Wednesday, April 09, 2008

the poetry of what this must sound like...

ainu women singing into each other's mouth

"the ainu music is strikingly similar to american indian music, with many songs and dances imitating birds, bears, and other creatures. most of the singing is done to the accompaniment of hand clapping. the most unusual piece in the ainu vocal repertoire is a duet called rekukkara. in this duet one singer carries the tune and the other creates a percussive accompaniment in her throat using the pressure of the incoming air from the person's mouth."

image and text from william p. malm's japanese music and musical instruments, 1959

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1 Comments:

Blogger Teal said...

nice post. am very interested in ainu music. have you heard ainu musician "ando umeko"?

10:13 AM  

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