h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have only six recordings so far. Ten have been ordered, and are en route. Forty-six have been identified as worth getting at Amazon, and areo n my wish list.

here's the geographical distribution:

GLOBAL COVERAGE

"--" means we have
"o.o." means on order
"AWL" is on Amazon wish list


Europe

AWL--Czechoslovakia
AWL--Finland
AWL--France
AWL--Hungary
AWL--iceland
AWL--Ireland
--Italy
AWL--Lithuania
AWL--Mediterranean
AWL--Portugal
--Spain
AWL--Ukraine

Middle east

AWL--Egypt
o.o.--Iran
AWL--Iraq
o.o.--Lebanon
AWL--Pakistan
AWL--Region-wide
o.o.--Turkey
--Yiddish/klezmer/Israel


Africa

AWL--Congo to Cuba
AWL--Kenya
AWL--Mali
AWEL--Mozambique
AWL--Nigeria
o.o.--Senegal
AWL--South Africa
AWL--Sudan


Asia

AWL--Cambodia
AWL--China
AWL--India
o.o.--Japan
AWL--Korea
AWL--Malaysia
AWL--Regional
AWL--Tibet

North America

o.o.--Mexico
AWL--Native American
AWL:--Quebec

South America

--Brazil
o.o.--Chile
AWL--Paraguay
o.o.--Peru
AWL--Uruguay
AWL--venezuela


Pacific Islands

AWL--Fiji
AWL--Indonesia
AWL--Philippines
--Region-wide
--Tahiti
o.o.--Hawaii

Caribbean Islands

AWL--Barbados
o.o.--Cuba
AWL--Dominican Republic
AWL--Guadeloupe
AWL--Haiti
AWL--Martinique
AWL-San Juan/Puerto Rico
AWL--Trinidad/Tobago

Other

AWL:--Cape Verde islands
AWL--Australia
AWL--Madagascar

There are probably other areas I should consider. Any thoughts?

You don't leave much to the imagination, but I would consider Scotland worth a listen. And does South Pacific "region-wide" include Maori music?

By new World Music projekt I take it you mean a new project, not new World nor World Music, yes?

Any reason for leaving out Scandinavia and Germany?

Also: Are you familiar with highly awarded Estonian composer (of classical and sacred music) Arvo Pärt? He is certainly worth listening to!

"You don't leave much to the imagination, but I would consider Scotland worth a listen. And does South Pacific "region-wide" include Maori music?" [TC]

I thought I would get the geographic distribution done first, and then tweak coverage of different musical styles. If I recall correctly from other threads in the past, the biggest knock against my listening habits was that I was too focused on a narrow geographical region -- five or six European countries in historical art music, and two countries [the U.K. and the U.S.A.] in contemporary popular music. I'm just looking for balance. Eventually I will post an entry listing the songs in the recordings I choose. You can get the latest British or American pop songs on the radio almost anywhere in the world [hence a Pet Shop Boys song on an Argentinian station recently], but you don't hear the traditional music of Tahiti or Japan or Paraguay in most parts of the U.K. or U.S.A.

Some African places like Nigeria or the Congo have thriving pop music industries. Jamaica has Reggae. Brazil has Bossa Nova. I listen to reggae and Bossa Nova via streaming audio on radio stations. I'm listening to the latter right now. I might therefore go easy on those two forms when I buy recordings. Again, don't want imbalances

"By new World Music projekt I take it you mean a new project, not new World nor World Music, yes?' [Pierce]

That's right. The project is new. The world can be new or old, or maybe both.

"Any reason for leaving out Scandinavia and Germany?"

I already have traditional music of Germany in arranged form. Brahms and Orff arranged a lot of German folk songs. For contemporary German pop music, I have Boney M, a German band that sold more than 50 albums.

Scandinavia?

I'm looking at a collection of Finnish folk songs, but haven't committed to it yet. Finnish serious music is well represented by Sibelius, and there are some lesser composers I'm willing to consider. Finnish contemporary popular music is something I don't know much about.

A fairly large portion of Grieg's output consists of arrangements of folk music. Sweden is represented by three major pop groups in my pop music collection. Norway is represented by one. Denmark is underrepresented, I admit. All I have is a collection of Danish traditional Christmas songs.

Central America is unrepresented by any serious composers, and has only one pop music star [Shakira] representing it on the world stage. I should take a closer look at it.

As for the Pacific islands [excepting Australia], when was the last time you turned on your top-40 radio station and heard music from Fiji or Tahiti? That's the kind of question I'm asking myself.

Pop music form then Middle East is said to be gaining attention in Europe and, to a lesser extent, in America. I have one or two recordings that reflect that.

Sorry, Boney M sold more than 50 *million* albums, or rather copies of its albums. I don't have sales figures for individual songs. It just seems more feasible to measure impact by sales figures, since people don't generally buy albums unless they really, really love the artists who recorded the albums. Albums often contain some top individual songs, as well.

"Also: Are you familiar with highly awarded Estonian composer (of classical and sacred music) Arvo Pärt? He is certainly worth listening to!" [Pierce]

I've sung pieces by Part, so yes, I'm familiar. Estonia is represented in a different part of my collection anyway: I have a collection of songs by Tulev in a classical collection.

For Latvia, I have some traditional Christmas songs .

Okay

Leonard Bernstein fell in love with Carl Nielsen's Symphony No.3, "Sinfonia Espansiva". It is recognized as "the best Danish symphnoy ever" by many critics. Judge for yourself, I am in no position to compare it to others. But I like it

Paul have you ever listened to Celtic folk music?

Celtic/Gaelic folk music from Scotland, Isle of Man, Cornwall, Wales, Ireland and Brittany have many similarities with other traditional types of European folk music.

I enjoy Celtic music, but don't they have about a dozen or so tunes that keep getting new lyrics?

I know I have listened to countless songs with the melody of 'Rosin the Bow'

Paulh you might want to add zydeco http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xfOyt3VZv0 to your list, even if it is only a small subset of American Folk Music.



F S

"Paulh you might want to add zydeco" [Florida Sailor]

I just got a zydeco CD in the mail, and will listen to it soon.

"Leonard Bernstein fell in love with Carl Nielsen's Symphony No.3, "Sinfonia Espansiva". It is recognized as "the best Danish symphony ever" by many critics" [pierce]

I like Nielsen's symphonies too. I have his symphonies #4-6, but nothing earlier. Also his violin concerto.

"Paul have you ever listened to Celtic folk music?" [The Thinker]

I listen to this Celtic radio station three times a month:

http://www.live365.com/stations/soundsceltish