By Elizabeth Doyle
Ecuador Andes – I think Ecuador must be a little bit magical. Some of the oldest (and most artistically advanced and peaceful) cultures in all of the Americas began there, though many are now extinct. And later, it was part of the Incan empire. The Andes Mountains, of course, are partly in Ecuador, and in my opinion, some of the richest and most soothing music is coming from those mountains – like that of this lovely group, which has named itself simply Ecuador Andes. Of course, Ecuador has also had its fair share of craziness. A terrible Spanish rule went on for hundreds of years. Then after that was over, the country descended into wars with neighbors and internal political upheavals, and nothing was coming together. So the last few centuries have been rougher than their golden age, but it sounds like things may be looking up, and there’s always something so special about it. For example, it’s home to a huge number of spectacular species of animals, and I hear they’re the first country in the world to declare that nature has the inalienable legal right to exist, and not be destroyed (Ecuador actually wrote this into their new constitution in 2008.) Also, some of Ecuador’s cities are thought to be the most well-planned and beautifully preserved in the world. I think there’s still magic! And I think you’ll think so too when you hear this: Click here.
Cudamani – The gamelan music of Bali is part of religious life there. “Gamelan” is sort of like a word for “orchestra.” But interestingly, the word usually doesn’t refer to the people playing in the orchestra. It refers to the instruments they’re playing! In other words, while in most orchestras, you might go get a new trumpet if yours is worn out, in Bali, the instrument is considered an irreplaceable part of the orchestra. The instruments are designed and tuned to play with one another, always. They have a relationship with one another, and they can’t be mixed and matched. They are the orchestra. Isn’t that an interesting idea? Gamelan music is an important part of religious ritual in Bali. But surprisingly, these gamelan have existed long before Hinduism arrived in Bali. It’s a highly percussive and highly awakening form of music that really calls you to “snap out of it” and be alert to something very real and very nearby ….
This is a gamelan called Cudamani (Pronounced Soo-damani). I love the “intensity of the present moment” that the dancer expresses in both her movements and face: Click here.
Chico Buarque – You can’t really talk about the music of the world without touching on Brazil. Brazil is known worldwide for its sounds. Some of their most famous music like samba is extremely celebratory, often alluring, and tends to inspire sensual dancing between couples. Yet, samba grew out of the ghettos (shanty towns) of Brazil – and if you’ve even seen a photograph of the ghettos of Brazil – it seems like it would take a lot of determination to decide you were going to dance and celebrate if you lived there. (Google “shanty town Brazil” and look at the pictures. It’s just astonishing.) But as far as I know, no nation has created more widely-respected celebratory and dance music than the music that’s come out of Brazil’s shanty towns. It started with samba, and then took a more complex twist with the advent of Bossa nova. Master instrumentalists in that genre received worldwide acclaim. But then some artists walked the line between the two, like Chico Buarque, whose Bossa nova/samba crossover music has survived decade after decade, a few government bannings in the 60s, and yet he’s still going – and still smiling – and still making everyone remember to keep celebrating. (I understand he’s also an extremely highly-regarded literary author.) Click here.
Top photo: Marturius / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. Wikimedia Commons / Alpacas on a Peruvian hillside in the Andes
Second photo: chensiyan / GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version. Wikimwdia commons / Pura Taman Ayun Temple
Third photo: Jorge.kike.medina / GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 Wikimedia Commons / Amazon Rainforest