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Medieval Songs of Sex, from Catalonia: Els Berros de la Cort

MARCH 21, 2013, 12:00 PM

As its name would indicate, the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa showcases music from Catalonia and also from all around the Mediterranean. It provides a lively music trade fair where business connections can be made and deals closed, but it is also a citywide festival. Every resident can participate and the main streets are full of families taking advantage of the public performances and general party feeling.

I'll be covering the festival in greater depth soon, but for now, here's a dose of medieval secular music from Els Berros de la Cort who were playing at El Sielu, one of the smaller club-like venues. As you will see the band uses authentic instruments, with the addition of some contemporary percussion and amplification. So while the sound is probably quite similar to what one might have heard at a medieval festival, there are definitely heightened rhythmic color and dynamics.

The lyrics for the first a capella piece come from the "Speculum al Foderi," which was a kind of medical sex manual for the lay person (no pun intended, but hey...). The very title, which contains some rather blunt language, suggests that it was not published for royalty, who would usually be reading a book in formal Latin. The words themselves, which the band has set to original music describe various attributes of a woman: her fair parts, her dark parts, her round parts, her petite parts, and her sweet-smelling parts.

The full translation is available upon request ;-)

This is followed by an instrumental which is a free adaptation of "Molt Eram Dolz Mei Conzir," a composition by Arnaut de Maroil (sometimes written Arnaut de Mareuil), an Occitan troubadour of the late 12th century.

This all leads me to believe there was lot more to medieval culture than we are commonly taught!

For more information about Els Berros de la Cort, visit: elsberrosdelacort.cat

For more of Michal's world music videos visit inter-muse.com

Topics:

Women / Gender / Sexuality,

Music / Art / Culture,

Fira Mediterrania de Manresa,

Speculum al Foderi,

Live Performance,

Els Berros de la Cort

Regions:

Europe

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Renata Rosa at the Forde Festival

By Michal Shapiro

OCTOBER 2, 2012, 12:00 PM

Unlike the urban MPB or Bossa Nova we generally associate with Brazil, music from that country's northeast, and particularly Pernambuco, has a rugged, rural heart.

Although she is originally from Sao Paulo, Renata Rosa seems to have been created especially for this kind of soul. There is a direct, joyful quality to her presentation, as if she is simply delighted to be singing for you, and she and her ensemble have an endless energy for performance. (I imagine they do get tired like most humans, but I didn't see any of that. Even when their flight was cancelled and then re-scheduled for the following day and they had to return to the festival, they passed the time jamming and performing.)

The complete band is not a trio, and on opening night, Ana Araujo on vocals and percussion, and Hugo Lins on bass rounded out the ensemble on the big stage. But I was unable to get a satisfactory shoot from the performance that night, so I was glad to catch her gig at the tiny Pikant Café, perched above the town's river.

That is the beauty of the Forde festival, you can hear music in venues large and small all over the town and its environs, from concert halls, to classrooms and churches, even to mountain tops! This means that if you miss one show, you will likely be able to see the artist perform again. Indeed, Ms. Rosa said that of the many performances she gave, she thought the show at the Pikant was particularly strong, perhaps due to the proximity of the audience.

The place was jammed, both inside and on the outside deck, but I was able to score a chair in the corner and stand on it. (Sorry about that backlight, what can ya do.) Pepe da Silva here plays a 10 stringed guitar, Lucas dos Pazeres plays percussion. Everyone sings; indeed for me, it was the part singing that really drew me in, and I have to say the musicianship was mighty high all around.

Despite its traditional sound, the first song -- Corta o Pau -- is an original by Ms. Rosa. She wrote of it to me: "Its rhythm is called Coco de Roda. This composition has different influences such as indigenous vocal polyphonies, rabeca (traditional fiddle) played in the cavalo-marinho tradition (a kind of street performance) and the Viola (10 stringed guitar) played in the northeastern tradition.

The second Song -- Piau -- is her adaptation of a folk song. She writes, "It's rhythm is from our Afrobrazilian ritual called macumba."

For more of Michal's world music videos visit inter-muse.com

Topics:

Music / Art / Culture,

Regions:

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Selda Bagcan at IstanbuLive 4, Lincoln Center Out of Doors

By Michal Shapiro

SEPTEMBER 26, 2012, 6:24 AM

The headliner for this years edition of IstanbuLive 2012 was Selda Bağcan who turned in an impressive, impassioned set. She's been compared to Edith Piaf and Joan Baez, but I think Mercedes Sosa would be more on the mark.

It is hard for most of us to imagine the conditions under which Bağcan conducted her early career. A series of military coups in the early 70s took Turkey from a fairly open society in which the youth movement was musically active, to one in which repression and disappearances were rife. Bağcan was arrested and put on trial nine times and imprisoned three times, all for singing songs that sided with the poor and powerless, and for being associated with the Left.

But through it all, her celebrity grew, and as Mehmet Dede, one of the organizers of the festival, said to me "She is one of those artists that I listen to, that my daughter and my son will listen to, and my parents have listened to. She covers all those generations." And indeed, all those generations were represented in the audience, as well as a surprising cross section of New York ethnicities. I was very much taken with the power of her voice, although she professes to having less lung power than in her youth. And it's easy to hear why people relate to her music, as it is both melodic and highly emotional. The song that I've presented here is "Gömdüm Oğul Seni." It is a folk song (although Selda has penned many of her own hits) sung from the point of view of a mother who has seen her young son hanged. From the first notes, the audience roared its recognition, and throughout the concert Selda encouraged everyone to sing along with her.

Oğul (Gömdüm Oğul Seni)
My Son (I Buried You My Son)

I buried you my son
I turned the bloody tears into a fountain
I died on your coffin
Break those hands that have hit you my son
I did not get enough of your voice and your height
They put a thick rope around your thin neck
You fell like a rose to the bosom of the ground
Break those hands that have hung you my son
Will a son lost ever be replaced?
Ah my son, my wounds went deep
Look at the works of the wrongdoers
Break those hands that have burnt you my son

Selda's band is: Volkan Basaran - Guitar, Kemal Esen - Baglama, İzzet Tokay - Drums
Serdar Donduran - Keys, and ringers Ismail Lumenovski on clarinet and Tamer Pinarbasi on Kanun.

My thanks to Mevlüt Akaya for supplementary footage from on stage.

For more of Michal's world music videos visit inter-muse.com

Topics:

Music / Art / Culture,

Human Rights,

Selda Bagcan,

Gömdüm Oğul Seni,

Lincoln Center Out of Doors,

IstanbuLive 2012,

Turkish Music,

Turkish Protest music,

Regions:

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A Taste of the Førde Festival, The Musicians of the Nile

By Michal Shapiro

SEPTEMBER 17, 2012, 12:00 PM

This is just the first of what I plan to be several postings about the fabulous Førde Festival in Norway. The festival has already garnered itself an excellent reputation amongst world music aficionados, but should be on the agenda of anyone who enjoys travel and adventurous music. Part of that is due to the spectacular setting, and I advise those who make the trip to plan to explore the fjords all around the area. As press, we were treated to a breathtaking journey from Bergen via rail and boat up to Førde, that I will not soon forget. The other part of the allure is the excellent and canny musical choices of the producers. Torill Falleide and Hilde Bjørkum know what will please their audience, and it's an engaging mix of both unadorned ethnic and eclectic music that is consistently entertaining.

My video is from the opening night, and it’s quite literally a dazzler. The various musicians were asked to present their most tantalizing numbers, as the first program of the festival is intended as a menu, giving the audience a sampling of what is to come.

So the Musicians of the Nile presented a tanoura dance, complete with light show. What made it so amazing was that the light show was inside the costume of the dancer! Some folks questioned the "authenticity" of this but I think that if tiny lights had been around that could be sewn into the costume of the dancer back when it was first being performed hundreds of years ago, it would have been perfectly within cultural standards!

The tanoura dance will remind you of the whirling dervish dances of Turkey and they are indeed related, as the sufi tradition is present in Egypt through the Levant and Turkey, and in some forms, even into west Africa. (There are some claims that Sufism actually originates in ancient Egypt, but the majority of sources I have read posit that it was a reaction to, and outgrowth of, Islam.) The music and the whirling is meant to induce a trance, which in turn leads to a union with the divine. The skirts of the dancer are layered, and each color on the skirt represents a different Sufi order. These days this kind of presentation is very popular for entertainment at weddings and other kinds of celebrations. For my part, I was in heaven in a different way -- I'm a fool for colored lights (you should see me at a fireworks display) and I felt like a little kid transported with delight.

For information or bookings contact zamanproduction.com
For more of Michal's world music videos visit inter-muse.com

Topics:

Religion / Spirituality,

Music / Art / Culture,

Sufi Music,

Musicians of the Nile,

Regions:

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East Meets Lower East Side: Shanren Play Mountain Music at Pianos

By Michal Shapiro

MARCH 19, 2012, 5:46 PM

About four years ago, when I was rooting around for Chinese music videos, I was sent a charming animation from a band called Shanren. The song "30 Years" was about the trials and tribulations of moving from the country to the big city to look for work. This is a motif that resonates with all working folks, and I won't even go into the hundreds of great songs dealing with this from the West's Industrial Revolution right through to today. "30 Years" describes what is going on in China currently, as its rapid industrialization is causing a vast shift in population from rural to urban centers. I was therefor already interested when I was contacted by the band's publicist, informing me that they would be playing on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, at Pianos.

The band comes from Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, with members from the Wa and Buyi minorities. The name Shanren means "mountain men." During a chat with James Pang, the band's Chinese manager, he mentioned that the people of these minorities live up in the mountains, are kind of wild living, like to brew their own liquor, and dance.

Being a lover of country music and bluegrass, I could not help but start drawing parallels between some of the characteristics of our own folk heritage and what I was about to see and hear. I was not let down. Listen to this music and tell me that you don't hear something that sounds remarkably like our own "Old Timey" music, with its trance-like repetitions. People like banjoist Abigail Washburn have been mining these parallels for years, and you can hear why. (The band even uses something that looks mighty like a banjo!)

The song is called "Left Foot Dance of the Yi".

The Yi people, as I mentioned before, are one of the ethnic minorities of southwestern China. There's a family of songs called left foot dance songs ("kind of Yi party music" their manager Sam Debell writes). This is the band's own arrangement of a very well known left foot dance song. It’s usually a circle dance, but the band adapted it, so they do it in a line (in a circle it must look positively Balkan... but I’m not going to get into that, at least not here).

A sample of the lyrics (xianzi is a stringed instrument):

- Brother play the xianzi.
- Sister sing the song.
- The moon is already risen.
- And we're waiting to dance.

And something from our own repertoire:

"Late in the evening about sundown
High on a hill and above the town
Uncle Pen played the fiddle, lordy how it would ring,
You could hear it talk, you could hear it sing."

To contact the band:
Sam Debell (Asia) at unitysam@gmail.com and +86 152-1027-0868.