The World Music thread

[Eltitoguay]

Medieval Germany: Neidhart von Reuental - Sumer deiner suzzen wunne

Just out of curiosity: is medieval German very different from contemporary German? Can you understand it without problems, or with many difficulties?... Let's see if I can find a translation of some curious lyrics of the most surprising medieval Hispano-Arabic songs; Well, it is surprising to find in the dark Middle Ages such sexually explicit lyrics, or alluding to the consumption of wine and hashish... I understand those who are in Mozarabic almost perfectly, more than a millennium later, the Sephardic ones only a little worse; but those that are in classical Arabic from al-Andalus are indecipherable for me without a translator....

Hispano-Visigothic (Hispanic-Germanic) medieval music from its last stage (between 600 and 800 AD), sung in Latin, and a curious instrument with bells (the bells were considered a sign of identity of Christians, compared to Jews and Muslims; One of the greatest affronts for Christians in general and the Kingdom of León in particular, was when a punishment campaign by the Umayyad Caliphate of al-Andalus kidnapped and sent as symbolic loot to the Mosque of Cordoba, the imposing and famous bells of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela).
(The first one, is another jewell for me):

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[Eltitoguay]

...But here, as a little before in Germany, it is dawning (we have, artificially, exactly the same time despite the thousands of kilometers in length that separate us... Things from our friends Hitler and Franco, that no one has changed yet...) , and I need something more lively, but soft and progressive, to wake up to the world... A classic and a jewel of my beloved Son Montuno....

Venga, Eliades; dale... ¡ Ataca, mi Compay !

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[Eltitoguay]

Come on, wake up, the candle has already been lit in the bed and in the room!!
(Exclusively vocal, and with body percussion

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Traditional version with musical instruments:

 

[Eltitoguay]

...And of course, it doesn't fail: every morning the baker is at the door, bringing the bread of the day... (Spain; Afrospanish Rumba-Makossa-Soukous):

...It's time to get active, to put coal in the body boiler, and to begin to follow the rhythm of a steam locomotive...

 

[Eltitoguay]

...So you can see, that just by listening to the folk tradition of my small nation, I am connected with Arabia, Persia and India, all of North and Central Africa, Celtic Europe, Germanic Europe, America... And therefore, with greater or lesser intensity, with your own tradition and culture...
And vice versa: my roots are your branches, as my branches are the roots of others...
Come on; roots to the wind...

Jamaica/Guyana/U.K. reggae:

 

[Eltitoguay]

North Spain (Euskadi and North Navarre) folk, with txalaparta:

OHARRA: Euskaldunek eta nafarrek zuzen nazazute materialen txalapartaren deskribapenetan oker banago, Sierra Morenakoa naiz eta txalapartarik ulertzen ez dudalako...

Stone txalaparta and wood txalapartas :


Wood&metal txalaparta and stone txalaparta:


Wood txalaparta:


Wood&metal txalaparta

Ice txalaparta (dedicated to Scandinavians and northwestern Russians, heh, heh...):

 

[coconutcurry]

Ukrainian guitarist player in any German pedestrian zone playing classic/spanish guitar long before Ukrainian war.

Эстас Тонне - The Song of the Golden Dragon


and a session in Hungary:
The Song of the Butterfly

 

[coconutcurry]

Boubacar Traoré & Ali Farka Touré - Duna Ma Yelema

 

[coconutcurry]

Boubacar Traoré - Hona

 

[coconutcurry]

Boubacar Traoré - Maciré (Kar Kar)

 

[coconutcurry]

Africa Festival Lisboa 2005 - Ali Farka Toure - july 22nd

 

[coconutcurry]

When I listen to the Africans, I instinctivley think of:
Walter Trout - Pray for Rain (Blues For The Modern Daze) 2012


Just by instinct, pure emotionally I would call for example this as nativ white American, but the roots are black. Not white, there is not the slightest German inside, this is African based. The heart of this music is black.

 

[coconutcurry]

Rokia Traoré - Mouneïssa

 

[Eltitoguay]

When I listen to the Africans, I instinctivley think of:
Walter Trout - Pray for Rain (Blues For The Modern Daze) 2012


Just by instinct, pure emotionally I would call for example this as nativ white American, but the roots are black. Not white, there is not the slightest German inside, this is African based. The heart of this music is black.

But not only musically, our cultural identities are built with elements of cultures that, out of ignorance, we consider totally foreign and strange... In all areas of culture: following the example of the USA, the blues is already a national heritage regardless of race, although his origin is black...; but also and for example, a great part of the traditional way of life and "white" rural/country culture of a good part of the USA (beef cattle, their type and management; horses, their type and management; the culture of rodeos ... EL VAQUERO, THE COWBOY, to summarize...) has White European origin, yes, but not Anglo-Saxon, but imported directly from Spain.
It's just an example; The same thing happens to me in other aspects, of course...I may not know anything about Lebanon, Greece, Tunisia, Italy, Israel, Germany, Arabia, Syria, Morocco, Cuba, Mexico, Peru, Portugal or France... But My cultural identity has so many pieces, small and gigantic, of their cultures, that if it did not exist, I would not exist as I am.

The branches of one, are the roots of other, and viceversa...

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[coconutcurry]

Just out of curiosity: is medieval German very different from contemporary German? Can you understand it without problems, or with many difficulties?...

No. I can't. It is nearly like another language. Sounds similiar for me, but not understandable. A bit back I posted this song

and you can see Old-German in the subtitles above and below them stands modern German (for a good reason ;-) and at the bottom you can read the English translation.

 

[coconutcurry]

Well, it is surprising to find in the dark Middle Ages such sexually explicit lyrics

The Middel Ages had completely different ethic rules than today. Life must have been very short and intense. When they were freed from their duties and there was no war, drought or famine, they celebrated terribly. They celebrated like crazy and were completely dissolute.

 

[coconutcurry]

But not only musically, our cultural identities are built with elements of cultures that, out of ignorance, we consider totally foreign and strange.

I have to think of a documentation I once saw about the man, who decrypted the egyptian hieroglyphs. And on his expeditions in egypt he finally ended up in Abu Simbel, nearly Sudan. This place was a dream of him. He researched for decades just documents and fought a long fight to come there. And when he translated what he found, he didn't dare to tell anybody what stood on the walls. Because there was a story which sounded very much like what the bibel tells us. But the names were not Josef, Maria und Jesus, but Osiris, Isis and Horus. And the rest sounded quite similiar like what we know. Even the star at the sky, who announced the birth appeard in the egyptian hieroglyphs.

 

[Eltitoguay]

No. I can't. It is nearly like another language. Sounds similiar for me, but not understandable. A bit back I posted this song

and you can see Old-German in the subtitles above and below them stands modern German (for a good reason ;-) and at the bottom you can read the English translation.

Regarding the translation, I was asking you: I would be unable to differentiate the medieval from the contemporary; In Spain we have a popular joke (without malice; it is simply that we are incapable of handling so many consonants together) which is to say that in German "I love you, my love" sounds like in Spanish "I'm going to break your legs, you bastard", heh...
Returning to seriousness and medieval languages, it is curious to me about the German... In Spanish you can still almost completely understand the first written book that is preserved ("El Cantar de Mío Cid"), and even much of the poetry of the Romance languages prior to him, such as Mozarabic (an "more Arabized Castilian").

Let's go back to the music. More medieval, from my tradition; specifically from the 11th century, and the Emirate of Toledo ("Taifa" or "Taifa Kingdom", is a "Muslim emirate of small size and little geopolitical importance, less than a Sultanate"); that is, medieval folk from the current European Union :

 

[coconutcurry]

When I listen to the songs here and I close my eyes, often the country appears in my mind. I can see the landsape and feel how it feels. There is some kind of music which shows you the land. I don't mean just the people, I also mean the ground, the country itself. When I listen to Nusrat Fatheh Ali Khan, I can see Pakistan, when I listen to the Wassoulu Women of Mali, I can see their country, when I listen to Asim Saha, I can see India. What describes Germany best is classic music. Listen to Bach and Beethoven when you want to see my country in your mind.

Bach Concerto for 2 Violins in D minor, BWV1043


But this would get a 'classic thread'.

 

[coconutcurry]

Boubacar Traoré & Kélétigui Diabaté from the film "Je chanterai pour toi" A film by Jacques Sarasin