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

OK I'm starting a new music video thread, this time more comprehensive than the previous one.

Today I'd like to recommend this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=490pmwJ2TaM

Romanian music - fast violin playing! I'm a big fan of fast guitar playing but I appreciate this, too!

Dmitri I'm sure you'll watch that, so anyways ... I came across it because I was looking for the music of Bela Bartok. I wrote an assignment on Bartok when I studied music at school. I researched the assignment, wrote it and everything, but the funny thing is I had *never* actually heard any of Bartok's music! Well I thought of that recently, I don't remember what made me think of it specifically, but then I thought, now that I have Youtube I could go and find stuff of Bartok's! So I did, and came upon some Romanian Dances by Bartok, and then from there followed someone's suggested link.

It surprises me how frequently Romania pops up. I mean, in all sorts of contexts.

Heh-heh. There is an evil plot afoot to put Romania into h2g2...

That's amazing fiddling, isn't it? I'm not surprised about Bartok, he was Hungarian, wasn't he? Much shared, there.

I'm fond of the sung music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZEI9g6-pJ0&feature=related

This one has cool trilling in it, and reminds me a bit of Greek singing, too.

Some other time, I'll find you a doina - Romanian blues.

Hi there again Dmitri! Thanks for that link of the Romanian folk-singing music! I like it a lot.

Bela Bartok was born in what was those days Austria-Hungary, but today his birth town is in Romania. The region is called the Banat, and today it's divided between Hungary, Romania and Serbia.

Here are some of Bartok's Romanian music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHZt6ITdSto&feature=related

There's a bit of a discussion there about how 'authentically Romanian' this is ... of course I have no idea, but I like the music! Anyways Bartok collected lots of pieces of folk music, but he also 'adapted' them.

OK so have you found a 'doina' video yet?

Oh, that's lovely. Bartok is an old favourite of mine, too - he did piano pieces that even schoolchildren could learn from.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p8vMdygSr8

I'd say that what he was doing here is what is now called 'deconstructing' the piece - he's got all the elements. Just like Liszt's 'Hungarian Rhapsody'.

Cool, he was from the Banat, near Timişoara. A lot of Romania was part of Austria-Hungary, and practically every town has *at least* three names in different languages. It gets political, but it needn't - everybody's had a part in making that fascinating culture.

Okay, a doina:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYepJKG7Ba8&feature=related

'I don't know, dear, what's the matter with the moon', obviously a subject dear to the Gheorgheni heart.

Reading comments by Romanians, this singer was loved, and his singing considered particularly nice.

Also, a note on the subject of the doina in another context points out that - before somebody says those peasants were copying klezmer and gypsy musicians - the klezmer and gypsy musicians were copying *this*.

Another note on political correctness: The Rroma (their spelling) are fighting with the Romanian government over their name. The Romanians don't want to call them Romani for obvious reasons (akin to the problem of people on the island of Lesbos, or the Macedonians in Greece and those elsewhere in the Balkans). In other words, copyright issues. ('That's my name, get your own name!')

I didn't know where the word 'tsigani' came from - obviously the same as German 'Zigeuner'. Aha! It's from the Greek, Atsinganoi (yeah, yeah, that's transliterated, want me to spell it out? Put the characters in, s). Apparently the people from India got confused with some religious group back in the 11th Century. (What they had in common was the ability to do something that was mistaken for magic.)

So enjoy the doina.

Apropos characters that don't show up in posts:

My apologies. The town is Timisoara. S with a cedille - pronounced 'sh'.

OK ... sigh ... my computer is giving me major grief. I had a long reply written to you here and then it froze up on me before I could post *or* save it in Microsoft Word. But anyways let me try again.

Right. That Bartok piano video made me think of my own 'music videos'! I mean when I tinkle on my keyboard and come up with a melody or theme I think is nice, I record it with my digital camera!

Bartok wrote many pieces of children's music ... I will try to get some more of them when I have more youtube time ...

OK thanks for the doina! So ... what *is* the matter with the moon? Sounds like something quite tragic happened to it!

Over here the Rroma are called 'Sigeuners' which is very close to the German. And the English thought they were from Egypt! And they're having some trouble in France too I see.

And now for something completely different ... actually not completely. Still on the topic of Romanian music. The following is a nice example of an earworm that afflicted lots of places, including South Africa:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHky57VKWTY

Heh heh I actually like this - downloaded it some years ago, learnt the lyrics (and know what they mean). Over here they've made a totally hideous Afrikaans version, with atrocious lyrics ... they didn't even try for a translation, simply put in the daftest lyrics they could come up with that kinda rhymed and sorta fit into the rythm!

In other news: I'm now also in a musical group - a bunch of singers called 'Marcato' and we're going to sing on the 18th of September. I still don't know where ... tomorrow evening, next practice session.

What will you sing? Much .

That song is immediately catchy - and I think I've only heard it once before.

Okay, how about a Romanian take on the 'boy band'? They're trying to be Romanian Robin Hoods:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZaDMboP5Zo

Hi there again! That boy band song is not bad! And there's also a Romanian symphonic metal band, Magica:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBVQBo3rJhA

And as symphonic metal bands go, they're quite good!

As for what *we* will sing ... the following (not necessarily in that order):

"Steal Away" - a traditional spiritual

"God bly met U" (God will stay with you) - Afrikaans hymn

"Magaliesburgse Aandlied" (Magaliesburg Evening Song) - Afrikaans hymn

"Abendlied" - German hymn by Josef Rheinberger

"Down by the Salley Gardens", a poem by W. B. Yeats set to music

I am going to see about arranging that our performance get video'ed so we could put it on YouTube!

"La Benediction de notre Pere" (sorry for missing grave accent) French hymn

I hope you get it on YouTube. Great selections, looking forward to it.

That band was...er...nice and loud...the hair was, er, mesmerising...the symbolism, er, overwhelming...the hair...hard to forget...

I love 'Steal Away'. I'm sure you know the background of songs like that - the fact that they are coded songs from slavery times, like 'Follow the Drinking Gourd'.

I was going to send you one of those songs, just to get away from the Romanians , but I really don't like anything I've found on YouTube. Too pretentious.

So, to get revenge for symphonic metal , I'll send you something *I* like - Count John McCormack:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgGP2ylvYPs

That's not much of a revenge Dmitri - I *like* that from Count John McCormack and it's very informative to hear an interpretation of the song quite different from what we are doing!

It's going to be just a small performance, we're holding it at a local school and there's room for about 100 people. We are about 20 singers, and we got 5 tickets each to sell - mine will go for my mom, my sister, her husband, their boy Christiaan, and myself.

I'll really see if we can get someone to videotape the performance or at least bits of it.

I didn't know Steal Away was 'coded'! But it's clearly about wanting to escape a dreadful situation whether to Jesus or to the Underground Railroad. I still can't get my head around the horrible things 'Christians' did to fellow-Christians.

OK ... so what video shall I post next?

Righto - here's something. The song 'Shosholoza' which is a traditional song of work gangs. This version is by Ladysmith Black Mambazo and they 'jazzed it up' a bit - the 'real thing' is done with voice alone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IszBOXGRe7w

Info on wikipedia - and a translation of the lyrics - here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shosholoza

Heh heh that video has some very un-South-African images on it!

At any rate - back to symphonic metal - no I'll not post any more videos - but I have a realy, really strong ambition to found a South African symphonic metal band. The idea I have is to work in traditional African and Afrikaans music as well - and also some totally new stuff, science-fiction and fantasy based. The genre is ideal for that sort of thing. Anyways before I can do any of that I will have to achieve some success with my writing, since the musical ideas I have are linked up with themes from my writing.

What a beautiful song.

Now, work songs are things I love. Here's a good old one - I have no idea whose it is originally, but since people don't sing work songs in offices (though they should), it's usually done by that menace to public order, the folk group:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_fna04ohnc

Now I am being driven crazier than usual by the memory of a song I cannot find. When I do, I'll plague you with it, it's a goody.

Hey - I really like 'Haul Away Joe'! I really would like to 'arrange' a version of it for choir or band performance sometime. Trying not to 'pervert' it too much!

I would venture to feel fairly safe that there are no copyright issues?

Looking up 'Haul Away Joe' on Wikipedia I came up with another interesting shanty! It always bothered me when reading the book 'Asterix in Corsica' that I didn't know the song from which they gave the name to the character 'Boneywasawarriorwayayix'.

And here it is!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrjl2h4Zo5U

Isn't it amazing what one can do with the internet! I've used it massively already to 'integrate' memories, disconnected ideas and bits of knowledge I managed to pick up without fully understanding the context and significance.

Anyways and isn't it interesting they're mentioning his trip to Saint Helena which connects with Elektra's recent posting about Ascension (which is close-ish to Saint Helena)!

Hey, cool, thanks - we've never heard that song before!

You're right. The 'net helps us integrate knowledge, brainstorm with our brilliant friends on the other side of the globe, day or night, and fill in gaps in our knowledge. I used to be the only person in my neighbourhood of whom it was said, 'How do you know that? WHY do you know that?' Now, everybody's infected.

Hm, Napoleon as subject? A couple of favourites:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLd5fNO8waI&feature=related

(Of course.)

The defeat of Napoleon must have been every bit as important as V-E Day in its time. The effects were just as far-reaching. I remember this great fiddle tune, 'Bonaparte's Retreat':

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNigFpaBBf8

I understand that not everybody was happy about Napoleon's defeat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GE_4qrUjYA

But, after all, Beethoven swore he wouldn't write this until that French dictator was gone - and so it came out after the war:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kcOpyM9cBg