and some main tribes within those islands–almost like states–have agreed to come together to make Micronesia. These tribes (Pohnpeian, Palauans, Marshallese, Chuukese, and Yappese, to name a few) have many other cultures that they’re similar to–some do a similar version of hula singing and dancing, some do more vicious singing and dancing similar to the Samoan people, and others create harmonies like Christian settlers. These people are known as the descendants of the Astronesian people, and have developed caste systems on their islands–you aren’t allowed to sing or dance songs of a higher caste unless invited by someone from that caste, and each caste has different songs and dances they’re allowed to perform. 

These tribes often use sticks to keep the beat in their traditional dancing; since they have no traditional instruments, they only use their voices and the sticks–there is no music without the dancing; they’re inherently intertwined! Sticks are very important, and can even be used in some smaller cultures in Micronesia as “love sticks,” to signify that one wants to marry and mate! 

I chose Micronesia and its traditional music because…quite honestly, it’s actually unclear where people came from. Their music and dances and styles are all slightly varied (which means cultural exchange must have happened at some time), but their ancient history is incredibly fascinating to me–these are the people in Moana–the “Wayfinders”--that spread from island to island. They also semi-remind me of our Indigenous and Aboriginal unit, where the only instruments were often sticks hitting something (sometimes hollow sticks).

- Fun fact: there’s also the world’s only ancient city located on a coral reef in Micronesia! It’s called Nan Madol in Pohnpei.

4.) Lesotho - Africa

                                           https://youtu.be/ExjzYeISiO8

* my link wanted to suddenly stop working. So here is the youtube link that Blogger won't let me attach for legal reasons.*

LET’S TALK ABOUT LESOTHO!! It’s a completely landlocked country…but it's completely surrounded by ONLY South Africa! It’s like…a country-island. The main ethnic group is the Basotho tribe, and they speak Sesotho as the national language. The entire country is a little bit smaller than Maryland, actually. Although Lesotho’s music atmosphere is unintelligibly rich, deep, and complex, I want to talk about their JAZZ community–it’s so interesting!

They have a yearly Jazz Festival in their capital in December; it was originally created to promote the local jazz musicians, but it has absolutely exploded into a celebration that people come to from all over the world. 
I chose Lesotho Jazz because an eclectic friend of mine played it in the car once when I first started making friends in college–it was odd, it was new, and it let me realize that people aren’t restricting themselves or their interests anymore; I could safely enjoy what I wanted to when I was on-campus. It now reminds me of them and the trips we would take late at night to grab snacks and make me feel like an adult. 
This piece reminds me of the traditional pieces we listened to when we did the East Africa portion in class–it’s got upbeat rhythms and song, as well as all sorts of instruments playing together–electric keyboard and guitar, a drum set, and more.

❀ Bonus Track! ❀

5.) Ireland - Europe

The Wild Rover has been around since the 1500s; the Clancy brothers, however, performed this in ~1967.

This is a small tribute to Dr. Bani–she’s amazing, and this is her main area of study! I know I could never do her research any justice, but I really like when she talks about her special research, and she brought this up as an example before. 
    Ireland is known for singing: their history, their stories, their lineage, and even place names as a way of respect to the location and to know what the area’s history was (called Dinnseanchas). This song–”The Wild Rover”-- is from the 1500s in Ireland, and started out on the seas–fishermen sailing from Ireland into the Atlantic would sing stories while they worked to keep their spirits up. This story is about a “wild rover” sailor who often spends his money on whiskey and beer, who just came back from a long voyage. He tries to pretend he has no money and asks the innkeeper for a drink and room “on credit”, to which she turns him away and tells him she needs the space for people who will actually pay. He quickly pulls out his gold coins that he had earned, and says that, since she denied him, that he was going to quit drinking and go home. (This ending is often seen as satirical, and nobody within the song actually expects him to quit drinking or roaming). Although the composer, the actual melody, and exact date of creation are both unknown, it eventually turned into a common drinking song in Ireland, and is considered folklore at this point. People love this song specifically because it’s the epitome of the Irish concept of “craic”--good drinks, kindness, laughter, and good spirits.

I chose this piece as a fun little tribute; I hope you guys can enjoy it!

Alright everyone! From the southern tip of Africa, to the colder Asian north, to the misty Isles and tiny countries in Europe, and the tropical islands in Oceania, this is my “World Tour.” There's a lot of musical patterns that I can identify in multiple different cultures, and it was fun to listen to new music like this! This was just a small taste of new things to add to your musical palette–which one was your favorite?