During my many years based in the peripheries of mainland China, I periodically undertook extended project trips to remote areas across entire provinces and autonomous regions to document traditional folk music of the minority cultures that lived there. These were done both independently or as the recordist of a small team on commissioned projects. Scroll down for info and select samples from a few of these musical expeditions.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Inner Mongolia
During the winter of 2019-2020, I was the recordist on a small team project commissioned to document traditional Mongolian folk songs throughout the vast Inner Mongolia region of China. We traveled and recorded in the remote western peripheries and interior for 70 days until our project was truncated by the then emerging Covid-19 situation which ground the entire country to a screeching halt in late January of 2020 and movement was no longer possible.
Most music recordings were done in family homes, a couple in a shop, a classroom, and a few outdoors (in the freezing cold!) Typically, we’d only get one chance once entering a home, sit for a while and chat over milk-tea and Mongolian cheese then set up a simple 1 to 3 mic arrangement to record some songs.
You’ll hear a range of instruments including morin khurr（horsehead fiddle), doshpuluur (lute), yatga (zither) and hoomei (throat singing)
The squeaking animals you hear in one clip are camels, gathered behind a fence and striking up casual conversation with the flute.
Listen below to a 13 minute string of varied samples from these recordings.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Inner Mongolia
During the winter of 2019-2020, I was the recordist on a small team project commissioned to document traditional Mongolian folk songs throughout the vast Inner Mongolia region of China. We traveled and recorded in the remote western peripheries and interior for 70 days until our project was truncated by the then emerging Covid-19 situation which ground the entire country to a screeching halt in late January of 2020 and movement was no longer possible.
Most music recordings were done in family homes, a couple in a shop, a classroom, and a few outdoors (in the freezing cold!) Typically, we’d only get one chance once entering a home, sit for a while and chat over milk-tea and Mongolian cheese then set up a simple 1 to 3 mic arrangement to record some songs.
You’ll hear a range of instruments including morin khurr（horsehead fiddle), doshpuluur (lute), yatga (zither) and hoomei (throat singing)
The squeaking animals you hear in one clip are camels, gathered behind a fence and striking up casual conversation with the flute.
Listen below to a 13 minute string of varied samples from these recordings.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Guangxi
In the winter of 2017-2018, I was the field recordist on a small 3 person team documenting the folk music of the various ethnic groups that live throughout Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which sits between Guangdong and Yunnan provinces along the southern edge of China and shares a border with Vietnam. The groups we recorded ranged as much as the karst topography that often separates these areas and included songs sung and performed by local folk of the Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Jing, Zhongbao-Miao, Baiku-Yao and Dong minorities of the towns and villages we visited.
Among my favourite recordings from this project was an unplanned occurrence in the town of Debao when I stumbled onto a gathering of older Zhuang folks singing “Shan Ge” (mountain songs) as call and response verses between small, circular groups of men and women gathered on a hillside at the park. Being in the middle of this small sea of clustered groups of mournful voices almost ‘passing’ and overlapping slow verses was particularly magical.
Another unplanned highlight was the entire class of Zhuang schoolgirls in the town of Pingguo singing several songs for my microphone while the boys played basketball in the background. You’ll also hear tonggu, the traditional copper drums, harmonies and a dúxiánqín (đàn bầu in Vietnam) in the south among other things.
Listen to a 9 and a half minute string of excerpts below.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Guangxi
In the winter of 2017-2018, I was the field recordist on a small 3 person team documenting the folk music of the various ethnic groups that live throughout Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which sits between Guangdong and Yunnan provinces along the southern edge of China and shares a border with Vietnam. The groups we recorded ranged as much as the karst topography that often separates these areas and included songs sung and performed by local folk of the Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Jing, Zhongbao-Miao, Baiku-Yao and Dong minorities of the towns and villages we visited.
Among my favourite recordings from this project was an unplanned occurrence in the town of Debao when I stumbled onto a gathering of older Zhuang folks singing “Shan Ge” (mountain songs) as call and response verses between small, circular groups of men and women gathered on a hillside at the park. Being in the middle of this small sea of clustered groups of mournful voices almost ‘passing’ and overlapping slow verses was particularly magical.
Another unplanned highlight was the entire class of Zhuang schoolgirls in the town of Pingguo singing several songs for my microphone while the boys played basketball in the background. You’ll also hear tonggu, the traditional copper drums, harmonies and a dúxiánqín (đàn bầu in Vietnam) in the south among other things.
Listen to a 9 and a half minute string of excerpts below.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Xinjiang
I initially travelled to Xinjiang, PRC after receiving a substantial grant to document traditional folk music throughout the region in 2003. My mission was to travel to the remote oasis towns surrounding the expansive Taklamakan desert to record local Uyghur musicians performing in regional and local styles. Though mostly focusing on Uyghur folk music, I also recorded ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Tajiks.
After 9 months, I returned to the US feeling deeply affected by my experiences and knew a return was in my future. So in 2006, I left the U.S. indefinitely and relocated to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, to live, study language…and record. I spent much of my time documenting the changing urban soundscape within the Uyghur enclave I lived in as well as compiling all the infectious local Uyghur pop music I’d hear. I spent a total of 3 years there before relocating to Yunnan province where I spent another twelve.
In the years since these field recordings were made, the PRC government had been broadly reported to have massively amplified its program of cultural assimilation (and in essence, erasure) in the region, with severe, broad-brush restrictions and punishments on traditional practices in Uyghur communities. Bans have likely forced several of the traditions heard herein into near if not complete extinction. Knowing now what was to come in later years, it’s hard to hear all these voices without wondering of their fate, hoping for the best, fearing the worst.
The recorded music clips you hear in the following string of samples were with only a few exceptions performed by common folk (farmers, carpenters, etc (incl mystics and beggars)) demonstrating something that had up to then been very much a part of everyday life.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Xinjiang
I initially travelled to Xinjiang, PRC after receiving a substantial grant to document traditional folk music throughout the region in 2003. My mission was to travel to the remote oasis towns surrounding the expansive Taklamakan desert to record local Uyghur musicians performing in regional and local styles. Though mostly focusing on Uyghur folk music, I also recorded ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Tajiks.
After 9 months, I returned to the US feeling deeply affected by my experiences and knew a return was in my future. So in 2006, I left the U.S. indefinitely and relocated to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, to live, study language…and record. I spent much of my time documenting the changing urban soundscape within the Uyghur enclave I lived in as well as compiling all the infectious local Uyghur pop music I’d hear. I spent a total of 3 years there before relocating to Yunnan province where I spent another twelve.
In the years since these field recordings were made, the PRC government has enacted severe, broad-brush restrictions and punishments on traditional cultural practices in Uyghur communities, with bans likely forcing several of the traditions heard herein into near if not complete extinction. Knowing now what was to come in later years, it’s hard to hear all these voices without wondering of their fate.
The recorded music clips you hear in the following string of samples were with only a few exceptions performed by common folk (farmers, carpenters, etc (incl mystics and beggars)) demonstrating something that had up to then been very much a part of everyday life.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Inner Mongolia
During the winter of 2019-2020, I was the recordist on a small team project commissioned to document traditional Mongolian folk songs throughout the vast Inner Mongolia region of China. We traveled and recorded in the remote western peripheries and interior for 70 days until our project was truncated by the then emerging Covid-19 situation which ground the entire country to a screeching halt in late January of 2020 and movement was no longer possible.
Most music recordings were done in family homes, a couple in a shop, a classroom, and a few outdoors (in the freezing cold!) Typically, we’d only get one chance once entering a home, sit for a while and chat over milk-tea and Mongolian cheese then set up a simple 1 to 3 mic arrangement to record some songs.
You’ll hear a range of instruments including: morin khurr（horsehead fiddle), doshpuluur (lute), yatga (zither) and hoomei (throat singing).
The squeaking animals you hear in one clip are camels, gathered behind a fence and striking up casual conversation with the flute.
Listen below to a 13 minute string of varied samples from these recordings.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Guangxi
In the winter of 2017-2018, I was the field recordist on a small 3 person team documenting the folk music of the various ethnic groups that live throughout Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which sits between Guangdong and Yunnan provinces along the southern edge of China and shares a border with Vietnam. The groups we recorded ranged as much as the karst topography that often separates these areas and included songs sung and performed by local folk of the Zhuang, Yao, Miao, Jing, Zhongbao-Miao, Baiku-Yao and Dong minorities of the towns and villages we visited.
Among my favourite recordings from this project was an unplanned occurrence in the town of Debao when I stumbled onto a gathering of older Zhuang folks singing “Shan Ge” (mountain songs) as call and response verses between small, circular groups of men and women gathered on a hillside at the park. Being in the middle of this small sea of clustered groups of mournful voices almost ‘passing’ and overlapping slow verses was particularly magical.
Another unplanned highlight was the entire class of Zhuang schoolgirls in the town of Pingguo singing several songs for my microphone while the boys played basketball in the background. You’ll also hear tonggu, the traditional copper drums, harmonies and a dúxiánqín (đàn bầu in Vietnam) in the south among other things.
Listen to a 9 and a half minute string of excerpts below.
Folk songs from the peripheries of China:
Xinjiang
I initially travelled to Xinjiang, PRC after receiving a substantial grant to document traditional folk music throughout the region in 2003. My mission was to travel to the remote oasis towns surrounding the expansive Taklamakan desert to record local Uyghur musicians performing in regional and local styles. Though mostly focusing on Uyghur folk music, I also recorded ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and Tajiks.
After 9 months, I returned to the US feeling deeply affected by my experiences and knew a return was in my future. So in 2006, I left the U.S. indefinitely and relocated to Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, to live, study language…and record. I spent much of my time documenting the changing urban soundscape within the Uyghur enclave I lived in as well as compiling all the infectious local Uyghur pop music I’d hear. I spent a total of 3 years there before relocating to Yunnan province where I spent another twelve.
In the years since these field recordings were made, the PRC government had been broadly reported to have massively amplified its program of cultural assimilation (and in essence, erasure) in the region, with severe, broad-brush restrictions and punishments on traditional practices in Uyghur communities. Bans have likely forced several of the traditions heard herein into near if not complete extinction. Knowing now what was to come in later years, it’s hard to hear all these voices without wondering of their fate, hoping for the best, fearing the worst.
The recorded music clips you hear in the following string of samples were with only a few exceptions performed by common folk (farmers, carpenters, etc (incl mystics and beggars)) demonstrating something that had up to then been very much a part of everyday life.
(more to come)
